Dallas Stars talk to the media after their Game 2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights
Tracy Myers, nhl.com Just how nice is it to be home and and how much do you guys need to feed off of of the energy when you get in there tomorrow. Yeah, we we’ve got to do what they did. You know we got a hold serve here at home and it is an advantage and the home crowd gives you an advantage and energy this time here and we got to use that. I’m excited about coming home and. And playing in front of our fans and you know hopefully scratching our way back in the series. Hey
Saudis with the Athletic you guys haven’t been down to oh, but you guys have been down to 1 and that’s it’s a one game difference. What’s the messaging kind of there where if you. Take care of this game. You’re kind of right back where you were in the last two series. Yeah, I mean it’s it’s not unfamiliar territory for us. You know, we faced a lot of things including, you know, straight out elimination in the playoffs. So I don’t think we’re overwhelmed by the situation. I think there’s some real good building blocks in the last
game that we’ve got to take and and continue to to put in place. And you know, you just got to grind out
You know probably well absolutely the deepest decor in the league that you know one to six and and I thought Aiden Hill made a couple saves at key moments for them, you know to keep it at 21 and then 22, you know in overtime, so. I I think, I think all those things go into it. I mean we’re trying to extend the lead. We’re not sitting back. I thought we were defending well, we’ve been in that position a bunch of times. We’ve done a good job of closing it out. They got to give them credit.
They made a play they got a couple big saves at the right time that that’s you know those little things are all are the important pieces between winning and losing this time of year. You’ve talked a lot about leadership this year. Just, you know, when you talk about moments where leadership is necessary, is this kind of where you also along with yourself but rely on guys like Joe and Jamie and those guys? Yeah, yeah. And. And again, we got leadership in spades. I think you saw it in our game two, our reaction to game one,
I mean game two was, you know. Much better and and that’s our leadership grabbing it and going okay let’s let’s get this to the level it needs to be at. So you know we we’ve been a response team all year and you know it’s the first time in the playoffs. I think we’ve lost two in a row so you know I’m I’m excited about our response Patrick from RDS. So just following up on the leadership you know. We know you were unlucky in the overtime games and you didn’t get rewarded for your chances. Is it
is there something that needs to be done regarding the leadership that, you know, calm the group down in those situations or has it already been done? Maybe, Yeah, I I don’t know the the, you know, I, I don’t think overtime is a leadership thing. I think the overtime’s an interesting one. You know, we’ve been we’ve been a really good. First and third period team all year we haven’t been a good second period team. It’s a long change in overtime you know and we’re and we’re not we haven’t been a good overtime team. So is there
is there something there to that I think there is. You know that’s probably a deeper dive in the offseason than a quick fix between games the set you know two and three here but. The bottom line is you got to find a way and and it it’s not like, you know we didn’t get an opportunity. I would argue our opportunity was better than their opportunity in overtime last night. So you know you just got to stick it in the net too. But you know big picture you know I think we we’ve lost a lot of
games in overtime this year. The regular season’s different but I I think when I look at the postseason. And the long change in the second period, you know, that might be something we might have to dive deeper into, you know, later on front roll on the right. Pete, Kevin Sherrington, Dallas Morning News. Hey, so you’ve been a response team, especially in these playoffs and that has been in times when y’all have not played as well and then responded well, this game, you did play well overall. So how does that change the dynamic of that? Yeah.
You just look at it is that well it was a fluke play there that they got to the tie there in the third. Well, I I think it’s a great question. You know you’re right for the for the first time in the playoffs we’re not we’re not asking for a response to a poor effort or a below average effort. We’re asking to a response to losing a game you know but the the responses to the fact you’re you’re down to nothing and you can’t afford the. They go down 3, nothing, So that desperation has to
kick in. So it is a different response we’re looking for, but at the same time, you know we have that in us and you know, I think that desperation will be there. I guess, I guess one of the positives to come out of the games of Vegas is that Jason, you know, scores 2 consecutive games. Is that just puck luck? Is there anything material that you saw different in his game in those games? No. You know what he he was just due. I mean he had looks exactly like those looks. I can’t tell you how
many times in the series before against Seattle, you know there there was a stretch there probably the first half of his slump where. He wasn’t. He was getting away from some of the things that that allow him to score. I thought he got back to it as the Seattle series went on. He just had some some bad luck around the net and now he’s he’s kind of back and he’s a streaky scorer. I mean he could score every night here for the rest of the playoffs. He’s that type of player. You know Jay got injure
probably better than anybody here just. But if you thought of him so far in this series and we always talk about him coming back from a loss, what do you expect to see from him tomorrow? Continued great things. I mean, you look at period one and game one, he’s the reason we’re still in it throughout the entire game. Last game. I mean, you can’t ask much more of them. We’ve probably asked too much of them at times. But you know, that’s what he’s there for and why he’s, you know, obviously so talented and got the
pedigree that he’s built for himself so far. And you know he’ll continue to do give us a chance to win like he’s obviously asking of himself and you know, we got to take advantage of how great he’s playing for us. From ESPN there it is. Give me a little Coach Wedgewood on the on the Golden Knights. What do they do well defensively to kind of give you guys some problems offensively? I think they do a good job just kind of, you know, taking pucks out of corners they’ve, they’ve won some wall battles against us that
you know, led to some chances. And I think they’ve kind of taken advantage of some, you know, misplays on our part on getting the puck deep at times throughout the game. They’ve got a good rush game and. Unfortunately when they start rolling in NRN they’ve been able to create some stuff to the net and and win some box outs. But you know I think you know looking at ourselves it’s some easable fix with some potential fixes in our part. You know managing puck a little better, ending plays a little bit sooner you you take the
puck out of some other their skill guys hands and it shuts things down. But you know that’s all all in house fixes. It’s you know they’ve taken advantage of what we’ve given them and you know you obviously take that away they don’t they don’t get much. So you know both teams this time of year playing. Exactly the same way. No one wants to make mistakes. It’s pucks in, pucks out and once you know, opportunity arises, you got to make the most of it. And you know right now they’re they’re too up on us for that
reason front, right? There you go. Leason Macopolos Dallas Morning News. Pete was talking a little bit about overtime and the challenges that you guys have had in overtime and so that that might be more of an offseason fix, but obviously a lot of games this postseason are going overtime, so. What have you seen in overtime and what are the immediate fixes that you think need to go into place before the next game? I don’t know if there’s a technical immediate fixed anything. It’s just unfortunately one shot wins in that that time frame and we’ve been
on the short end of the stick and in the playoffs and obviously like I said throughout the year. But I mean it’s just every detail obviously gets heightened, every potential mistake change puck on net. I mean the the goals of throughout all playoffs have pretty much been scored. You know inside the hash marketing the Toronto series had a couple. You know point shots off face off that you saw go in but it’s pucks than that it’s you know making sure you got your guy a little bit more communication a little more desperation and you know
it’s not like we don’t have that it’s just obviously you’ve been on the other side of it and then you know that potential thought process kind of creeps in of what’s wrong. And I think anyone in our rooms too worried about it. You know teams go down too all the time and you know they they held their home ice and it’s it’s obviously are trying to do the same and you know we’ll get a bounce here and and win it overtime if we get there but obviously. Until that comes, you know, we’re just focus on
playing a full 60 minutes, get the win in regulation and then you know, when it comes down to it, I’m sure we’ll find a way to to win Bay here if we go 60 plus me again, I’m asking a lot of the guys about Joe Pavelsky, not so much on the ice, but off the ice. What we don’t see with, you know, the leadership, the personality and everything like that. And just what have you gotten to know about him in the time that you’ve been with them? He’s got the nickname Captain America on the ice
and he kind of has that personality off the ice. I’m a big fan of that character, but he’s just a top class human being. I think you know what he’s done with Wyatt, obviously bring him to his house and seeing Wyatt grow up and some of the videos and stories he has of just, you know, making fun of him and also teaching them and things like that. It’s, you know, it’s one of those guys are growing up and you know, as I started my career has obviously been a top tier athlete and player throughout the
league and. You know him and you know Joe Thornton there, you’re like all those are two guys that seem like they’d be cool to hang around with and you weren’t wrong kind of coming into the league. I mean he’s got world class hockey town. He’s a great golfer. A ton of our team is a big fan of golfers. You get to talk to him and things like that and you know I hung out with him outside of the rink obviously a numerous times throughout the year, dinners and things like that. And it’s just you know
one of those guys that you can walk away from your hockey career after him being like you know, who was? Who do you really like? You know, I’m, I’m a big fan of Anton Strongman, my time in Arizona. You know one of those, one of those names that come up. Scott Clements has been a big, you know, mentor of mine and I’m sure for a lot of players it’s Joe Pavalski and then a lot of friends. It’s it’s going to be, you know, Joe was a great guy, great teammate. That’s just one of the biggest
things. And I think for a lot of people you play your hockey career, you know, you hope to have a legacy and points and all that. But you know, it’s my mind too. When you walk away you hope to have a lot of friends, a lot of respect and I don’t think he’s going to have a short list of people to say nice things about him and he’s continue to do that and obviously there’s a. A big goal for him here at the by the end of the career what he really wants and you know
our whole teams you know pulling for him and gonna do everything we can to make sure he choose that along with us. Hey Annie side from the Athletic just how are you how are you feeling and and you know what is this last few days been like for you as you kind of work back from it. You know it’s getting better every day so that’s a good thing. You know we’re doing a lot of progress here in the few few days it’s gone by here so. Slowly but surely getting close. Hi tracymyersnhl.com quick follow up
off of that. Do you hope to play tomorrow? As you know I hope to play every night but you know you know it’s going to be all up tomorrow. You know it’s about kind of like a daytoday situation right now. I just going to see how it feels tomorrow and go from there just with. What you’ve been able to see watching the games, what have you seen on as far as how the Stars have been able to defend the Golden Knights thus far? You know, it’s, you know, it’s type games, type checking games, not a
lot of extra room out there. So I feel like for us, you know, there’s probably a few things we can sharpen up a little bit. Little details here and there to make sure that you know, we get that one one goal advantage instead of, you know, being down one so, but it’s how it is this time of year. It’s all tight games, close games, as it should be. So those little small things, you know, make sure your difference. Hey Greg Waschinski with ESPN, can you give us this insight as to like what the vibe is
behind the scenes? What are people saying after game two? What’s the feeling of the team like after being down O2? Of course at the start you know right after the game you know you’re down you know tough game and losing overtime it’s always hard hard. But you know I think once we got going and got on the plane and you know you know we got that mentality like hey, you know it’s you know they won their games at home and now it’s our turn to do the same. So you know it’s it’s a it’s a
good confidence we had in there and you know now we know we’re just going to take care of business at home and. You know, it’s gonna be nice. Nice. Get the home crowd going tomorrow, get the American Airlines Center pumping, and, you know, I’ll go from there.
