Interview With The Coach, “That was play-off style hockey.”

In his usual post-w/e interview with the TEAM 1200/Dean Brown and Gord Wilson yesterday (3.7), Killer had the following to say about the w/e: [paraphrasing]

On Mancari’s return to the line up: He was skating and shooting. He shot some bullets to get that hat trick there [Friday against Barrie]. Mark dedicated that game to his grandmother who was very sick, and then yesterday, although he didn’t score, he did play very well. He found out after the game that she had passed away. He’s gone home to be with family.

Dean asked if Killer was angry with some of the things that Kitchener was doing – a couple of hits from behind and semi-slew footing? I hope that Ted Baker was watching the game because there were some incidents that should be reviewed by the league. Some weren’t necessary. There is no intimidation here. We’ve already played them in their rink. The ref should have clamped down but that will be Ted Baker’s call. [Dean went on to say: The Brody Beard hit from behind – he’s five or six feet from the boards and he doesn’t have the puck, and another hit against Mancari after the whistle. It’s not an intimidation thing, it’s a jerk thing.] With Mancari, the player charged three or four feet after the whistle in an attempt to injure. I brought it up to the ref but he just shook his head. He had trouble hearing the whistle but I guess he had trouble hearing the siren too.

That was play-off style hockey. We followed up [Friday] with another intense game. We still have to fight for it. We are still not in. I think that we have to win three more games to get secure.

On Battochio: Another stellar w/e. Yesterday Danny and Turple put on another exhibition. The fans appreciate it. The Sportsnet team said the game is one of the best they’ve done.

On the later starting time again next Sunday: It’s not good for our fans. It’s good for the rest of the country to get to see the 67s and Mississauga. Our fans are used to 2pm and by having it at 7pm we lose a lot of our kids who can’t come that late. But you have to deal with partners and Sportsnet is one of them.

On the PP: On Friday you’d think that we’d demonstrated the PP like London. It bothers me because sometimes we get set up and a stick breaks or we hit a bar and it’s broken up. That becomes a sore spot. You get guys down low in front of the net and they take a pounding. We were getting too fancy and too cute. The pretty goals go out in September and October. I’ve got to get them to try to shoot more.

Thoughts on the two Czechs – expecting a bigger contribution especially at this point in the year: We thought that Kaspar would have had a bigger impact than Petruzalek, but it has been the opposite. Kaspar has the same moves and everyone knows it. I keep telling him to drive deep, he could be so dynamite because he’s so strong. We’ve got Jakub driving down now. But they were forever trying to pass it to each other. It works in practice but not when being defended.

Surprised with London: No. They’ve made some tremendous acquisitions. The scouting staff went out and made some good trades. They’ve got depth; the third line could be the first line on some team. They have depth all over the place in goal, defence. They’re just a deep team. They could have a number of guys take the night off and they would still win. Some teams could knock them off, but it’s going to take an all out effort and some disciplined play.

Does one Eastern conference team scare you more than others? No they all do.

On the busy week: Rather not have them (3 w/e games) but because of the scheduling at the Civic Centre we were running out of dates so we had to plug them in. [/paraphrasing]