Babcock and his staff are overly prepared as they await word on when training camp begins

If there’s one thing the Wings’ coaching staff won’t be once dates and times of training camp are announced is unprepared.
As a matter of fact, they probably will be overly prepared.
“We’ve gone over and over how we’re going to play this season,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said in a phone interview Sunday afternoon. “You’ve got to get yourself ready to go mentally and physically. I love to coach, but in order to coach you’ve got to have a team.”
In Babcock’s eyes preparations for training are done.
They’ve got plans for five- and seven-day camps, along with plans involving one, two or three groups of players when things begin, which could be as early as Saturday.
They’re just waiting on word when it’s going to start and where.
“We’ve done a number of practices to stay sharp,” Babcock said. “We’re going through what we do with our guys. It gets us up to speed. We’ve fine-tuned clips of special teams play for presentations during camp.”
Babcock and his assistants have been on the ice running practices at certain high schools and Midge AAA teams in Plymouth just to get back into the swing of things.
They also worked with a women’s college team in Wisconsin.
The lockout ended early Sunday morning after 113 days.
“I’m ecstatic,” Babcock said. “The thing that I noticed during the lockout was just how much you miss being around the game, the fans and the players. It’s a huge hole and you better not take the game for granted.
“It looks like we’re going to have a nice sprint, lots of hockey and lots of fun,” Babcock added.
Babcock went to his office at Joe Louis Arena on Sunday and plans on being there again today.
“I could have done that work from home (Sunday) but I was excited to go down to the office and do it and I’ll go down there (Monday) morning, too,” Babcock said.

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