Babcock, who coached the Red Wings for 10 seasons, said it was a special feeling returning to Joe Louis Arena.
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“I think he puts a lot of his time on hockey”. “I’m doing a bunch of new stuff that’s energizing for me”, Babcock said. You probably are going to see a fight or two tonight.
Arcobello tied the game on the power play at 19:28 of the second period before Zetterberg put Detroit ahead for good 3:57 into the third.
“Yes and no”, goalie Jimmy Howard said.
“He was here for so long, but that’s sports”, Howard told The Detroit News.
“I’m sure he’s going through a lot of emotions, this is his first time back. It wasn’t that weird”.
The Red Wings have yet to lose in regulation time (5-0-2) in the exhibition season. Blashill coached Detroit’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, for the previous three seasons after spending the 2011-12 season as an assistant on Babcock’s staff. “Both run very high-intensity practices, both coaches expect us to be pros every single day, so to be honest with you, it’s very much similar”, Howard said when asked to compare the two. “I thought I was coaching a little bit past year”. Mike Green, Gustav Nyquist and, finally, Henrik Zetterberg completed a picture-perfect winning goal before a Brad Richards empty-netter. I liked our second period.
“You have to score about 230 to get in”, Babcock said. “We still made mistakes and gifted them goals, but we’ll fix that”. “He took the puck off the back wall and walked out front, made a great play down low, won battles and set up Komarov in the slot for a one-timer”.
After he broke out with a near point-per-game campaign during the lockout-shortened season, Kadri’s offensive upside made him a fan favourite and a player that we anticipated would anchor the Maple Leafs second line, giving the Leafs a counter-punch to avoid teams keying in on Phil Kessel. The Red Wings have a pregame ceremony planned for Babcock, who led the Red Wings to a Stanley Cup Championship in 2008 and then to the finals again in 2009.
The preseason presses on forwards as the Buffalo Sabres will face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. I had a great Coney Island breakfast for four bucks. I knew where to go for a garage, or (to eat) a great perch.
“[Blashill] is a real good man, a real good coach, is going to do a real good job”, he said.
“I think it’s going to be good”, Devils goaltender Cory Schneider said.
In a lot of ways, it feels like the “next” player to be moved out as the Maple Leafs rebuild will be the first, since outside of one significant move at the beginning of the summer, the Leafs have largely reshaped this team around the margins.
Toronto has lost four straight games after starting the preseason with three victories and finishes up the exhibition schedule with a rematch against Detroit at Air Canada Center on Saturday.
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Nine or 10 bubble boys remain on the Leafs list, majority youngsters who would have to earn regular jobs to justify taking developmental AHL ice time away.
