As part of TSN's extensive coverage of the 2018 World Hockey Championship, TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger sits down with some of the game's prominent personalities in Denmark, discussing the hot topics of the day.

In this edition of 'Dreger Cafe,' Darren goes one-on-one with Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock.

Here are a few topics that stood out.

On his recent meeting with Auston Matthews and addressed the media perception of a 'rift' with his star centre:

"He wants to be the best two-way player in the game and we're going to work as hard as we can. It's not going to be rosy every day, it never is. And anyone who perceives the National Hockey League as things are going good every day, it's not like that. It's a competitive atmosphere. It's competitive in the room, it's competitive on the bench, it's competitive in practice, but that's why the guys love it. That's why they're in it. The best players want to be pushed. They want to be pushed the hardest because they want to be the best."

 

On pushing players' buttons:

"I think there's a real fine line. And when you do cross it, I think it's important to have built a good enough relationship that the guy can say, "woah, woah..." But on the other side, they don’t want to go to sleep. These guys want to get better. I’ve coached a lot of the great players in the game because I've been involved with good teams but also the national programs, they push. They want more. Every summer they’re trying to get better, they’re trying to reinvent themselves."

On the Leafs' roster going into next season:

"There's a big difference between being 28 and totally established - and being 20. And we have a lot of young people on our team as you know, so that guidance is going to continue to happen. We have to get deeper. When you watch these teams playing now (in the playoffs), they’re deep. A lot of their guys have been through it a number of times and not had much success and suddenly they’re having success. So a little bit of adversity never killed anybody."