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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: DUCKS v RED WINGSMay 17, 2007Mike BabcockANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA: Game Four JAMEY HORAN: Questions for Coach Babcock. Q. Do you try to do anything to exploit the fact that Pronger is not there or could you just play your game? COACH MIKE BABCOCK: You always know who's on the ice, who you're playing against. We'll do the same as always. What I found in this playoffs, if you go through our group, you know, we're missing lots of people. I'd say we're missing two of the top three on our team. To me, they're going to use that as a rallying thing. We're going to use it as it doesn't make any difference, we got to keep playing, playing hard, playing intelligent, keep our composure, get after them. Q. When a team loses a game, more often than not they talk the next time they've got to work harder, work smarter. Don't most teams and most players believe that they're working as hard as they can every game? Where does the extra come from? COACH MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I think what you do is, in a series, you point out nuances, things you're not doing well. I'm a big believer anyway, normally in a series one team starts to get better and one team starts to get worse. It's not that the team isn't good. Whether it's pressure, whether it's panic, whether it's execution, they don't seem to be able to find a way to get it done. For us, anyway, I can only talk about us, what we try to do is we try to focus on the things, the foundation we built all year long, but the parts we're missing in that, try to do things a little better that allows our skill to come out. I'm a big believer that work ethic - first thing you do is get prepared to work. The second thing you do is within the structure of the team, and then your skill is allowed to come out. If you don't do those things, your skill doesn't come out. Competition level at playoff time is everything. Q. When people talk about cranking up their game, is there a gear missing that they don't even - they're not aware is missing? COACH MIKE BABCOCK: I think sometimes, you know, that's what your wife is for. Sometimes you get in there, you can't see the forest for the trees. I often find people sitting back, watching without emotion can sometimes see things better than you can. You think everything's going right; in reality, it might not be. We have a good group around us. We bounce a lot of things off people. The bottom line to me is, everybody's trying. Everybody's trying to compete like crazy. But we all need to be reminded. Sometimes we got to see it for ourselves. Is that a video clip? Is that just by talking to a guy? But collectively you all got to be doing it right and doing it together. Q. The effect of bouncing around Datsyuk and Zetterberg in Game 3, besides the end result and winning, did you get the effect of them rubbing off the way they played? First couple games, was that an attention-getter for some other players? Did you get the effect you wanted? COACH MIKE BABCOCK: You know, I said this to Zetty. In a series, often at playoff time, you figure your best player has to be your best player. After two games, our best players were our best players. We needed the group. So we thought that was important. Sometimes in a series, it takes you a while to figure it out. You know, who knows if we have. We're going to see tonight. But we thought we were better. We thought we handled the puck better, skated better. But we have to do the same tonight. What I've seen in our playoff series this year is there's been - even Calgary series, San Jose series, there's been no momentum carried from game to game. We had to start over each and every night. We expect it to be that tough tonight. Q. Not talking specifically about the hit the other night, but in the press conference the other night you talked about you sometimes wonder about the respect among hockey players. Can you elaborate a bit more on that? Do you think maybe some of the respect players had for each other - I don't think anybody is talking about people want to hurt each other, but just sometimes the way the game's played, hits that are dealt out, do you think sometimes that's missing a little bit? COACH MIKE BABCOCK: No. Actually I think the respect amongst the players is at an all-time high. I think the players know each other better than they ever did in the league. I think they work together as a group to do the best they can for one another. I don't think anybody ever intentionally, with malice, tries to hurt anybody. Sometimes we react in the game in a way that, you know, if you had a ton of time to think about it, that might not have been the result. But I think the respect factor is there. JAMEY HORAN: Thank you, Coach. COACH MIKE BABCOCK: See you tonight. End of FastScripts |
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