NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WILD v MIGHTY DUCKS

May 15, 2003

Mike Babcock

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, the first thing that happened when I woke up at 6:30 in the morning, my kids were in my bed, and they told me I had inappropriate behavior and now they've got to go to Catholic school and answer for their dad acting his shoe size instead of his age. I'm sorry about that. That won't happen again.

MIKE BABCOCK: I thought they were great. They had some good shifts. Krog was dominant in face-off circles. Smirnov is a big kid who can really skate. He's one of those guys, because he was a young guy, he never got the opportunity he might have warranted. For a player and coach, it's all about trust. I probably haven't helped him as much as I could there. Danny was obviously a big part of our team when we started, and then got hurt, and then he got an opportunity to play again. If you give people opportunities, they can respond.

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, it's what you want them to do. You want them to be an energy line who controls momentum. I thought they were effective.

MIKE BABCOCK: I don't see it like that at all. He had 85 points. That's a huge upgrade from last year. It was way tough personally with his father passing away. Obviously, that was a major thing, yet the way Paul is, Paul didn't leave the team or tried not let it affect him at all. The thing that impresses me most about this guy is he is part of your team. He enjoys being part of the family. He's not a vocal guy. He sets the tone for us with his work ethic and competitiveness. He accepts what you give him and what you ask of him. Paul measures himself by whether he scores or not. For me, his best game in the series was the game before. To me, sometimes these guys at this time of the year put so much heat on themselves and make it tough. It's like they're carrying a piano on their back. I think he's been excellent.

MIKE BABCOCK: I don't think anybody ever says that. We want to keep playing, but the team we're playing, they have been down 3-1 two times. Jacques Lemaire is their coach. They've got a lot of heart, and they believe it's their time. They're not going to go away. We're going to have to put them away. We're trying to not get ahead of ourselves. That's the key here. As much as you're trying to enjoy it because you have to enjoy it, you spend your whole life wanting to enjoy this opportunity, don't get ahead of yourself. We have to win one more game. Our opportunity is tomorrow.

MIKE BABCOCK: No, you know, do it for Giguere, sure great. Motivation, a lot of ways in life, is what's in it for me. Let's not kid ourselves. The key to being in a team is finding a role for everyone. They're playing as hard as they can for Giggy, and themselves, and the organization, and the guy next to them. We want to win the games. That's it. Win the games.

MIKE BABCOCK: Obviously, all the goalies playing in the National League have a certain amount of athletic ability, and he's so sound technically, he and Frank obviously have built a great foundation for himself that way. He has a great ability to read the game, but what makes him what he is is his competitiveness, his battle level, his soul. He's demanding of his teammates by being demanding of himself. You talk about Paul, that's the same thing. When you're a goaltender, and you do that, you force the guys in front of you to battle.

MIKE BABCOCK: He's a normal guy. This is what I've found over the years is everybody is kind of an individual and everybody's different, but they all want to be successful, but some of them put a whole lot more demand on themselves than others, and he's a very demanding fellow of himself.

MIKE BABCOCK: That's our only focus, yeah.

MIKE BABCOCK: I don't think so. I don't think any of that part is caught up in it, but getting ahead of yourself with what you could have a chance for is the part. You just want to stay -- I just -- for myself, I just know that it's just stay in the moment and do what we're doing here. That's what we keep telling ourselves. You can't let your mind wander. You've got to guard against that.

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, where are you talking about here?

MIKE BABCOCK: Okay, so, you know, I lived in lots of towns, so I lived in -- Holy Mackerel, my father was a mining engineer, so we lived in Tungston, which is 200 miles from Watson Lake in the Northwest Territories on the Yukon border. There was 25 homes and a curling rink, and that's what we skated on. It was 40 below zero all winter long. I lived in Northern Manitoba and that's where I started playing hockey basically. We were there until we were 12 or I was 12 I think until we moved to Saskatoon. The things that stand out in my mind as a kid growing up, I remember we were playing in the playoffs against Swan River. We practiced all week, and then everything melted and we had no rink, so we didn't play. That's just the things way things were.

MIKE BABCOCK: I think that's real important. I think that's what Brian Murray's done here. He's continued to improve our hockey club since the start. Everybody talks about Giguere, but the key guy here is Brian. He acquired these guys and put them in an environment that allows them to be successful. It makes it a lot easier when you don't have to count on one or two people either. That's so important.

MIKE BABCOCK: He's a pretty impressive man, to say the least; what he's been able to accomplish as a player and then as a coach. The thing for me that is so impressive about him is how hard he's got those guys playing and how much fun he seems to have and how much fun they seem to have. You know, obviously he knows how to trust people and treat people right. Yet he's a very demanding fellow obviously and gets them to work. I think about this: I think I have an opportunity right now to go to a two-week coaching clinic with Jacques, let me get paid to do it and have as much fun as I've ever had in my life. How much does it cost to do that? That's a pretty big opportunity.

MIKE BABCOCK: Because coaches are allowed to change their mind. Because the best we played in this series was in Minnesota. We skated the day before in Minnesota because we didn't like the way we skated in Game 1. I don't know if that's a good reason or not. That's why we did. We just felt if we got out there and got the motor running, we also thought the focus had to be present.

MIKE BABCOCK: I mean, it's simple, do we want to win or not? You know, we talk about Giguere's shut-out streak or someone scoring. Those things don't matter. What matters is that our family has an opportunity to continue to play, and as soon as you stop playing, you're not a family anymore, because they always split you up. That's just the way it goes. We have an opportunity together right here, right now, I mean, and so let's take advantage of it. Like Detroit and Colorado and Dallas and Vancouver, I don't know, I'm probably missing somebody else here, they're at home right now getting better. They plan on being right here next year, so you want to take advantage of the opportunity you have, and, the only way to do that is to be committed to the team totally.

MIKE BABCOCK: Sure, but I don't think that's happened now. That happened a long time ago.

MIKE BABCOCK: Yeah, the transition was a long time ago that we made the commitment to do things right. That was a process and took some time. I think we made that commitment a long time ago.

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, it's probably understood, but, you know, I'm not leaving anything to chance. We're just going to play. I really believe that it's important to communicate every day anyway. I like to know where I stand all the time. We try to come in and do that so everyone is on the same page all the time. I ask guys to -- you know, we've got a lot of leadership in our room. There is guys saying those things and saying the right things, and I think it's real important, obviously, that we play the best game we have played all season or prepare to play the best game and stay in the process. Forget about the prize, stay in the process here.