EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Mike Babcock had his first on-ice practice as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, and it was four hours of high-speed, detail-oriented skating and learning for both coach and players.
“My feet hurt right now,” Babcock said afterward. “In order to play here, you’ve got to be fit and we’re going to play 12 forwards and everyone’s going to be important. I think it’s important you establish a standard for what’s accepted and everybody knows.”
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Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid, right, and Vasily Podkolzin skate during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Edmonton Oilers' Forward Alex Formenton looks on during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Edmonton Oilers head Coach Mike Babcock gives instruction during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid skates during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Edmonton Oilers' head coach Mike Babcock gives instruction during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Babcock was cleared to work for the Oilers following the league’s conclusion of an investigation into his conduct while with Columbus in 2023. He signed with Edmonton this spring after the team fired Kris Knoblauch before his new three-year contract had been started.
Babcock resigned from the Blue Jackets less than three months after taking the job. At the time, his requests for personal photos from players, which he said were part of an effort to get to know them, drew criticism as an invasion of privacy.
Babcock said if the Oilers hadn’t approached him, he would be back in Ohio bow hunting for deer.
“I would say this to you. If they hadn’t come and talked to me, it’s not like I was looking for work," he said. "When I see my deer pictures in the morning, I can’t believe I’m doing this as a matter of fact.”
He said the Oilers leadership group of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman convinced him they want to win a championship and “I’m going to do what I can to help them out.”
Draisaitl said the first practice under the new coach was intense and detail oriented.
“You know, he’s energetic. He wants things done a certain way, and he wants it done right,” Draisaitl said. “I think anyone in the building could hear it and probably see it. Details are great. He cares about the little things, so it was a good first day.”
Defenseman Ryan Shea agreed that Babcock was stressing details and speed.
“I think that was his big message today,” said Shea who was signed to a five-year contract as a free agent this summer. “Everything was upbeat. Everything, he wanted everything quick and just the little things, like he wants everyone finishing the drill, stopping at the net, everything that it takes to be a good player and a good team."
One of the many decisions Babcock faces in the future is how to play McDavid and Draisaitl. He said he plans to start with the two playing on the same line, much as the two did last season.
“What we’re going to do is we’re going to learn about each other," he said. "I’m just going to watch them.”
See AP’s full NHL coverage here
Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid, right, and Vasily Podkolzin skate during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Edmonton Oilers' Forward Alex Formenton looks on during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Edmonton Oilers head Coach Mike Babcock gives instruction during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid skates during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Edmonton Oilers' head coach Mike Babcock gives instruction during the NHL hockey team's training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it as President Donald Trump has threatened.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said his ruling would “avoid any confusion on that score given more recent events,” including the building’s sudden closure to the public on Wednesday.
Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, said he closed the iconic performing arts center temporarily due to “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration” of the aging building. The building will be closed for at least seven days to “assess existing safety risks in those portions of the main building exhibiting severe structural deterioration,” Floca said.
The temporary closure, which occurred without notice, is separate from a vote Tuesday by the Kennedy Center’s board to close the center indefinitely for repairs, Floca and other officials said. The closure was based on an inspection of the roof terrace canopy and a partial ceiling collapse earlier this month, Floca said. The closure may be extended after evaluation next week, he added.
Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, said Wednesday that his efforts to restore the aging building deserve recognition, “because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down. It’s in very, very bad shape, very dangerous shape.”
The announcement of the closure came in response to a court case filed by a Democratic congresswoman who is a trustee and sought an emergency court hearing to prevent what she called the building’s “unlawful closing.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, has led efforts to block Trump’s name from being added to the building. Beatty had a verbal confrontation with the Republican president Tuesday during a virtual board meeting.
Beatty's lawyers said in a court filing Thursday that the board members' “rationale that they are only temporarily closing the Kennedy Center is a plain pretext to justify shutting down the Center permanently. The facts before the Court are deeply concerning.”
Cooper denied a request by Beatty's legal team to hold a hearing to clarify the board's actions and intent. But he agreed to their request “to make crystal clear” that his order prohibits demolition of the building without 30 days’ notice.
The Trump-aligned board, chaired by the president, voted to close the center after Cooper blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the building.
Congress has allocated $257 million to cover the repairs, but Trump said they only would happen if the board was permitted to move forward with plans to add his name to the building.
On Thursday, Barbra Streisand, a Kennedy Center honoree in 2008, questioned the closing of the center for repairs and called the controversy surrounding its operation “galling and painful to witness.”
Of Trump’s attempts to add his name to the center, she said in a statement to The Associated Press: “You can easily imagine my indignation at seeing this revered institution become the subject of such a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego.”
The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe Trump's name on the Kennedy Center’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also have been renamed in Trump’s honor.
All of those proposals were shot down Tuesday by Cooper, who ruled that nothing could happen “without Congress’s blessing.”
Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.
Streisand told AP she was deeply honored to be included in the 31st annual class of Kennedy Center Honorees, adding, “for me, and for so many artists, that honor represented something larger than a career recognition. It represented a belief in the importance of art to the life of a democracy.”
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers from both parties called the dispute an unnecessary distraction and said they hope the building will not be torn down.
“I’d be very, very surprised if that actually happened,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S. D.
Asked if Congress would try to stop it, Thune said, “I hope we won’t get to that point.”
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said Trump was “being selfish and is mad that they’re not putting his name on it.”
Trump does not seem to realize “how many people love and value both the memories of the Kennedy family as well as obviously of what the Kennedy Center means to this country,'' Gallego said. He predicted a “massive backlash” if Trump tries to demolish the building, as he did with the White House East Wing.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, called the dispute a “false crisis” and said, “worrying about what (the building) is named is kind of silly.”
Associated Press writers Glenn Gamboa in Cleveland and Mary Clare Jalonick and Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report.
The Kennedy Center, which has been fenced off and closed to the public, is seen through a hole in a covered fence, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A sign directs people away from behind the Kennedy Center, which has been fenced off and closed to the public, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Fencing is installed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Laura Bligh of Vienna, Va., holds a protest sign outside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, and board member of the Kennedy Center, attends an event with fellow Democrats to denounce the economic policies of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A tarp covers portions of the sign at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Barricades are installed in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
