Mike Babcock addressed the media after his team’s 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
On a good performance despite the result:
We had lots of opportunities here tonight, no question. Their goaltending was real good. We had good opportunity on the power play and didn’t finish. We made the mistake and got beat to our net there on their third goal and we turned it over on their fourth, so that got us out of the game. That was disappointing because we thought we did lots of good things.
On putting the fourth line out after the 3-1 goal late in the second period in the buildup to the 4-1 goal:
I just thought it was the perfect time to do it. The fourth line being on the ice had nothing to do with the goal going in, though. I don’t know if you saw that. It was the D that turned it over, so…
On the team’s effort:
I thought their goalie played good. I don’t know if you guys saw the same thing, but we thought their goalie played really well tonight. I thought we had good chances. I haven’t gone over everything on the tape. The pass came across a few times and we bobbled it instead of it going in the net, but I liked our effort tonight, to be honest with you.
On a measuring stick game:
I think you come in here and you never know if you are in a spot to play with the good teams until you play them. I thought we had a good account of ourselves. Obviously, the score is disappointing, but the way we played is not one bit disappointing.
On generating a number of power play opportunities through playing on offense:
In saying that, we gave up some power plays, too. There are two good teams going fast and there are going to be mistakes. All in all, if you look at our effort tonight, I thought we did lots of good things.
On the team’s ability to manufacture offensive-zone time and heavily outshoot Tampa:
We spent a ton of time in the offensive zone. We rolled around in their zone. We weren’t hemmed in our own zone very often at all tonight. We executed good. Like I said, we turned the puck over on that fourth one and we could’ve beat our guy to the net on the third one. Those were the only things for me that stand out.
On whether they can be satisfied with knowing it was a good effort vs. a good team:
I like playing good. The league adds up wins or losses, but the bottom line is, if you stay with the process and do good things, good things happen over time. Some nights, it doesn’t go your way. Get on with it.
On whether there are more positive plays to take out of the game tape than negative:
I don’t know… I might’ve been at a different game than you guys. We had the puck. That must be just about it. See ya guys.
