October 6 postgame quotes: LoVerde, Koules, Lintuniemi

Vincent LoVerde, on the play of the younger defensemen:
I thought a lot of those younger guys, probably their first AHL game for some of those guys, I thought they played well. They played hard. Obviously there’s probably some nerves in the first period coming out against a very good San Diego team but I thought as the game wore on everyone started playing better, better as a group. I thought that everyone played pretty well.

LoVerde, on huddling up players between whistles to give them direction:
Obviously certain faceoffs and certain O-zone plays, D-zone plays, you’re just trying to help out the guys that don’t know the plays as well. Just try to get everyone on the same page and going from there. A lot of these guys they just learned the systems a couple days ago so it doesn’t sink in in one or two days but I thought everyone did a good job of trying to stick to the systems and play Ontario Reign hockey. I thought we did a good job of that.

LoVerde, on what it was like being out with a less experienced group:
Those are my teammates out there today and I thought they did a great job. It was a good preseason game and it felt good to get out on the ice and get up and down and make some plays. Obviously it wasn’t the result we wanted but I thought we had a good push and a good effort after going down 3-1.

LoVerde, on the comfort factor going into season two in Ontario:
Well I played here a year and half before (in the ECHL) so there wasn’t much of an adjustment period. [Laughs] Yeah, I think so. Everyone’s a little more familiar with the area. You kind of know the restaurants to go to, places to live and whatnot. There was a small adjustment period last year. A lot of guys were unfamiliar but after a few weeks everyone kind of gets settled in and figures out what they like and what they don’t like.

LoVerde, on captaining a possibly younger team and whether anything changes for him:
I think you’ve got to be who you are. I can’t sit here and pretend like I’m going to be a rah-rah guy yelling throughout the locker room because that’s not my personality and that’s not who I am. I think we’ve had a lot of success as a team the last couple years and I don’t think there’s anything that I personally need to change. In terms of leadership I can improve in a lot of things but I’m not going to sit there and change my personality or act differently.

LoVerde, on playing against former teammates Schultz, Samuels-Thomas and Sabourin:
It was good. Obviously all three of those guys were an important piece of our team last year. It’s always good to see those guys. I played with Schultzy and Sabs for what two, three years, so I know them very well. It’s good seeing them. I was having a laugh with Schultzy before the game. It’s great seeing those guys. They’re some of my good friends and it’s always great seeing old faces.

Miles Koules, on getting into a game situation versus practice:
After signing with this team in July I’ve just been looking forward to my first chance to wear the jersey and try to make an impression so it was fun to get a game in out there.

Koules, on the adjustment to the AHL game:
It’s a lot faster than the league I was playing in last year in the ECHL and more physical but after being in camp in Los Angeles for the last couple weeks it definitely helped me prepare. It just felt good. Obviously it’s still an exhibition game so the first period and a bit felt a little sluggish but then felt good as the game kept going along.

Koules, on his goal:
Stuttsy just stresses always pressuring up ice so I saw the puck behind the net on the forecheck and I tried to get in there as quick as possible. It just kind of popped out to me in the front of the net and I saw the goalie down so I just tried to roof it as quick as I could and I was happy it went in obviously.

Koules, on his goals for the season:
Of course my goal after signing with this team is to be here full-time and trying to establish myself, if it’s whatever role they really want me to play in and that’s what I’m gonna do. Obviously just trying to do anything for the team that I can to earn a spot here basically.

Koules, on his first impression of the Reign-Gulls rivalry:
You could tell it’s intense, of course. Back in junior I would play exhibition games but it was kind of like a laugh, you’re having fun out there. But this is super intense. The guys over there are angry, we’re angry and you could tell you want to win. And it’s great, you’re in a preseason game and it ends up going to overtime in a hard-fought battle. You can expect a lot and of course it will be ramped up more even in the regular season.

Alex Lintuniemi, on making an impression on the coaching staff:
It’s been pretty good so far. We’ve been practicing down here for a couple days now. It’s been good, hard practices like normally with Stuttsy and it’s been good so far.

Lintuniemi, on getting into a game with a different group:
We started a little slow today but for me I started a little slow too but as the team picked up, I picked up too. It was good to play, we play these guys too a lot, a lot of times this year and they played a lot of their guys, too, so it was pretty good to see what some of their guys can do and stuff like that.

Lintuniemi, on if familiar surroundings help with the process:
It helps a lot. I’ve been around the coaches now for a couple years now actually and a lot of my teammates I know them really well, even better than maybe the last year. … It’s been good. Nice guys and we work hard but everyone’s having fun when we’re working hard and that’s the best part.

Lintuniemi, on the atmosphere with the rivalry game:
It was intense. It’s a good crowd out there and they had some of their bigger guys, fighters you can call them I guess, playing and they were running around and we had a smaller lineup today but we stood up for ourselves, we played really good and we had a good comeback there in the third period.

Lintuniemi, on playing with screaming kids in the crowd:
It’s different than maybe normally but it’s fun. Everyone loves kids.

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