00:00good morning coach good morning guys hey coach so it's kind of been a different schedule for you
00:04guys to start the season haven't played since saturday what's it been like as you kind of
00:10ramp up for now like a quick back-to-back where you play one at home then you gotta head
00:14to
00:14nashville for thursday it's been really really odd we've been at home for a while with with not
00:21many games on the road and then a lot of days in between games which isn't ideal but we've been
00:28trying to utilize the the practice days and and also utilize a little bit of rest recovery and
00:35prepare for each game but it is different to to wait so long in between games you'd like to get
00:41into a little bit of a rhythm here yeah you and uh columbus have only played 10 some teams have
00:47played 14 already do how do the how do the players feel i mean obviously you want to get out
00:51there you
00:51don't want that much time off how do the players feel about having you know three days off this
00:55early in the season they want to play they want to play they weigh yeah they they love the play
01:00a
01:01game day off or practice then play again day off then practice and play again that that's the that's
01:07a routine yeah yeah 100 and it gets them into like feeling good about their game and then they can
01:12they don't have to sit and dwell on it if it wasn't a great game or if it's a good
01:17game they get
01:17one day and they just keep it rolling so it's yeah they would much prefer that and then the other
01:22thing i think this is probably not their thinking but it it comes in with coaches is when you're not
01:29playing a lot and then you're playing at home you're thinking about down the road in the schedule
01:34because eventually you got to pay that back like eventually you're going to play four more games
01:39than columbus and philly to get caught back up and eventually you're going to play four more road games
01:44because you played four more home games thus far you know mm-hmm yeah it's like oh well lucky luckily
01:50you guys won that last game against buffalo before the three day off yeah thank god right
01:54off yeah yeah yeah and we had it both ways right we had the la game which you know wasn't
01:59great
02:00we lose and then we got to sit for three days you're kind of just stewing on it and watching
02:04film on it
02:05and and then you you know big win on saturday night in overtime and then you're kind of feeling a
02:10little bit better around the facility now one of the things that is good for you guys is it looks
02:14like you're going to be getting a couple guys back practicing with you guys right logan thompson and
02:18chick uh chickering yeah yeah um chick practiced yesterday so he should be good to go lt's getting
02:25close so we'll see there um we got dubois last week back sort of back from their illnesses so
02:32um starting to get there day harney and sandin both um still continue to be out so we we picked
02:40up uh
02:40saint ivanie off uh off of a wavers jack saint ivanie from winnipeg and so he'll he'll slot in with
02:47the group
02:47so we had uh tuck on i think it was yesterday right we had tuck on yesterday yesterday he was
02:52great um what what is it about him that you knew that he would fit in and did you know
02:58that he'd
02:58fit in so easily and so cleanly right away uh i didn't know personality wise i i wasn't sure like
03:06i knew a little bit about him from doing some homework and asking people about him and um a lot
03:12of people spoke to his leadership and what he did for the buffalo group there um in the locker room
03:19from a leadership standpoint so i i was a little bit unsure on on how that would all fit i
03:24knew his
03:24game um the size the speed the being able to play in every situation really really intelligent like i was
03:32pretty confident that that the skill set was the skill set he's been able to do it for many years
03:37in
03:38this league so we're pretty confident that that would he would hit the ground running here but he's
03:42been a great fit just a um really intuitive smart guy that um is always like he's his brain the
03:51way it
03:51works in the game he's always looking at little things that happen in the game and he and he can
03:57like play it back in his mind and he wants to know information he wants to know opposition's
04:03tendencies little things that you know he can potentially take and use against opponents on
04:10a night to night so he's a real student of the game is what i would describe it as you
04:13know so
04:14we asked him what his sort of preconceived notions of the team were and he said you know he had
04:18seen
04:19all the viral videos of the guys like you know what all the you know the hijinks and everything that
04:24they're doing before they get on the ice and the slapping each other and he knew that they're close but
04:28man they really are and he was he just kind of been blown away about how much they've all embraced
04:32him and and that sort of thing i'm wondering so i guess he fits in just perfectly that he loves
04:38it
04:38loves the chemistry that you guys have is the chemistry so strong that you you guys feel like
04:44you can almost absorb anyone that anyone that comes in is going to kind of fall in line or has
04:49there been i'm not asking you to name names but has there been someone that in the last year or
04:53two
04:53you know what it just didn't work chemistry wise yeah yeah you know what that's a great question and i
04:59i
04:59would say this is like we're really confident that um anybody that we get that comes into the fold
05:07whether it's a young player in the organization coming from hershey or it's a trade or free agency
05:11we're really confident our players and staff that they're eventually sometimes it takes a little bit
05:17longer and then also sometimes it doesn't work out on the ice you know what i mean so like they
05:24may be
05:25like great in the locker room the guys love them they fit in great personality great they're being
05:31them but for whatever reason they just don't get off to a great start or sometimes it doesn't work
05:37here and the fit was fine it just from a x's and o's when when the puck dropped it just
05:42wasn't a great
05:43fit for that person so i would say to answer your question like yeah we feel confident that anybody
05:48coming here is going to fit in seamlessly and then it's just about hopefully getting them um to be as
05:54productive as they can on the ice as quickly as possible the other thing that he said is that he
05:59was still kind of blown away and you know we get used to it because he's been here for so
06:03long but
06:04that alex you know the big o that alex was really as down to earth and as normal and a
06:11good a guy as he
06:12actually is do you guys recognize that in the moment or you just take it for granted because
06:17you know that's who he is no we recognize it and and i'll tell you this a lot of guys
06:22from other
06:23organizations notice it right away because i i'm trying to get the the probably the best analogy i
06:30can use is like michael jordan because he's you know arguably the greatest athlete of all time so
06:34when you're michael jordan in his like absolute prime he's winning mvps championship he's kind of a
06:40douche okay so like and and i'm not talking about like some guys are good guys bad whatever yeah but
06:48when you get to that level of legendary status there's an aura around you so even your teammates
06:56staff members equipment managers like go down the list rink attendance like you get around this person
07:03and you're immediately like this is the legendary michael jordan oh my okay so right everyone is a
07:10little bit on edge when you're around mj i'm sure just like you would think with ov the thing with
07:17ov is he breaks those walls down immediately so there's none of that you don't feel that way
07:23you you're not walking on eggshells you're not nervous around oh because he makes everybody whether
07:29you're a rink attendant whether you're the zamponi driver whether you're the head coach or whether
07:34you're his teammate that's a healthy scratch he makes you feel like i'm just one of the guys and
07:41we're hanging and we're you know yeah shooting the you know what and and joking around and having a
07:47good time like that's how he makes you feel so that i think everybody's sort of blown away when they
07:52get
07:52in that environment they're like wow this guy is like actually really really normal right carbs um
07:58just talk about what you're seeing from ryan leonard here in the first 10 games i was just
08:03kind of looking at the stats from last year and he started off slow he didn't play a lot two
08:08years
08:08ago you caught you called him up late he did play in the postseason his rookie year but last year
08:12he
08:13finished the last 20 games with 10 goals and 15 points so he got hot he got hot late last
08:19year and
08:20he's off to a good start this year with four goals in the first 10 games kind of talk about
08:24what you've
08:24noticed with leonard and how much better he's getting because you guys drafted him what eighth
08:29overall a few years yeah yeah he's he's been tremendous tremendous start to the season and
08:36uh you know sometimes as a coach you get a little bit nervous rookie year has 20 goals there's a
08:42lot
08:42of hype around him goes back in the summer okay i've got this league figured out and and this i
08:48think
08:49is in sports you guys know it like they call it the sophomore slump right you think things are
08:53going to come easy now all of a sudden you get off to a tough start and you got to
08:58kind of regain
08:59your confidence and traction in the second half of the year but he's come in and every part of his
09:06game it's like he's taking a step even in his brain his his ability to read the game the little
09:14plays and reads that we need him to be able to make he he's increased that his confidence level
09:21increased that his ability to be dangerous with his shot he's increased that like all these he looks
09:27like he's stronger on the puck he's increased that and in you know the off season and turn over a
09:32year
09:32so it's been a great start he's been dangerous all year um with the puck and he's getting better
09:38defensively as well so i've been real proud of his start and and just uh continue to keep that going
09:44on the other side you've had a healthy scratch miro seven out of the first 10 games what's that
09:50like as a coach how does it even go down like when do you tell the player that they're not
09:54going to be
09:54on the ice how does that work so a little bit unfortunate because miro he's played three games
10:01and he's done a really good job we're just we've got a lot of depth at the forward position and
10:05when
10:05sort of and and do we get healthy it sort of pushes him out and not no fault of his
10:10or or him playing
10:12poorly to come out it's just we're we're really really deep up front so he usually the way it
10:19works is like guys know if you're practicing like yesterday if you're not practicing on one of the
10:25four lines usually you kind of have in the back of your head okay i'm probably slotted to be out
10:29because the day before you usually have your four lines are set you practice with the line that
10:34you're going to play with the next day so usually they have a good indication um and then they come
10:38in in the morning and and usually what we do is we post it when they get here in the
10:43morning so
10:43it's posted you know who you're playing with if you're in the lineup if you're not um and then we
10:49go from there all right so you want to talk about uh the flyers the flyers are coming off the
10:54back-to-back
10:54they lost last night at home to columbus and ot they've lost 11 of the first 14 they started off
10:590-9 as you know but they've been playing better late um just talk about uh the flyers and what
11:05you
11:05guys are facing against them yeah playing better of late and i think um so watch the game last night
11:13and so they're down three nothing after one the the bluebirds are out um and then then the second
11:20and the third period i'm sure talk went in there and had a had a good blunt discussion with the
11:26group in the second third period they dominated and came back in the game tied it 3-3 got it
11:32to
11:32overtime so i would expect um tonight the start so they're they're going to be talking about the
11:38first period the first period the first period and then trying to carry momentum from the second and
11:43third last night and seeing if they can just ride that wave and so we'll love the start will be
11:48really really important for our group tonight and something to watch the first period tonight
11:52them being on a back-to-back with some travel and hopefully um you know our start and then we
11:59can
11:59sort of try to um initiate and really take over the game as it moves along and and really lean
12:06on our
12:06um on our identity cars real quick where is connor mcdavid going to going to finish his career in terms
12:13of all-time greats he's got 34 points in 12 games i know he's like i mean that's sick i
12:19want to say
12:19it's unbelievable i think he's on pace for 200s which you know no one has gotten into the 200s like
12:25this is gretzky mario right lemieux um territory um i oh man it's tough he's gonna he's definitely
12:35gonna be one of the all-time greats it definitely for me right now if his career ended he's in
12:41the
12:42top 10 wow um and now as he continues to do it year over year i think he just inches
12:48up that that
12:49list but man that the start that he's had is i mean you're talking rare company with with what
12:57he's done thus far this season yeah all right coach best of luck tonight against philadelphia quick
13:02hop in the uh plane get over nashville i think you got a couple games against minnesota and
13:07dallas for talk to you next week so busy week good luck let's get some wins thanks guys appreciate it
13:12all right thanks
13:13bye
