”It’s important for your players to be able to watch on TV just how hard everyone plays and how little room there is and how the game works,” the Toronto Maple Leafs coach said.

What Babcock, his players and the rest of the NHL and fans saw on opening night was prototypical playoff hockey – not many goals, just 16 plus an empty-netter in five games. The lesson for a young Toronto team that had nine players making their playoff debuts Thursday night against the Washington Capitals came through loud and clear. It also got many of them excited for what’s to come.

”You just see the atmosphere in the buildings, how intense it is and just the physicality and everything,” rookie of the year front-runner Auston Matthews said. ”You just see how tight checking they are. Not a lot of space out there, not a lot of going being scored. It’s playoff hockey for you.”

Playoff hockey on opening night this season featured offense from unlikely sources – overtime winners from St. Louis Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson and San Jose Sharks forward Melker Karlsson, and the second goal in the 61-game postseason career of New York Rangers grinder Tanner Glass.

Goals will undoubtedly continue to come from stars like the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin and Bruins’ Brad Marchand with the Chicago Blackhawks’ duo of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin itching to put up big numbers. But as Toronto forward Brian Boyle watched his former Rangers teammates shut out the Montreal Canadiens, he praised the play of Glass, Oscar Lindberg and Jesper Fast because at this time of year it’s occasionally the fourth line that wins a game.

”You’re going to get your matchup in the playoffs, and you try to beat the line you’re up against,” Boyle said. ”It shows you everyone has an opportunity to contribute.”

Acquired by the Maple Leafs in part for his 100 games of playoff experience and ability to pitch in offensively when it matters most, Boyle didn’t need to re-watch playoff hockey to know what it’s like. But defenseman Connor Carrick flipped around from game to game to get a feel for what he and his fellow playoff newcomers are in for.

”It’s all tight,” Carrick said. ”You never know what play is going to win you a game and eventually the series, so you got to be dialed in and all the details matter this time of year.”

Mitch Marner knows how special playoff hockey is from watching his whole life, appreciating right away that ”it’s going to be a battle every shift.” Matthews found that out a year ago playing in the Swiss league playoffs.

”It’s faster,” Matthews said. ”You could just tell the physicality and the speed. It’s kind of upped a notch.”

The NHL, of course, is another level, and Matthews acknowledged watching games differently than before as a fan and aspiring professional because it’s now a reality for him, Marner, William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen and the rest of the Maple Leafs. That’s what Babcock wanted to get across, even though he didn’t tell players in advance to tune their TVs to hockey.

”I asked them if they watched,” Babcock said. ”Sometimes during the year if you ask them, you’d know no one watched. But lots of guys watched.”

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The former Detroit Red Wings coach takes over a team that finished 27th in the league this season. He said at a news conference Thursday that he is taking the job with ”eyes wide open.”

Babcock spent the last 10 years behind the Detroit bench. His new team is coming off a season that cost head coach Randy Carlyle, interim coach Peter Horachek and many other club officials their jobs.

Babcock arrives with great expectations and a reported $50 million, eight-year contract that makes him the NHL’s highest-paid coach.

He acknowledges that Toronto has ”made a long-term commitment to me” and ”in turn, I’ve made a long-term commitment to the Leafs and our plan is to grow the team.”

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The Toronto Maple Leafs announced the hiring of Babcock on Wednesday afternoon, ending months of speculation as to where the veteran coach would land. Babcock will be introduced at a news conference scheduled for Thursday.

Babcock cashed in on his status as the most coveted hire in hockey. According to multiple reports, he received an eight-year deal that is worth a whopping $50 million. That contract would make Babcock the highest-paid coach in the NHL.

Though Babcock was under contract with Detroit through June 30, the Red Wings granted their coach permission to speak to other teams on May 8.

By hiring Babcock, the Leafs must send a third-round pick to Detroit as compensation.

In selecting Toronto, Babcock leaves a Red Wings franchise that had reached the playoffs for an NHL-leading 24 consecutive seasons to a team that has struggled competitively. Toronto missed the playoffs last season for the ninth time in 10 years.

The Maple Leafs have also not won a Stanley Cup since 1967, a season before the NHL expanded from its original six franchises. The Red Wings, by comparison, have won the championship four times since 1997.

The 52-year-old also coached Canada to Olympic gold medals in 2010 and ’14.

Since 2005-06, Mike Babcock’s Red Wings had the highest points percentage while the Leafs ranked 26th. Toronto has not won a playoff series since the 2004 conference quarterfinals.

He brings stability and a high-profile face to a franchise that is on its fourth full-time coach since Paul Maurice took over in 2006.

The Maple Leafs had a vacancy after Randy Carlyle was fired in January. He had been replaced on an interim basis by assistant Peter Horachek.

Babcock’s decision comes as a slight surprise, given that he indicated last week that he hated losing and wanted to be part of a team that had an opportunity to win immediately.

The Maple Leafs have an overpriced and aging roster, as well as questions at goaltending. The team unraveled last season. After holding a 19-9-3 record in mid-December, Toronto closed the season going 11-35-8 to finish 15th in the 16-team Eastern Conference standings.

On the bright side, Babcock is reunited with Brendan Shanahan, who took over as the Maple Leafs president last year. Shanahan played for Babcock in Detroit.

Landing Babcock is a major coup for Shanahan, who in the past 13 months since taking over as president has fired general manager Dave Nonis, coach Carlyle, interim Horachek and several assistants and scouts.

“I’m proud of Shanny, I’m proud that he dreamt big,” Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment President and CEO Tim Leiweke said. “He got the big whale. …

“It should give everyone great hope about the future of this organization. Mike Babcock is a phenomenal coach, and I think we’re really lucky to get him.”

Before deciding on the Leafs, Babcock had been in discussions with several other teams, including the San Jose Sharks and Buffalo Sabres. The Sharks were informed Tuesday night that they were out of the running, while the Sabres received word Wednesday morning, club sources told ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun.
Mike Babcock is trading one Original Six franchise for another, leaving Detroit for Toronto. Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images

Though Babcock had discussions with Red Wings general manager Ken Holland about signing a contract extension in Detroit, he ultimately chose to leave the organization with which he had spent the past 10 seasons. Detroit’s final offer was believed to be around $4 million per year, a source told LeBrun.

Holland told reporters that Babcock called at 11:15 a.m. ET on Wednesday to inform Holland of his decision. Holland added he harbored no ill feelings toward Babcock and thanked him for 10 great years.

“My offers last June were a four-year term. Again in January, it was a four-year term,” Holland said. “As we sat yesterday morning, I said, ‘Mike, the best I can do is five years.’ When you’ve been in the same city as long as I have, and as long as Mike has, you don’t get much longer term than four and five years. So I think that certainly part of the decision-making process probably for Mike was the amount of term that he could get in Toronto.”

With Babcock leaving Detroit, Holland said that Jeff Blashill, the team’s AHL coach in Grand Rapids, is a leading candidate to succeed Babcock behind the bench. Holland added that his short list of candidates included two or three names. Blashill has led the Grand Rapids Griffins to the Western Conference finals of the Calder Cup playoffs for the second time in three years.

The Red Wings have been protective in regard to keeping Blashill. In allowing Babcock to test the market, Holland prevented Blashill from interviewing with other teams.

Babcock began his NHL head-coaching career with a flourish in 2002-03, when he took Anaheim to within one win of a Stanley Cup title. He began coaching the Red Wings after the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season.

Babcock was the first coach to win at least 50 games in each of his first four seasons with an NHL team — a deceiving stat in the shootout era but an impressive one nonetheless — when he did it with the Red Wings. With 458 wins for Detroit, he ranks No. 1 on the franchise’s career list, ahead of luminaries like Scott Bowman and Jack Adams.

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Better to let them learn how to survive playoff pressure on their own, Babcock thought.

With help from an ill-timed penalty by Anaheim’s Sheldon Souray, the Red Wings figured it out and evened the series.

Gustav Nyquist scored a power-play goal at 1:21 of overtime, giving Detroit a 5-4 victory in Game 2 on Thursday night.

Johan Franzen scored two goals, and Damien Brunner had his first Stanley Cup playoff goal and two assists for the Red Wings, who survived their third-period collapse with a timely goal from Nyquist.

“We knew we had to get back to playing hard in the overtime, and we did,” Nyquist said. “We knew the playoffs were on the line.”

Game 3 is Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Bobby Ryan scored the tying goal with 2:22 left in regulation for the Ducks, who also got goals from captain Ryan Getzlaf and Kyle Palmieri while erasing Detroit’s 4-1 lead with a phenomenal surge in the final minutes.

But Souray took a slashing penalty in front of his net with 38 seconds left in regulation after an exchange with Justin Abdelkader, and Nyquist was left unchecked in the left faceoff circle for his goal with just 2 seconds remaining on the power play. The 23-year-old Swede from the University of Maine was in his sixth career playoff game.

“I think it’s a great learning experience,” Babcock said. “You’ve got the win, and you stop playing. … You’re not settling them down, you’re putting gas on the fire. What are you going to do about it? You’re hoping your big guys are going to go out there and make a play.”

Ducks fans loudly booed the call against Souray, who joined Anaheim this season after a well-traveled career. He has been among the Ducks’ best defensemen with his booming slap shot and physical two-way play.

“I didn’t really see anything,” Souray said of the final penalty. “It was a tough call. Tough way to end it. We battled back hard. We didn’t start the game and periods as hard as they did, and they capitalized on that.”

Jimmy Howard made 28 saves for Detroit, which silenced the Anaheim crowd with two goals in the first 4:20 of the Red Wings’ third victory in four appearances at Honda Center this season. Abdelkader scored in the opening minute, and Pavel Datsyuk had two assists.

But the Red Wings also lost rookie defenseman Danny DeKeyser for the season with a broken thumb.

“He’s done,” Babcock said of DeKeyser, who played a standout game before apparently getting hurt in the third period.

Jonas Hiller stopped 27 shots and Saku Koivu scored for the second-seeded Ducks, who struggled through the first two periods before rallying in the hair-raising third. Ryan and Palmieri each had a goal and an assist in the third, and Koivu added an assist.

“When you do come back to tie it, and (then) lose it, (it’s) a little more disappointing,” Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I was hoping it would get done before overtime, because I knew they would gain their composure again, because the last 10 minutes (of regulation), they lost it. They were fortunate starting (overtime) on the power play, and that was it.”

Until the final period, Detroit had bounced back impressively from the Ducks’ 3-1 series-opening victory. Babcock put veteran Todd Bertuzzi in his lineup for the first time since Feb. 7, replacing Jordin Tootoo, but otherwise kept the same lineup — and the Wings responded with all the poise expected from a team with 22 straight playoff appearances.

While the Wings executed, the Ducks struggled until their electric third-period rally. Game 1 hero Teemu Selanne made an egregious turnover leading to Brunner’s goal, and Getzlaf passed up a breakaway shot in the third period for an ill-advised pass on a play that exemplified the Ducks’ struggles.

But the Ducks rallied when Getzlaf scored on a shot with his back to the net with 12:10 to play. Palmieri then scored his first career playoff goal moments after a power play ended, firing a short shot that Howard missed with his glove with 7:29 left.

Ryan nearly scored with 5 1/2 minutes to play, but his deflection in front just caught the outside post. He didn’t miss on his next chance when Cam Fowler found him driving to the net with a perfect pass for a quick shot past Howard, setting off a deafening celebration.

“I think we finally settled into a pretty good rhythm there,” Ryan said. “We didn’t do enough, though. … We gave them second and third chances to come up with the puck, and they’re a team that capitalizes.”

The Ducks attracted another large, towel-waving crowd to Honda Center after the festive atmosphere in their opener. But many fans weren’t yet in their seats when Abdelkader found space near the blue line and beat Hiller with a deceptive wrist shot just 48 seconds into the game.

Game notes

The 38-year-old Bertuzzi missed nearly three months with back pain and nerve problems affecting his right leg, even forcing him to walk with a cane at times. … The Ducks have won the series all nine times in club history after winning the first game. … Babcock considered putting veteran Mikael Samuelsson back into the lineup but held off. The member of the “Triple Gold Club” — an Olympic gold medal, a world championship and a Stanley Cup title — missed 41 games this season with injuries but is healthy again.

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Devin Setoguchi had two goals, Niklas Backstrom made 36 saves and the streaking Wild beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 on Wednesday night.

“I give our guys a lot of credit. … I felt tired today,” said Minnesota coach Mike Yeo, whose team won in Colorado on Saturday night and in Vancouver on Monday night.

Kyle Brodziak, and Mikko Koivu also scored for Minnesota, which won its fourth straight. Pierre-Marc Bouchard had two assists.

“They’re going to get their shots,” Backstrom said. “We did a great job of keeping them to the outside and we did a good job of clearing rebounds.”

Gustav Nyquist and Drew Miller scored for Detroit.

“We spent a lot of the night chasing the game,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “We knew what kind of game it was going to be before we started. We knew they were going to play tight.”

Minnesota led 1-0 after the first period despite being outshot 17-5.

“We knew we were going to come out a little sluggish,” Wild defenseman Ryan Suter said. “Backy kept us in it and we came out in the second period and played the way we should’ve.”

Setoguchi opened the scoring 2:04 into the game when he swept in a shot from the bottom of the right circle for his 10th goal. Setoguchi’s second goal of the game came on the power play with 2:45 left in the second period, putting in a rebound to give Minnesota a 4-1 lead.

Brodziak’s power-play goal 3:51 into the second period made it 2-0 when he put in a one-timer shot from the edge of the crease, his fifth goal, off a pass from Jared Spurgeon.

Nyquist put Detroit on the scoreboard 9:09 into the middle period with his first goal. He capitalized on Spurgeon’s turnover at the Red Wings’ blue line for his first goal of the season, on a breakaway.

“It was a broken play at the blue line, I don’t know what happened,” Nyquist said. “I got it behind the D man and I came skating in all alone. I tried to make a move and fortunately, it went in.”

Koivu restored the Wild’s two-goal lead with 9:11 left in the second on spin-around shot from the high slot, which went in off Jimmy Howard’s glove for Koivu’s seventh goal.

Setoguchi got his second goal of the night, with 2:45 left in the second by putting in Dany Heatley’s rebound.

“That’s what you need. We’ve just got everybody contributing right now,” Yeo said. “Getting it from the power play, getting it from different lines.”

Miller got his third goal of the season, on the power play, in the final minute to cap the scoring.

An apparent goal by Detroit’s Jordin Tootoo 7:30 into the first period was waved off because of a high stick call. But replays showed the puck went off the glove of Heatley instead of the stick of Miller.

Game notes

Detroit RW Patrick Eaves missed the game with a sore cheekbone. The Red Wings recalled Nyquist, a center, from their AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids on Wednesday. … Minnesota C Mike Rupp and D Tom Gilbert both missed their second games with lower-body injuries.

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