“It’s a hard league.” | Jeff Blashill Postgame 12.13.25

“It’s a hard league.” | Jeff Blashill Postgame 12.13.25

Couldn’t have been a pretty sight from your eyes either, Tom. Um, couldn’t have been a pretty sight. You know, when when you get scored on right away, that’s a bit of a gut punch. I wouldn’t I I don’t know if I’d classified as bad as you thought, to be honest with you. Um, you know, you go through the the two periods, there would have been not much. We didn’t give much up at all in the second at all until until uh the last five minutes or so. Um, I thought we had chances in the first that we didn’t convert on and they converted and so then the score is what the score is and we’re chasing it and uh uh you know we’re trying to find a way to score. I thought we came out I was really actually really proud of our guys in the third. Uh you know what I want what I was looking for more than anything else like I want guys that have great heart and great compete and they showed that in the third and you can say to me well you know they’re sitting on a lead it was three nothing. It wasn’t 10 nothing and I thought we showed great great heart and compete there and um it’s a hard league and we’ll just keep grinding. What adjustments if any did he make without Conor and how did they go? Uh well I can’t say we made any real adjustments from a from a you know kind of tactical standpoint. It’s the same systems. Uh you know you just you plug in different guys in there. So it’s not really a tactically adjusting thing. It’s more, you know, we’re going to keep looking at our game and find ways to improve our game, but we would do that with or without Connor in the lineup. What do you think of Nick? I thought played good. You know, I thought I thought actually in the first that line had a lot of juice. They they they they had they seemed like they had a lot of jump and they created some opportunities and they got good young legs and um I thought Lardis played good. He played good on the power play. You know, he looked like he had a couple looks that had a chance to go in and if they go in, maybe it’s a different game at that point, you know. So, um, he’s a talented young player. How do you overall, uh, you know, deal with the loss of Conor if it goes on for another week or two? Just like what’s the what how does a team get through this? Um, well, there’s probably two things that have to happen. Like anytime you lose a uh, you know, a player, anybody, you guys have to uh, you know, how much you feel that loss depends on how well the guys that are in the lineup play. Like, that’s just reality. Obviously, Conor’s a been a great player for us. He’s been our our, you know, got go-to guy for us. There’s zero doubt about that. So, the two probably big things is guys are going to be thrust into more important roles in some way. Whether it’s the same role you’ve had, but it gets magnified more, whether it’s, you know, moving up into a spot, whatever it might be, as a whole group, we just need guys to step up and and and play um you know, we need them to play as close to their agame as possible on a nightly basis. And then I also think, and this is, you know, um when you lose some of that scoring punch that Connor gives us, uh I think it should heighten our awareness of how good we’re going to have to be defensively. And it doesn’t mean that we’re going to uh just defend, but you’re going to have to you’re again, you’re losing some of that scoring punch. You know, Connor’s a guy that can change the game on one shot. And so you lost that in your lineup. So then let’s find ways to make sure that our details are great defensively. And so if anything, it should just tighten our awareness that, you know, and this is stuff that we want to get better at anyways. It just it’s, you know, probably makes it even more important right now. Do you have any conversation at this point with Frank? I mean, Frank had a decent game today, but 20 goal 20 games in a row. Does that start to wear on you? Well, I think I I think there’s probably I can’t sit here and say that that stuff doesn’t wear. Of course it does. They’re humans, you know. But I I to be honest with you, my conversations with Frank are all process driven and and if he plays like he did tonight, he’ll get the rewards he wants. And so we just keep focusing on that process and make sure that process is good. On that first goal, did you was there miscommunication with with getting who picked up the brinket there at the net or what you say? It’s a tough goal. It’s uh yeah, I mean obviously we we probably um we kind of went to double up on one guy. Puck goes down. So then when Arty goes, if you go, you can’t let that puck through you. It’s not a big chance. It just happened to go in. You know what I mean? And it’s just the way it goes sometimes. you know, you’re you give that up enough and no one would have thought about it, but it went in the net and so then you’re down one nothing. It’s just the way it goes sometimes. It was it was a young line with more uh lardis and green. Is there any reason why you put him there instead of with the veterans? It’s a good question. Um I mean there is reason whether you agree with it or not or it was good is a debatable. Uh uh no honestly for me um it gave us I wanted them to all be comfortable. I wanted him to be comfortable. I think sometimes when you excuse me, come up and play your first game, you start deferring and I just wanted him to, you know, he’s played with uh Morsy this year. Uh Greeny, they’re they’re similar ages. They’ve been, you know, so like just come up and just play and I thought they did a good job with that. Do you have any better sense on Conor whether he was on this trip or um I again I’ll know way probably more or more tomorrow. Um I don’t anticipate him on this trip.

Head Coach Jeff Blashill discusses the team’s performance against Detroit and needing guys to step up at a high-level in Connor Bedard’s absence.

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