NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WILD v MIGHTY DUCKS

May 16, 2003

Mike Babcock

MIKE BABCOCK: It's pretty special. Anytime you have success and your team has worked like our team has to get better, it's pretty special to be involved with a good group of guys. We had big time leadership. So, you can be a part of it. Special, that's all it is, special.

MIKE BABCOCK: Oates is a professional guy. He's been to this before. Last time he was there with Washington it didn't work out for him. Obviously, he's a big part of our team and success. One of the reasons we were the best faceoff team in the National League was because of Oates. Guys that have been around, been through the wars, make a big difference in your room and bring a certain amount of pride to specialty teams and the things they believe in.

MIKE BABCOCK: I mean, he was fantastic. There was a lot of traffic around the net tonight. It takes a lot of composure. To give up one goal in a series is unbelievable. He would tell you the guys battled real hard, he got us started in this series with a big win. He's kind of done that each of the rounds so far. You know, all the guys will tell you it's real special for them, and it will take them a day, and the thing about this is we have a day to think about it and enjoy it and get ready to get back to business. Now you actually have an opportunity, and we've got to do everything we can to make good on that.

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, our plan will be to get prepared. We will get prepared. We will work our guys and get healthy and be, obviously, ready to go and have a pretty good report on the teams we'll play. It's a race to four, get it done as fast as you can, and take advantage of it. Maybe you're not going to be as good in the first seven minutes as you should be. The bottom line is we know how to play, we have to stay sharp.

MIKE BABCOCK: They had the best powerplay in the playoffs coming in, and they got one and we got two. Dallas had three in the series and we got four. Detroit got two and we got two as our guys stepped out of the box. It sounds to me like specialty teams have been pretty good for us.

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, we developed a belief system a long time before the playoffs and this was a step-by-step process, and obviously Brian Murray at the trade deadline acquiring Thomas and Niedermayer and all the other moves he made, we had a big difference from that time. I think we have lost three or four times since that those guys got here. We have been on an awful good run, but if you go to the last 41 games, the second half of the season, we have been a really good hockey club. If there was one thing I would say is just our ability to generate offense from a whole bunch of different people has been the best part of what's happened. We have been able to make everybody on our team important and get great contributions.