Coach Babcock has evolved with Wings
Detroit Looks To Close Out Cup Final
DETROIT -- As the Detroit Red Wings sit one win from their fifth Stanley Cup in 11 seasons, a look behind the bench reveals one of the common denominators in that dynastylike stretch.
Scotty Bowman, the NHL's all-time winningest coach, won the first three championships with Detroit. Mike Babcock is one win from his second, padding a résumé that doesn't need any padding.
"I think he's the best coach in the league," Wings GM Ken Holland said Monday on the eve of Game 6. "He's been a coach for 20 years. It's not like he took up coaching 3 or 4 years ago. He coached Red Deer College [Canadian college]; he coached in Moose Jaw [WHL]; he coached in Spokane [WHL]; he coached Canada's world junior team [to gold]; he coached in Cincinnati [AHL]; he coached in the world championships [winning gold]; he coached the Anaheim Ducks and the Detroit Red Wings.
"He's not making it up as he goes. He's been at it for a long time."
It has been well documented how Holland and the rest of his front office have excelled like no other NHL club at drafting, developing and assembling championship rosters. But Babcock, perhaps, hasn't received the same amount of credit for his job behind the bench.
"I don't know if he really does," San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan told ESPN.com on Monday. "People will say that he has very good players. Well, there's a lot of teams in the league that have very good players. We're one of them. We have players that are world-class, as well, and we're not playing right now.
"So I think a lot more credit should go Mike's way and his staff's way, as well. They're well-prepared, and they never beat themselves."
McLellan was an assistant coach with the Wings last year, winning a Cup alongside Babcock. He didn't hesitate one iota when asked to describe Babcock as a coach.
"Two words come to mind: committed and focused," McLellan said. "He knows exactly what he wants to do as a coach, and he knows how he's going to do it. He has a plan, and he knows how he's going to execute it. That's a sign of a great leader. The Wings are very fortunate to have him coaching there right now.
"He's pulled together a group of very dominant players and given them a plan of how to play, and he's held them accountable to it. As a result, they continue to win, year in and year out."
People around the Wings day in and day out describe an intense coach who wants to win so badly, sometimes so much that he bruises egos, but he has softened somewhat since the day he got to Detroit.
"Coming to Detroit the first year, it was a boot camp," Holland said, and Babcock's players agree.
"He was tough on us when he first got here," Wings goalie Chris Osgood said. "I think he tried to come in and be a bit of a tyrant when he came to Traverse City [training camp], and he was working us pretty good, yelling and screaming. But the biggest compliment I can give him is, from the first time he was here until now, he's gotten better in every single area. Whether it be coaching, being a people person, being able to talk to his players or knowing what buttons to press at certain times.
"Guys don't have a problem when Coach gets mad at them or pushes them. That's his job to make us play better. If you have a problem with that, then you shouldn't be playing. To me, he's gotten better and better in everything he does, meetings, everything. He's a good coach because he learns from what he's done wrong before, fixes it and gets better at things he's already good at. To me, he's the best coach in the league right now, for sure."
Holland said that once Babcock got to know the players better, he backed off in certain areas.
"He respects that our players care as much about winning as he does, they're committed to winning as much as he is," Holland said. "There's that respect factor. He often goes to Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, Kris Draper and Henrik Zetterberg -- the captains -- whether it's practice times or having a day off, he gets their input. He always had the X's and O's. He's got a presence, he's the boss."
And he's come a long, long way.
"Well, sometimes it's hard to believe just how dumb you were," Babcock said Monday, cracking up the media at his daily news conference. "It's like unbelievable. I tell this story all the time. When I first got my first job ever as a coach after being a player, I was at college, and I went to the [Canadian national] under-17 camp just so I could get some drills in. No one knew who I was; I just bunkered down so I'd get some drills, so I had something to do at training camp. Because as much as you did as a player, you didn't have any idea."
From that day on, the Saskatoon, Canada, native has been on a never-ending quest to acquire knowledge. Whether it's from chats with longtime international coach Dave King or the legendary Bowman, or learning from former star players he coached, such as Steve Yzerman or Brendan Shanahan, Babcock is all ears.
"I think what happens is, you end up forgetting how bad you were," Babcock said. "You just keep evolving."
Babcock remembers sneaking into a Minnesota Wild practice in his first NHL season with Anaheim and being blown away by what he saw from Jacques Lemaire.
"They were going twice as fast, twice as organized and twice as good," Babcock said.
If anyone has attended a Red Wings practice, it's 100 miles an hour with tape-to-tape passes. You need a breather just from watching.
Babcock is the overwhelming favorite to land the head-coaching job for Canada's 2010 Olympic hockey team. It's a slam dunk, if anyone cares what this reporter thinks.
"We'll see if it happens, but I'm sure he's one of their strong candidates for what he's done with our team the last few years," said Wings captain Lidstrom, who likely will lace them up for defending Olympic champion Sweden. "He won the Cup last year, we're in the finals again and just what he brings out from everyone in this locker room to play at that level."
Lidstrom, like Osgood, sees a coach who has grown through the years in Detroit.
"That's something as a new coach when you come into a team, you get a feel for the players you have," Lidstrom said. "Some players you have to push a little harder, and some you have to pat on the back. I think you just have to know what personnel you have. I think it took him awhile to get to know the team that he had and what kind of players he had and how they react in different situations."
Kindler and gentler might be pushing it, but Babcock admits he has changed somewhat.
"Yet, I'm a big believer in you've got to make them do it right," he said. "Sometimes they don't want to hear that. But also you cross the line sometimes as a coach. Flat out you cross the line. You say something in a way that the message sent ended up being hurtful or wasn't about getting better.
"I think I've done a better job as I've gotten older of going to the guy and saying to him I crossed the line. To me, I love the players, I really do. I want to make them better, and I want us to win. In order to do that, we've all got to be on the same page."
Pierre LeBrun covers the NHL for ESPN.com.
