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
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.
start
At the start of the game, we weren't used to that level. They were really quick.
charge coming days olympic skated start
(Thursday) we're going to compete. We've skated for two days and now we'll start to compete. We were on a charge going in (to the Olympic break), now we'd like to charge coming out.
focus lead open shut start teams
Teams can shut you down if they get a lead and then they check, check, check, check, check. Well if we come out and get going, they've got to open it up to try to score. So that's a real focus for us - we have to start good.
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.
again ethic far fire guys playoff playoffs race record starts telling win work
We need to reestablish our work ethic and get back the fire we need to win games. As far as I'm concerned, the playoff race starts Oct. 8 in Dallas. You can't make the playoffs in the first 20 games, but you can be out of it after 20 games. So for me, it's all about establishing that work ethic again in a hurry. I just keep telling the guys that, too -- so much that they think the record is stuck.
early good rest
I thought the goalie was really good early when the rest of us weren't.
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.
challenge drew night smith
I thought he was fine. He drew (Chris) Pronger and (Jason) Smith most of the night and that's a challenge for him.
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.
blue good job passion played power putting specialty team
We just did a good job on the specialty teams. They (the Blue Jackets) played with a lot of passion and urgency. (But) what do you do when your (the Blue Jackets') power play isn't putting them in, and the other team is?
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.