Mike Babcock addressed the media after his team’s 6-5 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night, dropping the team to 2-0-1 on the season.
On what he saw as the game got away from the team:
I didn’t think we skated very good all night, to be honest with you — right from the start to the finish. I thought we were obviously in a good spot. We weren’t real crisp. Just the way I look at it is we had three games in four nights and we knew going in she was going to be a grind. We got five out of six points.
I thought it was a huge goal — the guys executed real good there with Mitch going behind his back to Barrie there to get the goal to equalize. It is disappointing because you were up, for sure, but on the other side of that, it’s a lot of hockey right out of the gate. It’s not like you are in the middle of November, or something like that. I thought we looked like we had no gas. I thought the Kerfoot line had some. Other than that, I didn’t think we had lots.
On Kasperi Kapanen’s boneheaded play to throw his stick, leading to the penalty shot goal by Jeff Petry:
I’ve never seen it, by anybody ever. I am sure he feels bad and would like to have it back. The thing about it is you can’t get it back. We’ve all got to learn from it. Lessons are important during the year, and we got one.
On whether he is going to talk to Kapanen about it right away:
I’ll talk to him, but I am not talking to him now. He’s going to have enough people talking to him. He’ll probably get the message pretty good, I’d imagine.
On Michael Hutchinson’s performance in a tough game to play for a goalie:
I actually felt bad for Hutch because, in the end, we hung him out to dry. I thought Hutch had done a good enough job. When we were up early, he made some real good saves. They were skating by us and he made some good saves. It is unfortunate. You come in as the backup in a big game and you’re in a good spot and it doesn’t go the way you want. You want to leave the building feeling better. But that is part of pro sports. It’s not supposed to be easy. Dig in. You’ve got a good day off. Enjoy your family and get ready for the next one.
On what he’s learned about the team through three games:
I’ve liked our team. Not tonight, but even at the end of the exhibition, I’ve liked our team. I think we’ve got a good team. I think we play pretty hard. I think we can put a lot of pressure on the opposition. I didn’t think we did that tonight, though. I didn’t think we had the kind of juice we normally have for whatever reason. For whatever reason, it showed.
On whether he is going to continue the rotation at the bottom of the lineup for Monday vs. St. Louis:
I’m going back to whatever I’m doing.
On what has allowed the Kerfoot line to mesh together:
Well, Kerf I think is a good player. He has some grease to him. He enjoys it. He is smart. He is competitive. He seems to be feeling good and understanding how to play. Now, lots of our game tonight wasn’t as organized as you’d like it to be.
I think Mikheyev is a really good player. I put him out there klling a penalty out there in overtime. I didn’t even know for sure if he could understand what I was telling him, but he did it anyway and looked good doing it. That’s good. He’s getting better every day.
Mooresy is a good young kid that is working hard. I thought he had a real good forecheck tonight to turn that puck over to allow Kerfoot to score. I didn’t think Mooresy was as good last night but was real good tonight.
