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Red Wings annual father son trip
By TonyH | January 19, 2008
Mike Babcock: Dads bring out best in players
BY GEORGE SIPPLE / FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
The Red Wings will do some male bonding on their three-game trip through California, which starts tonight in San Jose. They’ve invited their fathers or other male family members along on the trip.
Coach Mike Babcock said the team planned to bring the fathers on a late-February trip to western Canada, but that plan was nixed.
“We were going to have it another time, but it was over the trade deadline and we didn’t want that,” Babcock said.
Babcock thought the Wings needed to regain their focus after an 0-2-1 slide that was halted with a 3-2 shoot-out victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
Will the fathers serve as a distraction?
“I think sometimes people think that’s a distraction; I’m the opposite,” Babcock said. “When your dad is around, No. 1 is, you’re thankful. And No. 2, you want to make him proud, you want to be proud yourself, and the guys play pretty hard.”
Babcock started the idea for the trip with Anaheim, where he used to coach. He likes how the trip helps him gain insight into some of his players through talking to those who know them best.
“The most fun I have on the trip is when I’m standing there talking to one of the dads and I can see their kid over there just thinking, ‘Oh, my God. What’s he telling him?’ “ Babcock said. “The apples don’t fall far from the tree.”
The Wings won’t be able to glean similar info about their coach through his father, though. Babcock told his father during last year’s trip that he would be taking his father-in-law on this year’s trip.
“Bob Dunham’s coming,” Babcock said, referring to his father-in-law. “I’ve said a number of times he played for the Windsor Spitfires. Always kind of in this area; he’s from Sarnia. Was Al Arbour’s roommate in junior hockey and follows the Red Wings all the time.”
According to www.hockeydb.com, an R.D. Dunham played 14 games for the Windsor Spitfires in 1951-52 and had four goals and two assists. That team also included Arbour, John Muckler and Don Cherry.
Source: The Detroit Free Press
Topics: Coaches/GM's/Owners, NHL Legends, Player News, Red Wings |