Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock wasn't pleased with the effort of his team on Wednesday as the Nashville Predators jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back in a 4-1 win. Babcock called it "unacceptable" and said that the team would work hard in practice if they weren't going to work hard in games.
↵Babcock kept true to his word--sort of. The Red Wings skated hard for about 30 minutes on Thursday, but Babcock called off the dogs because Detroit has a game tomorrow against Boston. Babcock said he would have liked to skate them all day though:
↵↵↵"I sure would like it," Babcock said this afternoon. "We earned the right to skate for a long, long time."
↵"We had a good brisk little skate today. We only went for 30 minutes. The reason we did that is because we play tomorrow and then play two days later, and wins are what it's about."
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Detroit had a slow schedule to start the season which they sometimes played on Saturday and didn't play again until the following Thursday. After a hectic January, Detroit will get some off days coming up, but Babcock sounds like he's not going to give any free time.
↵↵I think everyone got the message, but we’re going to have practice days coming," Babcock said. "We’re going to work hard at practice and in games. If we don’t compete at the highest level, then we’ll have to look after it each and every day, because that’s unacceptable here.
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