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
courageous lead perceives played team
He's been a courageous competitor. He probably shouldn't have played tonight, but he perceives this as his team and he wanted to lead them.
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.
bear came dallas exception good looked mini philly played playoff rangers winning
I looked at this as a five-game mini playoff series. We played Nashville, Dallas, Carolina, Philly and the Rangers and came out of it winning 3-2. With the exception of the Dallas game, we played real well. When we bear down and have a good focus, we're a good team.
bottom few games help hockey line played ready steve tonight
The bottom line is, we didn't play Steve much the first few games he played. Tonight he played, and he was important. He played important. He's ready to go and help our hockey team.
advice group guys jimmy leadership league national played possibly team training tried
I wanted to have a competitive training camp. So we went through and put the lineup together. We used Jimmy Nill's advice on all the young guys because I don't know the young guys, and then we tried to get the guys who played in the national league and played on our team to be as competitive a group as we possibly could be, with leadership in all groups.
angles block net played puck
They did block a lot, but that's no different than the way they played all year. You've just got to find a way to get the puck to the net from a lot of different angles to get opportunities.
less liked neutral played plays zone
I liked to see less plays through the neutral zone and more plays around the net, but he (Hudler) played well tonight.
dan fourth good guys line move played situation start
Dan has played real good when you start him on the fourth line and then you move him around. When you put him in this situation ... we'll see how he does. Some guys can't do it. It's up to him.
columbus nice people
Obviously, Columbus wanted him and it's nice to be where people want you.
ducks hunting league
The league won't be hunting Ducks in camouflage anymore.
capable defensive game good gotten nice offensive plays team tonight
He's good defensively, but tonight he made plays with the puck, which was nice to see. Sometimes as a defensive defenseman on an offensive team they always want you to do more than you're capable of doing. His game has gotten much better with the puck.
legs quicker suddenly
He's got his legs back and suddenly we're a lot quicker team.
tried
He tried and he couldn't get going. I think he'll be fine.
cleared holland ken worried
That's nice, ... but you know, (general manager) Ken Holland told me he's not worried about the start, he's worried about the finish, so that was cleared right up for me.