Interview With The Coach, “We need everyone to play up to what they’re capable of.”

Post-playoff w/e interview with Killer on the TEAM 1200/Dean Brown and Chris Stevenson yesterday:

[paraphrasing]

(On Game 2) As a team we were outplayed. I felt bad for Danny Battochio because he gave us a chance to win. He was brilliant. Had we played anywhere near where we could, we would have won that game. This is a game that I strictly blame the forwards’ lack of productivity.

(Any fire and brimstone speeches?) Today we’ll just talk a little bit about it, then forget about it. We are happy to get a split, but we had a great opportunity to get another one with the great goaltending we had. I leave the dressing room alone. I leave it in the hands of the players. After I had blown up a touch and taken a walk, one of our rookies stood up and said something and that bodes well for the future. That’s the good part. I just hope some of the veterans take it to heart and learn something from it.

We need everyone. We’re not a super-duper team. We need everyone to play up to what they’re capable of. I think that we’re getting fooled because we won the first game. Barrie’s a good team. We respect them.

I felt that with playing the way we had been down the stretch, I thought we had overcome some of those things. We had the chance to win and that’s what’s bothering me.

Some of the fellows we expect to see on the score sheet haven’t been. I’m going to put Bickell back with Bonello and Mancari, because a lot of time they are killing penalties. Akeson goes with Lukas and Jakub . . . Right now we need a spark so a couple of changes, yes. You’re not going to take someone who hasn’t played and say give us the spark. You want the guys who got you here to do it.

(On Barrie) They got such great performances from Little and Hisey and they were on the ice all the time. Barrie played better in their own end than we did, they got the puck out, and they didn’t spend a lot of time watching their goaltender make saves. They didn’t wear down the other night. They won an awful lot of face-offs and were controlling the puck more than we were.

Our fourth line was our best line. Get the air out of their heads is the first message. Danny stole the first game for us. We have to get back to our own game – outwork them.

Having a practice at Canterbury. A good hard skate, not a long one, mainly because we’re not in our own rink. This has been going on for 4 weeks because of functions.

[/paraphrasing]