Oct. 30: Postgame Interviews

Oct. 30: Postgame Interviews

It was a tough one there. You guys, uh, left a point on the table or you happy with the way you guys competed. I think it was a step in the right direction, you know, um, executing a bit better. Um, but you obviously just got to find a way to get two points, you know, got some chances myself and OT there just got to make more out of it. Game you guys win nine out of 10 times though with with everything that you did do out there. Yeah, it’s hard, you know, it’s hard to say. Um, I think we just, you know, got some chances. Just got to bury those. And like I said before, it was it’s a good step, but we obviously got more. What was the thought process on the bench during the challenge? Did you feel like that would go in your favor? Um, honestly didn’t see at the beginning, and I felt like in that situation, the the longer it takes, it’s probably more in our favor. So, uh, it took a while, so you’re kind of guessing it’s going to probably go our way. Pierce, is this a You’ve had some tough losses. This the toughest one to swallow. Um, no. I I wouldn’t say that, but uh, you know, every every loss is, uh, it’s obviously not a great feeling. Um, yeah, it’s it’s, you know, take the positive out, but obviously just got to come up with two points. Case, when you say a step in the right direction, what positives are you taking from this one? Just, you know, executing our system a bit better, be a bit more connected, all those kind of things. Obviously, there’s more, but just kind of feel like we were bit disconnected before that and, uh, just kind of getting there again. What kind of energy did some of the young kids bring to the table? Snugaroo, D’vorski and those kids. Yeah, obviously they just battles hard and uh give some fresh energy and they doing good job and just, you know, play in the system and win their one-on-one battles. I think that’s just kind of for everybody. You just focus on that small battle yourself and then everything else will kind of fall in place. Oscar, any progress tonight? I think so. I mean, obviously it’s it’s tough right now. Uh I don’t think we’re playing playing bad. Uh it’s feels like, you know, we’re making a couple mistakes and it’s back in the net. Uh it’s it’s tough. Um but I don’t think I mean most of the games I think we’re playing pretty good. Um you know, we almost almost got 40 shots on that. So Mhm. Have you seen anything like this? I mean, where you talk about the mistakes are minimal, but when they are made, they’re in the back of the net. Have you seen anything like this before? No, I don’t think so. You know, it’s uh it is it is tough. Um when you see it too and like you know, like you said, it’s it’s it’s not like we’re passing up the middle and they walk down the highway and rips it in. uh small mistakes and you know we’re maybe more more not protecting the middle ice uh good enough uh cuz I don’t want anyone to to write anything about me trying to rip the goals apart here uh know and hope has been amazing for us for years and uh they uh they’ve been they’ve been playing they’ve been playing good and they they work worked their asses off every day so uh none of none of this is on them uh it’s in all of us and uh We we just need to be better at covering covering the middle and covering up for them. Did you do a better job of that tonight though? I I think so. A little bit at least. You know, uh you know, a little communication mistake on the on that uh PK goal. Uh you know, obviously obviously it’s it’s it’s some rebound goals and you know, obviously breakaway. Uh not much you can do there, but we’re trying. I mean, it’s it’s I don’t know what to say. It’s it’s it’s kind of uh it’s it’s hard right now and it’s um we we just need we need a freaking win. Jim, can you take a game like that most nights feel like you’re going to come away with two points the way you play? Uh yes, usually. Um and not because of the shot clock. We’re not a real shot on goal evaluators as a staff. Um, but we had a lot of point blank shots. We had a lot of traffic going to the net. We created a lot of chaos offensively. Um, but you know, um, Vancouver, um, did a good job of hanging around and then they got the lead a couple of times. I love the way we fought back. We some of the goals that we gave up like we got to be smarter. We got to continue to build in the right way. We did build tonight. It’s a step in the right direction. We need to win that game. It’s that simple. Uh Sunny was just kind of lamenting his missed scoring chance. A few chances tonight that you know probably got to have. I got to think that there’s six to seven chances that should have been in the back of the net. You know, at least we’re there now. We’re getting more chances. That’s that’s a good thing. um you know so it’s a step in the right direction. That’s the positive. The negative is there’s some game management issues and there’s some um decisions that just we we have to become a smarter hockey team. The same problem where they don’t get many chances but they get some great a chances. Yeah. Well, I mean you give up a breakaway off a twoon two like that shouldn’t happen. Um, you know, we we we didn’t get lucky with the goalie interference, but like we you can’t be giving up that many cracks from the middle of the ice with 3 minutes left. Like, you know, guys that are out there have to value ending plays, protecting valuable ice a little more than what we are doing right now. Was the staff feeling pretty confident there that you should make that challenge? Uh, you know what? It was right down to the last minute. Um, we saw the overhead uh on the bench pretty quick. Um, Elliot Mandue did a really good job. Um, saying, “I’m not sure right now. I’m not sure.” The communication lines through coach were great. Um, and then when I called the ref over to buy some more time, we had seen it enough that I was comfortable, ready to challenge it. And then Elliot came in and said, “Yes, challenge it.” Was stick on stick and then went through his blocker side. So, I was leaning towards it and he when he confirms it because he studies all those things, it really um made us feel that we were 80% certain it would get reversed. mind talk about game management. That second goal they scored, Broers, Steve Reicho comes in, Buchad’s changing. Is that just communication awareness or Well, there’s two things there. Um the, you know, Buch uh not Buchad Buad’s fine changing. He should expect that, um the puck’s going to go to the goal line. We have a twoon two and it’s an opportunity for our players to learn. Uh, we got to start learning and applying though. Uh, Broberg needs, it’s just a twoon two. He thinks he can hit 26 for a breakaway. He’s not on a breakaway. So, the puck just needs to go to the goal line because they’ve all been out there for a while. 55 is coming to join as the third man. That can’t happen. You know, one defenseman’s in, the other defenseman protects the middle of the ice. That’s that’s the way we want our defenseman to play when one of their if their partner is in the offensive rush. You talked about protecting the middle of the ice as a whole. Did you do that much better tonight? We did it better, but not to the level that we need to do it. We’ll continue to get better at that. Learn a lot about the game tonight, but D’Vorski, what did you think about his game? I thought it was really good. Played a really good game. You know, I thought um he did some really good things on the power play. He looked uh I I liked his speed and pace tonight. So, a lot of good things about him. And then I thought our other young forward was our best forward tonight. And Snugroot. Is that one of the reasons why you felt comfortable with them? You had them out there with late in the game. I mean, they deserve the ice at that point, I guess. Well, yeah, they definitely did. If I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t have put them out. I mean, that’s that simple. Like I when it comes down as a coach, you have a gut feel behind the bench and you have a gut feel about who are the players that that might get it done and that’s who you put out there in those situations. Usually it’s it’s not your young forwards. Um but tonight they played really well that they had earned it. There was one game with the Borskeeper. Does he look like a guy who could stick around and help you? Too early to tell. Yeah. I mean, you know, you you you get called up, you get really excited. Uh, as an individual, your adrenaline’s going. There’s a lot of u dopamine going on. It’s the NHL. You’re excited. We play in front of great fans. Like, now it’s it’s it’s the everyday. It’s the recovery now. We practice tomorrow. We go to Columbus. We got to do it. It’s rinse repeat. We got to play better than we played tonight. Hughes wasn’t there for Vancouver tonight. That’s their best player, right? I know we’re missing Thomas, so you can say that’s a wash. But you know what? We’re the more desperate team right now. And now we’re going into a Columbus team that’s playing really well. I think they’re five and one their last six.

Pius Suter, Oskar Sundqvist and Jim Montgomery speak to the media after a SO loss to Vancouver on October 30, 2025.