Postgame Media | Jon Cooper

Postgame Media | Jon Cooper

disappointing at least in a tie game that late and not come away with anything. Oh, to say the least. Yeah, that’s uh that’s a cardinal sin to be at home, have a the lead in the last couple minutes of the game and then to give it up with two minutes left that uh but it was, you know, it was probably creeping up on us just in the sense that the third period really had nothing going on either way. looked like in the end both teams went, you know, through an emotional first game of the year and it was like getting to the end and looked like it was content for let’s go to overtime and see who gets the other one. So, but you know that tough turnover, send him in on a three4on two and uh you know their guy makes a hard play at the net. Good on him and that was it. So, I’ll uh that’s it’s more on us uh than them and that was a disappointing part. Seemed like space really kind of shrank as that game went on. You know, there was some open space early in the game. Did Ottawa kind of change the way that they were doing things or were we just having a hard time getting pucks in deep? I don’t know. I to be honest, I it was game one. I I don’t know if our execution was there as that game went on and when you don’t execute makes you look kind of slow. Um I think that’s what kind of crept into our game. We just you know we couldn’t connect like two or three passes and uh and then we when you do that you’re late in plays and and uh you know came back to bite us in the end and it was uh you know our execution has to get better. we’re we’re better than we did played down the stretch. Uh but on the other side of things, give you know Ottawa’s good young team and um you know they get taste of the playoffs last year and they they’re they’re building and they uh they executed better than us down the stretch was bottom line take long to get himself in the game there. What can you say about the scratch there and how it kind of gave you guys some energy? Yeah, that was uh that’s a tough assignment to I think it’s your dream to play in the NHL and and you know your your first ever game is on a brand new team. You’re here like 72 hours. Uh it’s a home opener your first game and I don’t know how long that took but wasn’t very many seconds and you know you’re getting in a fight in your first uh your first shift. So, I’m pretty sure the adrenaline was rushing, but I think uh you know, the crowd appreciated it and so did our team. Uh because, you know, the other guy going against him there is uh he’s a big boy himself. So, it was u good on him. It was he had a positive impact on our team. John, how much were you feeding off the crowd in that first period and just all the electricity from the It’s awesome. I I I think God think that’s my 13th home opener and it it it never gets old. It is phenomenal just to be a part of that to experience it and and you know our crowd is it’s amazing just their passion they have for this team. You can feel it and you feel it when the guys get called out and introduced and you know I’m sure that was a big reason for the start we had was you know we were jumping on their back. Couple of goals on the power play tonight. What did you like about what that group was doing? Well, they were executing and it’s kind of that’s what didn’t fall into our five on five game when we needed it and uh you know they they’ve been doing that for a long time that group. Um but we just you know we don’t ex we didn’t execute down the stretch and in the end we score three in the first. I mean this shouldn’t have to be a game where we need five to get a point. That’s not what should have happened and that’s a disappointing part. Did Bazzy show you, you know, with the time off he had in camp, you only had the two periods of preseason? I I I liked his game tonight. I mean, he made some big saves early for for us. I mean, the tough one is and that it’s nobody’s fault. Like, I don’t think anybody saw that second one go in. All of a sudden, you just hear a ding of the post and it’s in. And so that was probably a little bit of an unfortunate one because you know it’s within the first minute of the second period all of a sudden you know you’re just settling into a 3-1 lead and now it’s 3-2 and and so that was just an unlucky break but I liked his game.

Head Coach Jon Cooper speaks to the media following our 5-4 loss to the Senators on Opening Night.