DETROIT — Coach Mike Babcock wasn’t in the mood to take a negative tone about his team following a 2-1 shootout loss to Ottawa Wednesday night at Joe Louis Arena. The coach cut off a line of questioning about whether he was happy with his team’s intensity at the start of the game.
“You guys when you’re asking me these questions want to be negative more than me,” Babcock said, before walking off. “I don’t want to do that, so this is what I thought: I thought our team competed real hard. I thought they had more hands on deck than us and I thought they played faster than us. You guys have a good night.” Babcock used most of his postgame remarks to heap praise on a 33-save performance from Petr Mrazeck, a performance that earned the second-year goaltender a vote of confidence as Detroit’s starter going forward. The Red Wings lack of shots, and inability to clear Ottawa out of their zone was less of a concern to the coach than a decreasing number of healthy bodies.