After Thursday’s practice, head coach Craig Berube discussed the status of Joseph Woll and Fraser Minten’s injury recoveries, the team’s strong start defensively, and Auston Matthews scoring his first goal of the season.
Joseph Woll was out on the ice again today. What sort of progress is he making?
Berube: Very good. He is doing well. We’ll keep him going here and see where he is at tomorrow.
Is there any chance Woll will be full-go tomorrow in practice?
Berube: That is a good question. We will see how today goes, and then we will make a decision on it. We are not going to rush him.
In that respect, it must be nice that Anthony Stolarz is rolling along pretty well.
Berube: As I said last night, he was solid in the game. He had to fight through a lot of traffic. That (LA) team goes to net hard. They shoot a lot of pucks from the point. I thought he did a good job, and I thought our D did a good job in front of him, too.
Is there an update on Fraser Minten? He was out on the ice.
Berube: He is getting a lot better. He is close — pretty close. That is as good as I can give you.
You’ve conceded just seven goals through four games. What has helped you get off to such a good start defensively?
Berube: More than anything, the mindset is there on the checking side of things. We are pretty tight on people. We are not giving up odd-man rushes — and we have to continue to stress that we don’t give up odd-man rushes.
I thought we were in our own end too much last night. I am not sure if I mentioned that to you guys, but to me, we let them come at us a bit too much. We didn’t get up enough in the neutral zone well enough.
In saying that, we were good at our net. We were good in our slot area at keeping them outside. They shot a lot of pucks from the point.
When you called the timeout at 5-2, was it a feel thing for you, or did you want to make sure you stayed on top of the message early in the season?
Berube: It was a feel thing for me last night. I didn’t like what we were doing. I just wanted to get a break there, bring everyone in, and talk about getting the intensity level up more than anything. They were pushing hard, and I thought they pushed hard in the second period, too.
Our intensity wasn’t good enough. We got it back in the second, and then in the third, when you are up like that, it is natural to drop off the intensity level. We were soft a little bit on pucks and things like that. They were taking advantage.
I wanted to call a timeout and get everyone dialed in again.
What has allowed Oliver Ekman-Larsson to hit the ground running? Do you see room for him to play even more minutes going forward?
Berube: He had a really good year last year and won the Cup. He has a lot of confidence coming into this year. He has been a good player for a long time in this league and knows how to play the game. He has played really well for us right from the start of camp.
He is a player who has played a lot of minutes in this league at times. Last year, he was probably around 20 or just under. Right now, he is an all-situational guy for us. Depending on the game and what is going on in the game — and the flow of the game — it will determine the minutes.
On Morgan Rielly’s goal, it is not often you see a defenseman redirect another defenseman’s pass in front of the net. There seemed to be a lot of motion.
Berube: We had a lot of motion on some plays last night. Early on in the game, the Matthews line had some really nice motion. On that shift (with the Rielly goal), there was some nice motion. It is just a good read by Mo, beating his winger. The winger loses him, and he goes to the net. From there, a good shot and a nice tip.
When Auston Matthews gets his first of the season as the new captain, what can it do for the team overall?
Berube: Everybody wants guys to score. Everyone wants to score. I even wanted to score.
He is our goal-scorer or one of them, and I am sure it eats at him, too, when he gets good opportunities. I looked at his first three games and his shot chart. They are very good — right there, just not going in.
Even early on in the game on the PP, he had a great opportunity right away. We knew it was going to come, and it is really good to see him get one.
