“You can’t cheat for offense.” | Jeff Blashill Postgame 11.20.25

“You can’t cheat for offense.” | Jeff Blashill Postgame 11.20.25

Uh first of all, how is uh Burikovski? Uh he won’t play tomorrow. Um so we’ll see uh moving on beyond that, but he won’t play tomorrow. Go ahead. What did you see anything on on that hit? I actually just watched it. Uh yeah, I mean honestly uh he doesn’t have the puck and he gets hit square in the head. like of all the stuff that was called tonight. Uh uh he gets he doesn’t have the puck. He never had the puck. Like he had the puck up in the air. I guess if that can you know I mean if he passed that puck and stared at his pass I get it. But the puck’s up in the air and doesn’t have the puck. It’s not even close to him and he gets hit directly in the head. What do you Sorry. What do you think of the the dart breakaway? Well, it’s a penalty, you know, so like that’s where like we got to control. we can control. But it’s when I walk in the room and and uh and see like when you don’t have position of the guy and you put your stick in there and you hit his glove, which he did. Yes, he got the stick after, but he he the first contact was on his glove. That’s a penalty. It’s a penalty. And then, you know, like I don’t uh I don’t know what was said. It better have been really really really really personal to to uh to be that sensitive about it cuz you’re deciding games. So if if it was super personal, I wasn’t there. I don’t know. But it better have been really really really personal. Uh if you’re not going to have enough thick skin to just keep playing through it. Just the third period in general, it second period it looked like you guys played probably your best second and then the third uh was uncharacteristic for you guys. I thought I thought uh my the biggest growth for me in this game is in anything that happened uh is the number one thing was the first we had too many guys that didn’t uh weren’t ready to to you know I talk all the time it’s an everyday league and we just had too many guys that weren’t ready to compete and and play hard hockey like that we you know we told them it wasn’t going to be an easy night and too many guys went out there and and acted like it was the flow drill that we uh that we ran in in the pregame skate. It’s going to be hard. You got to stop on pucks. You got to reload hard. You got to um you got to you can’t cheat for offense. You can’t blow the zone. Um and so we did that way too many times in the first. Um I thought in the second we were excellent. You know, some of this is like again it’s like who can half court who and and we kind of we did it to them. And then in the in the third I just think we didn’t we defended too much and so because of that they kind of halfcourted us and and we didn’t defend well enough, you know. Um, so then we couldn’t get anything going uh offensively uh at all. We basically when you’re at the end of your shift, you’re just hard to get anything really going. So, uh, but to me the big lesson is it’s an everyday league and we better uh understand you got to show up and and uh ready to play hard hockey every night. The team had a lot more hits in that second period. I guess what did you make of the team’s response to the to that Burkovsky hit? Um, you know, our guys were were mad. Um, they thought it was a bad hit. Um, uh, you know, there was no answer. Um, so, you know, but but I thought our guys reacted the right way. I thought we competed extremely hard in the second. Uh, and I I can’t say we weren’t, we just never got anything going in the third at all. So, for me, the third’s a hard one to even judge. Like, besides not being good enough defensively. We kind of bogged ourselves down with some turnovers. That that that’s usually our kill. When we when we get in Dzone coverage and we don’t break the puck out clean, then it just seems like it’s a never- ending cycle that way. So, we’ll have to correct that. Bernardo was pretty hard on himself and you know put it on on him. What happened? Do you I mean it sounds like you’re and how it played out. You didn’t have an issue with him I guess expressing that frustration. No, no, he he certainly can’t uh you know again I I don’t know what was said. Um you can’t take a penalty there. He knows that. He’s already said that. Um so I get that and we’ll handle that internally. It’s uh it just again it just I just think you’re you’re you’re that’s a big call at that moment. It better have been really personal. I just think sometimes like in the, you know, in the heat of action things happen. I, you know, first of all, you know, I know why Connor’s upset. He’s got a breakaway and somebody takes a penalty on him. Um, it doesn’t excuse him taking a penalty. Um, I just don’t I think there’s times where you can kind of as you know, whatever, just walk away from it. So, both ways. Both ways. What do you think of us coming back? I thought he was really good. You know, Bert’s Bert. He he he wins pucks. He uh competes extremely hard. Um, you know, I thought he did a really good job coming back. Really good. Picked up some nice minutes tonight. Can you comment on his game? Yeah, I thought he played he played uh solid. You know, I don’t you know, I think there’s still just that kind of um I think there’s still another level there. Um but, you know, some of that it’s not going to happen right away. Like you got to feel it a little bit confidence-wise and it’s going to be a slow build, you know. So, but I thought he he played enough to garner the minutes. So that’s that’s good for him.

Head Coach Jeff Blashill discusses need for readiness and hard play every night despite controversial calls in the game following loss against Seattle.

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