## Q: What’s your favorite memory from coaching Connor Clifton at the development program?
Playing him at forward for a shift. Absolutely. We were short a forward, I looked down the bench and said, ‘Hey, I need one of you guys to play forward.’ He said, ‘I’ll do it.’ So he went out there for one shift. He loves to hit. He ran up the ice on the forecheck all the way into the corner and throws a hit. Wheels up, finishes another hit and has to chase the play back, gets stuck in there for a couple of seconds, sprints to the red line, puts it in the corner and comes off. He’s hanging over the bench breathing heavy and looks down the bench and says to the forwards, ‘I have new respect for you guys. That was not easy.’ When you meet him, I could never do it justice, how he speaks and talks. He’s a funny individual.
## Q: When you talk about splitting Tuch and Thompson, that makes things tricky for opponents.
If you’re the team now, who do you play your top pair against? My guess is if you’re the opposing team you’re probably watching out for Tuch and you’re watching out for Thompson. If they’re on two different lines, your top defense are not playing against both of them. That’s the value of Mittelstadt being able to plug right in there or Cozens and Thompson playing together. So we’ll continue that because again, you look forward and you’re at 10 games left and points are crucial and we end up with a guy out the lineup, everybody has to be able to play with everybody.
I think of Erik Johnson and it’s really important for me to have a guy like Erik who I feel like can play with any one of our left-shot D in different situations. He can help Samuelsson on the penalty kill. He can help (Rasmus) Dahlin with calm and perspective and balance and I think Owen is going to pick up subtleties that Erik has developed over 15 years plus. He’ll help everybody differently.
## Q: Do you like the idea of guys like Savoie and Kulich having to wait and letting that hunger build? Not everyone gets thrown right in like Owen Power at 19.
I think they’re in the process. Wherever they end up, we’ll be supporting them and they’re still going to be able to grow their game. At their ages, it’s really about growth. They just have to keep growing. With Owen, there was an opportunity there and he seized that opportunity. He was ready for that opportunity. Any player just has to keep preparing so when the opportunity comes they seize it. I think those guys are competitive. Kulich had a good year and a year where he kept building. Savoie was similar. From the first day of training camp until now we’ve seen the growth. I’m sure we’ll see it in their second training camp. So they just have to stick to the process.
punkr0x
Very encouraging quote on Connor Clifton:
>he’s just a culture driver naturally. There’s nothing manufactured. He’s just authentic. He’s like Mattias Samuelsson in that way.
2 Comments
## Q: What’s your favorite memory from coaching Connor Clifton at the development program?
Playing him at forward for a shift. Absolutely. We were short a forward, I looked down the bench and said, ‘Hey, I need one of you guys to play forward.’ He said, ‘I’ll do it.’ So he went out there for one shift. He loves to hit. He ran up the ice on the forecheck all the way into the corner and throws a hit. Wheels up, finishes another hit and has to chase the play back, gets stuck in there for a couple of seconds, sprints to the red line, puts it in the corner and comes off. He’s hanging over the bench breathing heavy and looks down the bench and says to the forwards, ‘I have new respect for you guys. That was not easy.’ When you meet him, I could never do it justice, how he speaks and talks. He’s a funny individual.
## Q: When you talk about splitting Tuch and Thompson, that makes things tricky for opponents.
If you’re the team now, who do you play your top pair against? My guess is if you’re the opposing team you’re probably watching out for Tuch and you’re watching out for Thompson. If they’re on two different lines, your top defense are not playing against both of them. That’s the value of Mittelstadt being able to plug right in there or Cozens and Thompson playing together. So we’ll continue that because again, you look forward and you’re at 10 games left and points are crucial and we end up with a guy out the lineup, everybody has to be able to play with everybody.
I think of Erik Johnson and it’s really important for me to have a guy like Erik who I feel like can play with any one of our left-shot D in different situations. He can help Samuelsson on the penalty kill. He can help (Rasmus) Dahlin with calm and perspective and balance and I think Owen is going to pick up subtleties that Erik has developed over 15 years plus. He’ll help everybody differently.
## Q: Do you like the idea of guys like Savoie and Kulich having to wait and letting that hunger build? Not everyone gets thrown right in like Owen Power at 19.
I think they’re in the process. Wherever they end up, we’ll be supporting them and they’re still going to be able to grow their game. At their ages, it’s really about growth. They just have to keep growing. With Owen, there was an opportunity there and he seized that opportunity. He was ready for that opportunity. Any player just has to keep preparing so when the opportunity comes they seize it. I think those guys are competitive. Kulich had a good year and a year where he kept building. Savoie was similar. From the first day of training camp until now we’ve seen the growth. I’m sure we’ll see it in their second training camp. So they just have to stick to the process.
Very encouraging quote on Connor Clifton:
>he’s just a culture driver naturally. There’s nothing manufactured. He’s just authentic. He’s like Mattias Samuelsson in that way.