Archive for the 'Mike Babcock' CategoryPage 2 of 3

Babcock on Ellis

Published
by
Matt Saler
on September 16, 2007
in Igor Grigorenko, Links, Matt Ellis, Mike Babcock and Quotes
. 1 Comment

I was glad to this quote in a Helene St. James blog post today:

“The person no one ever talks about is Matty Ellis. His skating has improved 300 percent and he just works like a dog every single day and is a competitive guy and a big, strong guy. He’ll be in the mix, too.”

Grigorenko’s stock is falling somewhat, even given all the slack the Wings are allowing him, and if he doesn’t pick it up, people will be talking about Ellis and Aaron Downey competing for that last spot instead Downey and Igor.

Babcock on lines and pairings

Published
by
Matt Saler
on August 19, 2007
in Lines and Mike Babcock
. 6 Comments

Helene St. James has a brief interview with Mike Babcock in which he discusses defensive pairings and forward lines, among other things. It’s typical Babcock, all excitement about competition for the 7th defensive spot and having a banger like Dallas Drake threaten to move up in the depth chart.

It does look like, for now at least, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk will be split up, as he has them slated to play with Mikael Samuelsson and Tomas Holmstrom, respectively, with Jiri Hudler and Johan Franzen filling in the other spots. Valtteri Filpulla is penciled in with Kris Draper and Dan Cleary at the moment. Babcock sees Tomas Kopecky, Kirk Maltby and Drake making up the fourth line. As he points out, Igor Grigorenko would throw all of that off, if he makes the team, but that’s a good problem to have.

The defensive pairings as he has them now are pretty obvious: Nick Lidstrom with Brian Rafalski, Andreas Lilja with Niklas Kronwall, and Chris Chelios with Brett Lebda.

Personally, I’d be surprised if this is quite the look we’ll see when the puck drops in October, as Babcock will have plenty of time to tinker and will undoubtedly come up with different combinations.

MacLeod: Match Game

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 26, 2007
in Hockey Media, Jiri Hudler, Links and Mike Babcock
. 2 Comments

Bruce MacLeod has a brief but highly interesting post up in which he relates some comments by Mike Babcock on his reasoning behind the decisions to bench Jiri Hudler in the first round. Basically, he wanted to be able to dictate who little Jiri was playing against through the home ice privilege of last change. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it obviously makes sense.

Thank You Ansar!

Published
by
Sarah Baker
on April 20, 2007
in 2006-2007, Flames, Mikael Samuelsson, Mike Babcock, Playoffs, Robert Lang, Todd Bertuzzi and Valtteri Filppula
. 8 Comments

Thank you for validating everything I’ve been thinking for this entire series. Khan has a great little piece on his blog today (of which I am not the only fan) highlighting the Wings’ struggles against the Flames and providing a number of helpful suggestions. Let’s just hope he sent Mike Babcock a copy.

Suggestion #1:

He should insert Jiri Hudler back in the lineup. Hudler played with a lot of energy in the first two games.

Jiri played so well in the first two games, only to be dropped with the return of Todd Bertuzzi. Now Bert has earned his keep, but there’s no reason Hudler shouldn’t be out there in place of one of our underachievers. I’ve been hoping Huds would get the call over Samuelsson.

Suggestion#2:

Or he might take out Samuelsson, who has just one assist in 10 playoff games the last two years. If he leaves Samuelsson in, he should at least stop playing him on the point on the power play. It isn’t working. Brett Lebda would be a better option.

Every time I bring up the idea of scratching Samuelsson, somebody says “Oh, but he’s playing the point on the power play.” Here we go again. Babcock is a great coach, but what is his obsession with putting forwards on the PP point?! Now, Samuelsson is no Jason Williams - he’s not a total liability there. But he’s not producing either. It just is not working. Oh, and if I had a dollar for every time I’ve told somebody that Lebs would be a better choice than Sammy for the PP point in the last two weeks, I’d be watching the next game from The Joe instead of my living room. Brett is a great skater and he’s got tons of offensive ability. He’s practically a forward anyway with the way he’s always wheeling around in the offensive zone. Babs should be all over this.

Another thing that I’ve had a hard time understanding is the fact that, despite being one of our hardest working players, Filppula can not manage to get decent ice time - instead it continues to go to guys who are simply wasting it. The thing that really gets me is that Babs admits that he should be playing him more.

“He probably wonders why the coach doesn’t get him on the ice more and the coach wonders that himself,” said Detroit coach Mike Babcock. “My son told me after Game 1 that I didn’t play Fil enough.” (via USA Today)

Even his kids know it! Is Babcock aware of the fact that he’s the coach and he’s actually allowed to make these changes himself? If he thinks he deserves more time, why doesn’t he give it to him?

Suggestion #3:

Valtteri Filppula needs to play more. I’d also try to find a way to work him in on the struggling power play.

Power play time? Now there’s an idea. That would give Fil more playing time AND change up our miserable power play. No, I think that would make too much sense…

Despite Babcock’s stubbornness regarding lines, he has done more this year than last and for that I am most greatful.

Coach Mike Babcock’s reluctance to change his lineup or even his line combinations proved costly in last year’s first-round loss to Edmonton. He made a good move by replacing Kyle Calder and Mikael Samuelsson on the second line with Todd Bertuzzi and Johan Franzen.

Darn right, Ansar. I just want to know what took him so long. I think everybody and their brother knew that Todd needed to be on that second line with Lang the day he returned to the ice. Sometimes I think Babcock is just a little too reluctant to make changes. It scares me. When you’re afraid to make changes, then sometimes you don’t do it until it’s too late. Hopefully that won’t be the case in this series.

Oh, and for anyone who didn’t think Babcock was completely insane for putting Lang out for the last faceoff of game 3 (I’m sure there is no such person, but you never know):

Robert Lang has won only 17 of 54 face-offs.

For those of you without calculators, that’s about a 31% win percentage. That means he loses them 69% of the time! I bet every time the opposing center sees that he’s facing off against Lang, he throws a little party in his head. “Freebie faceoff win! Coach will think I’m good at those! Yay!”

Suggestion #4:

Maybe Franzen should start taking the draws for that line. It couldn’t be much worse.

Sure it could, Lang has actually made an improvement from his game 1 faceoff win percentage - a whopping 20%.

Basically, I think Babs has made some unfortunate decisions up to this point. Maybe he’s overcomplicating things. To put it simply, the players who are playing the best should be playing the most. Makes sense to me. If someone’s not cutting it, they should be replaced, whether it be on the PP, in the faceoff circle, or on the lineup completely.

Rosenberg on Babcock

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 11, 2007
in Hockey Media, Mike Babcock and Opinion
. 4 Comments

The Freep’s Michael Rosenberg has come out from under his rock and posted a column on Mike Babcock in which he demonstrates that he, like most columnists, is all fluff and no substance, particularly when it comes to a sport they know nothing about. How else would someone be able to mention Johnny Depp, The Pirates of the Caribbean, and Edward Scissorhands (Rosenberg’s way of saying you can’t predict the future based on past performance) in something ostensibly related to hockey? Or, for that matter, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Anniston, and Angelina Jolie (Rosenberg’s way of describing the hiring of Babcock and the firing of Dave Lewis).

Of course, the basic premise of Rosenberg’s column is strictly true: we don’t know anything about what’s going to happen in this series. Still, I think we can draw conclusions based on the Wings’ performance in the regular season and to me, the conclusion is that this team is different than last year’s. You say, “No kidding, it’s different.” I mean more than the loss of Brendan Shanahan and Steve Yzerman. I mean the addition or increased roles of players like Kyle Calder, Danny Markov, and Johan Franzen, the committment to team defense from everyone from Pavel Datsyuk on down. This team has bought into Mike Babcock’s system much more so than last year’s and is becoming more made in his image all the time.

I don’t think I buy the notion that Babcock is done if the Wings don’t find playoff success this year. This team is still in transition and yet we can still see enormous potential. We saw last offseason how this team is changing, with the players they let go and the players they brought on. I think they can be very successful this year, but give it another season and I think that’s when we’ll really see what Babcock can do for this organization.

Maybe I’m just crazy and Babcock will be gone much the same way Lewis was after two playoff attempts. I just think the situation with Lewis was different, as the team seemed to come to the conclusion that familiarity had bred contempt and what the players needed was someone from outside. I don’t think Babcock will ever have the players feeling as comfortable as Lewis did, and so I think he’ll really have to screw up to be ousted.

I said above that I don’t think Babcock is done if the Wings don’t go deep into the playoffs, but I will admit that if they lose in the first round, his job is in jeopardy because that would fall under the category of “really screwing up.” I suppose that’s all the Babcock Doom-and-Gloom party is saying and it must be my confidence that they’ll make it out of the Quarterfinals that causes me to leap to his defense.

Babcock on a reduced role for Chelios

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 17, 2007
in Chris Chelios, Links, Mike Babcock and Quotes
. 0 Comments

In the Globe and Mail (via Snapshots):

“He says, ‘No, I’m not. I’m going to be the fourth guy.’ He doesn’t care what we tell him.

“We play him with the young guy that comes up [or] everybody that’s not going good. In my opinion, he’s part of the coaching staff. That doesn’t mean he agrees with everything we say. He doesn’t, but he’s part of making our team better.”

Sounds like Cheli has taken the role Brett Hull tried to assume when he was here. Good to see.

Babcock on the playoffs

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 16, 2007
in Hockey Bloggers, Links, Mike Babcock and Playoffs
. 2 Comments

Dave at Gorilla Crouch links to an AP article that has a great Mike Babcock quote on the team’s playoff situation:

“Is there a team we want to play in the first round?’ No. They’re all too good. In the Western Conference last year, the top four seeds lost in the first round. Well, the West is even closer than it was last year.”

Way to put things in perspective, Babs. I’m glad the team has that attitude going in.

Dave has some more interesting links, so check out his post.

Mike Babcock goes off the record at media dinner

Published
by
Matt Saler
on June 20, 2006
in Links and Mike Babcock
. 0 Comments

And his vision for the team apparently doesn’t involve the team’s dinosaurs, as the article puts it. The roster is going to look a bit different next season, perhaps more different than expected. (via. A2Y)

Link

Babcock confident going into Game 4

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 26, 2006
in Links, Mike Babcock, Playoffs and Quotes
. 1 Comment

He told the media today: “I know you don’t like to hear it, but I think we’re going to be more than fine.” (via. Kukla)

Link

Quote of the Week

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 7, 2006
in Mike Babcock, Quotes and Steve Yzerman
. 1 Comment

I like this sentiment (from today’s Freep):

Coach Mike Babcock watched the Super Bowl and said it was nice that Jerome Bettis went out a champion in his final game.

“Reminded me of Ray Bourque or John Elway,” Babcock said. “I don’t think there’s any better way. We should be doing the same thing here for (No.) 19.

“If it’s going around, you might as well catch it.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Also, posting may pick up some more soon. A due date has been pushed back so the academic pressure isn’t as serious this week, though I do still have a lot to do.