Dec. 6: Postgame Interviews

Dec. 6: Postgame Interviews

What can you say about uh about Jolton? Not enough probably. Um yeah, amazing. Just locked in from the get-go. Obviously undisiplined first from us and um kind of put him under a lot of heat and he was ready to go. He’s locked in as usual and um you know, one of the best I’ve seen him. Yeah. Just how big was the the PJ tonight in general and particularly in in that first period? Yeah, huge. I mean, get out of getting out of that first 000 was a win for us. And in terms of how the period was going, obviously I got to take some responsibility on myself, a couple dump penalties and um you know, a couple other ones I think we could avoid, but um you know, like you said, PK came up huge and that’s what you need game to game. You need little uh little wins and PK was a win for us tonight and they did an amazing job. You said it’s one of the best you’ve seen from Joel and you’ve seen him a long time. Uh when he’s playing that way, what are you noticing the most about his game? I think just his tracking of the puck. Like there was a couple uh in the third period there that I have no idea how he saw it. Um you know they had Kachchuck standing there pretty much the whole third and guys were just sifting pucks in and you know he was getting his hands on it from I don’t know how like I said. So um I think just how locked in he was how well he was seeing the puck and um you know he might have had more puck touches than me tonight too. So it was just he was he was locked in cutting off rims and uh obviously almost scored a goal. So he was he was amazing tonight. How did you how did you feel in that seen? Yeah, I felt good. Um, you know, got into the action early. We, uh, we got into some penalty troubles early. Um, you know, the PK showed up big. Um, you know, Web Web’s got us going and, uh, yeah, it was good. What are you going to do with this? No. Uh, I’m going to make it into a golf towel. So, like, yeah, I’m going to put a loop on it and, uh, yeah, hopefully hopefully don’t get it too dirty. Did you already know you’re going to do that? Like like predetermined like once I get that towel, that’s what it’s coming. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I knew that for sure. How long has that been? Uh, last year. Last year. Uh, I don’t know. We were watching and someone got it and then I was like, that’d be a great idea. And then Shenner Shenner brought it up too. I think Sher’s got a couple of those towels. So, um, yeah, pretty cool for sure. Just on the the PK, what were they doing so well in front of you? Uh, especially in the first period. Um, I’d say make it predictable. Um, many East West, they we were uh, you know, good with our sticks and um, keeping it to the outside for the most part and um, obviously big blocks too. Like that’s uh, that’s half the battle. So, um, yeah, it was a great job for us. about Joel tonight. Can’t say enough about him. He was fantastic. Um there was screenshots from the bench that we were like, he doesn’t see it. And man, he just came over in his shoulder, you know, he um he was seeing the puck at a level that was unbelievable. And u PK was unbelievable. The sacrifice by everybody, but it starts with him ins. Yeah. Just on the PJ, like how much of a good PJ is built off of basically hard work and sacrifice? Well, it’s it’s where it starts, right? You you got to be willing if you’re going to PK, you got to be willing to block shots. I know Robert Thomas’s block shot wasn’t on the PK, but that’s the kind of sacrifice we’re looking at. And um we had the one, you know, six got hurt and there’s a lot of guys with ice bags. And when you have a lot of guys with ice bags, it’s usually because you’re a very determined group and you’ve played the game the right way and we got rewarded for it. How about the Thomas laying down this? Yeah. In a fouron three. Yeah. Uh just with uh with Hoffer, you mentioned it this morning a little or this morning a little bit how he’s been playing recently. Just how much confidence does that build in your group when he is playing like he is right now? Oh well, when he’s playing like that, I mean same thing as when Vinner’s playing like that, which happens a lot for us is um it energizes the bench. It makes us believe that we can, you know, win any kind of game. Even a game where we’re being outshot 15 to1, the power plays are seven or eight to one for them. you know, we we believe that we can win because of how good our goalies are and Hoffer was that guy tonight. Jake mentioned he was he didn’t think his game was where he wanted it to be coming back from the injury, but tonight good to see him kind of get those on the board. Yeah, I mean, he’s got a great nose for the net and both those goals is, you know, a guy that scores in and around the blue paint. Uh, you know, so it was great to have that line contribute five on five like they did. Uh, and the power play goal was really good by, you know, the Shen unit. How’s Kyra doing? Kyra’s doing okay. I think he’s day to day right now. We’ll have more when we get a picture on him. Uh, you know, at the most we think it’s a week to 10 days, but we again we got to get an MRI when we get back just to make sure. Are you kind of holding your breath on Brog when that happens? Yeah, but we saw it was a puck and it’s on the inside of the knee and the the padding if it hits you right below the knee that’s a stinger and sometimes you just get drop foot, but it’s really painful but you tend to know that it’s going to subside. So, we were very hopeful that that’s what what the case was and it is what the case was. And again, he was incredible down the stretch, him and 55 on the back end. And with the the penalties, like when you look at them, did you see them as effort penalties, as undisiplined ones, as not penalties at all? How did you kind of view them in total? Yeah, I mean, the high sticking ones, I mean, they’re they’re bad breaks. I didn’t think the Shen one was a high stick, was their own, but I mean, that’s u you know, the calls aren’t going to go your way. you’re going to have nights where uh you got to, you know, kill more than you get power plays. And, you know, we’ve had it both ways. That’s what happens during the course of the year. I I do think we took a couple of penalties that were unnecessary, at least two, maybe three, you know. Um, but once you start killing four or five in a row, you don’t have as much juice as the other team. So, you end up defending a lot more. So, you take more penalties. You just waiting for Joel to to score one these one of these days. Well, I mean, he’s better in our forwards at shooting for the empty net.

Hear from Jake Neighbours, Joel Hofer and Jim Montgomery after a 2-1 win in Ottawa.