Dave Babich

You know, he was 35, 36 at the time.

And, you know, all the young defensemen, just like they have right now, I think we had four that were like either they were under 20 or 21, somewhere in there.

And, you know, we all kind of said, like, why the hell would they be bringing this old bugger in?

And that was the best thing that John Ferguson, like, did for us.

Like, Serge came in, real classy guy, could still play.

Terrific player.

Like, unbelievable.

Obviously a Hall of Famer.

But he could still play, just taught everything from on ice to off ice, what to do, how to take care of yourself, all that kind of stuff.

And I can't say enough about having those kind of guys around, the older guys, the right guys.

Not that they don't have them right now, but you've got to make sure that they kind of rub off that way.

But it does take a while.

Some guys took a little longer, but with Serge there,

After my second year, everything seemed to start coming into play, and you could see that he took care of his own end first before he made his plays, and he could still be very good offensively.

So I think it's more patience with Wielander.

I think it's more of the patience thing because it's like you watch the playoffs.

When do they score?

It's on turnovers, or it's when there's a breakdown.

It doesn't happen very often, but you better be ready for it because it is going to happen eventually.

And just that's when you pounce instead of trying to force it because when you're forcing things, that's when those sharks are just, not San Jose sharks, but the other sharks are just waiting for that blood to trickle off the buck and they're going to pounce on it.