Dec. 9: Postgame Interviews

Dec. 9: Postgame Interviews

Justin, you get the big tying goal in the third period. Where do you feel like it got away after that? Um, obviously the third goal changed momentum quite a bit. Um, felt like a little bit of a drop after that and then, uh, yeah, they were able to kind of take the momentum a bit and add another one at the fourth. Lonnie was talking this morning about needing to play faster because you played them a couple days ago. Maybe they were they were faster than you in their building and do you feel like you were able to match that at times or not? When we had the puck, I thought I thought we did a better job of playing faster. Um I think uh for a bit there, especially in the second, um we kind of got hemmed in our zone. We weren’t weren’t getting to loose bucks to to kind of get ourselves in that opportunity to play quick and so um there wasn’t enough of it. But when we had the opportunities, I definitely thought we played faster. just talking to Robert a little bit about it. Just the injuries. I know you guys are never going to make excuses, but there’s a lot of them. You know, Buad again tonight, just five of them. Just how do you, you know, get out there and compete when you’re missing some of your main guys? Yeah, I mean, obviously it’s uh it’s a team game as a whole. um it’s not easy to take guys in and out of the lineup that are kind of everyday guys, impact guys and um when we’re still trying to find our game uh a lot more consistently. So, it’s tough, but uh you know, for sure that the guys that are coming in uh that we’ve had to call up and put in the lineup are are hungry and you know, they’re going to give their best effort and and try and help the team as much as they can. So, um there’s definitely no lack of energy from the the new guys, which is always a good thing. And um we just have to find a way to keep it going and and find some continuity. Bobby, how’ the game get away from you guys there in the third? Yeah. Um you know, just a little bit too loose. Um you know, we allowed them a lot too many too much time, space in the D zone and um you know, they made us pay. Second period, how come you weren’t able to generate much in the offensive zone? Yeah. Um you know, we just couldn’t get by their their trap in the neutral zone. um couldn’t set up our forch check and kind of get in with possession or um you know chip it to a guy with speed to to kind of set it up. So they did a good job of you know playing in our end and um you know clogging up the neutral zone and um yeah it’s something uh you know we got to improve um you know our second periods haven’t been great this year. M was talking about this morning I know you’ve been doing the manto man for a couple weeks now in the D zone but does it kind of prevent you from getting up ice and spending some time in the ozone? Uh I don’t think so. I think uh I think it allows to be more opportunistic. Um you know, guys are um you know, closer to their checks. They can beat their checks on turnovers. And um I think we just got to do a better job of uh you know, getting that second man in quick. Um you know, when a guy makes contact, if we get that second guy in, we can create a lot of uh opportunities whether it’s on the rush or setting up a for check. Um you know, we just got to close time and space. Robbie, you get a couple goals, both assisted by Beach Davis. you feel like that chemistry is uh starting to rediscover again? Yeah, I mean he’s been he’s been playing great lately and um making everyone around him better. Um you know it’s not just one or two games, it’s been you know five 10 games he’s been playing really well and um you know he’s picked a lot of us up lately so um you know he made two great plays and uh was just able to bury it but uh he’s playing really well. Know you can say next man up but I mean this kind of get out of hand when you’re on your fifth forward now is that kind of tough situation. Yeah, I mean, uh, you know, we have a lot of, uh, you know, young players, um, that are are stepping up and, um, you know, we just, yeah, there’s nothing you can do. Um, we all know how the schedule is. Um, a lot of games, not a lot of time off, and, uh, time to recover and, um, you know, it seems like every team’s kind of had their their little, you know, spurt of the injury bug. Um, whether it’s been at the start of the year, whether it’s, you know, 10 games ago, this is our time. And um you know it’s a good test for us. We got to battle through it and um you know it’s a big part of the season. We got to you know really make a move here. Thomas was just mentioning that after the tying goal maybe you got a little too loose after the game there. Do you do you feel like that was the case? I thought we were a little too loose um after the first 10 minutes. I liked our first 10 minutes of the game and I didn’t mind our first um whatever it was when we tied it up. I don’t know if it was eight minutes into the third, but um that wasn’t too bad. But besides that, we’re very loose, not stopping in the house defensively. Um not u sprinting to loose pucks enough. The second period just gives you pointed even more in the wrong direction. Yeah. Um we uh you know we turned the puck over too much in the last 10 minutes at first and we talked about putting it to the goal line and um being able to play a little more in their end and I think we were a little loose with the puck and and our angling above the puck was not where it needed to be. So it gave them a lot of momentum going towards their net about not having as much ozone time here lately. Like how do you create more? Seems like you spend a lot of time your Dzone long shift back. Yeah. Uh you got to sprint to win pucks, you got to win double ups. Um third goal is a good example of that. They had one four checker. Uh and we had two guys not going to help. It was one against three. They won the battle and then you know about 8 seconds later it’s up to the point and they outnumber us at the net. That shouldn’t happen from that situation, the man-to-man situation especially. They were coming up. Seems like they were coming up with a lot of the loose pucks too in the D zone. Yeah. Um in both zones to be honest, right? They were just coming up with they their second quick is the term we use was um quicker than ours. You mentioned this morning that you needed to play faster against this team. Was it there in spurts or just not enough or Yeah, I thought it was there in the first 10 minutes and it wasn’t there afterwards. Jim, I know injuries are part of the game. You’re dealing with it right now, but is it tough matchup wise when you got some hungry third and fourth lines on the other side going up against a lot of, you know, AHL guys called up? Well, uh, they’re not AHL guys, they’re NHL guys. They’re playing for us and, uh, they helped us win two games, you know, and and I understand the question what you’re saying, but, you know, the Bruins play hard hockey. um that team’s finishing checks every time in the Dzone. You move the puck, you get hit. They make it hard to get to their net. And it’s just um you know, we got to be able to move pucks quicker and support each other and try angles like we like to do in the offensive zone to create a little more uh connectedness which creates uh possession on their go ahead goal. Maybe you want to see it again, but could there have been something different or something better done on that? We got to win the goal line race. That’s you’re talking about their third goal. Yeah. Puck’s dumped in. They got one for checker. Uh our second quick should have been there to be able to get that puck and get out of our zone before the they were changing, you know, and they got out there and they got five guys established and we never got possession again. They out muscled us at the net. You said was concussion protocol. Is that um I don’t have official year yet word yet. I do know it’s upper body, but I don’t have an official word. You come off of two games in Canada and things are looking good. And then what’s the difficulty in maintaining that positive momentum from those games? Yeah. Um, we went through this last year, right? And we just got to continue to to bear down on our habits and details like, you know, um, we did a good job of protecting the slot in the two previous games. Uh tonight in the third period, it really got away from us.

Hear from Justin Faulk, Robert Thomas and Jim Montgomery after a 5-2 loss to Boston.