Watched his presser last night. I’m happy that we get to hear Babcock and Dubas. Two very intelligent men who are good with their words and know what they want to do.
Loved how Babcock essentially said that we expect players to improve over the summer but this summer he as a coach needed to look at himself and figure out ways for himself to improve.
I think get the sense he really respects Dubas’ and what he’s done and maybe Dubas has explained that players like Polak and Komarov, while they are “safe” players, they are a net negative to the team because they are in their own zone or they just clear the puck and the other team comes right back in with it or it’s an icing.
He’s put Leivo on the Kadri line to start, and Ennis got put in the “you’re here until Nylander is back” spot, essentially a placeholder.
Sure, I think Leivo will end up on the 4LW while Johnsson is on the 3LW, and probably rightfully so, but right now Babcock is giving Leivo the shot at that spot.
Babcock historically has hated mistakes. Whereas Dubas has a bit of a different opinion. Jake Gardiner for example makes excellent plays 8 or 9 out of 10 times. Some people look at that one or two mistakes out of 10 plays Gardiner make and call him useless and want to get rid of him, while Dubas looks and says “this is a guy that creates a chance for us 80-90% of the time”
A better example might be Polak. Polak generally did two things. He iced the puck or he cleared the puck off the boards/glass and into the neutral zone. Rarely he would make a play and give it to his D partner or one of the forwards. Babcock preciously viewed this as Polak being a safe player. Won’t make any big mistakes, gets the puck out of our zone. Which is why Babcock trusted him so much. However, Dubas likely looks at Polak, and sees a player that just 10-20% of the time makes a play to allow the team to keep possession and exit our zone.
I also really liked how Babcock repeated Dubas’ sentiments that our defense is better than some like to give them credit for. We had two 50 point defensemen last season. There’s only 2 or 3 other teams that can say that.
From an offensive, and puck moving stand point we are very strong from our back end. We need to improve defensively. We didn’t allow a whole lot of goals last season, but ultimately we need to start allowing less shots and controlling shot locations better.
Overall, very happy with everything Babcock had
to say, but ultimately we need words to become action
. What if you don't have a wife? Would Mike approve?
