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Mike Babcock met with the media following Wednesday’s practice to address the 7-0 shellacking at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.


Just a matter of adjusting, Mike, as you go along to what the elements provide here?

Mike Babcock: I mean, we got slapped, right? Obviously, we didn’t feel very good about ourselves. We were embarrassed in our own building. You can’t play like that and you can’t compete like that. You can’t be that light. You can’t be the way we were. I thought we actually started good. For ten minutes, we did good things. We got through those powerplays, but we still never got on the inside, never shot the puck, never competed, never won any battles in the o-zone. We were light and easy to play against. That was all of us. It was a disappointing night for us. We got back to work today, did our little penance. We’ll get back on getting better tomorrow.

Is there a lesson there for a young team that those are the high-end teams that you’re going to have to beat, or play with?

Babcock: To me, this loss was way different than the Tampa loss. We had 40 shots on goal against Tampa. The puck just went in. This night here, we didn’t do anything. They just flat out played well and we didn’t play. What part is them, and what part is you? I didn’t think we were very good. If you come in and give her everything you’ve got, and you’re physical and competitive and you shoot the puck, and they beat you? You go home. But when you play like we did last night… our fans deserve better than that effort last night.

The day after a tough loss like that. What are you looking to accomplish in the practice?

Babcock: simple. Get to work. This is different than normal. Normally, you wouldn’t have two days. Sometimes you’d be playing back to back and you’ve got to regroup. We don’t have to regroup this quick. We need to work and compete. If we don’t want to do it at night, we may as well do it during the day. We’re not playing like that. It’s unacceptable to play like that. It’s un-Leaf-like, as far as I’m concerned now. We’re not playing like that.

Was the penalty kill an indication of where your compete level was in terms of something to build on?

Babcock: I thought it was good. I thought three of the guys who play on the penalty kill up front – Hyman, Brown and Smith – really blocked shots for us and did a good job. The rest of us can get better at that for sure. I thought that gave us a chance. Our powerplay was non-competitive. We didn’t spend any time in the o-zone. But that wasn’t the factor in the game. We never got on the forecheck. We didn’t work in the o-zone and play heavy at all, so they spent too much time rolling around in our zone.

Is there an update on Soshnikov and Hunwick now?

Babcock: Hunwick skated, and I haven’t heard anything. It’s dark in there. Sosh — they told me before his groin was a little tight. I knew what we were doing today. We didn’t bother putting him on.

Did you think about stopping practice when the lights went out?

Babcock: We did stop practice. We stopped doing the drill we were doing and did a little skating. Why? They can’t skate in the dark, or what?

You ever seen anything like this [blackout], Mike?

Babcock: Many a time I’ve seen this happen. During games… I remember being down 6-0 when I was playing for McGill in Europe, and we took our equipment off so fast because we were getting tuned. It was in the first so when the lights went out we bailed.

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