🎥 SOUND: Marner, Howden & Cassidy
saw Hen up on the up with Eel today. What do you what do you like about him up there? Well, we’ll see a little bit, right? Because he hasn’t played a lot, but he’s got speed. He’s been getting good looks coming off the wing. So, a right stick to a left stick for Jack. Some outside speed that pushes Barbie to the right side. Um, he has finished when he’s moved up in the lineup in the past. He’s a good 200 foot player. Can help Jack with faceoffs on that dot if need be. So, there’s a lot of positives there. Obviously, when Stony went out, we’re looking for different people to fill in and we’ve tried different people and we’ll keep trying. Um, so yeah, I just like I think more than anything how he’s moved around the lineup every year I’ve been here and played center, left wing, played up, down, whatever way you want to look at it. And I think he’s always given us good minutes. So, that’s probably the most important thing. He’s a solid player and he’ll he’ll help that line with whatever he does. Well, Siz in a regular jersey today. Is he in play tomorrow? Yeah, maybe. You know, he’s he’s out of the red jersey, so let’s see how he recovers from today’s practice, but he’s he’s a possibility. If he can’t go, then everything we just discussed might change. Um, but we wanted to look at it today anyway. You just talked about it a little bit with how he being able to move up and down the lineup. What is it about Brett’s game that allows him to just be such a Swiss Arm Swiss Army knife? Well, I think part of it is he has the ability to um kind of figure out what type of players he’s playing with. He he’s very direct anyway no matter what. By that I mean he’s pretty much a north south player. He’s not trying to make a lot of fancy plays. Um so certainly when he’s playing with like the Kolasar Sizens those types of lines at for check situations and going up with Jack. Jack’s got good speed through the neutral zone. So he’ll certainly compliment him there. So he’ll know that it becomes a little more of a rush game if you get out of your zone clean. You can still make plays and score off the rush. So I think it’s his ability to to play both ways. Um, yeah, I think he just knows what he is. He’s comfortable with what he is, what he brings, play to your strengths, and um, usually works out no matter who he’s playing with. You haven’t had Hannifan in the lineup since the opener. What have you missed without having one of your best defenseman here the last 10? I think puck moving ability, especially below the goal line. He separates well, a little deception in his game, too. So, he can he can beat F1, right? He’s good at that, you know, and that’s a a talent. um you know with his hockey IQ and with his feet. So now you’re putting F2 and F3 of their forch check guys in a tough position if F1 doesn’t get the job done. Right now what do they do? So by the time they make their decision now the puck’s moved and you typically can be clean if you beat F1. So he really does a good job with that. I think at the Ozone blue line he creates shooting lanes for himself with his lateral movement. Um we’ll attack the net downhill so he’ll open up some passing lanes too in that zone. So we’ve missed a bit of that. Um, so happy to have them back. Know it’s a little bit early with Detroit, but obviously they’re off to a good start. What have you noticed about how they’ve kind of start got things rolling? Well, they found ways to win close games. I was watching LA the other night and they lost. It was in the lost column and all a sudden they’re coming back on the ice. They called a goal back and they find a way to win in a shootout. So, um, you know, San Jose, you know, they they win one in extra time. So, they’ve found ways to win, but if you’re looking at their team, five uh special teams has been a strength. Their power plan, penalty killer, both top 10 in the league. So, um that helps you win some of those close games if you’re five on five game is not where you want it to be. And I suspect they’re like a lot of teams in the league, they’re still working on that part of it. Um so, that’s that’s what I’ve seen. So, the close ones, they’ve won, they’ve turned some of those ties or loser points into wins. Uh, and if you can do that through the course of the year, then you’ll be in good shape. There’s some pace to practice today. Do you have a checklist of things you want to check off throughout this week where you’ve got some more time to to skate? Yeah, there’s one thing I want to check off. I want to give a shout out to the fellow behind you, Gourd, who’s leaving us, the Vegas Golden Knights. He’s done a great job for us. We wish him well your future endeavors. Well, Mr. Gourd, don’t be a stranger. If you don’t know who Gourd is, he’s right there. If they can flip the camera around somehow. Uh he’s usually on the other side of it doing great work. So we wish you luck. Um yes, we we’re at home now. We can control practice a little better. Our start times are now pretty more consistent 7:00 start. So that routine oriented. Um so we’ll see how how we use practice time. I like practice today. I thought we had good, you know, good energy. Uh had a nice event last night, the gala. I think everyone was out having a good time. maybe that, you know, um, helped us this morning come to the the rink in a good frame of mind. And now we know we’re into a little more of a consistent routine, too. I think players want that. It’s almost every second night there might be a break where you get couple of days there. I think in the middle of this home stand, then we’re back to back on the road. So, we’re playing a lot of hockey this month. Um, and I think any player would tell you they like to get in that rhythm. October, we’re a little bit fits and starts. Um, we count came out of it just fine, but I think you’ll see our overall play should improve if we get a little more consistency uh with the schedule and maybe with the lines and pairs, etc. You know, hopefully we’ve had a few injuries early on. We had to move some people around. Hopefully, we can knock on wood, you know, keep that part of a little more consistent. A couple of coaches have commented recently that there’s like there’s a few teams that aren’t very good and then there’s a whole bunch of teams that are We weren’t in that category, were we? The ones that aren’t very good. No, no, you’re in the in the category of teams that are good. But like if depending on the score clock tonight, you could wake up in a wild card spot tomorrow like it is uh the the crux of what the coaches said was every night’s like a playoff game. Have you noticed that? Well, the games are tighter. What I’ll tell you what I’ve noticed. It seems like there’s a like What day was it? Was it maybe Saturday? Because we we haven’t played in a while. There wasn’t a lot of action Friday. Maybe it was Saturday. I’m checking the scores, right? So, let’s say there’s 10 11 games. It seemed like eight of them went into shootouts or overtime. So, that’s what I’m seeing. Seems like there’s a lot more three-point games. So, I think that’s why you’ll see the cluster of teams around that wild card whatnot. Um, couple teams got off to a bad start. I think they’re catching up now. So, they’re trying to close the gap. Couple got hot early on and they probably leveled off, but in between there’s a lot of teams that, you know, are right there every night. So, that’s what I’ve seen. Close games. Not easy to win in this league and it’s getting harder. Uh whether that’s just parody or um yeah, probably would be right more than anything. And um you know, we have to be aware of that. So, we’ve been pretty good at, you know, realizing that stuff as the year’s gone on, getting off to a decent start. We did that in October. Now, let’s build off it so we can kind of extend that and not be in that situation where you’re always talking about being middle of the pack because I think that can be hard on you over the course of the year. Any uh final thoughts on the World Series? Yeah, I don’t know. I I I was to dinner with some friends and so I saw the tying home run. Um didn’t see that coming uh from that particular player, but good for him. I I guess game seven, extra innings, overtime, however you want to look it in a series like you can’t get any better than that. Um I feel bad for the Jays because there’s a couple of guys there I’ve read stories are kind of beating themselves up and I’m kind of like gez you know like you guys went all the way to the end. Someone’s got to win and someone’s got to lose and usually it’s a product of a little play here, a little play there. Now home run’s not a little play but you know the play at the plate. Could you, you know, should you have slid or I mean gez that’s that’s a tough one. Um, so I feel bad for the Jays. They were that close. Uh, because there’s no consolation prizes, but what a great series. And the guy for, uh, the pitcher that came in for the Dodgers. It’s un that’s like old school to me. Unheard of now. They space those guys out so much. And hopefully his arm’s all right going forward. But, uh, what, you know, what a, you know, what a performance by him. There were some big ones. Guerrero had some great nights. Otani early on. Um, so it’s one I remember. I guess, you know, baseball’s gotten a for me personally, I’m going on a little. I used to be a huge fan, but I’ve lost a little bit of interest. I don’t know if it’s a start times. I don’t know what it is, but I thought this year brought I think it brought some baseball fans back to the table. That’s what I’d say on this series. You run through home plate and the force. Just going to leave it there. Yeah. The damn power play. I’m trying to support the players and the coaches, you know. Damn meat is like never good enough. Mitch Mitch said he talked to Mark about uh playing on that goal line on the power play. Two two pretty good players connecting trading things. I sorry I I talked to Marner or Mark Mitch Mitch said that he talked he talked to Mark Stone. Okay. So I misunderstood. Is that usual that that would happen that a couple of guys would would bounce stuff off like you’d have two elite players uh and and the as I said before I don’t think it’s Mitch and you wanted to see it I think could play lefty. I think he’s smart enough after a while could could be productive anywhere but that’s not his natural spot. I think watching him over the years he he prefers to be a little bit in motion. Our power play is more the puck does them is in motion more than feet. Right. Like it’s that’s movement. We got our players where we want them. Let’s find the open man. Zip. Zip. Make the play before the other team’s ready. So, there’s a bit of an adjustment there when you’re on that goal line cuz you’re very close to the net. You’re very close to some long sticks and Dman. So, you got to make your plays quicker. And when they don’t connect it, you know, it sort of looks like, oh, you know, I made the wrong one. Well, it’s not necessarily the case. Sometimes just didn’t get through. So, he’s got to learn that part of it. It’s got to be on and off his stick a little quicker. When you’re up top, you see him moving. You can fake, you know, may maybe open up a lane by that. even coming downhill on the elbows, but in the bumper and then that low place, things happen quick because you’re closer to the middle of the ice. So, you just got to be a little more um in sync with the guys you’re passing to, too. They have to know you don’t have a lot of time to hold it. So, that’s what he’s probably talking to Stony about. And then he’s probably like, “Okay, in what situations are you able to hold it and look somebody off and maybe take the extra second?” So, they’re probably discussing those things. Um I would say, and I Good. He wants to get better. He wants the unit to be better and that’s where we’re going to have him right now. We’ll see if it works. I think it’s the easiest place to plug them in. Everyone else in the power play has played the other spots. Um it’ll be a little learning curve for him. That’s fine. You know, we’re we’re good with that. And then when if it doesn’t work, we’ll go to plan B. We tried something the other night just to try to get some pucks through. It didn’t work out. Just wasn’t our night in the power play. I know it’ll bounce back. There’s too many good players on it. And you know, they work together and care too much not to. So, I’m sure it’ll it’ll ups and downs, right? Hey, we’re in a bit of a down cycle. We’re in an up one to start the year and let’s get back on a on the upswing. You just mentioned the in-game adjustments you made against Colorado on Friday, but overall, how are you liking Mitch’s acclamation to that that goal line spot that that Stone’s usually in? Well, it’s too early to tell. We didn’t score the other night on it, so, you know, not happy with anything. I don’t think we shot the puck enough to spread them out. I don’t think we walked up high enough to give him a little more time. Uh, and then we, you know, we didn’t execute our entries clean enough. Uh, faceoffs, we took a penalty on a five on three when we didn’t win a puck battle. So, there’s some things we did that had nothing to do with one particular player. It was just the group in general. I thought we got outworked and when your power play gets outworked, you’re in trouble. Um, that’s a PK’s first job. There’s only four of us against five of them. We got outworked the other guys and Colorado did a good job with that. They’ve probably done it all year. I think they’re top three or whatever they are. So obviously it’s something in their DNA and we weren’t able to to overcome that that goal line extended spot in Toronto. Not much of they played much of that at all like Yeah. Not really. No, never. Um it’s been a long time. Uh maybe a little bit in Toronto at one point of time, but um yeah, it’s been a while. I mean, you know, I think just the last couple kills we played against is high pressure. Um you know, some space down low taking away the slot. So, um, yeah, you know, I’m talking to Stony about, you know, what what he thinks what I can do better in that situation. And, um, yeah, I mean, I think if you get that space in time, take it to the net eventually on one of these. One of these will go in or, you know, create an opportunity and then open up hopefully other spaces. So, um, yeah, that’ll be the play. You know, just take the ice when it’s available. Um, you know, sometimes I think in my head I just don’t want to take it to the net all the time just in case it does get stopped or something like that and it gets cleared. You know, you feel like it’s a waste of opportunity sometimes, but um, sometimes those best opportunities to score as well. So, kind of got to do the fine medium. I was going to ask you like did you pick his brain to be a good guy to talk to his in a in a way? Um, yeah, you just, you know, if you have that much space. I think the last couple games I’ve had a lot of space in that goal line of um, you know, D kind of sitting on Herz or sitting on the back door. So, um, yeah, I think it’s got to find that medium, like I said, of time and space. Take them to the net, take it to the far side. Um, yeah, definitely feel more comfortable down there. I think we’re getting still our looks. Um, you know, I had looks against Carolina, just didn’t go in. We had, um, you know, a couple good good looks against Colorado, I thought as well, that just didn’t fall. So, um, just got to stick with the process, a bounce here and there, and, you know, the one hit right off the guy’s toe, unless Pav had a back door and, um, but yeah, I’ve been so talking to Stony quite a bit just to pick his brain and try to figure out what I can do better. Did Did you go to him with that or did he come to you? No, I went to him. Uh, yeah, when we were at home because obviously the last couple games we were away. So, when we were at home yesterday or last game against Colorado yesterday feels like a while now, but uh um yeah, I just walked up to him and asked him said, you know, what are you seeing? What do you think? I was I said, I just feel like I have a lot of time. And sometimes when you have that much time, you kind of get overthinking of what you can do with the puck and where you can put it. So, um I just asked him what he thought and he gave some good advice. Like I said, taking it to the net, try to open up other spaces and and spots once you do that a couple times. How do you feel five on five with your group? Uh good. Yeah, I think our line’s been working really well. Um, we’re making good plays. Um, I think we’ve been a good, you know, line in our ozone and I think we played really good defensive hockey as well and haven’t given up many oddman rushes or chances against. So, um, yeah, I think we’re working on our defensive side and we’re getting chances on the offensive side and, um, had a couple bounces go away, but, uh, I like the way we’re working. So, Brett walked us through a little bit of the exchange between you guys before his goal. What did you see there? Yeah. Uh well I think like he said in the second there he kind of got that oddman rush or breakaway against Anderson that I think the penalty got called on but um tried to take it to the far post and I just told him I said you know I think if you’re going with that speed and um you know kind of shoulder down mentality I think I’ve played with Freddy for a while I know him pretty well. I said I think you can maybe get him if you you know kind of do that drive and then if you get another opportunity and kind of do that stop move quickly back to your forehand and kind of find the tuck inside and um yeah I did on the second one obviously it worked out. So yeah, I think if the video camera got on me on the bench, I was going pretty nuts for him. But um it was a great move by Howie. Uh power move that, you know, had some serious agile skill at the end of it. So that was more experience from you and Freddy. Yeah, in a way. Um yeah, like I said, I’ve known Freddy for quite a while. I played against him. He got me on my move. I tried to do kind of the same one. Obviously, I was a little close to the net and not as much speed, but um yeah, I told Howie, I said I think if he’s got that much speed and and time, he can do that kind of stop, cut back move. Um, I think not against just against Zack Freddy. I think a lot of goalies, you know, really overplay that. It’s a tough stop for the goalies, especially when you’re coming with that much speed. So, like I said, it was an agile skill move by Howie, too. So, credit to him. Show up at practice today and you’re skating with Jack Eel. What’s that feel like? Uh, yeah, it I mean, it was good. Um had a few uh couple games with Jack last year, but um yeah, I mean not sure how things will shake out, but it’s fun to skate with him always. Yeah. Is it different or is it alter your approach at all when you’re playing with Jack versus other players? Yeah, I mean it’s definitely a little different. I mean, just knowing knowing his tendencies. Um obviously trying to find him in the middle of the ice uh where he’s at his best, getting the puck uh with speed. So, um, you know, kind of reading off him and, um, trying to implement my game a little bit where I can see fit and, yeah, just, uh, just try to bring what I can to the table. What is your game right now? Uh, I mean, I try to I try to play an honest game. Um, a 200 foot game. Uh, I try to bring the same energy every night. Um, I mean, I when I can, uh, try to create some offense, make some plays, but also being, uh, you know, reliable defensively. So, um, you know, I take a lot of pride in in the PK as well and and being able to shut down other teams top lines. So, um, yeah, I just try to bring the same same every night. You’ve always got the puck to the net, but it seems to be a conscious effort of really taking it hard to the net uh, on your goals this year. Uh yeah, I mean sometimes when I mean sometimes the lane’s there and uh you just want to take advantage of that. I mean other times D’s got a good gap on you and it’s hard to get around but u when I see that lane and I got a little bit of a step I try to try to take it to the net and create something out of it. Can you walk us through the conversation about changing your move in the room and then capitalizing on that of the ice? Yeah. Um yeah, I tried taking a wide tried taking a far post at the end of the second and got hooked and um Mitch was giving me some help in in between periods and said if I uh if I hammered the brakes there that uh he thinks I’d have a little room to squeeze it in. So he’s like if I get the chance again to to try that and early in the third I got the chance right away. And uh before I even got the puck I knew I was I knew I was doing that because I’m definitely going to listen to a guy like that. So, um, yeah, pretty cool that he gave me that pointer and it worked out. And you’re doing that, you’re taking your life in your hands cuz there a guy right behind you ready to fill you in. Yeah. I mean, not really thinking about a whole lot in the moment. I mean, it just everything happened so fast, but when you got the I don’t know, like I said, when you have have a have a step on the defender, uh, and you got a lane in the net, try to take it there and usually something good happens, whether a rebound or, um, you know, or a goal, but just usually creates some some havoc in front of the net. Were you looking for Mitch when you went through the line at the bench? Yeah, I was looking for him. He was It’s pretty funny. He was he was pretty excited. He was jumping up and down. It looked like he was pretty excited. He should have got an assist on the goal for sure. But yeah, it’s pretty funny.
Mitch Marner, Brett Howden and Head Coach Bruce Cassidy speak to the media following Monday’s practice at City National Arena.
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