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Mike Babcock addressed the media following Wednesday’s practice, talking about the lopsided loss against Tampa Bay and Frederik Andersen’s early struggles.


On the game versus Tampa Bay…

I think they’re a real good team. To be honest with you, I don’t think it’s a fair assessment because we didn’t play good enough. You really like to play them in a good game so you can see how good they can be. I was real impressed with their team. I think I played them three or four years ago in a first round and lost in Game 7 to them in Detroit. They’ve been taking steps. Obviously, Drouin is a kid who is getting better. They’re getting better all over. They’ve got good goaltending. They’ve got good D. They’ve got good depth up front. They’re fun to play against. I thought it was a good challenge for our team. I loved a lot of the things we did. I loved the opportunity we had at their net. But, obviously, they scored too easy. The first two, to me, deflated us a little bit. You can’t have that. It doesn’t matter what goes right or what goes wrong; you’ve just got to keep coming.

Getting better as a five-man group in the defensive zone; just a matter of detail and working on it?

Babcock: I thought we were doing a pretty good job of it, to be honest with you. Our scoring chances have been down low, but last night we got puck watching. I think part of it was that we got discouraged a little bit. Instead of being discouraged, just keep playing right. They got roaming around in our zone and we lost coverage a couple of times with people looking at the puck. You can’t play defense without having puck pressure and without stopping. The other thing that is real apparent is that you could score all the goals you want, but if you keep giving up goals you lose. It didn’t matter. It’s great that you can score goals. If you lose every night, that doesn’t add up to me. We’ve got to be way better at keeping the puck out of our net.

Freddie Andersen said it was right back to work for him. Is that the best way to put a tough game behind you?

Babcock: For sure. And Andie knows it – he’s my guy. There was a decision for me to make after the first period last night – do I take him out, do I leave him in? I just felt it was important for him to battle. I challenged him in front of his teammates as well to do that. It hasn’t gone the way he wants. If you look at his numbers over the last three years, and you look at his numbers with us, they’re not the same. I know that things have a way of evening out. When you’re good, you don’t just lose it. There is something affecting you. We talked about that here today. I expect him to be back and rolling. We need him to be as good as he’s capable of being, and that’s what he wants, too. And that’ll happen.

Is he going to start Thursday?

Babcock: Yeah.

The Nylander and Matthews line – is there a comparable in your career in terms of how well they’re coming together so quickly?

Babcock: It’s six games in. You guys talk about those two all the time, but you don’t talk about the guy who gets them the puck all the time. That guy who just keeps getting you the puck even when you lose the draw. So Hyman gets them the puck and they do good things when they have it. It’s been good thus far. They’re kids. It’s early. I don’t know if you noticed, though, that they were dash-two right away in the game. That matters to me. Just because you score… if you give them up, it makes no difference. You can’t give them up. You’ve got to not give them up and score. Then you impress me.

How is van Riemsdyk?

Babcock:  Didn’t practice today. He’ll be in tomorrow.

Was there any thought to giving Andersen a couple of days or do you want him to get right back in there tomorrow?

Babcock: There was no thought to giving him a couple of days.

You take a lot of pride in your resources on this team – your goalie coaches, video, that sort of thing. Are you calling upon that with Freddie; not just on him, but with everybody?

Babcock: You always do. The big thing here, though, is let’s not overthink this here. We’ve made a real point of not doing too much with Freddie, just because of the fact that I think it’s important that we get to know him and we don’t change anything. Over time, once we get it all figured out, he’ll be able to help himself. To me, Andie is just going and he’s going to be the guy and he’s got to fight his way through it.

Do people underestimate the challenge that comes – whether it’s on or off the ice – of playing on a new team, moving from a new city, and everything that comes with that for a young guy?

Babcock: I think part of it. I think part of it is your new contract. All of those things. In saying that, though, we’re playing in the greatest hockey market in the world, with the most fans and the most media, and whether people believe this or not, they’re cheering for you. They want you to be great. That’s what you got to get through your head. There is no witch-hunt here at all. They want to cheer for you. And if you’re great, they’re cheering for you. And if not, they want a new guy. It’s that simple. I think that’s fair.