"Some nights he wants to scream, sure. What coach doesn't?

But there's a reason Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said what he said after his team's 7-2 loss last week to the Canadiens before the All-Star break.

"I'm not going to look at the video of this at all," Babcock said after the game. "I'm going to go out and drink, actually, is what I'm going to do."

Funny line. Smart, too. Honesty is always the best policy for a coach.

And that's especially true for a successful coach like Babcock, whose seven years in Detroit make him the third-longest-tenured bench boss in the NHL, behind only Buffalo's Lindy Ruff and Nashville's Barry Trotz. Because after 632 games with Detroit — including the Stanley Cup playoffs — Babcock understands his greatest challenge with a veteran team isn't the volume of his voice."