Long before his name was household, back home in Saskatoon, there always was something about the Olympic Games that fascinated Mike Babcock.
The way it enveloped his entire family. The way his late mother, Gail, who was never a sports fan, seemed captivated every minute of every Olympics on television. The way his father, Mike, would digest the track and field events of the Summer Games. And then the imprint of the disappointment of the Ben Johnson disqualification that was left on family and friends in 1988.
"As a kid, I always thought I was going to be an Olympian. I don't know why," Babcock said. "I thought maybe in track, I ran a little track. Maybe I could get in the relays. And later, I wanted to play for Dave King. I thought back then, they didn't have pros playing, maybe I'd have a chance. But I wasn't good enough to make it.
"And then you get involved in coaching. I never thought there would be an Olympics for me and I never thought I'd be in consideration for this. But when the opportunity looked like it might be there, I thought, 'This is it, the thrill of a lifetime, I can't pass on this.'
"To be around those players, to be held in that regard, to share the Olympic experience and journey with all these people, and with the people who matter most to you, I think that's just fantastic."
Babcock, the obvious choice to coach Team Canada, is not the least bit intimidated by the job he has accepted as head coach of our Olympic hockey team, which may well make him the most second-guessed, scrutinized and analyzed coach in Canadian history. That's just part of the job description.
There never has been an Olympics like this in Canada before, never with this kind of buildup, never with this kind of expectation.
"No matter what happens with the Vancouver Games, it's all going to come down to how the hockey team does," said Chris Rudge, the Canadian Olympic Committee president. "If they win, it'll be judged a good Olympics. If they don't ..."
That much Babcock understands. He coaches the Detroit Red Wings. He comprehends the expectation of winning every night.
But last summer, he got a glimpse of the passion Canadians have for this Olympic hockey year when he happened to be the prize in a fishing trip auctioned off for charity.
"Five guys in the plumbing business bought the trip," Babcock said. "To be honest, even though it was for cancer, and who wouldn't do anything for that, I wasn't really looking forward to going. I didn't want to give up some of my summer to spend time with five guys I didn't know.
"But the whole trip the conversation was, who's on the team, who should be on the team, we're going to win, right? That's the thing with Canadians, every- body believes we just show up and win. You and I know that it's a process to make this happen, but people don't want to hear that.
"But that's what you take from something like this, how much the people of Canada are behind you, how much they care. When you guys talk about pressure and scrutiny, this is how I perceive it. Are you carrying 33 million people around on your back or is the wind of their motivation pushing you. You have to decide how you want to handle that as an individual. For me, I'm not carrying anyone around on my back. I don't do that. I just do what I do, and afterwards I'll evaluate what I could have done better."
On every trip to Canada as the Olympics have grown closer, Babcock notices the intensity of interest regarding his hockey team.
His day job with the Red Wings may find him just minutes from the border, but he could be millions of miles away for all he hears about Team Canada. In his last trip to Toronto, he went out with two of his cousins to watch the Leafs game at a bar. He thought it would be a normal night out.
"They asked me every question about every player, and then they gave me their opinion of every player and every situation. And to be honest, I was happy to just listen and gather in all the information. But you know what? This is how it works. When you win, you're right and if you don't win, you're wrong, you get second-guessed. Welcome to the world. That's what we signed up for.
"The way I look at it, we've had a gold medal selection process, a gold medal summer camp, a gold medal preparation process, gold medal scouting. If you do all those things you have a chance to be successful. But you can do all that and it still comes down to the little things. If (Mikael) Samuelsson scores instead of hitting the post in Pittsburgh, we win the Cup.
"But we don't win the Cup. It's going to come down to little things. A blocked shot. A broken-up play. Good goaltending. A team getting the puck out. It's going to be something that small. It always is."
Babcock has not come to this point, this close to the Olympics, without asking a whole lot of questions. He has talked with Pat Quinn, the Olympic coach who won in 2002 and lost in 2006. He has had many conversations with longtime Olympic coach and close friend Dave King. He has talked to former Olympic coach Tom Renney. "This is what coaches do," Babcock said. "You gather information and then you apply it to what you're doing.
"Funny, Pat Quinn said he wasn't nervous at the Olympics, but he was at the world juniors because he didn't really know the players. I imagine I'm going to be nervous. Isn't that why you're in it? You're in it for the adrenalin and the excitement of the big game. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. In the National Hockey League, let's face it, we get paid to do our jobs. And if we don't do them well, we lose them. In the NHL, if we don't win tonight, we can win tomorrow night. In the Olympics we don't get paid and really there is no tomorrow night. That's why preparation is so important and that's why how we adjust during the games is so important."
Babcock is one of those coaches who always is doodling something on paper. Maybe on a napkin in a restaurant or on a magazine cover in an airplane. He writes down his lineups. He changes them. He jots down every thought that comes his way.
"I went through a lot of napkins this summer," he said. "I'd write it down (lineup), scratch it out, write it down again. Then two days into our Olympic camp, it's not the same. If the lineup you're so fired up about in training camp can't score a goal, you change it. If the guy I thought was going to be good isn't playing good, I'll change that. We don't have time to wait on this.
"There can't be any ego involved. I know we have a lot of skill on our team but not everybody is going to get to do what they normally do. I really don't foresee this as an issue. Are you telling me that you're not willing to buy into a plan that 33 million people are behind? Come on!"
Babcock can't talk about his roster because it won't be named until Dec. 30, but it's clear some players will be Olympic-bound.
He has coached against Sidney Crosby in the past two Stanley Cup finals and he's looking forward to having him, likely as his No. 1 centre. There also is a sense of excitement of having the muchdecorated Scott Niedermayer on the Canadian defence. In two of the past three playoff seasons, Babcock has had to find a way to try to contain Niedermayer, who some people think may end up as Team Canada's captain.
"I think he could turn out to be one of the stars in the Olympics," Babcock said. "That is, assuming he's on the team."
The official announcement of the Canadian roster will be made by general manager Steve Yzerman, one of Babcock's cohorts with the Wings. The fact the Olympic management team is made up of Yzerman, Ken Holland and Babcock, among others, makes the fit all the more comfortable.
"It's not like we've been doing this long distance or anything," Babcock said. "It's just easy because of our relationship. Steve and I can be talking about last night's Detroit game and two seconds later we're talking about the Olympic team and two seconds after that we're talking about somehting else.
"I've worked with Steve, for Steve. I've coached him. I know what he's thinking. Ken Holland and I have had a relationship for years. They're all smart and they've all won."
Babcock does have one wish that isn't likely to be fulfilled: He'd love to be in Vancouver for the opening ceremony.
But instead, he'll be in Los Angeles with the Red Wings. Truth is, he can't wait to be part of the Olympic village, living with athletes from other sports and other countries.
Already, that part of the job has enraptured him.
"I think being an Olympian is bigger than your own event," he said. "To walk into the stadium, to be part of that ... I can't wait to get in the village. I'm going to be an old person in there. I'm going to enjoy talking to everybody.
"Not long ago, I spoke to (Canadian bobsledder) Helen Upperton in Calgary. It was great to hear her story, listen to her, learn from that. I went to a dinner not long ago in Windsor and a guy from the sledge hockey team got up to speak.
"It was unbelievable how moving it was. I was so impressed I invited two of their guys to come and practise with us and run a drill. We did that and it was an awesome feeling."
The kind of awesome feeling that could come packaged with the greatest gold medal of them all in late February.
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YEAR TEAM CANADA COACH RESULT
1998 Marc Crawford Out of the medals
2002 Pat Quinn Gold medal
2006 Pat Quinn Out of the medals
2010 Mike Babcock To be determined
CONTENDING OLYMPIC HOCKEY COACHES
CANADA
Mike Babcock
CZECH REPUBLIC
Vladimir Ruzicka
FINLAND
Jukka Jalonen
RUSSIA
Vyacheslav Bykov
SWEDEN
Bengt-Ake Gustafsson
UNITED STATES
Ron Wilson
