Babcock backing Blackhawks’ bench boss

• Mike Babcock is not used to seeing a rival coach’s media scrum generate twice the turnout his does on game day.

But the struggles of the Blackhawks are a big deal here — four losses in five home games with one more c hance f or r edemption against the Toronto Maple Leafs before the all- star break and an ensuing fourgame road trip. Babcock’s good friend Joel Quenneville, his team mired at the bottom of the Central Division and seven points out of a playoff spot, is on the hot seat. Thus, the extra fourth estate firepower.

One newspaper declared GM Stan Bowman is already concentrating on the 201819 season by working in as many younger players as he can around mainstays Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

Babcock won’t count out the Hawks just yet.

“Their high- end players have done a lot of winning and they have a lot of pride,” he said.

“Joel is a good man and I go back a long way with him. They have two elite ( forward) groups coming at you. They’ve been lucky their guys were so good, so young. Toews and Kane still aren’t that old. Most teams, you don’t get like that until you’re 28 and then it’s over fast.”

A game in Connor Carrick’s hometown should have been a big night for the defenceman, with Babcock giving plenty of support when his name came up earlier in the day. Carrick is among those getting extra ice time while Morgan Rielly and Nikita Zaitsev are hurt.

“There’s the part you guys watch, his scoring chances, and the part I watch, his scoring chances against,” Babcock said. “Not only do you have to play with the puck, you have to play without it. At home, we were allowed to play him in the right situations. ( On the road), there’s no way around it.

“In his last year, he was a star in the American League. You bring him up and say ‘ who is this guy?’ It takes two and maybe two or three years to be what you’re capable of being. You just have to hope they’re not on someone else’s team when that happens.”

Who says the backhand shot is dying? Entering Wednesday’s game Toronto had scored 18 of its 155 goals via the backhand, third highest in the NHL.