Mike Babcock Quotes (76 Quotes)

I thought Manny did a good job and our guys did a real great job on the kill. Our specialty teams did a phenomenal job.

Let's be honest, we had a great regular season, and the regular season's over. It you don't bring your best game, you don't win.

It'll be a rallying cry. This guy hasn't done anything wrong. He'll do a great job. He has a phenomenal reputation, and he's a leader among men.

When you're on a roll, the opposing team comes in a little excited and a little bit fearful. We have to fear the opposition, too.

I just gave that opportunity to Steve. That doesn't mean (Samuelsson) isn't going to. ... He is a heck of a hockey player. I talked to him about it. I wanted to get Steve going and to give him an opportunity.

I thought putting Z in the middle tonight gave us a boost, some energy.

It was good to have Hank back. He adds a dimension of speed and he hounds the puck. He's obviously going to make us a better team.

We obviously have to make some adjustments. With Lang not here, we need two offensive lines.

I liked to see less plays through the neutral zone and more plays around the net, but he (Hudler) played well tonight.

I thought the goalie was really good early when the rest of us weren't.

You've got to give them credit. They hung in there. They kept coming. They're in their building. They lost last night and they're proud guys.

His heart had stopped beating and there was no pulse,

I was very concerned about not overdoing it, and just making it another game for the guys, ... I tried to stay normal, but you would have to ask them how well I did. I might have been a crazy person.

I don't know why Shanahan plays so well against Nashville. He gets all excited because Nashville is such a good hockey team.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I've coached some good hockey players, but he's the best player I've ever coached. This guy, I always knew he was a good player, but I had no idea he was this good.

They have really good players in Edmonton, they really do. I've got to tell you, I'm surprised we're playing them.

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

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.

I didn't think we were mentally sharp in the third period. So it was good to see Manny back on his game.

We can do a better job with our discipline.

I've talked to Scotty a lot. The best reputation, the best record, the best coach in the history of our game is here as a consultant for us. All I've got to do is phone him and ask. He's unbelievable.

He has the ability to score, the question is if he can do enough of the other things to get playing time. You score when your coach is confident enough to put you out there enough to let you score. The bottom line is all he has to do is be a little responsible. I'm not asking him to check the No. 1 center in the league. If he sits in his end even a little bit, he'll be OK.

We have to play the game we're capable of playing. We have to look after it during the 60 minutes of the game (in regulation).

We want him to feel good and be an important part of our team. He told me the other day that he feels he's skating well, and that his leg doesn't hurt. Well that's great news for us. He's dominant in the face-off circle, his brain works all the time he knows how to play in all situations.

We've been consistent all season. We've always bounced back and we've been a professional team.

We've got veteran, veteran guys. They know what they're supposed to be doing and they just do it. They expect to win. The other thing I like about this team that I like ... when we don't have success, you know we're having success the next night.

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.

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.

He needs to be out there and get some rhythm. Well, the coach didn't give him that chance to get any rhythm. (We) let him freeze to death between shifts. That's a tough way to go. He's a real good player. We all know that.

One of the things that happens when you win all the time is, when you lose in overtime and lose the next night, it feels like you haven't won in months. But it's unreasonable you can't go through this league without losing. Our discipline was good tonight

To be passing Gordie Howe - holy mackerel That's unbelievable. That's how good you've been and that's how long you've played. And that's how good of players you played with.

Hank's been outstanding for us. There's nothing wrong with players putting some pressure on themselves to perform.

(General Manager) Kenny Holland made it very clear to me that we're a four-line hockey club. That's how they won all their Cups in the past, and that's how we're gonna do it. Our fourth line can really skate, can really check and they can match up against anybody.

Four games in five nights and playing a good defensive team on the road, we must be doing something right.

There's adversity what are you going to do with it Are you going to turn it into a positive

It took us the first period to figure out how to attack it. But we adjusted and I think we were absolutely dominant in the second period.

They always have a label for you, ... When I came out of junior, I was a 'junior coach.' When I came out of college, I was a 'college coach.' Then when I made it to the NHL, I was a 'minor-league coach.' And now I'm a 'defensive coach.'

The league won't be hunting Ducks in camouflage anymore.

When I evaluate a trade as a coach, I evaluate who gets the best player. That's all, it's just about the best player because the best player makes everyone else better. That's what Joe has done.

And at the end, when we were on the penalty kill, our guys were really desperate. I loved to see that. Game five of the year and you find a way, an ugly one, to win on the road. That was a good win for us.

He won the Stanley Cup, let's be honest, and something stopped. Like Shanahan, he wants it back. He's a proud guy. He's in great shape this is where he wants to play. ... He wants to be here, and that's a pretty motivated guy. I like that.

We get on streaks in a heck of a hurry. So you got to turn it around quick. That's good.

I thought he was fine. He drew (Chris) Pronger and (Jason) Smith most of the night and that's a challenge for him.

I'm very concerned. I can only ask so many times. I don't fly the plane. But I am really concerned. There's been lot of discussion about what's going on, are we safe -- obviously that's the first priority.

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.

There are a whole bunch of teams right now that think they have an opportunity. Everybody looks at us and says, 'If they did it, we can do it.' The measure of a great coach, player and organization is the test of time. Being recognized as good isn't a one-time thing, so you have to hang around to earn that. That's what Detroit and New Jersey have done by each winning three Cups in a 10-year span. If you want to be a benchmark team, you have to do it again.