Mike Babcock addressed the media after the morning skate on Tuesday, touching on the right amount of starts for Frederik Andersen, where the powerplay needs to improve, Nazem Kadri’s progress, and Mitch Marner’s adjustment to the professional game.
The offensive onslaught that you saw a couple of nights ago – how does it apply to San Jose given how big and heavy of a team they’ve got?
Mike Babcock: I never saw that offensive onslaught. I saw lots of play in the offensive zone. We didn’t score. We haven’t scored in a bit. We’re going to have to score here tonight to have success. But, obviously, there are two ways you can do it: You can play in your zone and have them roll around, or you can play in their zone and roll around. Advantage us if we spend more time in the offensive zone.
[The Sharks] play a simple, direct, straight-ahead forecheck, grind-type game. We’re going to have to keep them off our D.
How do you and [Steve Briere] decide on when to give Frederik Andersen a break?
Babcock: I don’t know if Steve and I do. The way I look at it – there are 82 games. When you’ve got a goalie that traded with the other guy, you’ve probably played about 41. So, 60 seems like quite a bit more. 62 seems like quite a bit more. That means the other guy has got to play 20. He’s got to play some time. And we’ve got back to backs how many times? 18. That’s pretty much all decided. I just looked at the schedule and didn’t have to think.
Does 60 seem like a big jump?
Babcock: I think it’s a big jump, for sure.
Your powerplay has three goals in your last seven games. What would you like to see that group do more of?
Babcock: Score. We’ve been getting good opportunity. I thought last game that on our first two we got outworked by the penalty kill. What do I mean by that? I mean they chased us down ice. We didn’t have enough people to execute. We didn’t have good enough jump off of faceoffs. Once they shot it, they won more retrieval races. Those are simple things. Work ethic is one thing you can control. When you watch our penalty kill, in our last game we gave up two. Our penalty kill is a bunch of hard-working guys and they go out there and take it seriously. The same guys are going out for the opposition. They’re just wearing different sweaters. They compete and that’s how they feed their family. When you’re on the powerplay, you better get to work. We’ve got to work harder on ours.
Nazem Kadri’s first NHL game was way back against the San Jose Sharks. He said it was a pretty overwhelming experience going up against Joe Thornton in the faceoff circle. Now, as you’ve seen his progression in that shutdown role – a guy who thrives going up against other team’s top players – have you been impressed with the way he has taken on that role?
Babcock: I wasn’t here when Naz got here. I don’t know much about him that way. I just know that in the last year and a half he’s gotten better. He’s better without the puck. He’s more competitive. He takes it more serious. He’s trained better. He’s in better condition. He’s a better player.
Now, when you play against the best players every night, there are some tough moments. I mean, they’re good players. When you’re playing against Pavelski — or Joe, or whoever you want to call the center — and Marleau, it’s a handful for you. Once again, if you dig in in the faceoff circle, get on the forecheck and play in the offensive zone, you don’t have to worry about checking them. You can make them check you.
Mitch Marner has obviously done a lot of good things here in his first few months, but where do you see him still growing?
Babcock: He’s just got to learn to work every day. If you’re around the best pros – the guys that do a lot of winning – they train hard all summer, they come to the rink, they’re the first guy on and last guy off, they train the hardest, they eat the best, and they do it all right. When things get going good, they don’t relax and take a breather and find out themselves on a skid. They just keep grinding, because they know as soon as it comes off, it’s hard to get it back.
The biggest thing is you’ve got to learn how to work. You’ve got to learn how to work every single day, and you’ve got to take the three touches you get in the game serious. When you get your chance alone with the goalie, you’ve got to bury it. You know, he’s a kid.
