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
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.
awhile change far huge impressed observing scheme seems spending stage talent talented trying within
He's a huge talent, and so far I've been very impressed with him. After spending 13 years in Detroit, it's going to take him awhile to get used to what we do, and for us to get used to what he does. We're not trying to change him, but we want him to play within the scheme we play. He's very explosive, very talented and seems very conscientious. He's more in the monitoring stage of observing what we're doing, but once he catches on a little more, then he'll be at the front.
came dan face joke run sheet trying white win
Dan Cleary came in and his face was sheet white ... and I apologized to him. I had no idea. I don't run the team. I'm just trying to win tonight. I wouldn't have done it that way. I don't joke about that stuff.
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.
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?
good points
When you have 55 points at this point, you've done some good things.
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.
bunch easy replay report sleep tonight watched
We watched in on the replay a bunch of times. It doesn't look like that big a deal. ... I'll sleep easy tonight and we'll have a report tomorrow. He'll be fine.