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Babcock & Lidstrom After Game 5 WCF
by Paul on 05/17/08 at 05:41 PM ET
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Q. Talk about some of the things you felt your team did not do right today, particularly some of the line change stuff.
COACH MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I thought obviously the one line change thing where the puck was shot by Turco, it hit McCarty, Chelios thought it was going in front of him and he came to the bench. That gave them their second goal, which is unfortunate. Their other goal was we just over back-checked on a two-versus-two situation.
I thought tonight, one of the keys for us when we had our quality chances, we missed the net. We missed the net 19 times tonight. We had ample opportunity, weren’t able to get it done. When they were in lockdown mode, we didn’t get enough people and pucks to the net for second chances.
Q. Talk about Turco’s night. Was he that good or you didn’t do enough to him?
COACH MIKE BABCOCK: I think you’ve got to give him credit. He made some saves. I haven’t been through every scoring chance to know how good of saves he had to make all the time. I just know we had lots of shots on net. Missed the net 19 more times. Three quality chances: Cleary was in home free. Homer was in home free. On a great three-on-two to Rafalski, we didn’t hit the net either. Those are three quality chances, didn’t get a shot. You have to give the goalie credit for being on the angle.
Q. The emotional part of this, you guys are here at home, back of your minds you’re thinking, We win this, Stanley Cup finals, don’t have to leave Detroit, versus what you have to do here now. Do you think that had any part when you went out on the ice in terms of thinking it was over before it was over with your players?
COACH MIKE BABCOCK: I didn’t think that at all. I thought we were actually a little uptight at the start of the game. I didn’t think we executed at the start at all. We didn’t come out of our zone with speed like we normally do.
I would say just the opposite of that. You want to clinch so bad that it doesn’t happen for you. Saying all that, though, we have a real determined group. We’ve been determined all year. We’ve responded well. No one wanted to go back to Dallas.
You know, I don’t think anybody when we started this series thought it was going to be easy. The Stanley Cup playoffs aren’t supposed to be easy. Neither are the Conference Finals.
Nicklas Lidstrom.
Q. Talk about the pressure.
NICKLAS LIDSTROM: There’s pressure on both teams. If they lose one game, the series is over. If we win, it’s over, too. I don’t really feel that pressure. The thing is you have to be ready to play the game that’s coming up. You can’t think too far ahead.
Q. Almost seems like you were a half step slower today.
NICKLAS LIDSTROM: A couple times thought we had some good chances coming through the neutral zone with speed. Sloppy pass, stick-handling isn’t the way it has been.
But, you know, you have to tighten up different areas. Whether it’s when you have the puck or when you’re playing within your own end, those are all things you have to do better.
Q. You have been so good at home. Didn’t want to lose that advantage?
NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Yeah, but we knew they were going to come out hard and play hard, too.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings | KK Hockey | Permalink
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