Mike Babcock addressed the media after his team’s 5-4 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.
On the team’s disappointing second period and the overall performance:
I liked our first period, and then whatever happened between the first and second period… They decided to really dig in and we got careless with the puck. We had a lot of turnovers in the second period and they got back in the game.
They’re a team with a ton of offensive skill. You know that before you come in here. If you want to get into a run-and-gun game, it is going to be like it was. We still had lots of opportunity to win the game. In the end, we didn’t win the game.
I really liked our start. I was disappointed because I think we’ve worked really hard to get our game back here of late. I’m disappointed in our second period. I thought we let ourselves down with that. There is no reason to be careless with the puck and not take care of it. There is just no reason, especially for a team that is trying to do what we’re trying to do. That part disappointed me.
Like I said to you, they’ve got good offensive players that make it hard on you. If you get into a run-and-gun game, they’ve got a young D and they’re active on the backend and they made it hard.
On the Matthews line’s performance in the matchup versus Sean Couturier’s line:
I just thought that the other night when Matty played head to head against [Barkov] they did a really good job of staying above them. Tonight was more run and gun and just trading chances. Obviously, I liked the other approach much better because I think you end up on the plus side and you end up scoring and winning that way. This probably was more entertaining for the fans.
On the team fighting back in the third to even it up at 4-4:
We had to because what we did is we gave them life, so we had to battle our way back. There is no question about that. I didn’t mind our first. I didn’t like our second that got us in trouble. If you just come out and do it right and you give them no life, you make it hard on them, but we gave them some life there in the second period.
On Frederik Andersen giving up four but making some big saves as well:
I think it is important for us to get Freddy at his highest level. I thought in the second period, we gave up grade-A opportunities and I thought he was really good and gave us an opportunity. That is good for him. He also gave us an opportunity in the shootout and we didn’t score any goals.
On Nazem Kadri and Connor Brown breaking their goal slumps:
Brownie’s one right away at the start of the game… I thought [Ennis] came in and gave us a real good game, so those were positive. For anybody who hasn’t scored in a while, when you score, it is like adrenaline going through your bones and that’s a positive thing. We need a couple more of those before we’re done here.
