NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WILD v MIGHTY DUCKS

May 12, 2003

Mike Babcock

MIKE BABCOCK: We skated yesterday, so they're fine.

MIKE BABCOCK: Yeah, I know exactly why.

MIKE BABCOCK: It was one of those situations where we didn't know what the right thing was to do, and maybe we were supposed to know. We thought we were playing at night, and at 9:00 at night, I get a call from Brian Murray, and he tells me we were playing at 2:00. Our options were to phone all our guys, tell them to come and skate in the morning and make it into a long day, and we decided we were having an off day, and we were having a pre-game skate. So what we decided to do, because we did that before we went to Dallas for the one we never touched the puck in, and it didn't work that good. In reality, that was a tough decision we made, and we're fortunate that we got away with making that decision, yet it seems to me there is probably a better way of knowing what's going on than what we know.

MIKE BABCOCK: You know, I don't know. We'll see tonight.

MIKE BABCOCK: Yeah, identical.

MIKE BABCOCK: They're both good goaltenders, they've got good team defense. We're prepared for either guy. The goaltenders at this time of year are really, really good, but the key is how many chances do they get where they're not rushed, and I think through the game -- and the only chance we had was Petr Sykora, and he had all day. When everything is quick and the guy has no time, it's tough to score on these guys.

MIKE BABCOCK: I think he was being nice to us there. I thought they controlled the tempo. Early in the game, I thought they were better than us, and I thought in overtime it was more even.

MIKE BABCOCK: When I was going through them yesterday, we had them down at 20 to 13 in the first three periods for them, but we also didn't have them -- they had guys -- they had a guy go home-free for a tip, but not home-free, one, two, three, look around, and that's the key. Yet they had some good, good chances. I'm not trying to take anything away from what they were able to generate against us. I thought they did a good job.

MIKE BABCOCK: That was a good number. The biggest difference is they got six on the powerplay, but they got five powerplays. We got one. I think that speaks for itself myself.

MIKE BABCOCK: It's different. I mean, you know, I'll tell you, Jacques gets what he wants at home here. There is no question about it. He knows what he's doing, and they do a good job that way, and what they want and what we want seemed to be similar. That worked out good in a lot of ways. That's the way it is, it's your best against their best, to see who's better. It's totally different with Federov and Modano because of the fact they're centers, and he's a winger. You play as a team and work that out.

MIKE BABCOCK: Obviously, we wouldn't be here without it. We don't have anyone in that way carrying the mail. Mike Leclerc is leading the scoring which is real positive for us. We haven't been an offensive machine in the playoffs that way, and so, you know, we would like to generate more offense than we did last game. We think we will today, and yet, we'll see how the game goes.

MIKE BABCOCK: No, no, no, you earn the opportunity to do a good job. He's overcome his knee thing. He knows everyone on every team is hurt. It doesn't make any difference. He's playing great and making good plays for us. You know, I thought that line was good last game. I thought our best chances early were off with Krog, Bylsma and Smirnov. That's how I saw it anyway.

MIKE BABCOCK: I would like to mix in a victory.

MIKE BABCOCK: Yeah, it is. He's professional. Tell me how you couldn't be full of energy.

MIKE BABCOCK: I guess I look at it age versus opportunity. How many kicks at the can is he going to get. That's all of us. To me, you should be jumping, and they carried the adrenaline in the last game, and we already talked about our preparation. That's my fault. We have to do a better job of that, and I think we have now, and I think you'll see us skate. We have to skate. They fly. No one wants to ask me about Giguere's pads or what?

MIKE BABCOCK: Huge. You know, it's amazing, the better he plays, the bigger they get. It's an amazing thing. This is what I heard. I heard they've got a two nets. Theirs is about this much smaller than ours is. They got a remote there at the end of rink and they tilt it. You know, at the top, they also have a remote that every time we get momentum, they hit the remote and one pops off and they get the game going.

MIKE BABCOCK: Yep. Thanks.