On Alec Martinez’s conditioning level as he prepares to re-enter the lineup:
“He’s fine. We tried to push him the last two or three days with getting a little bit more game situation stuff.”
On how Martinez’s entrance affects defensive pairings:
“We’ll leave the four guys together and put Marty with Keaton.”
On Keaton Ellerby’s play:
“He’s been fine. You know what? It’s sort of exactly what I talked about when we got him. He’s a big kid that’s mobile. So it was just the next part of all the execution things…He came in and he probably played on adrenaline. He played really good the first three games, and then we went on the Chicago-Edmonton-Calgary, and he struggled. Since then, he’s been better again. He’s a boy. He’s a young guy, and that’s kind of why, quite honest, when we put Marty back in, Marty’s a young guy too that’s a teen-minute guy. It’s very simple. He was playing too many minutes early. He’s better off in your third pair. Drewiske is our second-oldest defenseman, and we need him to play like our second oldest defenseman, not our second youngest.”
On the power play in the Vancouver game:
“We’ve been good on the power play, not [just] good things last game. We’ve been good on it, quite honest. Talking about Nashville, the one goal we scored against Nashville was a power play goal.”
On whether back-to-back games at home are any different from road back-to-backs:
“Not really. It’s the schedule part of it. What is it, six games in nine games? So it’s really not ‘at home’ as much as you’re just trying to manage energy and manage preparation with the guys, and then it becomes their responsibility to play them.”
On today’s optional morning skate and whether there will even be a morning skate tomorrow:
“I think we’ll probably be in the same thing all week. Some guys want to. You can’t say ‘none’. Some guys want a handful of minutes. Some guys want to try skates, sticks, gloves, all those things. You’ve got to get them here, so it’s not so much on-ice. Even yesterday, we had some guys out there for 15 minutes, some guys out for 30.”
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