Kale Clague Post Skate | 02.09.24
Uh how nice is it to get away from the r for a few days and have a great good season like that yeah I think it’s important just mentally to get a little refresh um and come back recharged and um obviously this is the last push of
The season so um and it’s you know our division is super tight so every game matters you know from here on out um and you know we’re excited to make a push and push for playoffs here kind just like out a hole you do anything exciting
Uh no we stuck around here went to Toronto for a day or two and Chang the scenery and that’s pretty much it though um coming back from these breaks when you been a pro now for several seasons so you have seen this before this first
Game back from a break is that a little difficult maybe a little sluggish at first or you normally in them right away yeah I mean it you know you want to have a good start to the game um we were able to practice yesterday and get a morning
Skate today um um so you kind of get that sluggishness sluggishness out a little bit um but yeah I mean first game and I don’t know how many days five days or six days whatever it was um you know both teams are feeling that so um we’re
Kind of all in the same same boat and uh so I think the first period is really important we’re past that Midway point in the season now you leave this team’s defense in points where is your confidence then all year because you really have Drive um I mean just you know just
Trying to make plays just trying to um you know move the puck to the forwards you know we have a ton of skilled forwards um so just trying to um you know use my legs and uh just try to make plays um I think the last couple years
You know you kind of get away from that a little bit um when you go up and you know trying to stand the lineup and what not um so I think just trying to find that and continue to build off of that know the beginning of the year about how
Guys survive in the NHL sometimes um depending on the situation obviously you want to be in the National Hockey League but here has this given you that confidence to as you said sort of move your legs more and I don’t know change your game at this point in your career
But but pick up some extra tools that when the opportunity comes to go back up you’ll be even more ready yeah I think uh I think the offensive side has come like my whole life but um you know just staying consistent with it I think um consistently like you said moving your
Legs um you know trying to find find make plays um not being afraid to make plays um and then just defending just using my feet to defend and that’s going to be the key recipe I think if you know if and when I get another chance you
Know to hopefully stay one of the last things uh one of the struggles I guess over the last few weeks with this team has been its power play um how do you how do you fix that um I think you know just talking together as a group um you know I I
Think you know at times we could get a little too cute maybe um so maybe more direct um just putting pucks at the net and creating chaos um but I mean there’s you know the Personnel that we have here for the power play is is great so a lot
Of skill so I I mean it’s going to snap eventually and then you know they’re going to start piling up uh you had the chance to to play Syracuse a few times this season um how how do these games often go feels like it’s kind of a war
Out there at times yeah I mean they they sit back and they like to play structured hockey and um obviously our game when we’re at our best we’re you know playing fast and um you know going on the attack so um whenever we can we’ve talked about it whenever we can
You know get them out of their structure and use our legs and our speed and our skill to take over um that’s when you know we’re going to take advantage of them uh you look at the standings right now and there a couple spots ahead of you there’s four points on the line
Against them this weekend how important are these two games yeah it’s a huge weekend um anytime you play divisional games it’s huge um so you know you just want to take it one shift at a time here tonight and um you know like I said starts of the first period tonight kind
Of set the tone for the for the rest of the weekend
