Mike Babcock addressed the media after his team’s 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night.
On the loss in the second night of a back-to-back:
I thought… You know, I’m disappointed. You always want to win each and every night. Looking at the schedule in advance, it was going to be tough. I thought our second period hurt us. You don’t have quite as much juice, not quite as good. We made a couple of mistakes there — not stopping in the d-zone on a couple of those plays — and it ended up in our net. I didn’t think they generated a ton and I didn’t think we generated a ton. It was tight. But in the end, they were better.
On Travis Dermott’s status after taking a shot to the foot and leaving the game:
They’ll be doing scans and all of that stuff. Who knows? They’ll tell me tomorrow.
On whether there is any concern about the team’s play in second periods:
No.
On whether the Jets used their size to gain an advantage in the game:
I think if we hadn’t played last night… You’re quicker when you didn’t play last night. I think, on a one-off, if you want go on tonight, you could surmise that for sure.
On how the team will cope if Dermott is out for any length of time:
We have D. We’ll take a look at it. I don’t know if he is out for a bit. I don’t know anything about it, to be honest with you. He had x-rays and there was nothing. He’ll have whatever scans they do next and see how he’s feeling tomorrow, and then we’ll make a decision from there.
On playing out the string of the final three games:
I just think we keep doing what we’re doing and try to get better. These games are important for us. The reality is we are probably not starting until Thursday after we finished. There is lots of time to hang around. We have lots of that. So let’s just keep playing hard.
On whether there is a plan to rest players in the final week:
That’s a good question. I know Mac is starting again the next game, and then what we’ll do is get Freddy a couple going in [to the playoffs]. But we haven’t talked about the rest of the crew.
