CBC-Sports

Babcock keeping Red Wings competitive

December 30, 2009 02:06 AM | Posted by   Cassie Campbell  

With Steve Yzerman picking his team for the 2010 Olympics, I finally figured out what I'm going to write about this week. I'll admit I was at a loss but after watching Detroit lose to Columbus on Monday night, strangely this idea came to me.

Mike Babcock has to be a candidate for coach of the year!

I know his team, the Detroit Red Wings, is full of talent and is expected to be vying for a Stanley Cup every year, but right now they're in ninth spot, out of the playoffs in the Western Conference. The Wings are a team that has both the Chicago Blackhawks and the San Jose Sharks thinking, 'Please get a lot better and move way up the standings or please get a lot worse and move way down the standings - just as long as we don't have to face them in the first round!'

If the Wings make the playoffs this year, Mike Babcock and his staff will have done one heck of a job. I mean, the injuries alone would probably decimate any other team, but he has found a way to keep his team competing while dealing with 180-plus man games lost.

Only three players have played in all 39 games - Bertuzzi, Lidstrom and Holmstrom. All have had injuries from the past that they are stilling dealing with. Injuries to Johan Franzen, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, Dan Cleary, Jonathan Ericsson, Jason Williams, Valtteri Filppula and Andreas Lilja have depleted the core of this team.

Babcock has had to try and find a way to get more out of depth players like Patrick Eaves, Justin Abdelkader and newcomer Drew Miller. They're not putting up big time points, but have been effective in improving a penalty kill that was a disappointment last season.

The Wings do not have one forward in the Top 25 in league scoring, nor do they have one defenceman in the Top 25 in defenceman scoring.

The coaching staff's greatest strength has been to find a way to make the goaltending better than we all thought it was going to be at the start of the year. Jimmy Howard was finally given his big chance this season to be a full time NHLer and, even though he got off to a slow start, the Wings have found a way to make him feel comfortable. He has now taken over that No. 1 role, playing five more games than Chris Osgood this season and a big reason why the Wings have stayed in the thick of things.

They have also had to deal with the disappointment of healthy players like Ville Leino, who was supposed to come in and fill a big offensive hole left by the departure of Marian Hossa. Leino has managed to get six points in 35 games played this year and, at times, has been overwhelmed by the NHL game.

With all of the above, how are the Red Wings still in the mix? It has to be the system implemented by Babcock and the coaching staff. They've been able to get players to believe in a system that forces them to play a more efficient and simple game - one that will help them get through all the adversity they're facing this year.

All this with that Olympic thing hanging over Babcock's head, as well.

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