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The balance of this day, you guys have accomplished something you literally
have strived years for and now you're trying to figure out how to get your
game back. Yeah, I mean, we got to take the next little bit here to reflect on the game
first and foremost. You've never got to figure out how to move on and how to, like I said,
get our game back. We got to, we got to compete a lot harder. That's first and foremost.
I mean, you can't give up three holes in the first five, six minutes of a game and expect
to compete in a game and we almost push back, but wasn't enough. And then on the other
note, yeah, I mean, that's really hard to really focus on that right now with the loss,
but really proud of the group. It's been a long time coming. It's my fifth year here
and it's a pretty happy guy this afternoon. So, yeah, no, like I said, we want to do
all too hard on this game, but we got to, we got to fix some things. We got to, we got
to watch our goals against. We got to make sure our efforts a lot better. And then we
got to ramp it up because not one to play off officially, so pretty good feeling, but we
just got to come ready to play. What were the things that you feel got you to this
place tonight, but I'm talking about the playoff place?
Yeah, I mean, our compete. I think like just next man up into how to compete. Our depth
is really shown throughout the season. We've had a lot of injuries. A lot of guys go down,
a lot of guys step up. And we're going to need that. We're going to need that through the
entire playoff run. But yeah, we got to, we got to work on that and our else is going
to be a really short playoff run. Are there some common themes, offensively, disaster
games in addition to the compete that you think need improvement?
I mean, offensively, I think we're getting some chances. We got to bear down. Our power
place got to be better. I got to be better in the power play. Both units got to be better.
I just think we got to attack more. We got to be in more attack mode and we got to
capitalize on our opportunities, but tonight came down to defense.
Ladies, I got what was said during the time out there when it was, I guess, two or three
nothing.
We talked about our defensive side of the game. We're not going to win a game if we're
not going to focus on defense. We're not going to give the puck out of our net. We're
not going to win. We left both our goalies out the dry, hanging out the dry today. They
didn't deserve that. They've been battling for us all year. I mean, Ellie's been a huge
part of this team. I know you don't see him in the games a lot. Swiss had done the stretch
here, but he's been unbelievable in the locker room being a younger guy. It's tough sometimes
when, especially when you're not playing, but he's been so positive. He's been such a
good teammate. And then, obviously, he's been really good for us in practice and warm
up and getting the boys ready to go and being a good support system for Al and Upi. And
so not only hanging out the dry after how well he's been playing lately, but also hanging
out the dry really sucks. It's done. Yeah, I was pretty disappointed in that. I don't
know if you can play in Tampa, really elevate everybody mindset, physicality, everything.
I'm going to go to the hell of a team. And if we play like that tonight, they're going
to run us over, run us out of our own building. So hopefully getting back to the key bank
center gives us a little bit of a jolt that we need. We're going to come out and we're
going to come out of a lot of passion, a lot of energy, and we're going to try to take
it home. How much have you been able to feel the added sense of urgency and desperation
from your opponents in these last few games? Yeah, it's been there. I mean, all these guys
are fighting for a playoff spot. We can't sit back just because we clenched now. We
have to match that urgency. We have to match that compete in that battle and try to win
a game. But if it's not there, we're not going to win many games. But we feel like in here,
leading up to the game, obviously, in the unique game day for us, could you sense any distraction,
whatever it was, like the excitement of it all, what was it like in here? No, it's
weird. I think the last couple of games leading up to the game, I felt a lot of really
good energy and guys haven't, guys really ramped up and ready to go and excited to play
our game and just coming out flat is really tough. I've just got to be all 20 of us in
here. Can't get a couple of guys. So, I mean, I don't think anyone had the right game tonight
and we're going to keep going. I thought you got better, but that wasn't enough. If I could
go back one more time, you guys knew you had talent here. I remember the last couple of April's.
You guys were so frustrated because we have talent here. How can we not be in the playoffs? How can
we not win? It's basically the same group of guys. You have a few extra guys, but the talent
is finally shown through. I mean, how did you guys get over that, huh? Well, basically the same
group. Yeah, no, honestly, I think we've just been really hard to play against. Our defensive side
of the game has been unbelievable up until lately. We have to fix that. We have to fix it quick.
Like I said, we're playing Tampa on Monday. They're high powered offense, like one of the best
players in the world and their team. And if we give him time and space and we give him opportunities,
he's going to make us like silly out there. And so we have to work on the outside of the
game first and foremost and the rest will follow. Like we said, a lot of talent in this room.
We'll score when we need to, but we have to make sure we defend first.
