Mike Babcock addressed the media after his team’s 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators in the second game of the regular season.
On his impressions of the game:
We should’ve won tonight and lost against Montreal, to be honest with you. We had tons of heavy opportunities. We had those two shifts… They scored on one shift in the second and then we turned it over and they scored again on the second shift. I don’t know how far they were apart. Not very far. I thought that was a big momentum swing.
We didn’t capitalize around their net tonight like we probably could’ve. In saying that, I like that we worked harder, spent more time in the offensive zone, and did some good things. In the end, we weren’t polished enough to win. That’s the way you play, so we’ve just got to keep working at it.
On the decision to pull the goalie with over three minutes to go and whether it’s a good roll of the dice:
It’s a good roll of the dice when you score. I didn’t think we were dangerous 6-on-5, so we will have to clean that up a little bit. You’re doing what you can to make it happen and you’re pushing. At that point, we called a timeout. We had our players out there lots. We had lots of opportunity. We didn’t do enough with it.
On Frederik Andersen’s struggles in game #2:
I thought he was pretty good game one, and then tonight didn’t go his way. Our record is probably is what we deserve. They probably should’ve been in the different order.
The one thing about this game is you’re in it together all the time. We’ve all got to be better if we’re going to have success. That’s it.
On Travis Dermott’s performance:
I thought he was good. I thought Rielly really bounced back from game one. I thought he was real solid. I thought Dermy moved the puck as well. We didn’t spend a ton of time in our own zone, so evaluating the D was harder.
On whether he would’ve preferred the penalty to the penalty shot in the first period:
Whichever one scores. Mitchy one on one with the goalie — you’ll take it all day. He just had a breakaway. We had good opportunity here tonight. There is no question about it. You’ve got to give their goalie credit.
On whether there are changes to come to the lineup for the back-to-back in Chicago:
That’s what the video is for on the flight. We’ll get a good sleep and figure all of that out.
