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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: PENGUINS v RED WINGS

June 8, 2009

Mike Babcock

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day

DAVID KEON: Questions for Coach Babcock.

Q. Can you just talk a little bit about focus and the idea that this is just one game? You're coming here for one game. Not thinking about the Cup. You're thinking about winning one game, and whether or not you actually say to the guys, don't think about the Cup? To what extent do you just say this is only a game?
COACH BABCOCK: Well, we talk about a lot of things. You know, obviously, focus and preparation is absolutely critical, and being ready on time. We came in here last week or whenever it was, you know, with an opportunity and failed to do anything with that opportunity. Went home with two losses.
So here's another opportunity for us. Hopefully we've learned. We haven't handled the start of the game very good in here. And in the second game in here, we didn't handle the end of the game very good in here.
You know, we've been in this exact situation before, and we're going to do everything to be the best we can possibly be.

Q. What the day off meant to your club especially with Pav getting an extra day, and physically getting an extra day, everybody?
COACH BABCOCK: I think the big thing we knew before this series if we could get the two days off, it would be a great thing for our team. I think we'll be better. I think they'll be better. But for us, there's no question the guys have been logging a lot of minutes, and Zetterberg and Rafalski and Lidstrom and guys like that, I think it's a great thing for them. They get to freshen up.
The other thing about it is coming here and being unsuccessful the last two times gives us an idea of what we're in for and how difficult it's going to be, and how focused and prepared we're going to have to be to be successful.

Q. You've got a handful of players who are chasing their fifth Stanley Cup. That's a pretty impressive number. Can you kind of put that in context? A player who wins five Stanley Cups in a career?
COACH BABCOCK: Yeah, I have no idea. I can't even imagine in today's world, in the Cap world, I don't know if it's possible.
I know this year I was at the All-Star Game and they were introducing all the Montreal Canadian guys who, I don't know how many they got, like ten or whatever. The guys on the bench started poking fun at the guys who only had six. And there were a whole bunch of guys who only had none (laughing). So it's a whole different world now. To do what these guys have been able to do, you've got to give The Ilitches and Kenny Holland a ton of credit. But, also, they're obviously real competitors.
Their roles have changed over the years, but they've found a way to continue to be important. And lots of them are in a more diminished role but still important roles.

Q. You talked about earlier about winning being the best tool for recruiting. Talk about that particular group that's hung around here for a long time and what they've meant to this team in the past couple of years and how nice it would be to get them another one?
COACH BABCOCK: Were you at the press conference in Detroit already?

Q. No, I wasn't.
COACH BABCOCK: Well, I really believe in that. I believe the best recruiter, you can do anything you want. In college, you go to the Rose Bowl for football or whatever, and they recruit by doing that. In the National Hockey League I'm a big believer if it you're interested in winning, and that is the only kind of players we want, that there's nothing better you can do than win.
We can talk all we want. They can see us play. But when you continually win, to me, you advertise. And you show the people in the off-season that you're still prime location to come. I think Pittsburgh's doing that, and I think we're doing that. When you do it consistently, I think you've got a better chance. Guys aren't coming for free. Don't get me wrong.
But I think when you get to play in a place where you know who the left winger is, and the right winger is, and you've actually heard of them. It's a lot more fun playing with good players than it is playing where you lose all the time.

Q. Have you seen anything in Hossa's game at all that suggests all the questions, the whole story line with him coming back here has affected his game in any way?
COACH BABCOCK: I don't think so, really. He's a human being. And I think he probably cares a lot about a lot of the guys on that team. And I think they probably care about him, too. He played hard for them. He's come here and done a good job for us. I thought he was very, very good in Game 5 for us, very physical, hard on the puck. That's what we'll challenge him to do again tomorrow. We need him to be physical. We need him to take it to the net. We need him to be hard. Whatever happens for him other than that is a bonus situation.
He's been an important part of our team all year. He's been a good team guy, and a good person. And I think that in the end is a big plus.

Q. Do you have any lineup changes?
COACH BABCOCK: No one asked me that yet.

Q. Really? I'm asking you, do you have any lineup changes for tomorrow's game?
COACH BABCOCK: Not that I know of. Not at this point, I sure don't.

Q. Is there a different mindset coming here for Game 6 as opposed to last year when you had the chance to win the Cup at home and had a disappointing overtime loss?
COACH BABCOCK: I'm optimistic that the urgency's going to be the same. Last year was disappointing beyond belief when we lost Game 5. I mean, we had Game 1 and we turned it over two times. I'm sure Z remembers it at the red line. I'm sure Mule remembers it inside our zone. Those are things that the way it turned out in the end it's not a big deal. Can you imagine if you didn't win the Cup and you did that. You're 32 seconds away from winning. I can remember thinking that for a second.
But it's like anything. You got up the next day and you refocused. I think that's what happens to teams. We'd have a lot of beer money if we just fined everybody $25, wouldn't we? Every time those cell phones went off. (Laughing).
I got distracted there for a second. I guess what I'm saying to you is, someone else better ask me a question.

Q. The difference coming here after a loss?
COACH BABCOCK: Yeah, I don't know that for sure. I'm hoping it's no different. Last year it turned out. But if you remember Pav got pulled down in the neutral zone with 13 seconds left. It's a good thing we ran out and Hossa just missed it. That's how close it was.
You know, that's why when you get people asking me all these questions, I think we have two really good teams. And I think they're doing way more right than they are wrong. And there's lots positive about what's going on in this series, and I think it's great for hockey.

Q. Coach always says every team, every year is different. What do you enjoy about this team?
COACH BABCOCK: Oh, I've enjoyed a lot of things about this team (laughing). We have really good people. This has been a very difficult year in lots of ways for our players. I thought it was really hard for us to get started this year after winning in the short summer. I think there is a difference between having a short summer after not winning.
The wear and tear on you, I said earlier today, I think this is our 115th game or something, 114th game tomorrow. We played 113 last year. It adds up after while. It was hard emotionally to get going in it. As a coach, it was a very delicate situation in the first three months of the year to try to get our team to play the right way. Yet in saying that, to give them enough room so you weren't on them every day.
So for us just to be at this point we're obviously ecstatic. We're through all that now. We have a chance to do something special, and that's to win a Stanley Cup. Doesn't matter what year that is, that sets up the best summer of your life.

Q. Do you feel any differently the night before a potential clincher now that you have won one?
COACH BABCOCK: You know, I don't know. That's a real good question. I think in the first time I had the opportunity to win the Cup, and that doesn't happen until you've won three. Obviously, in the Final, in my heart and in my mind I never believed we could lose, and we did. I don't think I felt any different last year, and I don't feel any different now.

Q. Can you just talk a little bit about the strides that Darren Helms made not only this year, but just in these Finals. It seems it would be silly to say he's grown up in front of our eyes. But he's almost a different player from the beginning of the series until now?
COACH BABCOCK: I think the biggest difference between Helmer since he came out of junior till now is just size of him. He's so thick. He's so hard on his stick, and he keeps coming. I'm not sure. I know he's leading our team in finish checks in the playoffs. I don't know if he's leading the league, but he's got to be up there on the top. He's on the puck hard. He's been a good face-off guy. Good on the penalty kill. But what I like about him is he's composed. He's just hard on on it all the time.
To me he's Red-Wing like. He just keeps bringing it every single shift. And that stuff's contagious. It makes our team better --
Q. When you talk about the night before the Cup, kind of the anticipation, what is the difference when you understand the will versus skill thing? And that everything that everybody has laid on the line for it and having won it, you always talk about the appreciation. But at this point I mean with the potential for a clincher, where do you think that elevates everyone's adrenaline and desire and will?
COACH BABCOCK: Well, I think sometimes you say the night before the Cup, we don't think like that. We don't even say that.

Q. I said potential.
COACH BABCOCK: Yeah, okay. All we're going to do is there is a process to having success. We're going to focus on the process. We're going to get prepared. We're going to challenge our guys to do their own part so we can be great together. That's what we're going to do. But as far as it being any different, we're going to go out for a meal. We're going to go to bed. No different than your job. It's just routine. Your job doesn't have routine?

Q. Well, I bring clothes that could potentially get soaked with champagne for this trip.
COACH BABCOCK: Oh, do you? I don't think like that. If you win, you can buy new ones.

End of FastScripts

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