Dec. 1: Postgame Interviews

Dec. 1: Postgame Interviews

power play tonight. What do you think was was missing for you guys? I think just um overall execution. I mean, we had a lot of opportunities. Um and it’s all of us to to try and make an impact in the game and um had plenty of chances and just didn’t get the job done. So, we got to take a look at it. Um see what we can improve and try and be better next time. What did you make out of the game as a whole? I mean, I know a lot of power play chances, but just didn’t seem like there was a lot of flow with a lot of the whistles, you know? Yeah, I mean it’s um both teams have played a lot of hockey here. Um sometimes you get games like that where you just um you know it can be a little choppy and you’re trying to um trying to stay in the motion of things and and and stay locked in. And I thought um you know we continued to fight but we just didn’t uh didn’t give ourselves kind of that um burst of energy that we needed to to get back in the game. And a lot of that is is on us as the power play. and um it was just one of those games where we couldn’t get a whole lot of momentum going and and they capitalized on a couple chances and and that’s the difference in the game. Two goals against early in the the game. How did that affect your guys start there? Well, I mean, yeah, you you always want to get off to a good start, especially at home and um a team on the second half of a backto-back and um those things happen. and we just had to to bounce back and get ourselves back in the hockey game. And um you know, we continued to fight, but obviously um it’s not the the way that you want to start things, but it’s those things happen and uh we just had to find a way to stay resilient and and keep fighting. Did the first one deflect off of you at all of that shot off the boards there? I’m not sure. Yeah, I don’t know. Little fire from Jordan as he went to the locker room. I guess a lot of players like to see that in their goalender because they want to stay in the game. Yeah. Yeah, of course. I mean, uh, we’re all competitive. Um, we’re trying to to win hockey games around here and, um, yeah, of course, I like seeing the fire out of him. Big opportunity for you guys here, right? Trying to get to 500. I mean, is it How do you look at this loss in terms of the opportunity that was at at hand for you guys here? Well, I mean, yeah, it’s it’s it’s a loss. I mean, um, it’s earlier in the year, so you can’t you can’t really, uh, you know, dwell on it too much. I think there’s there’s things that we can learn from and things that, um, that we did well, but yeah, I mean, we’re we’re scratching and clawing right now to to try and find wins. So, it’s disappointing, but I’m not going to not going to make too much more out of it than that. Overall, you had with the home stand and now an opportunity to go out and get some points here on the road. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, listen, our guys are are fighting and we’re here competing for one another. So, um some nights it’s not going to be the prettiest, but um love this this team, this locker room, and uh we’ll continue to fight for one another. And I thought we played some really competitive hockey and um you know, we have to continue to band together and and take that on the road. Now, Jake, why has it been just a struggle here lately offensively just putting psych? Yeah, you know, if I had an answer, I’d um we’d be scoring goals. So, it’s uh you know, it’s obviously frustrating, but I think guys are trying trying to do the right thing. Um you know, try and get guys inside and pucks the net and um you I think throughout a season, you’re going to have stretches where you’re going to struggle to score and you’re going to have stretches where you score a lot. So, um for us, we just got to keep our noses down and keep working, keep trying to get to that net and create. You feel like you are creating any? Yeah, I feel like there’s looks. Yeah, there’s looks. There’s definitely we’re getting chances and um you know obviously not doing a great job of finishing on them right now and that’s something that we can improve upon as well is you know when we do get our looks we got to bear down and finish them and you know that’s just it’s easier said than done but that’s what needs to be done. So Jake, when you guys allowed two goals early how does that affect the overall just trying to get into the game? Yeah, I would say you know it’s obviously difficult. you never want to start down two two nothing or anything like that, but um you know, you’re going to go through adversity throughout a season, throughout a game, and um you know, I thought how we reacted to it today was pretty positive. The energy on the bench stayed there. Um continued to try to go north and and play our game and try and will our way back into that one. So, um you know, where I think earlier in the year might have been a little flatter, a little less energy, but guys were up to the challenge and I thought we competed and tried. What did you think of the power play? Why weren’t you guys able to capitalize, you think? Yeah, I think early just not executing well enough uh to our game plan and um you know kind of allowed them to pressure us. Weren’t uh supporting close enough and and giving each other, you know, little outs that kind of settled down the penalty kills. So um obviously we got to converge to the net more uh more shots and um you know have more bodies there. But I thought in the third there was a little more desperation on our couple power plays we had there and um but you got to have that desperation every single time you go over the boards. When H came in, he was really great. He’s really on a good run right now, isn’t he? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he’s confident in who he is and um we’re confident in both of them, I think. Um they know that when they’re in the pipes, they got to do a job the same as any other guys. So, um you know, Hope and he’s always ready when he’s backing up and uh did a really good job there. As you look at the home stand overall, yeah, pretty good. Um all things considered, I think we would have liked to end on a high note obviously, but there’s a lot of positive things to build on uh you know, the past couple games and even tonight. So, um, for us it’s, you know, getting in the video room tomorrow, dissecting what we did well, what we didn’t do well, and, um, you know, take this good home stand, have a little bit of confidence with it, and hit the road running here. Jim, did you feel like you needed a couple of saves there early? Reason why you made the change? Yeah, I mean, uh, that and just wanted to switch momentum. You know, we had a couple of games earlier in the year where I wish I would have done more and I I didn’t want to have any regrets. So, made the switch. Sure. You’ve had some disappointed goalies when they get pulled over the years. What did you make of Bennington being able to part? You know, I love Jordan Bennington. He’s a competitor. He raises his games in the big moments all the time. I love him. You know, he walked off the ice. He said, “I love you.” I said, “I love you, too.” And we’re both competitors by nature. And at the end of the period, he waited for me. We apologized. We moved on. It’s over and done with. But just how important is that just to when you are in a different headsp space to to address it in that manner? Well, it’s it’s just, you know, the professionalism that you expect from someone like Ben and as well as my own let my own ego go and just go to him, you know, the same thing. It’s it’s important that you deal with it right away. So there’s, you know, anytime you have to deal I don’t love dealing with conflict, but in life you have to deal with conflict and you deal with it right away and nothing fers then. Considering Cole got the shut out Saturday, did you consider going back with him again tonight? We did, but his previous win was a shut out too and we went back with him and we didn’t win the following game. So that was the logic behind it. Benner Benner had played four great games in a row for us. with the power play tonight over 0 for six. What did you want more on on that unit? More of an attack mindset, convergence at the net. Um we knew that they were a team that was in shot lanes a lot. Um and that low plays weren’t going to be there and we wanted a lot more shots from up top. Uh that didn’t transpire. You know, we deflected a couple, but unfortunately deflections didn’t go in. We needed more because I thought those were our best opportunities besides the Buchcci uh opportunity there at the end. Did you feel like you had sufficient looks in the game? Just again, not not able to I didn’t think we were patient enough offensively. You know, that’s a team that plays his own defense. They flex out and they protect the middle of the ice. Um and when they’re protecting the middle of the ice like that, if you don’t have a play, forcing it to the middle is not going to work. And we unfortunately we forced too many passes to the middle instead of going up high and trying to pound it from the middle or put it back behind the net and coming out the weak side. We went out the weak side two or three times. We had really good looks. We had the the six look early in the game and that shift at the end of the second was the kind of things we were trying to game plan for, but uh we didn’t do it often enough. Can that lack of patience also apply when you got the puck on your stick in front of the neck? didn’t seem like there were a lot of open looks missed. Um, yeah. I, you know, I think that we have a lot of gifted offensive players that haven’t found the back of the net as often as they’re used to, and sometimes you you don’t have the same poise. How much do you weigh just letting him work through it versus making the decision you made to to pull that? Yeah. Well, for me, I I’ve always uh looked at how I think the go where the goals came from, what the percentages of those goals should go in, and then I also um a lot of times you let goalies fight through it. Um but sometimes like when I when I feel that the goalie looks off just like a player, I pull back his minutes. Unfortunately for a goalie, everybody knows that you’re pulling them. You know, I sit BCI or Thomas for two minutes. They don’t play 19 minutes, they play 17 minutes. No one no one really notices. Jim, with the way Herford’s looked here the past couple games, could you name it to him a bit or you go back to next game? Well, I have to sit down. We got two days to think about that.

Hear from Cam Fowler, Jake Neighbours and Jim Montgomery after a 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 1, 2025.