Mike Babcock met with the media after practice on Friday and discussed Karri Ramo working out with the team, the recent surge from Frederik Andersen, the rise in shots against the past two games, and his impassioned support of Hockey Fights Cancer.
On Karri Ramo taking part in Leaf practice:
Mike Babcock: Ramo was out there with us today. His agent has a relationship with Lou. He knows Lou. So he needed to get in shape and get his knee redone. Our guys helped him with that process. He’s out on the ice today with us because we didn’t want [Andersen] to have a whole bunch of shots. So that’s the scoop there.
Will he keep working with you?
Babcock: Yeah, that’s a good question.
Obviously, this team doesn’t have a problem generating offensive opportunities. Is it about eliminating the other teams’?
Babcock: We base what we do on our scoring chances. Scoring chances for and against. The last two games we’ve felt we’ve given up too many shots. A lot of have been goalie-type shots from the outside, but last night Andie had to make four bell-ringers. We don’t like to have that happen. We like to be a little better defensively and continue to press hard when you have the lead instead of kind of getting into a prevent defense kind of thing. Those are things we’ve got to continue to work on.
How important was that practice day after the Tampa game, kind of coming in here and resetting for you guys?
Babcock: I don’t know if it had anything to do with the practice. To me, that’s mental. Obviously, you see the goaltender we traded for and the kind of goalie he is. For whatever reason, he got off kilter and put too much pressure on himself and wasn’t able to be who he is. He got himself under control. Who knows if those are conversations, or getting hit, or what happened in practice. You just try to do good things and believe in your people and good things will happen. He’s our guy. We all know it. He’s done a nice job for us.
Did Buffalo make it tough to generate speed through the neutral zone last night? If so, how do you get around that?
Babcock: Them, or us passing it to them? There are two parts of that, obviously. We had the game going unbelievably in the first and then we turned the puck over four times in a row in a 38-second span for no reason whatsoever, and then suddenly they get their game going. I thought we had our game going again in the second period and then did the same thing again. Going into the third, we were ahead and thought we played cautious. You’ve got to learn to take care of the puck. That doesn’t mean you can’t make plays. You can make all the plays you want. You’ve just got to make the right plays.
I know you’ve talked about Zaitsev’s game, but as he gets more familiar, have you seen growth from game to game?
Babcock: I think just the confidence in general. I think it’s like any player coming into a new situation, especially if you’re not in the same language – even though he speaks language real good. You come here, you’re in the World Cup, you didn’t have training camp, the coach wasn’t here, and you come here and they’re talking a mile a minute and going through a ton of stuff. You didn’t have the eight games with the team to kind of get ready. What you do is you tend to overthink. I think any time you overthink and it’s not automatic, you’re obviously not as good. But I think he’s an impressive player to say the least. Jimmy Paliafito, the guy who was basically in charge of delivering him here, has done a fantastic job. Now he’s just got to do it every year.
Tomorrow night is the Hockey Fights Cancer game. I know you’ve worked with cancer charities over the years. What does that initiative mean to you?
Babcock: A lot. When my mom died of cancer, I was young. I didn’t know anyone had cancer. Cancer is an interesting thing. When someone in your family gets cancer, your family gets cancer. It affects your whole life. When I was in the US, two of my good buddies… Mark Rypien’s son Andrew is the same age as my son and I lost him to a brain tumour. Then, when we were in Cincinnati, you have Hayden, a little boy who played with my kid every day. He was 12 at the time. Died of brain cancer, too. It’s affected our life a lot. We decided to get very involved in it. This was kind of before we were involved so much in mental health, but my wife and I have been very involved in cancer research and raising money for kids and doing what we can. I always, through Sick Kids whether in Detroit or Anaheim, have a kid to every game and the parent, or whatever. It’s a way to give back. The other thing that is interesting is that you’re fortunate when you’re in Canada and someone in your family gets it because of the health care system. When you’re in the US, and you’re paying the bills, it’s devastating to your family. It’s a big deal. We know what Anderson is going through with his wife. It affects a lot of people. We’re praying for those people, but the key is raising money and making a difference.
Given all of what you’ve been through, hearing a story like Craig Anderson’s, does it hit you every time almost?
Babcock: The research and the advancement of research has been phenomenal. The things they are able to do now is spectacular, but it’s a scary, scary thing. Your life is going pretty good. You’re an NHL goalie. You’ve got a beautiful woman for a wife. And then suddenly what’s important resonates with you in a hurry. Playing in the NHL is a fantastic thing, but your family is much more important than that. When it touches close to home, I think it reminds you of what’s important. That’s a big part of being involved with Sick Kids or whatever kind of charity you give back to. It keeps things in perspective for you. Obviously, those people that are suffering and their families that are suffering from the battle with cancer, I pray for them and wish them well. In the meantime, we’ve got to raise money to help them out.
