Practice Day | Huska – 28.12.23

Practice Day | Huska – 28.12.23

So on paper it it seems to make so much sense to have hubero and lome together and I guess Sharon goich with his shot as well in your opinion why hasn’t it worked yet on the ice um it’s a good question wiie I mean that’s the you know probably the million-dollar question

That everybody’s asking right now is where to place certain people um you know a lot of it is you know some of it situation for sure and and the the spots they’re being put in I mean if we’re talking about Jonathan here um he’s he’s on a power

Play unit that goes out second now so that’s going to affect um how his game ends up going but uh the two of those guys Elias and Jonathan you know if we go that way and we use that line together um they have to work together I

Think that’s the biggest thing is they have to figure out how to get on that same page and if we’re we’re looking at our team and and we need to find a little bit more from certain people they’re two of our key players um and

They need to find a way to come together and and get the job done for us um Sharon’s done a good job over the last little while of improving his game both offensively and defensively so there’s a shooting threat on that line now too so um it has the makings of something now

It’s up to the three of them to come together and get the job done um there may not be but is there any timeline on sort of Jacob p as inter when you might expect to see him no no still he’s still what we would consider

Long term had a question about one of the drills you had near the end of practice where you had D to D and your forward lines are entering the zone as they are I guess I’m just curious about the thinking of of the guy along the

Wall passing to the center then to the Winger or maybe you could explain a little bit better than I am but I was just curious about the thinking of of why the drill is being done that way it’s just mainly a drill that we’re looking at moving the puck quick getting

Our forwards out of the Zone quickly and then it it turns into the focal point of being more of an offensive zone drill so that’s just the the portion that gets us into the Zone but there’s a few layers to that drill Ryan we we talked to

Jonathan in the room and and he talked about how he feels like he’s he’s making plays and and it’s coming are are you seeing signs that maybe he could be close to breaking through he made a few last night you know but at the end of the day like we’ve talked before when

Someone’s in a slump the only way out of it is to dig in and work harder you know and it’s easy to say cuz um you know for for a coach to say it the the player is like oh I got to make plays I squeeze my

Stick Tighter and it gets harder and harder um but the end of the day it’s you just have to grind and you have to work your way through it and you have to trust that you’re a good player and that you can make those plays and often times

When someone goes through a slump like he has right now um it it changes in a hurry so um his challenge is to make sure that he’s committed to doing things away from the puck as hard as he can to put himself in positions where he gets

To play with the puck uh and then from there it’s making sure your feet are always moving um so you have multiple options when he’s looking to pass the puck so um that’s what it’s going to come down to for him it’s not anything about looking for things to come easy

You have to be prepared for everything to be hard right now and you have to accept that and you have to make sure you’re willing to to play through everything that you have to play through in order to get himself back to the the level that he wants to be at what’s uh

Like as a coach and and you know how important he is to your group what what’s your role in in going through that and kind of trying to get him to where he needs to be yeah and you know we have to put him in positions to have

Success you know we also have to think of our team as to how the team’s going along at the same time so it isn’t ever about one player but um there’s a lot of conversations that go back and forth of course with all of our players in a sort

Of similar vein what what’s missing from Andrews or maybe what hasn’t been consistent enough in in Andrew’s game of yeah he at his best he’s dog on a bone and we’ve used that uh kind of phrase about him before where he’s arounded a lot where he’s I don’t want to say it

But banging into goalies because he’s going to the net hard um he seems to always be in the mix of things and when he is not touching pucks his game’s not where um it should be at so that’s what makes him an effective player he’s got

The ability to be a good 200 foot guy um and that’s what we expect to see out of him um but when he’s at his best he’s in the mix he’s he’s right around the puck all the time do you do you think the penalty issues for him take the dog out

Of them a little like there it’s hard to play a game and try to avoid penalties and yet also play that St has that been tough for him no not at all I mean the penalties that he takes are are lazy penalties um you check with your feet

Never with your stick this way so when you’re manie dog on a bone he’s like into the pile uh he’s coming out with the puck that’s what we mean about that so um the checking side of the game when you’re taking a penalty like that it’s

Got nothing to do with um the way he’s capable of playing that’s just anytime you put your stick around a guy around his waist getting called nowadays so that’s something that he’s working to get out of his game but when he’s at his very best he’s right in the middle of

Things and that’s what we we need to see from him you’ve had a lot of guys move around in your lineup but a guy like AJ Greer for the most part’s been mostly fixed on that forth line what’s it been like being able to count on him as a

Player you can just have in your bottom he’s got a great energy about him everything that he does and there’s some nights where he’d like to play more like last night’s an example of it he would like to have a few more minutes in that

Game um but he’s a he’s a real good Pro where he makes sure that whatever he’s given he’s prepared for so um there’s a lot of trust that goes into um having a player like that in that position you know that if you needed a bump up or

Someone to help defend a lead at the end of the game someone that’s willing to block a shot AJ’s all of that is point totals now match up to the expectations you may have set for him at the beginning of the season um in regards to

Like the number of goals he’s put up you’re talking about goals I mean he’s two off his career point total in a season just curious about that matches up with what you thought he would do at the beginning of the we we were looking for a bigger body that had some energy

To him and and that’s what we were expecting him to bring game in game out the amount that he’s generated in the short period of time has been a positive thing for usan what’s the balance between sorry to go back to Jonathan but like tailoring a a system to a star

Player strength versus having that star player adapt to the system at hand like how do you balance balance those two things as a coach yeah that’s a good question I mean we have um 21 other players too right on our team so there’s uh I I think anybody can fit into any

System I I really do and you look at offensive guys at times um they maybe have to work a little harder on their checking game in certain situations but they still have the freedom to get the job done and do what they do well um and that’s no different here really at the

End of the day um that’s what it comes down to we have a team um that we expect to play a certain way and we need to play a certain way in order for us to have success so that’s kind of the way it shakes out because I think a lot of

People look at him as a guy that would succeed off the rush or like playing that more like fire wagon hockey type of thing do do you view his skills as such or how you I mean you look at the game last night he made plays off the rush

Like he hit Blake Coleman for that chance last night Blake missed the net so he’s still making those plays off the rush they’re just not falling for him so there’s an example of people can say he’s a rush player sure he is well there’s an example of it last night he

Made the play we just didn’t finish one of the things you talked about when uh when Martin posal joined the group was the edge he brings and you’re waiting to see it are are you seeing more of that from him yeah he’s been really good you

Know we took him out of the lineup because we felt he got away from his game a little bit um but we since we put him back in I think he’s been pretty consistent with what we’re looking for like um he’s willed our team into games Minnesota’s the one example that I jumps

Out at me but he and his linemates have had impact almost every night so when you look at our our team the one line that’s been pretty consistent with how they’ve played is the cadry line and Marty and and Connor have done a real good job there I think Jacob’s got one

Of the best tight danger save percentages in the league like what what’s allowed him to to be that guy for you this season he’s an elite goal tender you know he’s he gets paid too and that’s his job he’s got to make those saves for us when we have

Breakdowns we expect him to make those Saves

“It has the makings of something. Now it’s up to the three of them to come together and get the job done.”