Wings Blog

Category: Red Wings

Babcock: It was the turnovers, not defense

More than any defensive breakdowns in a 7-6 overtime loss to Pittsburgh, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock focused Wednesday more on the giveaways.

"It's not even the way we play defense," Babcock said. "It's the way we turn the puck over in such bad situations.

"They got three goals on turnovers two feet from the blue line. There's no recovery from that. That's just killing yourself. Managing the puck and looking after the puck is critical."

Here are some of Babcock's other comments following Wednesday's practice, before the team flew to Tampa for Thursday's game against the Lightning:

"We haven't been as diligent. We haven't had the same killer instinct, when we get you we just bury you. I think at home, it's worse. We get ahead and then it's a cute-fest."

"The difference in (Tuesday) night's game and maybe Vancouver or Atlanta is they (the Penguins) have real good players and they were able to overcome because you gave them the opportunity."

"I know these guys in here, they have a lot of pride, they know how we're supposed to play and how relentless we're supposed to be. You take great pride in that being a big part of who you are. When you don't have that, it's disappointing."

"It's never going to be easy. When you go through a year like last year (winning the Stanley Cup), you think nothing bad happened. I remember when we won one time in 11 games. Things don't go good all the time. But it's how you react to them."