NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: MIGHTY DUCKS v DEVILS

May 31, 2003

Mike Babcock

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: I don't remember saying that one bit, but I think what you heard -- you hear sometimes what you want. What I said is we're going to do what we've done to try to have success. We've changed our lines all the time in the playoffs to draw the best match-up. We still felt as a coaching staff that we had drawn the right match-up for our team. We didn't win that match-up, though.

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: This is about winning and losing. Right now we've played two games and our team hasn't been close to being -- our best player stood up and said that yesterday. He challenged us all. That's about a team of guys, not one guy. You spend your whole life trying to get to an opportunity like this, and you want to be known as someone who can get it done. After two games in the series, if you ask that about us, it hurts your pride a little bit.

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: We're all going to find out tonight. It's not what you say; it's what you do. The thing I like about it is he challenged people. It's about answering the bell, getting challenged and responding. No one wants to be the way we have been. We have people that have known us forever phoning us and telling us what to do. Did we suddenly forget? It looks like it that's what the best players do.

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: That's a real good question. One of the things you find you do more when things don't go well is you spend more time talking. I would rather do what we do and not have to do that. The interesting thing as a coach is here we are now, doing it the same way and not having success. Suddenly we get here and that hasn't been the case. That's disturbing. We have to do a better job as a staff.

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: Well, the big thing here is New Jersey wasn't very friendly to us. We've got a change of venue. They held their serve. We're here. We've got to respond. For us it's not about a series. It's about playing right here right now today, playing with confidence, getting themselves back into the series. We haven't even created a series yet.

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: No.

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: There is lots of things, but what I found is suddenly we need a lot more help than we did last week. That's great people are trying to help you out. That's great.

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: There is lots. I don't know how they get your numbers. I had a few attributes from fans that are pulling for us like crazy. It was great. I listened carefully.