After practice on Wednesday, Mike Babcock provided an update on Morgan Rielly’s status, the state of the defence without him, the play of Jake Gardiner this season, and more.
Any update on Morgan, if you could please?
Mike Babcock: Yeah, he’s injured. He won’t play tomorrow. Day-to-day. He’s got a lower-body injury.
What does that mean for your defence now? What do you expect from them?
Babcock: I expect them to play well. Be ready to go. It will be a good opportunity for Frankie. He just had seven games or six games in the minors. He’s ready to go. He just had a quick skate here today. He’ll be in the pregame skate and be prepared to go.
What kind of feedback did you get from Frankie’s AHL conditioning stint?
Babcock: I watched him a bit because the games are on TV so it’s easy to do. I think he went down there and tried to work real hard and be a real good pro, which I think is real important when you’re a veteran guy and you play with those kids. That’s positive, and now he gets his opportunity here.
What sort of evolution or progress have you seen in Gardiner’s game so far this season?
Babcock: I think he’s played well. He’s like any player – he’s had some dips – but he really moves the puck, he really skates. We’re on him lots about his defensive detail just because we think he can get to another level as a player yet. He’s got a lot of confidence and he plays well for us. Plays lots of minutes.
There is some chemistry, it seems, with your pairings. What have you liked about Roman and Matt as they’ve complemented each other?
Babcock: I thought [Polak] was outstanding last night. On the penalty kill alone, we made some mistakes and he put the mistakes out right away. I thought he was real good there. They’ve been real solid for us. We’ll keep them together. We’ll just put Gardiner and Zaitsev together and Carrick and Frankie together.
Can you quantify how big of a loss Morgan is, or how much he means to this team?
Babcock: Next man up, right? Get him freshened up and he’ll be better when he gets back. Let’s get going. Someone else gets an opportunity. We’re going to find out who wants to play more right now.
When Carrick got out there on his offside last night, did you see a comfort level that led you to think he could make that [switch]?
Babcock: I didn’t even notice he was on his offside.
What did you like about your fourth line? There seems to be a consistency, at least in the last few weeks, in terms of what they’re able to create offensively and other things.
Babcock: Obviously, the more physical Marty, Sosh and The Goat are, the better off we are. I thought they spent a lot of time in the o-zone. They’re real good defensively. Goat does a good job in that area. The big challenge for Goat is just being good in the circle and being as physical as he can. That goes with the rest of the guys. If you spend time in the o-zone, you get out there more.
When you’re down a guy like Morgan, is it even more on the forwards now to make sure they’re coming down low to help out and not flying out early?
Babcock: I think we always try to be five together. When we get the puck, we try to make space as much as we possibly can. It’s going to be no different. It’s not like we’re changing anything with Morgan out. It’s just that someone else will get more of an opportunity. Bozak was out for a few games. It’s just the way it is in the league. We’ve been real fortunate this year – knock on wood here – that we haven’t had a lot [of injuries]. Hopefully that continues.
Is it possible Morgan is back by the weekend?
Babcock: I’ve got no idea.
To fall behind my two, losing Morgan, and then coming back to win, is that another sign this team is…
Babcock: We didn’t play terrible. They got their first chance on their first goal of the game, basically. They didn’t have a lot. We gave them the first two goals ourselves. We knew it. We were comfortable in the situation. Now, obviously, scoring on the first shift of the second period was a real good momentum boost for our team. We looked like a lot of teams do when you’ve been on a long, extended time away. It seems like, no matter what you do, you don’t have much juice. I thought that was the case. But still, we didn’t need to give them the goals. I thought our guys stayed the course and it was a good win for our team.
With the team playing so well, how do you not allow complacency to set in?
Babcock: I wouldn’t worry too much about that. I don’t even know if playing so well is the right way to describe it. We’ve been winning a lot, which is real positive. We want to take the wins when they come. When things go well in your life and you work real hard, the tendency is that keep going that way they go longer. When they’re going bad, the only way to get out of it is to work hard. Simple. Work hard.
