Mike Babcock Quotations

What they've said is they need things tightened up. They need some accountability. And that's my job.

We can do a better job with our discipline.

We're going to have to evaluate our team this summer. And if we have to make changes, we will make changes.

With the Olympics, and the so many guys away, and the no equipment (Olympians' equipment being lost early in the tri), all the stuff going on, we knew it would be tough. Going into this trip, we knew if we could get points (early) we'd be fine. I knew we'd be good today after a couple of days off.

We want him to feel good and be an important part of our team. He told me the other day that he feels he's skating well, and that his leg doesn't hurt. Well that's great news for us. He's dominant in the face-off circle, his brain works all the time; he knows how to play in all situations.

We'll see where he's at, ... I'm hopeful of the positive side of things. You're always concerned about good players being hurt.

We have to play the game we're capable of playing. We have to look after it during the 60 minutes of the game (in regulation).

We didn't think we had second chances until partway through the game. They controlled the inside of the rink.

When I evaluate a trade as a coach, I evaluate who gets the best player. That's all, it's just about the best player because the best player makes everyone else better. That's what Joe has done.

Let's be honest, we had a great regular season, and the regular season's over. It you don't bring your best game, you don't win.

One of the things that happens when you win all the time is, when you lose in overtime and lose the next night, it feels like you haven't won in months. But it's unreasonable; you can't go through this league without losing. Our discipline was good tonight and our defense really managed the puck.

No part of me is glad to lose,

Obviously, Columbus wanted him and it's nice to be where people want you.

I don't know what happened. We lost our composure and turned the puck over and just couldn't get settled down again.

I don't know why Shanahan plays so well against Nashville. He gets all excited because Nashville is such a good hockey team.

I don't believe that. I believe he'll be a Red Wing. Basically, the way it sounds, I don't think anybody knows the whole story. I think he wants to play here.

Getting that record is nice, but it's not what we set out to do. But it's nice to have. These guys are a committed group.

Four games in five nights and playing a good defensive team on the road, we must be doing something right.

He was as good with the puck and as hard on the puck as he is now, relative to the skill level. He was a committed guy then. I coached his older brother and his younger brother as well and they're good people.

He tried and he couldn't get going. I think he'll be fine.

He won the Stanley Cup, let's be honest, and something stopped. Like Shanahan, he wants it back. He's a proud guy. He's in great shape; this is where he wants to play. ... He wants to be here, and that's a pretty motivated guy. I like that.

He's been a courageous competitor. He probably shouldn't have played tonight, but he perceives this as his team and he wanted to lead them.

He has the ability to score, the question is if he can do enough of the other things to get playing time. You score when your coach is confident enough to put you out there enough to let you score. The bottom line is all he has to do is be a little responsible. I'm not asking him to check the No. 1 center in the league. If he sits in his end even a little bit, he'll be OK.

He'll be ready to go for Game 1 for sure.

We think he's a premier defenseman in this league. He had a stellar exhibition (season).

We think he's a premier defenseman in this league, ... He had a stellar exhibition (season).

He's a great player. He's skating. It's great to see.

Good for him. He's played hard, he's practiced hard and when he's on the ice, he's determined out there. That's great for him. It's fantastic. He should feel good.

He's got his legs back and suddenly we're a lot quicker team.

He's cut around the eye. I guess the bones are fine. They sent him for a CAT scan or whatever, but it sounds like he's just fine and everything's precautionary, so that's real positive.

He's cut around the eye, ... I guess the bones are fine. They sent him for a CAT scan or whatever, but it sounds like he's just fine and everything's precautionary, so that's real positive.

He's good defensively, but tonight he made plays with the puck, which was nice to see. Sometimes as a defensive defenseman on an offensive team they always want you to do more than you're capable of doing. His game has gotten much better with the puck.

He's good defensively, but (Monday) he made plays with the puck, which was nice to see. Sometimes as a defensive defenseman on an offensive team they always want you to do more than you're capable of doing. His game has gotten much better with the puck.

He's fine. We are just being extra careful.

He's been outstanding, so he's making it as hard on the coach as possible. That's a great thing.

Hank's been outstanding for us. There's nothing wrong with players putting some pressure on themselves to perform.

Just like everyone here, I'm shocked at our situation. It's hard to look at our team and think we didn't do a lot of good things to prepare for the playoffs and you would expect to have success.

I thought the goalie was really good early when the rest of us weren't.

I thought the goalie was real good early when the rest of us weren't. He'll be real humble here tonight and he'll say the players played real well in front of him and all that stuff. If you set a record ... you should be proud of yourself. At least for a few minutes until we start yelling at him tomorrow.

I thought the game was a lot of fun. It's zooming out there against those guys. I'd love to play these guys five or six times because I think it improves your play to play against talent like that.

I thought putting Z in the middle tonight gave us a boost, some energy.

I thought our discipline was good. Our defense really managed the puck. The second half of the game, they didn't have the puck much.

I was very concerned about not overdoing it, and just making it another game for the guys, ... I tried to stay normal, but you would have to ask them how well I did. I might have been a crazy person.

I think everybody realizes that we had a great opportunity. But you find out quickly that last year was last year. There are now nice pictures of the playoffs hung up around the locker room, and people were saying nice things about us and patting us on the back all summer. But now we are trying to reestablish work habits, foundation and identity. I think it makes you more hungry, because we all know how hard it is to get there. It will be a huge battle for us and we are excited about the opportunity to try to get back there.

I think Howard has been good and I think the two guys that are supposed to be good have been good.

I thought he was fine. He drew (Chris) Pronger and (Jason) Smith most of the night and that's a challenge for him.

We need to reestablish our work ethic and get back the fire we need to win games. As far as I'm concerned, the playoff race starts Oct. 8 in Dallas. You can't make the playoffs in the first 20 games, but you can be out of it after 20 games. So for me, it's all about establishing that work ethic again in a hurry. I just keep telling the guys that, too -- so much that they think the record is stuck.

We just did a good job on the specialty teams. They (the Blue Jackets) played with a lot of passion and urgency. (But) what do you do when your (the Blue Jackets') power play isn't putting them in, and the other team is?

We're all human, and sometimes when things are going good, you get a little complacent. Obviously that was evident for us.

We had ample opportunities to score, but we didn't have the stick-to-it-ness.

We have a good team and the guys came out and played hard. With a short group you don't want to get behind and battle back. We talked about being ready right from the start.

We have an eight-game playoff series. We're excited about it. They have a real good team. Let's get there and get going.

We get on streaks in a heck of a hurry. So you got to turn it around quick. That's good.

When you're on a roll, the opposing team comes in a little excited and a little bit fearful. We have to fear the opposition, too.

There are a whole bunch of teams right now that think they have an opportunity. Everybody looks at us and says, 'If they did it, we can do it.' The measure of a great coach, player and organization is the test of time. Being recognized as good isn't a one-time thing, so you have to hang around to earn that. That's what Detroit and New Jersey have done by each winning three Cups in a 10-year span. If you want to be a benchmark team, you have to do it again.

What I evaluate is how you play when you get your opportunity -- simple. When you're a pro and you get your opportunity, you play. That's it.

We obviously have to make some adjustments. With Lang not here, we need two offensive lines.

We picked it up, got going a little bit, and found a way to win the game.

We sagged -- no question -- as soon as they scored.

To be passing Gordie Howe - holy mackerel! That's unbelievable. That's how good you've been and that's how long you've played. And that's how good of players you played with.

When you have 55 points at this point, you've done some good things.

We've played hard as a team and found ways to win. We've done that a lot, and you're optimistic those things can continue.

We watched in on the replay a bunch of times. It doesn't look like that big a deal. ... I'll sleep easy tonight and we'll have a report tomorrow. He'll be fine.

But now he's in shape, he gets up and down the ice, and he's a player.

We've been consistent all season. We've always bounced back and we've been a professional team.

We've got veteran, veteran guys. They know what they're supposed to be doing and they just do it. They expect to win. The other thing I like about this team that I like ... when we don't have success, you know we're having success the next night.

The Quincey kid looks like he's got a real good feel for the game.

We weren't thinking, we were just kind of going, and that was nice to see. We looked like we could move.

(Thursday) we're going to compete. We've skated for two days and now we'll start to compete. We were on a charge going in (to the Olympic break), now we'd like to charge coming out.

We just rolled (the lines) one, two, three, four. It didn't matter. We let our guys go, and it kind of worked out well.

We weren't ready. Between the players and myself, we didn't get the job done to get out and get started and get after them and set the tone. We hung on good enough defensively, and Manny was good enough to give us a chance to get ourselves going and then I think we took over.

We feel we're getting better as this series goes on. And we think we'll continue to get better.

You have to put the puck on net from wide angles to create opportunities.

At the start of the game, we weren't used to that level. They were really quick.

Edmonton is quick, and it works hard, ... Edmonton just squashed Nashville (Tuesday), so it'll be a good test for us.

There's adversity; what are you going to do with it? Are you going to turn it into a positive ?

There's nobody who can leave the goalie in the corner like he does.

I've coached some real good players -- he's the best player I ever coached. He's classy as they come, as humble as they come. This guy just makes people around him better, and that's the key to having a successful team. He's the easiest person I've ever coached.

I've coached some good hockey players, but he's the best player I've ever coached. This guy, I always knew he was a good player, but I had no idea he was this good.

They always have a label for you, ... When I came out of junior, I was a 'junior coach.' When I came out of college, I was a 'college coach.' Then when I made it to the NHL, I was a 'minor-league coach.' And now I'm a 'defensive coach.'

I've talked to Scotty a lot. The best reputation, the best record, the best coach in the history of our game is here as a consultant for us. All I've got to do is phone him and ask. He's unbelievable.

It was unbelievable. Making the finals is one thing, but getting to a Game 7 and being tied in that game after the first period is another. A lot of people think they have a chance to win the Cup, but the only chance to win the Cup is when you have three wins in the final. It's something that I'll always remember, but in the end, we came up empty.

I wanted to have a competitive training camp. So we went through and put the lineup together. We used Jimmy Nill's advice on all the young guys because I don't know the young guys, and then we tried to get the guys who played in the national league and played on our team to be as competitive a group as we possibly could be, with leadership in all groups.

Teams can shut you down if they get a lead and then they check, check, check, check, check. Well if we come out and get going, they've got to open it up to try to score. So that's a real focus for us - we have to start good.

A dominant player. But also a physically dominant player.

Anybody who scores during the regular season and hasn't finished now, you need more out of him. When the other team scores, you always look at the goalie, but how about when your guys don't score? The shooters have to score, too. Guys that score have got to score.

The bottom line is, we didn't play Steve much the first few games he played. Tonight he played, and he was important. He played important. He's ready to go and help our hockey team.

That's what the new (salary-cap) system is all about, isn't it? It makes everyone the same. The teams that play the best will win. The bottom line is how do you handle it, and compete, and how do you allow your game to come out. That's the challenge for everyone.

That's why we wanted him back. He showed why a lot of people think he's one of the top young players in the NHL.

That's nice, ... but you know, (general manager) Ken Holland told me he's not worried about the start, he's worried about the finish, so that was cleared right up for me.

You want guys selected for those teams. It means you have good players.

The way they are playing, why wouldn't you play them. They were fantastic (against Chicago).

They hadn't even touched the puck there in the third, and we turned it over and they shot it in our net. That's the only chance to shoot it, and, bang, it's in our net. And now we're digging out of a bigger hole.

They're proud guys. They want to win. They want to be the best. We all know the best isn't measured now. You get the silver thing for winning the marathon in the spring. And that's what we want to do.

They're a good team, and they're finding ways to win a lot. They found a way to get four points out of here, and we only got one (an overtime loss). We have to get back on track and find a way to score against them.

I told you guys that was going to be the case. That didn't surprise me much.

It's not like we hadn't had tons of chances, we just weren't finishing. The big thing we wanted to do was not panic and just keep doing what you are doing, get people to the net, work hard at it and let's not be pressing. I thought we managed the puck well and made great plays in the middle of the ice and really came at them with some speed.

It's like a lifetime. You just think about it. The season is long. We're at game (65) and it seems like forever. Think about coming, and putting on your skates, and how many coaches have gotten on your nerves, and how many players you've seen. You've seen them all 100 times.

It means I've been in the league a little bit. But I was looking tonight and (Toronto's) Pat Quinn has 640, Scotty Bowman has 1,200-and something. I'll be dead before then.

Dan has played real good when you start him on the fourth line and then you move him around. When you put him in this situation ... we'll see how he does. Some guys can't do it. It's up to him.