WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY

September 24, 2016

Mike Babcock

Team Canada-5

Team Russia-3

Q. When you see your guys go down 2-1, at any moment there do you think you might be in for a surprise you didn't want?

MIKE BABCOCK: Not really. I thought we were dominating territorially. We had the puck all the time. Bob was really good. I thought we were wearing on their D and I thought we got to them. That's what I told the guys after the second.

Obviously, the second goal was a big goal for us. But I just said steady on the rudder, we're doing things right. Be a little more patient without the puck and we need -- when you do good things, good things happen. That's just the way it is. So we just kept trying and their goalie was real good, though.

Q. A couple of your players have talked about in the second intermission they didn't feel a ton needed to be said, everyone in that room has been through so much and won so much. As a coach, when you know that you've got that group in that room, what do you take into that second intermission?

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I'm like them, basically that's what I said. I said we're playing real well, here's some, couple things to consider, but we're playing well, just keep doing what we're doing and there's no chance they can keep up if we keep doing what we're doing. And in the end that proved to be true.

Obviously, goal tending at this event, the goal tenders are spectacular. So they can hold the fort for a long period of time. The first time we played the Russians, it took us until the third and then to overtime to win. So, today we got there a little quicker, but still Bob was unreal.

Q. Conceding that Sidney Crosby has always been really good at hockey, where have you seen the biggest growth in his game from when you first started taking him to these tournaments to now?

MIKE BABCOCK: I just think he knows how good he is and he's more patient with what he's doing. When things don't go well, he doesn't get frustrated; when people cross check him he doesn't get riled up. He just knows he's going to have success over time.

The other thing that happens when he plays with Toews and not on the same line, but Toews does a lot of stuff so he can do what he does. So to me that's a pretty good one-two punch. And of course, he's no slouch.

Q. Perfect segue, the job that Toews has matured, for the most part Weber and Vlasic did tonight, not just on Ovechkin, but whoever he was playing, what was the key for them, I mean he barely touched the puck.

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, Johnny won all the faceoffs and the guys are good defensively. Ovie's a big big man and can wear you down. Web doesn't get worn down, he's too big.

I thought it was a good stable pair and a good group. Corey Perry, I never thought at the start would ever play in that situation. I just talked to him and just said a number of times, this is what we need you to do for us to have success and so he's all in and is doing a good job. He's a winner, he's won everywhere he's been, so he's done a good job.

Those other two guys are real, real smart hockey players. Know how to play. They're better than their sums of their parts, if that makes any sense, those two guys, they're really, really real elite players.

Q. I know you will say that this is just a step forward to your goal as a team, but stupid question, is there a moment that you say to you, this is the best team, and I have the easiest job in the world? When you see the way that Crosby and Toews lead the group?

MIKE BABCOCK: I think that's what you guys think. I don't know. This is the way I look at it, real simple, is I get up every morning, and I do the best I can, and work as hard as I can to prepare my team the best I can. Try to love the guys the best I can, try to make them feel good and make them better players. And I go home and love my family and I come here and do it the next day and over time things have worked out good.

Q. I know every tournament's different, some of the players have changed, but because of the symmetry that's existed between you being behind the bench for the last two Olympics and this tournament and Toews and Crosby and Weber and the leadership group all being the same, how does that consistency of that help in moments where you know you shouldn't be behind and suddenly you might get rattled or another team might get rattled, but like the last game, you just stick with it. How does that help having them as a group together for that time?

MIKE BABCOCK: Obviously it's important. When we had the gray beards that year in 2010 with Nieds and Prongs and Ziggy, I mean, they provided great stabilization for us in the room. And Boiler was on that team and there was some good, good, good men who had been around a long time to help these kids. These kids now aren't kids any more. And they know and you know -- I don't know what they said, I trust them and I think they trust me. They know we're prepared. They know we're good. They know we have a chance. And that's all can ask in life is a chance. Now we have a chance to compete for the real prize. That's what we have all came for. We have all given up like, I don't know, three weeks, it seems like four months, but is it three weeks? Anyway, so let's just keep getting better and find a way here in the end. Now, obviously, we're going to play a real good team from the other side and nothing's guaranteed, but we have a chance.

Q. You've had a chance to reflect on your international success. When Brad Marchand gets a chance to do the same, what's tonight going to mean to him?

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, he's going to wonder why he didn't shoot the third one in the empty net and get a trick, for crying out loud. I think Marchy is one of those guys probably and I know him good, but not as good obviously as a guy like Claude would, but if you look back, when he enters the NHL and he thinks he's going to get to play for Canada at the World Cup, he probably doesn't see it like that. That's a lot of us. You grow up in Saskatoon or you're a coach at Red Deer College, you probably don't think you're going to coach Canada's Olympic team, but I think that's most people in the room, you don't know what you're going to do, but you pursue you passions. For Marchy, it's a good night for him, but he's an important player on our team and that's been a real good line in the tournament, to say the least.

Q. Pick up on that, when you first thought up that combination, could you have pictured that what that line's done in this tournament?

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I mean you're always hoping that each line's going to be good. In a lot of these tournaments I've had way more change than in this tournament. This tournament's been, I don't even know what happened here, but, no, usually it's not like that. It's a work in progress and you grind and you grind and you try to make it better. We have had success this far, but let's not get carried away. We now have an opportunity to have success, we're going to be measured on what happens next. I really like the progress we have taken. Ideally, we can stay healthy and we can find a way to play as good as we possible can and in the end that's enough. So, that's what we're going to try to do.