Mike Babcock Great Quotations

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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'll be a rallying cry. This guy hasn't done anything wrong. He'll do a great job. He has a phenomenal reputation, and he's a leader among men.