RAW | Kris Knoblauch 12.03.25

RAW | Kris Knoblauch 12.03.25

Another another practice, another good practice. You guys haven’t had a ton of these this year. Can you maybe just describe like you you’re putting out big fires for the first few, but maybe having a chance to drill down on some smaller stuff as time goes on and just get some fixes. Yeah, more minor details. Uh more running routes and finding out where we need to be on just some transitional plays. That was more the focus on today. And um you know, I thought we played a pretty good game yesterday. Defended well. uh maybe we could have generated a little more offensively and that probably offense starts with how we um get the puck through the neutral zone and um that’s yeah we want to work on that. Obviously when you’re playing every second day practice time it’s minimal. It’s but we’re at least able to touch on some things where uh the first seven weeks of the schedule we had um almost none of it. don’t want to pride. Uh but before practice starts, you sit and have a little chat with Leon Dryside. Maybe just give us a thought. I don’t know if you’ll tell us what the topic is, but just the value in having opportunities to do that. Um yeah, I think there’s many opportunities to talk to the uh players um whether it’s morning skates days um or practice days, but uh you know, Leon and I were just talking about the game and how our teams and playing and uh I always appreciate their perspective on what they see and how we can be better. Uh whether that’s a fourthline guy or a superstar, I think it’s important. um because they’ve obviously they see things through a different lens than the coaches and the coaches are sometimes just looking at a tactical thing or maybe player personnel and maybe are way off on something but um yeah we’re just talking about where the team is and you know we put in put in a pretty good effort the other night but um unfortunately we came up short. One goal in the last two games Chris what have you liked defensively specifically about your team? Well, first foremost, we can’t ignore the play of Steuart Skinner. Last two games, he’s played incredibly well. And anytime uh goender’s playing well, he covers up mistakes and because certainly there were mistakes and we gave up some chances, but when the save is made, it’s easily to um you can forget about the mistake and it’s not uh amplified so much. Uh but overall, I think we’ve had pretty good defensive outings. You know, we look back at the um Tampa Bay game, Florida, not so much the Dallas um obviously in the last two have been good, but um defensive details, a lot of it’s just puck management. Um and when there are mistakes and there were mistakes, how well we responded, how quickly responded to protect the dangerous ice after there was a change of possession. Uh that was something we talked about before the game against Minnesota. They’re very good at that, capitalizing on those situations. And you know, we I don’t think we were in that situation very often, but when we were, I thought we did a pretty good job on eliminating um making it worse. Um looks like Hopkins bounces up into that top six. I know there, you know, that look with him down the middle has to be tempting too to be that deep, but just a thought on, you know, if that’s going to stick for the game and why not. Um yeah, I think N Leon can both uh move from left wing with Connor to um you know center whether it’s two two center or three. You know it is nice having those three guys playing together or um down the middle. N last two games has been um really good. He’s played extremely well last night on the faceoffs. Won a lot of key faceoffs for us. Um he was a little more in the shutdown defensive responsibility but um You know, I think right now with the um missing some winger depth, you know, we’re missing um Kapp and Rosik just uh little more tempting to move up noo to play in that situation. On Jake Walman, he did not practice today. Yeah, Jake will be a while. He’s um and when I say while maybe a week or something like that. Uh right now it’s just uh healing well, but it’s just taking time. Chris, how would you assess Matt’s season so far? I know the points don’t necessarily stand out as much, but what do you notice as a coach of of his play as a rookie? He’s been playing really well. It’s coming in the National Hockey League as a full-time player, play top line, uh very difficult, but I thought he’s done well. And yeah, it’s tough to score regularly five on five in this league. You look at the point leaders um you know a lot of their offense comes from um special teams and yes Matt’s on our second unit power play but doesn’t see much time there to get those power play points five on five um you know I think he’s feeling more comfortable he’s starting to make some plays u but I I just like his allound game I think he’s been very solid in our defensive zone offensively he’s making some more plays but you know that’ll increase as he gets more um familiar with the game um playing here and playing with the his team teammates. But uh overall I I I’ve been impressed. Is his biggest attribute or biggest asset to his game is his ability to attack and not maybe defer. I know some players not saying that they always defer to Connor and Leon when they’re on the line with them, but his ability to kind of take the puck himself and and make plays himself. Well, I like he takes the puck to the middle of the ice. He takes it to the dangerous ice. He’s not playing on the perimeter. Often guys play with Connor and Leon, they want to give him the puck, but it’s on the perimeter where they get the puck on the wall and they stay there looking for those guys, which isn’t very u not very dangerous. Um, even if you do get the puck to Connor and Leon, they are still not in a very dangerous position. But what happens is you attack the middle of the ice with the puck, it usually draws one, two, sometimes three defenders. Now you get the puck. That’s that’s what you want. that’s what makes a a player um dangerous who make a play and create some offense. So, I like that part of his game and um yeah, I think we’ll just see more of it. Chris, when you talk about players seeing things seeing things through a different lens from a coach to a superstar like Conor McDavid, he recognized last night that there may be a couple opportunities where he could have shot instead of passing the puck. How much you talk about the guidance and the instincts between trusting him to do what he knows he needs to do versus what you’re seeing on the ice, shots and passing, things like that. Yeah, shooting’s down a little bit. Um I’m not maybe not from this year, but the year that he uh scored 60 plus goals. I know he had averaged um we were just looking at it, it was about 4.2 a game, and right now he’s about two and a half a game or two plus. And you know, when the team’s playing better and you’re spending more time in the offensive zone, you’re getting more power plays. That’s another thing of where we don’t get very many power plays. There’s a lot of shot opportunities the other night. Um, yeah, there’s two plays in particular that he definitely could have shot, but when it doesn’t get on net, you think, well, I should have shot, but if that pass is executed, you that’s an incredible play. And in two situation I’m thinking about is um he had kind of a twoon-one. The defenseman was totally out of sorts. He was swimming. He just swung a stick and he was able to get break up a pass. Um you know if that pass is executed it’s the likelihood of that going in is a lot better. Uh the other one was in the second period. He attacked down the middle of the ice and yes he could have taken a backhand shot and chances that puck going in is maybe 10% 5% at bass and yes he could have taken that shot. He makes a pass and he was trying to hit uh Seavoi back door and it grazes off u skate. If that puck didn’t bounce off Heyman skate that’s probably likelihood of that pass going through is probably uh 30 to 50%. So yeah, when pucks don’t get on, when you have an opportunity and they don’t get on net, you think I should have shot, but when the passes are made, it’s yes, that was the right play. So Connor’s pretty good at deciding when to shoot and when not to. Frederick’s in that vortex, he’s not playing well enough to get a bunch of ice time from you, but he’s probably not getting enough ice time to play real well. How does a player work himself out? How does that player work himself out of that? Yeah, Trent is uh you know, I saw some things that I liked the other night. Um just has to work hard and be ready for an opportunity. You know, if the other guys in front of them are doing their job and playing well, you might have to wait a little bit longer. with somebody, whether it’s an injury or get into my dog house, you know, you’re looking for a replacement, somebody to get uh more opportunity, you want, you better be ready. And uh yeah, I think Trent’s disappointed with the season. Um I certainly expect more from Trent. Uh I think he has a lot to give us and help our team. Uh but right now it’s um yeah, it’s one it’d be nice to give guys ice time to work their way out and play well, but also there’s a balance on being able to step up and making something happen on their own.

Kris talks to the media as the team held practice at the Downtown Community Arena on Wednesday afternoon.