November 27 postgame quotes: Mike Stothers

Mike Stothers, on the Reign’s effort:
I thought the effort was a lot better tonight than it was last night. Some of the processing wasn’t quite where it needs to be, but, again, we’ve kind of touched on it with the different personnel and the younger guys, there’s some growing pains that go along with it. I think I made it pretty clear I can handle that if the effort’s there. I’m somewhat more pleased tonight than I was last night. Somewhat.

Stothers, on the intensity brought by Michael Mersch:
I think Big Mike pushes pretty hard every night. If you watch our practices he’s pretty much sets the tone and sets the pace and works hard every game and every practice. He’s wanting to win. That’s why he’s wearing a letter. He wants to score. He wants to help the team. It’s not too often you’re going to walk away at the end of the night and think that Mike didn’t give you everything he had.

Stothers, on Jack Flinn’s performance and Jack Campbell’s health:
He came into a tough situation. You guys asked last night if Soupy was uncomfortable. He was uncomfortable. And then [Flinn] comes in today and finds out that Soupy was a little more uncomfortable than any of us knew, so he was starting. It’s a tough thing to do. Didn’t have any shots this morning. I thought he did OK. He’s another kid. What are you gonna do? [Reporter: Is there an update on Campbell, assuming it’s lower-body with the way he was acting in the game?] Well I’m just going to leave it as Soupy is still uncomfortable.

Stothers, on whether the team now needs a 60-minute performance:
Yeah. You look at it, and again, it all comes down to details and the little things that need to be done. It ends up being a one-goal game and maybe we shouldn’t be holding onto the puck as long as we do on a 4-on-4. Sometimes that’s the difference in the game. Those little things that you maybe think are not important at the time you look back and you go, ‘yup.’ But you don’t get a mulligan in this game. You golf with me, you get lots of mulligans. I’m a mulligan type of guy. As a matter of fact I haven’t golfed in five years.

Stothers, on whether he thinks the team lacks a sense of urgency:
No. I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure we stood this spot, it might have been over to my right a little bit, last year. We lost two games against Charlotte and it was all doom and gloom, the sky is falling and everything else. That’s part of the process here, that’s what goes on. You can feel sorry for yourself or you can get back at it and start working and keep chipping away and correcting the things you need to correct to be a better hockey club. So probably this weekend everybody’s licking their wounds and feeling sorry for themselves but I can guarantee you come Tuesday we’ll go right back to work and we’ll get ready for the upcoming games. That’s what you do. That’s what hockey’s all about.

Stothers, on how the team can improve going forward:
Nothing better than repetition. So you just keep going over it. Maybe you try a different way to present it, but the bottom line is sooner or later it will sink in. I think. But, I mean, honestly guys, you’re looking at a different, different team. Guys out of junior and it’s a whole different ballgame. You look at guys like Kempe and Amadio. You guys a couple games ago all you could talk about was the points Amadio was getting. Why don’t you ask me how his weekend was? He’s still a boy. And I think I said, I’m not anointing him anything yet. So before you guys get too quick to start saying, ‘oh, boy, look at this, boy, he’s something.’ That’s the way it is. Pro hockey. There’s ups, there’s downs. That’s why we don’t get too high when they’re doing well and why we don’t get too low when they’re struggling. That is the process in the American Hockey League. [Reporter: All about growing up.] Sure is. Yup. Yup. So, once in a while you’ve got to hug a kid.