Nov. 6: Postgame Interviews

Nov. 6: Postgame Interviews

Matthew, I know you guys weren’t feeling your too good about yourselves after last night, but how do you feel now? Yeah, better. I think it was a good team win. I think whole step up pretty solid for us. I think special unit was good. I think her PK was good. Um, you know, I think we pressured the first two period and we didn’t beat ourselves, so it was good. How important were those saves from Hoff early just to give you the confidence you needed? Yeah, huge honestly. Um I think the like I said he stepped up big for us today and uh you know it’s never easy to go back to back especially the way we came in late last night and um you know practice this morning and um it was a pretty stingy win and it’s good great effort by everybody and like I said hope busting the game a lot of a lot of big effort tonight too and um you know happy we got the win after last night. Seemed like your goal really energized the bench. Um can you walk us through what happened there? Yeah, I mean I’m just trying to be aggressive on a penalty kill on a penalty kill and um when I see opportunities to attack, kind of try to get breakaways. Sometimes the the oppos the opposition or aren’t playing um ne as much as tight defense as it is in the power play and um you know kind of got a lucky bounce on on the blue line and tried to attack the net and yeah Monty uh said he wanted everyone to be more physical, see a better effort tonight. Do you feel like from your perspective there in the crease you guys got that? Yeah, for sure. Um, I think right from the right from the bat, everybody was more physical. Everybody was in the game early and um, you know, it paid off for us. We uh, you know, we got a pretty good win. How important is it for you to be steady early and kind of give the boys confidence they need to to build something here? Yeah, it’s good. I’m just trying to do my job. Um, you know, stop the puck and um, you know, whether that’s early or late. Um, you know, I’m just trying to uh, you know, keep things simple in there and um, yeah, just do my job. Feel like you were seeing the puck well tonight? Yeah, I saw it. Um, you know, our D did a great job uh boxing out and um, you know, getting under sticks and, uh, making sure I saw everything. It was, uh, it was a good job by the D. Monty said he liked what you guys had been building. Obviously, you have a setback um, the other night, but do you feel like you can build off this one? Yeah, of course. Um, you know, especially after last night, I think I think it uh, you know, it tells a lot about our group. Um, you know, the character we have and um, you know, after after last night, it was tough, but um, we all bounced back and uh, you know, got a good win. Uh Monte, you were looking for a better effort and drive tonight, more physicality all around. Do you feel like you saw that? I thought the majority of the game that the effort was significantly better than yesterday. Um I thought the physicality was good. I like the way we dug in. I like the way we there was numerous block shots and our goalender was our best player. And that that’s what you need on the road. What about your goalender? Him being steady early. Did you build confidence from the net out there? We did that. He had a great save there. His first save of the game. great glove save and I think the bench got really up because of it and I think uh we got energy from it and then he just was solid all night long. Looked like the bench got up after Matthew Joseph short-handed goal there. They reacted. What what did that do for you guys? Again gave us some momentum. Um our PK for check has been really good all year and uh that was an opportunity where we stalled it at the blue line and Matty Joe speed and what a great play he made uh and move on the goal. You concerned at all about how few shots you got late in the game? Well, we’re protecting a two nothing lead. Uh, you know, they’re going to push and they did push. Uh, but I was really happy with um, you know, the block shots, how we protected the middle. They didn’t get that many shots despite the fact that we didn’t get that many at all. And, uh, I would have liked to us uh, for us to have a little more possession time in the third period in the zone. Something for us to get better at. Made uh, several lineup changes tonight going into the game. What went into those? Uh there were several people we weren’t happy with the effort last night and uh didn’t matter um the role. There was a lot of guys that didn’t play up to their role and responsibilities on the team and with the players we ended up going with we thought would give us the best opportunity to win tonight. And did you feel like um the the building of your game is back on track now? Um can’t say that yet. That’s one game. We did it one game in Edmonton. We got to you know do it again Saturday night.

Mathieu Joseph, Joel Hofer and Jim Montgomery speak to the media after a 3-0 shutout win in Buffalo.