Babcock’s job has gotten tougher
Another one of the big challenges facing Detroit is for coach Mike Babcock to keep the interest of his players on the task at hand and to do so while making sure that he doesn’t come off as being oppressive. Babcock is a task master and that’s not going to change. But you have to think that he knows he must keep things fresh and different and, when he can, light-hearted for his players. He needs to make sure he never lets his team stray too far from that center line that they have to march down if they are going to make a serious bid at a second straight Stanley Cup. It’s a mission with a supreme purpose but all the fun can’t be stripped out of taking on this challenge.

Going into the season Babcock knows the attention span of his players when he is speaking will not be as great this season as it was last season and that’s just human nature. The environment coming off winning a championship is not 100 percent conducive to the players paying 100 percent attention to detail.

The great fear that elite professional athletes have is the fear of failure. Look for Babcock to use that to his advantage with the Red Wings. This is a franchise that is built ever year to win the Stanley Cup and the players know that. There is no doubt Babcock’s job this season is more difficult than it was last season. But the biggest thing is his favor is he has a better team this year than a year ago.

Some final thoughts
If the Red Wings don’t repeat as champions, will their season have been a failure? Not to me because of all the considerable obstacles involved in trying to win back-to-back titles. If I didn’t believe it was that tough a thing to do I would pick the Red Wings to repeat in a heartbeat. In today’s NHL I think it’s next to impossible to repeat. Detroit may well prove the latest example of that.

I’ll close by saying that if the Red Wings do win it all again, I will bow down to them and give them their just recognition and praise as a team that found ways to successfully navigate one the most difficult rocky roads in all of sports — the one that leads to winning consecutive Stanley Cups.

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