Tank Talk: Collin Graf

Tank Talk: Collin Graf

Colin, from a team perspective, there’s a lot for us to talk about, but individually and just looking at your season, 30 plus NHL games, I think things went pretty well for you as a Shark, but now you get to be here in the AHL playoffs. It’s kind of like the best of both worlds of this season. Had a good NHL year and now the playoffs in the AHL. Yeah. Yeah. I think um obviously playoffs are what you want to make. Yeah. Whether that was wherever. So, I think playoffs in any league ever course is definitely hard and it’s harder than the regular season for sure. So, I think um yeah, I’m happy with my with my games up in the NHL. I think that I I did well and obviously there’s stuff for me to improve on and I think that, you know, getting to come down here and playoffs is awesome. Just two games in a quick series already, but did you notice a different level or layer of something in these those two games against Ontario? Did it feel different or did it feel just like a regular season game? Uh, no. It definitely didn’t feel like a regular season game. It definitely was. Yeah, it definitely was a lot a lot tighter. I’d say a lot more of a like you really got to work for your chances. You got to be patient. You got to know that you know you’re not you’re not might not generate chances every shift. It’s going to be you got to play the whole 60 minutes. And I think that over both those games really our team did a good job of sticking with it. You know, in the first one it’s zero after two. But, you know, we didn’t get we didn’t get impatient and start, you know, creating turnovers and stuff like that. We sort of just stuck to our game and found a way to win that one. And then, um, in the second game, you know, it was a little bit a little bit different. You know, you’re trying to end a team season, so it’s they’re obviously going to give it everything they have, right? And they got the one in the third there, but I think that again, it was just staying patient and, you know, it’s not going to I guess especially a team like Ontario, it’s not going to be a high-scoring game. The way they play in their neutral zone, they sit back and they trap it up. So, I think that, you know, it’s just staying patient and when we get our chances, important to finish them. And that’s the great point there. I mean, maybe that’s one of the the take off playoff takeaways and lessons, right? Is when you can get a team down and bury them, right? You don’t want to go to a third game in that series. And for you to have the series clinching goal, uh, that must have been extra special. Yeah. Yeah, it was nice. you know, I uh I mean, obviously great plays from a bunch of guys and you know, there’s a lot of plays that that go unnoticed throughout the whole game, whether that’s a block shot or just getting in the lane that breaks up a nice threeon two or something defensively and and then ask and obvious but uh yeah, it’s nice to uh it was nice to get on the score sheet especially in that time. So, it’s cool. He was the next thing I wanted to talk about. When you have Yaroslav Ascarov, uh look, any goalie that’s a number one in a playoff situation is a good goalie. It just seems though, like in a small sample size with him, he has the ability to get scorching hot. Uh this must feel like an optimal situation to have a guy like that and so far so good in the playoffs as your goalie. Yeah, it just gives us so much confidence all the time. Yeah. And I think that, you know, the big I mean the biggest part is the special teams on the penalty kill. You need him to he’s your best killer. The goal needs to be your best killer. And I think well for not even I think I know that he was our best penalty killer play like our best player over the series. And I mean we if he’s gone like that I think we got a good chance in every game. You know the point of the Barracuda season was to get to these playoffs to get younger players and like yourself and Asie and others some experience. Don’t you find it though that now that you’re here, let’s get greedy. Uh, and when I saw the the puck carrier, the puck tray come out and you put the pucks in there after every win. When you see something like that and you realize it is five rounds, but it’s still 16 wins, don’t you start to really feel that way now that you’re in these playoffs that you want to get greedy and see how far you can take it? Yeah. Yeah. I think forget the experience, right? Let’s get the caller cup. Yeah. Exactly. I think especially I mean, you look around the room, we got a lot of guys who have played in the NHL. a lot of guys with NHL experience. Like I know we’re I mean we’re probably going to be the lower seed however long we go, right? But I wouldn’t like I wouldn’t really view us as an underdog in any aspect in any of these series just because I’ve really got confidence in our group and we’ve been through a lot and we got a lot of younger guys and we got a lot of vets who, you know, have won Calder Cups, one NHL player, like stuff like that where where they’ve they’ve seen it and they can sort of we can or we can sort of lean on them to uh to ask them questions. Like even like a guy like Pottsy, like if he’s not in the lineup or something like that right now, then you know he’s still here and you can still ask him questions and stuff like that. You can still sort of pick his brain to to learn some stuff and they can help you. We’re on the same wavelength right now because Andrew Podowski is who I wanted to talk about next. I feel so bad for him being MVP of this league this year and now being week to week with the injury. U Thomas Bordal out. Uh Shakir Mukmulan out for the rest of this season with the injury. Um, this is a Barracuda team which could for as good as I think you guys will do could be even deeper and that’s almost kind of scary to think about, but it’s unfortunate that your team’s kind of having to go through this adversity missing a couple key players. Yeah. Yeah. And I think um and then obviously we didn’t have have Carl either, birth of his daughter, so Exactly. Yeah. I think it’s for a good reason. Yeah. Yeah, that was a good one. Um, but I think that, you know, being able to get through get through that last round, like I don’t really know the time table or stuff like that, but like it gives the guys confidence like it gives us just makes us even deeper and it makes us even like when you get I mean you always want the MVP of the league talking about Pottsy like Yeah. obviously he’s going to make our team way better. He does a lot of things that you know MVP of course. Yeah. So, uh, but you know, it’s just, um, you know, we’re just trying to replace them in aggregate, I guess. We’re just trying to, you know, everyone’s got to pick up a little piece of what those guys do and just try to do it to our best ability. Two more things. We’re ahead of the Friday game, obviously, the the the series opener, but your first home playoff game uh of this postseason. What’s that going to mean to to just get one on home ice? Yeah. Yeah. Super exciting. I think um you know the last real playoff games I played in were college and you know whether that’s home in home playoff games in college in the conference or you know when you’re in the in the re in the regional and you know we had the chance to basically have a home game. We’re only 20 minutes from from campus the my sophomore year. So I think that you know it’s super exciting. Everyone’s rooting for you. There’s a lot of energy in the building and from what I heard it’s sold out. So I think that it’s going to be super exciting. you know, you you get energy from the fans. It sort of builds off itself and hopefully we can put up a good performance for them. And then last thing is we’re not here to get ahead of ourselves by any means, but are you feeling good about these playoffs? Are you feeling like there is a chance that this could go on a while for the Barracuda? Uh I guess matchups matter, health matters, there’s a lot of things that could come into play, but as we stand here entering round two, how are you feeling about the very long-term chances here? Uh yeah, I think as a group we’re confident. I think um I wouldn’t say we’re overconfident. I wouldn’t say we’re we think we’re going to walk through or anything like that. I would say, you know, this team finished one in in the division. I think they’re pretty high up there overall in the A in terms of points. Yeah, they did. This you’re saying this next round might be like if you can get past this things things might even look different. Yeah, I mean this team has a lot of good players. They have they have a lot of old older guys too who have you know played a lot of playoff games have a lot of experience stuff like that and you know they’re coming off a break which uh right you know it’s keep them fresh but you know if we were able to jump them early you know it could be a little positive or a negative depending on how it goes. So I think that yeah I think we’re just focused on this series. Rest or rust for Colorado we’ll see what Friday night brings. Colin uh best of luck. I appreciate the time and hopefully we get to chat for a couple more weeks at least. Yeah me too. Thank you.

Brodie Brazil sits down with Collin Graf to talk all things San Jose Barracuda playoffs ahead of their second round matchup against the Colorado Eagles on May 2, 2025.