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
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.
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.
measured question replace team
Can you replace anybody? Yes. Can you replace him with the same person? No. His contribution to our team is not just measured in what you see, no question about that.
capable defensive game good gotten nice offensive plays team
He's good defensively, but (Monday) 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.
defensive five four games good nights playing team
Four games in five nights and playing a good defensive team on the road, we must be doing something right.
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.
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.
bag both puck situations team time
You can try to bag the puck out of the zone, but we wouldn't be the team we are if we did. Those were both situations where we had time to make plays.
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.
lose stud teams
Not many teams can lose a stud like that and keep going.
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.
anybody finished guys regular scores season team
Anybody who scores during the regular season and hasn't finished now, you need more out of him. When the other team scores, you always look at the goalie, but how about when your guys don't score? The shooters have to score, too. Guys that score have got to score.
anyone clear teams
If you look at the West, the teams one through eight, or even one to 10, I don't think there is anyone you'd like to play in the playoffs. I don't think there will be a clear favorite.
allow best bottom challenge game handle line system teams
That's what the new (salary-cap) system is all about, isn't it? It makes everyone the same. The teams that play the best will win. The bottom line is how do you handle it, and compete, and how do you allow your game to come out. That's the challenge for everyone.