Mike Babcock
Mike Babcock
Michael "Mike" Babcock, Jr.is a Canadian professional ice hockey head coach, currently serving as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League. He previously spent 10 seasons as head coach of the Detroit Red Wings, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2008 and helped to the Stanley Cup Playoffs every year during his tenure. He holds the record as winningest coach in Red Wings history, surpassing that of Jack Adams. He has also served...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth29 April 1963
expect good hard playoffs prepare shocked team
Just like everyone here, I'm shocked at our situation. It's hard to look at our team and think we didn't do a lot of good things to prepare for the playoffs and you would expect to have success.
battle everybody excited foundation great hard huge hung last locker nice opportunity people pictures playoffs quickly saying trying work year
I think everybody realizes that we had a great opportunity. But you find out quickly that last year was last year. There are now nice pictures of the playoffs hung up around the locker room, and people were saying nice things about us and patting us on the back all summer. But now we are trying to reestablish work habits, foundation and identity. I think it makes you more hungry, because we all know how hard it is to get there. It will be a huge battle for us and we are excited about the opportunity to try to get back there.
found hard optimistic played team ways
We've played hard as a team and found ways to win. We've done that a lot, and you're optimistic those things can continue.
coach great hard
He's been outstanding, so he's making it as hard on the coach as possible. That's a great thing.
determination determined good great hard played practiced
Good for him. He's played hard, he's practiced hard and when he's on the ice, he's determined out there. That's great for him. It's fantastic. He should feel good.
brother coached committed good guy hard older puck relative skill younger
He was as good with the puck and as hard on the puck as he is now, relative to the skill level. He was a committed guy then. I coached his older brother and his younger brother as well and they're good people.
beat found guys hard hung imagine team three
I don't know if you can imagine how hard it is to beat a team three times in a row. But you've got to give our guys credit. We hung in there and it wasn't pretty, but we found a way.
drives gets goes hard magic net puck until
He's got a little magic going on right now. But he goes to the net hard and he competes hard, and that's what he does. He just drives the net every time. We know, and he knows, he doesn't want the puck until he gets to the paint.
came great hard ice middle panic people plays puck tons work
It's not like we hadn't had tons of chances, we just weren't finishing. The big thing we wanted to do was not panic and just keep doing what you are doing, get people to the net, work hard at it and let's not be pressing. I thought we managed the puck well and made great plays in the middle of the ice and really came at them with some speed.
early good rest
I thought the goalie was really good early when the rest of us weren't.
early few front good humble minutes played players proud record rest start tonight until yelling
I thought the goalie was real good early when the rest of us weren't. He'll be real humble here tonight and he'll say the players played real well in front of him and all that stuff. If you set a record ... you should be proud of yourself. At least for a few minutes until we start yelling at him tomorrow.
gave middle putting tonight
I thought putting Z in the middle tonight gave us a boost, some energy.
defense discipline half puck second
I thought our discipline was good. Our defense really managed the puck. The second half of the game, they didn't have the puck much.
battle behind came good group guys played ready short talked team
We have a good team and the guys came out and played hard. With a short group you don't want to get behind and battle back. We talked about being ready right from the start.