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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: PENGUINS v RED WINGSJune 10, 2009Mike BabcockDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Practice Day Q. Obviously, the Pens have had great success in Mellon in the series, and you guys have done really well at Joe Louis. When you looked at the films have you been able to ascertain what the difference is between what's happening in your arena and their arena? COACH BABCOCK: I think the teams seem to get centered on time and feel a little more comfortable in their building, and I thought in last night's game, it's interesting, because we had three shots in the first period, yet Zetterberg and Datsyuk and Cleary had some unbelievable opportunities that just didn't go. I mean, that's hockey. I thought last night's game was a real good game. But you're right. If you look at it, I've been in a series exactly like this and we went to jersey for Game 7 and lost. It was the same thing. Couldn't win on the road. Couldn't even touch the puck on the road. It was just ugly. For whatever reason, I'm not sure the number, I think we won 27 games on the road in the regular season. We were the best road team in the NHL. Going into the series you say to yourself you're going to win one game. And I think every game in the series with the exception of Game 5, 5 in here and Game 4 in there could have gone either way. Those two games the teams just flat out won the games. Other than that, it's been real close. So it's the greatest stage, the greatest opportunity, and it should be a lot of fun. Q. How much does the fear of losing this game influence your team? COACH BABCOCK: I don't know. I never thought like that. I guess I don't think like you do. You know, half full, half empty, whatever you want to look at it. I never thought about that. I thought about opportunity. Q. Do you think Marian is pressing with not scoring in so long? COACH BABCOCK: I don't think it's pressing. I think in their building he hasn't been as good. I think he's way better at home than he's been in their building, for whatever reason, to me what an opportunity for him. This is why he came here. Here's an opportunity. You have Game 7. You've got a chance, and that's when you ask the question about fear. I don't understand that thinking at all. To me this is all about you spend your whole life when you're a kid, at least in Canada, when you don't even have a net, you've got little snow piles on the street. You're dreaming of scoring the game-winning goal of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. You've been doing that your whole life. Now you've got it. Play and have some fun. Q. Can you describe what that summer was like in 2003 after losing? COACH BABCOCK: It was a great summer. Once again, you guys obviously think way different than me. We're -- both these teams have had unbelievable years. You understand they don't just give us a ticket to come here like you guys. We've got to earn it. So getting here is hard. Now do we want to win? Absolutely. Is the summer better if you win than if you lose? No question about it. But I'd say there is 28 teams sitting at home that would just love to be having this opportunity. To me this is something that just adds on to your career. For the players, for coaches, for an organization, for everybody. It's just a great thing. I think our players should really enjoy the next couple of days in their preparation so that words like fear and what you're talking about to me don't enter the picture one bit. Not even close. Q. You've known Dan a long time. How would you compare and contrast your coaching styles from what you've seen so far with him? COACH BABCOCK: I didn't get it. Q. How would you compare your coaching style with Bylsma's coaching style? COACH BABCOCK: Oh, you know what, I don't have any idea. I think Dan's in a good situation. He's obviously done a real good job. I know Dan as a player and as a man, as a minor league assistant coach. But you didn't see all the time. So for me to evaluate his coaching, I can't do that. To me there is a test of time that's going to happen. And this league has a way of testing you, believe me, over time. He's done a really good job, and his team has played really hard. They look really organized. They seem to be really upbeat. But I think all teams in the situation, we are the same. Any year you look at the teams that play to this extent, everybody in the organization has done a really good job. Just even the decisions the Penguins made throughout the year to change their team, they've done a good job or else they wouldn't be here. Q. You're obviously happy and enthused about this situation, I understand the reasons. But how does this affect knowing that nine months have gone into this whole process? How does it affect you? Did you find yourself last night playing the game during the night? Did you sleep like a baby? Will you sleep peacefully the next few nights? Little bit interested to know how this effects you personally? COACH BABCOCK: Oh, I slept good. I mean, were we disappointed we didn't get the upset? No question. Would we have liked to go on the breakaway or Zetterberg hit the post and hit the goalie in the pack and go in, or on the puck behind him right there for Lidstrom where we could have had the shot on the net? Yes. On the other side of that, Malkin made a play to Fedotenko, I don't know. Maybe it was the second period or maybe the first period, I mean, they had a great chance. There are a number of chances. You're disappointed that you didn't win. We had all our families fly home, and I got home before them. So my kids are walking in the door and they're a little tired. It might have been a little more fun last year, wasn't it? And my youngest girl said yeah, it was more fun. That's just the way it is. We're all human, we all want to have success. In saying that, I think, no, not I think, I know. When I got up this morning it was let's get out there. Let's enjoy this. My phone's ringing off the hook. Everybody wants a ticket. I don't know where they think we're getting those from. But I think you guys covering this have to be excited about the opportunity to cover it. Even though it's been a long time and you've been away from your family forever. To me, it's business. Q. During the press conference this morning, Coach Bylsma talked about a play in Game 7 of the 2003 Final and the picture in USA today with Brodeur and the puck in the air. Then he talked about the opportunities for the players to have to make plays, to go further along before you talk about that opportunity, just talk about the opportunity the guys are going to have to make special plays that they'll remember forever? COACH BABCOCK: That's the big thing. It's interesting. His memory of that situation and my memory would probably be different. You know, I can remember the puck banking off four different people and going through Giguere leg. It was unbelievable. Rupp scored the goal, the game-winning goal. You know what, in that game, the game was tied after 1-0-0 was their best start in the series in their building. I thought this is going to go our way, and it didn't. But there's a whole bunch of guys that over years and time have gone down in history because of what they've been able to do. You know, even like Cleary scored in Game 7 scored the game-winning goal, that is something he's going to remember forever. There's going to be opportunities like every night to make plays. There's going to be opportunities to execute, and that's where we have to grab both of. Just come out, play hard, play our best, be loose, driving and enjoy it get it done. Q. Last night, I believe it was in the first period, Pavel Datsyuk made a stunning reverse course move on Sidney Crosby to set up Henrik Zetterberg for a scoring chance. I'm not sure that he maybe could have produced a play like that the previous game. Just curious if that let you know where he was physically, and in general, after two months, how is your team in terms of bumps and bruises and health? COACH BABCOCK: Well, everybody on both teams has bumps and bruises. That doesn't matter now. It's just an opportunity to play. I think Pavel has come a long way. I thought that line was real good. I thought that line generated opportunity for us, the Helm line generated opportunity. We got some on the Filppula line didn't get as much done offensively for us. So Pavel's moving along, and it's a good thing for our team. Q. You mentioned not getting a free ticket to this point, and people may forget that you guys have had your fair share of ups and downs during the regular season. Was there a point you said to yourself, Geez, I wonder if we're good enough to get back to this point? And if so, what helped you get here from that point? COACH BABCOCK: Well, many times. You know, we won a lot of games. But after the game each night when you know how you're supposed to play and you know how a team plays right you say to yourself we're going to get this to the level we want to. To be honest with you, going into the playoffs against Columbus, you wonder how much you have in the tank. You wonder how much drive you have. That's the thing I've been most impressed with our group with is that they've found a way to keep playing, to find a way to play. To be at this point to give themselves an opportunity. Kenny Holland says this, and you've probably heard it many times in the media. His big theory is you knock on the door, you knock on the door, you knock on the door every year and eventually they open the door. That's what we're doing again. We're right there, and both of us have our foot in the door and someone's going to knock it open. Q. Wondering if you could take a step back and look at these playoffs as a whole for the league. You were able to witness the first playoff game in Columbus. You stood there for the anthem in the United Center in Chicago. May have caught a bit of that Pittsburgh-Washington series. Of course the Wings have been doing their thing again. Can you remember a playoff like this in recent memory where the league is basically selling its product the best way possible? COACH BABCOCK: Well, I think it's been real good. Number one, there are great young stars in the game. And they've now come of age a little bit where they get to play in the playoffs. I think of Rick Nash or Malkin or Crosby or Ovechkin, that group there. And that's a great thing. Obviously, Datsyuk and Zetterberg, guys like this are at the forefront. So I think that's really important. There have been some great series and really good battles and some Game 7s and some real good excitement. And I think once again it doesn't matter in our league right now where you finish, there's an opportunity for you as long as you're in the 16 that get in the playoffs. Because the parody in our league is so good. I just think when I look at the whole thing we're doing a real good job of selling a great game, and we have a great game. We've got to continue to do that. But I think all sport is driven in some ways by star power. And I like the fact that the star power in our game right now is at a high, high end. Q. Is this a Game 7 where experience matters? The experience of the Wings as opposed to the youth of the Penguins or does it matter? COACH BABCOCK: We're going to find out. I don't know the answer to that. I'm a big believer when you don't have experience, you say it's overrated. When you do, you understand how important it is, and it's always nice to be through something before so you know what to expect. I know for myself I feel better knowing because I've been exactly in this situation before. In saying all that, we're going to have two really excited teams. We're going to have a great crowd here. For us, in Detroit and in Michigan, this has been an unbelievable run for our city and for our state just because of the economy here and for the people. It's been absolutely fantastic. Now we've got to finish it off. Should be fun. End of FastScripts |
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