On whether the switch to two defensemen on the power play influenced last night’s success:
I wouldn’t put it solely on that. I think Marty, he’s a really effective guy there. Marty and Muzz have both gone back and forth playing with Drew on that unit. I think our power play’s done some really good things. Especially in the zone, I think there’ve been some times where we’ve been a little bit disorganized coming up the ice with our breakouts, but I think it’s gotten better. If you just chart and look at the analytics in terms of the chances we’ve created and [inaudible], even the games we didn’t score, I’ve felt that we’ve done a lot of good things, and that goes back to preseason. I was just happy they got rewarded with some of that, because you have a plan and I think you’re creating the opportunities you want to create, and you don’t score, it starts a little bit of doubt in the players’ minds. But certainly Marty was effective there. He’s a very effective guy on the power play because he’s got a skill set, but he really works well with the structure of what they’re trying to do. He seems to be in the right space at the right time, which allows him to play with pace. Whether it was the fact that he was there or not, he was an effective guy on it.
On any particular message between the first and second periods last night:
We felt that our puck battle compete level wasn’t where it needed to be. Structurally, I think we had a pretty good read on them and they had a good read on us. There were no surprises there. But we just felt like there were a lot of loose pucks, opportunities to take ice in front of us. We just weren’t as good in that area as we thought we’d be. There were some little things we could do where it allowed us to get going a little more. We wanted our defensemen to take on a little contact and make a play on their own rather than just putting a puck on the wall, and I thought that allowed us to play a lot faster. But again, that goes back to the compete level. Whether you have the puck on your stick or you’re trying to get it bacjk, just willing to do a little more and compete a little harder in those situations, and I thought we upped that and it made a difference.
On the coaching staff’s preparation during a back-to-back set:
I don’t know if it changes a whole lot. We just want to make sure the players get what they need and we brought them in for a meeting this morning. We keep telling our players the most important team each night is us. When you play teams, especially from the east that you’re not that familiar with, I think it is important to be aware of some of their tendencies. The Islanders are a little bit different. Their structure and neutral zone is a little bit different than what you see every night. They play more of a 1-1-3 than a 1-2-2, which is a little bit different, and they have a little bit of a different scheme in the offensive zone, which I think we need to be aware of. Outside of that, special teams is always something we address, and then we’d follow up with some review on our own game in terms of what we’re trying to do, how we want to get better, moving pucks, offensive strategy, execution. So we try to make it as specific as possible, as short as possible, so we all kind of take a little piece of responsibility. Pierre tracks the chances for for us so we can have a look at that in the morning. Billy does the chances against so we can look at that and where it comes from. Sam and I work on the pre-scout, and then Don and Dave have put together a quick review in terms of what we want to see out of our own team. We got a lot of work done quickly and we make sure it’s not too long and it’s point-on for the players.
On anything new or different in Dustin Brown’s game:
I just think he’s gotten back to his identity as a player. I think if you look at Brownie’s best hockey, even 2012, the best I’ve ever seen him play was the first two rounds of 2012. I think if you’d have given out the Conn Smythe after two rounds, he probably would’ve won it. He was that good. But he was just a big power forward. He’s hard on the forecheck, he pursues pucks, guys know he’s coming, he gets a lot of stops, but he’s always thinking about pursuing the puck and getting to the net. He’s got good hands for a guy that plays that way, and I think when he has confidence in his game when he’s playing that way, a lot happens around him. I think anytime a guy like that gets to the net and forces people to put pucks to the net, the people he’s playing with, and the fact that he’s at the net, you can’t help but put pucks there, and he’s a guy much Lee, who we talked about, when you put pucks in and around the net, good things happen. That goal last night was a perfect example where he’s just at the net, creates havoc at the net, gets a loose puck around the net – the one he scored. And then the one we scored, the winning goal in the hockey game, he directly goes to the net and disrupts the goalie’s ability to make a save and the puck’s in the net. We love the fact that he’s going there, but I think he’s just playing to the identity that he should be. [Reporter: How much do you think changing his mental aspect added to him getting back to what he was as a player before?] I don’t know. I think our team had gone through some struggles the last couple years, so I think as coaches you’re always trying to move people around and try and find something that works. Kopi wasn’t having his best year last year, so I think we were trying different things there, but we’d decided in training camp they had been good together before. They both looked like they were in a good spot coming in. We wanted to get them back together, and they’ve both been really good. I think Iafallo has been a good complement to that line, as well. He’s a real worker that pursues the puck and ends up with a lot of pucks, so I don’t know. Kopi and Brownie, one, they’re really good friends, so there’s a real sense of chemistry there because of that, and they’ve had a lot of success before playing the way they need to play, and I think something just looking back at the reference point of ‘what did we do when we were good players’ and getting back to that might have more to do with it than anything else.
On whether he had any issues with Alex Iafallo’s penalty on Jack Eichel last night:
You know, it was really close to being a great play. If he hadn’t have just twisted his stick a little bit – I’m OK with it, because we tell all the players that if your intention to do the right thing is there and your compete level is where it needs to be, we’ll live with the mistakes. We don’t want to take unnecessary penalties, especially in the offensive zone, but that was really close to being a good play.
-Several omitted quotes were used in today’s morning skate report
-Lead photo via Andrew D. Bernstein/NHLI
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