NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: MIGHTY DUCKS v DEVILS

May 28, 2003

Mike Babcock

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I didn't do it all night. I slept, and got up this morning and went through it. We saw the same things we saw in the game, and, in fact, we probably saw it more clearly today. I don't want to take anything away from New Jersey because they were good. We weren't very good. We had a lot of time to work on things. We worked on lots of things and never did anything. For whatever reason, we weren't as good as we could be. We didn't control our emotions to execute or whatever. Our game plan wasn't executed. They were quicker. They executed better. They had way more speed to win all the battles and I don't think our team engaged.

MIKE BABCOCK: There is lots good. We've got one game of Stanley Cup Finals experience. The one thing about last night's game is we didn't lose in triple overtime in a heart breaker. We played like crazy and did everything we could. It was pretty easy when we went through our clips with our guys for them to see we weren't doing well. It's one thing if you execute your plan and they beat you. It's another thing if you don't do what you wanted to do. The reality is we didn't do a good job in Game 1 and we had our 15 minutes to hang our head last night, and our guys did that. We're getting on with our life here today.

MIKE BABCOCK: Structure. They're a real structured team. They're a real good team that way. I would like to think normally we are, too. Last night we weren't. They make you make plays to beat them. They don't give you anything for free. They make it hard for you to get to the net. They don't beat themselves.

MIKE BABCOCK: We've got to have more speed and manage the puck. What I mean by that is every time you bauble the puck or make a bad pass, it slows things down. Last night they executed so they're on top. We didn't execute. So they're coming with speed, speed, all the time. The rink gets tilted. We've going to manage the puck better.

MIKE BABCOCK: I don't know where it came from. What I meant by that is you get ten days off and you're still not involved. You want to be involved but you're not. We never got any grease on us. We didn't compete in the way we normally do. The thing that we as a group want to be proud of every day as we leave the rink is how hard we work, how hard we competed. It was kind of disappointing for us last night.

MIKE BABCOCK: What an opportunity for us. What this is all about is about stretching you getting better. I know the players feel the same way. I feel like that, too. Now we're in a situation we haven't had. It's going to stretch us. We're going to find a way to react positively and get better. Emotionally, I mean, it's not like we lost a heart breaker at the end of the game. We got beat.

MIKE BABCOCK: This is how I could do it. I could change a whole bunch of stuff. I'm not a big change guy that way. Until your team comes out and competes and skates, how do you know if you could change? You haven't given your team a chance to evaluate that. Guys who have been good for me all playoff long, why weren't they good last night? I don't want to overreact on that. It was one game. We would have liked to have been a lot better. We can't do anything about it now. We have to get prepared for tomorrow.

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, the first part of that, I mean, when you asked me, over those ten days, what am I supposed to say, we're not going to be ready in the second part? I would like to have us be better. I thought we might have managed the puck and skated better. I guess maybe the surprise to me is I thought we were going to be better in the second and the third than we were in the first. I thought we were the same throughout.

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, the reason they had success is they just did what they have to do. They played simple and did more by doing less and stuck to the plan, but I'm pretty sure you're going to see the rest of the guys.

MIKE BABCOCK: With Paul, you mean?

MIKE BABCOCK: Probably not on the road. You know, we just haven't -- we've done it this way because we think we draw the best matchup like this. As good as they can generate offence, sometimes when they play against lines, they can really check, they spend a lot of times in their own zone. If they're really jumping, they play more. We spread our minutes out last night because we were looking for an answer.

MIKE BABCOCK: That's what I have been doing throughout all the playoffs. It works for us.

MIKE BABCOCK: We need to win. The first thing you've got to do is everyone has to play together. The second thing is you've got to get timely goals. Paul's found a way to do that for us. No different than anybody else on our team last night. That was his first Stanley Cup Finals game last night. As much as you have been through a lot of things, everything is new. You've got to find a way. The thing about this guy is he usually does that. He has to elevate. So does everyone else. I find the key to the guys who score is if we manage the puck as a team, they get the puck with speed. If we don't make any plays, they never have any speed, and they're out there grinding around looking like everyone else.

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I don't know for sure. I mean, obviously, like I said to you, we didn't execute the way we wanted. We didn't have the kind of speed we wanted, I thought, in particular, and I thought they had the puck with speed all the time. If you never have the puck and don't put any first-guy pressure on them, they're going to be a pretty good team.

MIKE BABCOCK: My team's got to be ready. I mean, the bottom line is that we do this as a group, and as a coaching staff, any way you evaluate it, you evaluate it at this level by wins and losses. We've got to get the job done.

MIKE BABCOCK: You know, what we're going to do is we're going to do what we do, and just like when Dallas was being physical, I didn't think last night's game was physical that way. I thought they were hard on the puck. I didn't think they were running around at all. I thought they just played the game hard and played it well. That's how they've played in the playoffs. They play hard so we've got to give them credit. We've got to do the same thing. That's what we've done. We're not a team that does anything after the whistle. We just have to be real hard on the puck and compete between whistles. That's what we're going to try to do.