43-25-14......3rd seed in Division. Success or Failure?

[kickazz 5,459]

When asked by reporters last night to respond to 'genius-best-coach-ever' coach's comments about "not thinking the team was a playoff team" back on July 5th said, with a grin, "you should have asked me because I thought we were a playoff team back in July"

Btw where can I find the quote? Have to save epic quotes like these.

I don't understand not thinking we're a playoff team. The rookies were more mature and the vets weren't expecyed to miss more games. How exactly was it thought we would get worse

Idk Babs goes from saying "i didnt think we were a playoff team" to "this is the best shot we've had since 2009". He might just be humoring the media.

[rick zombo 3,739]

Btw where can I find the quote? Have to save epic quotes like these.

Near the end of this post-game media scrum

http://video.redwings.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=807479

[DatsyukianDekes 2,428]

Babcock is drunk.

July: "We are not a playoff team"

Then in late November "This is the best team since 2009"

[GMRwings1983 8,793]

Before the season: Success

At the trade deadline: Disappointing

That's what I was going to say.

Good thing there's still the postseason left to change everyone's minds (hopefully).

[LeonardSankar 434]

You want successful regular seasons you have to look at 01-02, or 07-08 or the ones one they got atleast a top 3 seed. This team hasn't been a Cup contender heading into the playoffs since the 2009 post season as since then they have been longshot dark horse teams. Successful regular season is when pretty much all of your series open at the Joe remember them?

In the 90's when the Wings had postseason results that mirrored the ones they had from 2010-present coaches were fired and if not for 97 Cup I bet Scotty Bowan would've been given the axe shortly after. Don't give me cap excuses b/c last time I checked a cap existed from 05-06 to 08-09 and the Wings were seeded no lower than #2 heading into each of those postseasons and were considered Cup favourites.

Since game 7 2009 this franchise has headed downhill for the most part as that game served as the end of a chapter in Wings lore. Right now we are in the 2005-2013 New England Patriots but I think our cup drought will last longer than the Patriots SB drought!

[DatsyukianDekes 2,428]

You want successful regular seasons you have to look at 01-02, or 07-08 or the ones one they got atleast a top 3 seed. This team hasn't been a Cup contender heading into the playoffs since the 2009 post season as since then they have been longshot dark horse teams. Successful regular season is when pretty much all of your series open at the Joe remember them?

In the 90's when the Wings had postseason results that mirrored the ones they had from 2010-present coaches were fired and if not for 97 Cup I bet Scotty Bowan would've been given the axe shortly after. Don't give me cap excuses b/c last time I checked a cap existed from 05-06 to 08-09 and the Wings were seeded no lower than #2 heading into each of those postseasons and were considered Cup favourites.

Since game 7 2009 this franchise has headed downhill for the most part as that game served as the end of a chapter in Wings lore. Right now we are in the 2005-2013 New England Patriots but I think our cup drought will last longer than the Patriots SB drought!

Presented to you by Belle Tire, the doom and gloom post of the week.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[roboturner 562]

I don't understand not thinking we're a playoff team. The rookies were more mature and the vets weren't expecyed to miss more games. How exactly was it thought we would get worse

Well, the young guys did great last year, but you never know how that is going to carry over to the next season. The term 'sophomore slump' isn't thrown around for no reason. It's quite a common occurrence. In addition to that uncertainty was Howard. He had a really poor outing last season, and there was no knowing how he was going to respond. Add in the defensive problems this team has had for a while now and it's not really hard to see why it may have been in doubt.

Babcock is drunk.

July: "We are not a playoff team"

Then in late November "This is the best team since 2009"

It's OK to give an honest assessment of the situation as it stood at that time. Situations change, and with that assessments and opinions should change with new information. There is no reason to continue to hold a position solely because that is what you previously thought about it

[DatsyukianDekes 2,428]

Well, the young guys did great last year, but you never know how that is going to carry over to the next season. The term 'sophomore slump' isn't thrown around for no reason. It's quite a common occurrence. In addition to that uncertainty was Howard. He had a really poor outing last season, and there was no knowing how he was going to respond. Add in the defensive problems this team has had for a while now and it's not really hard to see why it may have been in doubt.

It's OK to give an honest assessment of the situation as it stood at that time. Situations change, and with that assessments and opinions should change with new information. There is no reason to continue to hold a position solely because that is what you previously thought about it

Not saying that. I think it's ridiculous he made that declaration and then only a month and a half into the season declare this as the best team since 2009. Why not wait until, I don't know.. April ? Pretty bold statement otherwise and people will bring that up as multiple users have already.

[mvanpop 98]

I don't think it was all that successfu given our history of making the playoffs but don't really think our regular season performance matters unless we don't make it to the playoffs. Otherwise our performance in the playoffs is the important think, look at the Kings as evidence

[evilmrt 636]

Not a failure by any means... But this current lineup has some serious shortcomings. Let's see how they can handle Yzerman's squad and go from there.

[Nightfall 871]

I am just glad we didn't #tankit

At the beginning of the season, many here thought this team sucked and we should just write the season off. Before the trade deadline, we were competing for top spot in the division. Then the trades we made were very solid and added depth. Of course, March sucked pretty badly.

I think this season was a great overall success. Made the playoffs and a 100 point season again.

I don't think it was all that successfu given our history of making the playoffs but don't really think our regular season performance matters unless we don't make it to the playoffs. Otherwise our performance in the playoffs is the important think, look at the Kings as evidence

I agree with this. The measure of a team in the regular season is only a small part to what happens in the playoffs. Look at Colorado and Tampa Bay last season as two examples. Both teams had great regular seasons but fizzled in the playoffs.

[Jesusberg 1,256]

I feel like Babcock's answers just change depending on what he thinks the team needs at the time. Maybe he's hoping for a, "what do you mean you didn't think we were a playoff team!?" reaction. They could use some fire. Hopefully they come out flying on Thursday.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

I feel like Babcock's answers just change depending on what he thinks the team needs at the time. Maybe he's hoping for a, "what do you mean you didn't think we were a playoff team!?" reaction. They could use some fire. Hopefully they come out flying on Thursday.

Agreed. Unless it's specific information about the roster for next game, I don't put much stock in a lot of what he says to the media.

Sometime he seems be trying to motivate his team, other times it seems like he's just screwing with reporters.

He doesn't quite have the open disdain for post game interviews that Darryl Sutter does, but he's not too far off.

[BuckeyeWingsfan80 209]

Given last year's disappointing exit from the playoffs, I'd say success with a caveat - they could have finished much stronger had they kept playing like they did November thru January...

They even improved their standing. Improvement is always a good thing.

[GoWings! 179]

I think you can say this year's regular season was a success. But last year we lost a lot of guys to injuries. Something like 461 games or so I think. A couple of more shootout wins and we could've had home ice on Washington or the Isles if we play them. But whatever. I'm truly happy there's no more Samuelsson, Bertuzzi or Brunner and that Cleary's play is limited. I consider dumping all that dead weight, in itself, a success. Now I just hope the defense and goaltending can step up the way they did the first 3 quarters of the season. I'll say this regular season was a success but not the playoffs if we are out again in the 1st round. We should all check out the thread from August on our predictions for this season. Some of us did a nice job with our predictions: http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/topic/76646-predictions-for-the-drw-2014-15-season/?hl=%2Bpredictions+%2Bnext+%2Bseason

Edited April 13, 2015 by GoWings!

[Jesusberg 1,256]

Agreed. Unless it's specific information about the roster for next game, I don't put much stock in a lot of what he says to the media.

Sometime he seems be trying to motivate his team, other times it seems like he's just screwing with reporters.

He doesn't quite have the open disdain for post game interviews that Darryl Sutter does, but he's not too far off.

Which is why the Babcock to TOR or BUF rumors amuse me. I can't imagine Babs wanting to deal with the Toronto media after every game, but it would be hilarious to watch. If McDavid lands in Buffalo, I imagine the media there kicks it up a notch, too. Neither destination makes much sense to me.

[MrazekFanBoy 223]

I think we slightly underachieved based on our roster. I really like the kids on this team, and I think they could have done a bit better, but unfortunately they hit a huge roadblock after the trade-deadline. But that's a pretty common thing for young teams, consistency is typically one of the last skills for young players in any sport to pick up.

I also think Howard's injury hurt this team badly, I don't believe that its a coincidence that his sub par return happened to coincide with our D starting to get exposed. I think his great play early in the year may have hid some things.

Overall its our best placing in a few years, and the most points we have gotten in the post Lidstrom era. A lot of our kids are showing they have what it takes to play in this league at a high level, and I would say I am satisfied with this season. I do think we could have done better, but we're a young team and we had a very rough stretch to end the season.

Lets hope we can make a run and give these kids some much needed playoff experience! Funny that we are facing TB in the playoffs, the team everybody was comparing us to in the off-season.

i agree

[Andy Pred 48 337]

For this set of players to hit the 100pt Mark I would say it's been a very successful regular season. If we get to round 2 then I think we have punched way above our weight.

[Ekmanc 586]

Slightly better than I had predicted, I thought we would take a wildcard spot yet again.

[Richdg 267]

It all depends on what you expected heading into the season. Before the season I thought as I have the last 4 or 5 years now, that we would finish somewhere between 6th and 10th in the conference. Which is what we did. I thought 1 or 2 of the young guns from last year would progress and others would regress, which also happened.

TBH nothing that happened this year was a surprise.

Now in the big picture, every year you don't win a cup is a failure. That is the goal.

[toby91_ca 620]

Personally I don't think it makes sense to look at the regular season and judge whether it was a success or a failure. If it makes sense to do so, it probably means the team isn't very good at all (one that would be very happy just to make the playoffs = success).

Here's how I'd judge the season after it is finished:

Success - make it past 1st round

Neither - lose in 1st round

Failure - miss playoffs

So far though, they look to be exceeding expectations and well positioned to have a successful season. We'll see if the regular season results are indicative of how good the team really is.