Oct. 9: Postgame Interviews

Oct. 9: Postgame Interviews

How did you see this tonight? Um, you know what? I thought, um, you know, for through the first two, um, you know, we did some good things and and there’s some things that we need to clean up. Um, offensively, got to get harder in front of, um, you know, uh, the opposition’s goalie. Uh, that’s for sure. Uh, defensively, uh, got to, you know, work on closing plays a little bit faster. Um, like I said, we did some good things tonight, but there’s a whole lot we can clean up and grow and get better. Braden Monty mentioned that, too, that just the compete at the net front. Uh were they doing a good job of boxing out or could you have done a better job of getting there? Uh nothing uh against them, but I I think we just weren’t hard enough there. Not uh willingness uh willingness uh to go there. U make it hard on Inugustus and I thought, you know, uh we had some looks, but they weren’t second and third opportunities and chaotic around the net. So that’s obviously something we got to focus on here. Uh you know, moving on to next game. You feel like this is a team that it would take some time to to do that or you can flip the switch next game and you’re in front of the net and you’re battling. Yeah, we we we can do it. Um because we have the guys that can do it. Um so, uh there’s some things that like you said we can just um we tried to make them some adjustments, but um I they just think it’s just it’s it’s not hard. It’s just a a simple recipe of going to the net and and and willingness to go there. And no different how they scored goals tonight. They were they were in around her uh front of our net and they got some bounces and and that’s how you score goals is when you have people there and you get bounces that um go your way. So, how did you see things tonight? Um obviously not the result we wanted. Um thought we came out all right. Um doing some good things, getting some good looks, but uh um we just kind of strayed from it there in the second period. I think we got a little down once they they got a few goals and uh we didn’t have that bite to to kind of get through it and and try and turn that uh turn the tide a little bit. Justin, how much was it a difference that front at both ends? Yeah, it’s important every night. Um obviously they got I mean what pretty much all of them their goals right there. Um it’s where goals are scored. It’s tough. It’s hard to get there. um you got to make it tough for for their guys that get there and um keep pucks away from it, but um it’s it’s an emphasis of ours on both sides to be real good there, be tough to play against. Um it’s the same principle at both ends and it’s definitely something we’re going to continue to work on and um be a staple of our game going forward. It’s just one game, but how do you kind of process the the emotions of it with all the excitement going into a new season? Yeah, I mean, I don’t think it’s going to change how we approach our day-to-day. um we lost the game. Uh we’re going to move on. We’re trying to build um for a full season here. We got work to do. We would have work to do if we came out of here with a win. Um there’s a lot of things to learn and a lot of things we have to find in our game. And um like I said, I would say the same thing if we won. It’s uh it’s a process and we got to stick to it and know that uh we’re a good hockey team in here and uh we’ll turn it around next game. Jim, what stands out to you as the biggest reason tonight? Um, I think uh our habits, special teams, our battle level on one-on-one battles wasn’t at the level that we expect, you know, and then uh I think the biggest difference was the battle at the net front. There’s a process that we believe in and a lot of that those details and habits within our process um cost us tonight. A lot of shots, but why do you think so many of the goalies love Uh well, one we weren’t taking away his eyes. So even if you are shooting at the logo, which you are correct, a lot hit the whatever animal that is. Um you know, and I I don’t don’t have an answer. You know, we have a lot of good players that know how to score goals and for whatever reason, we weren’t on our mark tonight. Just emotionally, how big of a letown is is a night like tonight for you guys? You know, it’s a long season. It’s it’s a journey. It’s a grind. You’re going to have nights where unfortunately the score ends up like tonight at times. Um I did think for the first two periods until it went three nothing. I liked our game quite a bit. You know uh the execution of special teams and being at the netfront I think is why you know they separated from us. I didn’t like our game after that once it went three nothing. I didn’t like the energy on our B on our bench. I didn’t like, you know, the the energy that we had on the ice. Um, and the game kind of got away from us in the third. Think in the second period, you guys had first 14 shots on. Are you feeling good about where the game’s going at at that point before it goes 300? Yeah, we’re feeling really good. First period, we’re feeling good about it. You know, their first goal goes off toe of a skate. you know, um the second goal is a is a breakdown on ours, but outside of that breakdown, I thought that there was a lot of good things we did except, you know, being hard in hard areas and that those that’s part of our process and, you know, we’ll get better in those areas with neighbors and snug there. something that you saw or wanted wanted to see differently or I thought Jake had a lot of jump and he wasn’t getting a lot of minutes just because of the way some of the we had the kill there in the first and I just wanted to see something different and I I thought that uh Sudter and Snugarude uh looked pretty good together you know um just to create a spark because we weren’t it was in that third period where we weren’t creating where we had just given up the third goal and we weren’t doing anything and same thing I did with switching Joseph and Walker you know see if we can create a little bit more. Jimmy, you said earlier it’s early. Like, how do you react to something like this? You had a lot of experience doing what you do this early in the season, something like this. Yeah, I mean, just being honest with the players. I exactly what you guys asked me. I told them, you know, I think if we looked at oddman rushes and they they missed on a couple, but we would have lost that, too. I don’t know for sure if we lost that because we had opportunities where we were all alone with the goalie as well.

Brayden Schenn, Justin Faulk and Jim Montgomery speak to the media after a 5-0 Opening Night loss to Minnesota on October 9, 2025.