November 23 postgame quotes: Mike Stothers

On Mike Amadio’s confidence and progress during point streak:
I’m not a big fan of the word confidence. You’re a boy when you play junior and you’ve got to learn to play like a man in pro. He’s making some real positive strides and steps to become a man. He had to find out the hard way. It’s not as easy as you think coming out of junior. Nobody cares if you had 50 goals or 90-plus points. It’s a lot tougher and there’s some battles that you’ve got to win. And Mike needs to have the puck. That’s what makes him what he is. He’s figured that out and I’m really excited for the direction he’s headed, I just don’t want to anoint him as officially arrived. So, let’s just leave it as he’s a teenager. Okay? He’s gone from a boy to a teenager to fine young man.

On the focus on details in the Reign’s game:
Were you at practice the other day? [Reporter: I was not.] You could probably hear me from wherever you were. … Yes, we stressed details. I even asked the guys to look it up in the Webster’s Dictionary. Nobody carries a dictionary anymore so I asked them to google it to make sure they knew what the definition of details was. That’s the difference between games. Again, you look at a game like tonight, that’s a hard-fought game. Two really good teams. One goal is going to decide this thing. You better be good in your details, you better be strong on your assignments and make sure you’re not making the mistake that’s going to cost your team a game. I go back to that game in Stockton, I thought we played very well. But we made a mistake with 4.6 seconds left in the first period. And you think, boy, a lot happens after that, but that was the turning point. We got a valuable point on the road but we also gave points to a team that’s in our division. So, you’ve got to learn from that.

On what he thought was the strongest part of the team’s game:
I just liked our composure. We got called for a few penalties, that didn’t seem to bother us. It was hard to find ice out there. It didn’t seem to bother us. Our focus was good. I thought everybody played well. You look at our team right now, Vinny’s the most experienced defenseman we have. We’ve got some young guys back there. So if they’re learning as they go and we gave up 18 shots, so I’m real happy with stuff like that. There’s a lot of things, too, going into Thanksgiving, there’s a lot of things to be thankful for. That was a real solid effort to start the first of a five-game homestand. And again, to beat a good team like Stockton, you’ve got to be doing something right.

On Jack Campbell’s performance and his key save to set up Amadio’s goal:
I thought Jack was real good. … You need an experienced guy out there with a younger defensemen and he can sense when we need a whistle, we need a stoppage. He’s so good at getting out on pucks that are rimmed around. He can get out, stop it or take something off it and then, if not handle it clean at least we can get back. A lot of times he handles it clean, sets it up properly for our defensemen. He knows if it’s a left shot coming back or a right shot coming back. It’s a big help for our defensemen. In net, he made the saves that were necessary. There were no extra rebounds, he was calm, he was cool, he was collected. [Reporter: What about his stop on the 2-on-1 that started the play on the Amadio goal?] That’s what you need. You need a big save every once in a while. You’re going to have a breakdown. He made a heck of a save on the penalty kill. I think they went 1-for-6. That could have been two. It was a huge save. Every once in a while, even when you don’t give up much, we just talked about giving up 18 shots, you still need a goalie to come up and make a save that maybe you’re not expecting or they probably should have scored on. Got to make the routine saves, too, but you’ve got to come out of your boots. Soupy came out of his boots.

On if the Reign will practice on Thanksgiving as originally scheduled:
No. You know what, I’ve gotten really soft. I really have. I’m actually giving the guys the day tomorrow to spend some time with family and friends, regardless of the outcome tonight. I didn’t tell the guys that before the game. In lieu of the Cunningham situation, hockey is important to all of us but when you break it down it’s just a game. There’s certain times of the year when you should be spending time with family and friends and I think that’s important for the guys to enjoy a day, appreciate each other for whatcha got. And they can get away from me for a day, I can get away from them. I’ve got a 35-dollar cigar waiting for me tomorrow. I’ve never spent that much on a cigar in my life. I just hope it’s good. It’s time for family and friends. I think they’re all getting together, which is good as a team, and we’ll get back at it Friday and we’ll get ready for Saturday-Sunday.