Post-Game | Ryan Huska – 13.11.25

Post-Game | Ryan Huska – 13.11.25

How important was tonight’s win in just in terms of reinforcing you can still win even when scoring is still an uphill climb? Um yeah, well it’s important for a lot of reasons that um as you described for one, but I we needed we needed a win. Um it’s much like goal scoring for a goal scorer that hasn’t scored in quite a while. When he gets one, they feel pretty good about themselves and they’re able to go home at night and sleep a lot better and then come back the next day refreshed and ready to go. So, there was a lot of things we liked about our game. I thought we did a really good job on the checking side of it, which is important for our team the way we have to play and then we found a way to get the one goal and then the extra one at the end. Blake Coleman stepping up with that goal, showing off his hands a little bit. Um, feels like he’s been doing that a fair bit. Yeah, Blake I I thought Blake and Michael were awesome up front tonight. They played against a really good player a lot of the night and they did a very good job against him. Um, I I look at the our older players. I felt like our older players looked younger tonight. So, I thought they had a really good night, all of those guys. Why do you say that? What What did you see there? I don’t know. There’s a little bit of I don’t know if determination’s the right word or not, but there’s certain plays that you look at it like there’s one by the bench late in the game, Michael skates to try to get the line to get the puck in deep instead of just throwing it away. Like those are determined plays and I saw that more from our older guys tonight than the prior few games for sure. The lack of scoring obviously has been talked about quite a bit but with seven goals in the season where do you see the him? Uh Blake’s consistent. I think that would be the one thing that I would probably say about him. He um goes to the net. He doesn’t always score the prettiest goals, but he’s he’s a worker and he is the type of guy that makes people around him better. But with his his offensive ability, it’s not like his hands are outstanding or anything like that. Um, he’s very good at understanding where to go and where the puck’s going to be. So, his hockey sense at times allows him to be in the right spot at the right time. Like tonight, he did a good job of poking it away and and finding a way to score. See, we’ve heard play 60 minutes, play 60 minutes. Just just not having that lull in the game. How important is that just to sort of be able to point to to these guys and what happens? Yeah, good good question. Very for us, I mean, that’s we have to play that way. I It’s not like we’re going to get our our see ourselves in a lot of 65 6-4 games. We have to be content and and okay with winning games 2 to1, two to nothing, whatever the case may be. If you do things the right way without the puck, you’re your chances are going to come. Like we have the shot volume again. I thought we had some really good chances again tonight. I felt like we could have been up more than just the one goal in tonight’s game, especially the first couple periods. You just have to stay with that stuff. Eventually it it does come. Um when the guys aren’t so tight on their sticks, when they’re not forcing it as much as we have over the last little while, it’ll come. That side will come. You have to make sure the other side’s taken care of first. What does it say about Dustin then? I mean, like the shot volume from from San Jose was not huge, but like every time they had an opportunity, he turned it away. Yeah, I thought he kept himself um busy, I guess, the first couple periods. I got it has to be tough for a goalender I would assume in those situations, but I thought he was very good in the third period when we needed him to be. And what does it say um about Samuel Hanzik and the fact that you had him out there killing the game dying? He’s been a good player for us. He’s done a lot of things the right way. When when games are on the line, I think he thinks it well. Um and when you’re playing with Mike and Blake, you’re going to be out in those situations. So, I think he’s learning and he’s doing a really good job. Is there anything you’re looking for with Dustin in that sort of scenario where a guy’s focus could wander? Could, you know, it’s a little dull at one end. Is there anything you’re kind of looking for to make sure he’s still sort of dialed? Um, me not so much. Uh the one thing that I always hear from Jason is if they start to wander around and try to play pucks because a lot of times guys will do that and I remember Jason talking a lot about some other goalenders that we’ve had in the past that when they’re not that busy there’s a tendency to overplay pucks to try to get themselves involved in the game and they get themselves in trouble which we did see a little bit tonight um with the one play on our power play. Um that would be the only thing but I learned that from Jason so I’d be lying if if I said that was something that I made up. What did you think of tonight? I thought he played really well. I thought he did a good job. He made a great play on the one play to Paulal on the backside. He thinks the game very well. I which makes me excited about his future and what he can be. Thought on uh your defenseman and their decision-m felt like a lot of the pinches were working and pressing the offense for your team. Yeah, you have to pinch to play offense. It’s not just a reckless thing you do. In St. Louis, we got into trouble because I thought we were poor with our decision-m and we didn’t do a very good job of reading what was coming up the ice against us tonight. I thought we were really good, much more connected and made great decisions uh for the most part all night long. We didn’t really give up a lot of oddman situations tonight which helped us about it. It seemed like every time Celebrating was on ice uh back was on him like a sweater. Just Mlin had a lot of trouble building up speed tonight. Um, that’s why, you know, when when you do play at home, you get the advantage and he’s Michael’s the guy we always try to play against top players in the league because he’s responsible. He’s a harder guy to play against and he still, even though he’s getting up there in age, he can skate with them. Um, so it was, as I mentioned earlier, I thought him, his linemates did a very good job tonight. Nats played, I believe, five games. How much of of your confidence has he earned with his play? I I think he’s done a good job. I wasn’t a huge fan in St. Louis. I thought there was some poor decisions that he made there, but the other games that he’s played for us, he’s kept his game simple, the way we expect him to play. Uh, and when he plays that way, he’s effective.

“We needed a win … There was a lot of things we liked about our game”