After Friday’s practice, head coach Craig Berube discussed the decision to make the practice an optional skate (with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner absent), load management down the stretch, the play of the Simon Benoit-OEL pairing, and OEL’s play on his offside.
What led to the optional skate at practice?
Berube: There were a lot of minutes played by some of our guys with the OT and the end of the game there as we were trying to tie it up. The minutes got a little high. We just made it an optional.
Would you like the minutes to be lower?
Berube: Yeah, with the state of the game and where we were at… Max (Domi) was in the box, too, and wasn’t available. I played our skilled guys a lot down the stretch to try to tie the game up. We get to OT, and that is where they play.
What is the challenge of wanting to win as many games as possible while knowing the playoff spot is safe and there are load management considerations?
Berube: It is important. I always tell you guys that I don’t want those minutes to get that high, but there are times that they do. Every game is different, right? I want to win games. So do they. It is not like they haven’t done it before. They’ll rest today and get ready for tomorrow.
Why did you not go on the ice yourself?
Berube: It is just an optional, so I let the assistant coaches run it. [The players] hear from me a lot of the time, and they heard from me this morning.
How do you reset after a performance like the one in San Jose?
Berube: You look at some of the things in the video today regarding where we failed in the game. It is not like this has been a consistent thing. In the last five or six games, we have defended really well. I didn’t feel like we defended in the last game, especially in the first period.
You come out of that game with a point, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like we got to our game enough on the defending side of things and made it hard on the other team in the offensive zone. We didn’t do a good enough job in that department.
Outside of the San Jose game, what do you attribute the defensive improvement to?
Berube: We got a new goalie (over the summer), we added some new [defensemen], and it is a new system we play. More than anything, it is just a commitment. Defense is a commitment. I don’t care what system you play. Teams win with different types of systems, but it is about the commitment to doing it and doing the little things within the system that really buckle it down defensively.
The loss to San Jose aside, how have you felt about your goaltending since the 4 Nations break in terms of where the two netminders stand right now?
Berube: It’s a little up and down. They have had real good games, too. It is a little bit like our game — a little too inconsistent at times. But hey, they have played really well for us this year. They’ve been really solid. They are going to have off-nights like everybody else does.
How mindful do you have to be of their workload now, knowing that neither has handled more than a half-season type of load before?
Berube: That is part of the rotation that we have used throughout the season, too. These guys have not had that much work in their career ever. They are past that point now, but I think we have managed it well with the rotation and using the guys.
We have played goalies two in a row in some situations, and a lot of the time, the schedule dictates how we use them, but I feel like they are in a good spot. I don’t feel like they are overused or tired. I am not sensing that. I am not sensing that from them.
Will it be Anthony Stolarz between the pipes in LA on Saturday?
Berube: Maybe.
Will Pontus Holmberg re-enter the lineup?
Berube: Holmer will be back in. I am not sure (who comes out), but Holmer will be back in.
What have you seen from the Simon Benoit-Oliver Ekman-Larsson pairing? Do you feel like they are still settling in as a partnership?
Berube: They have had some good games. They both defend hard and are both physical players. They are an effective pair when they are simple with the puck getting it up to the forwards. They are a difficult pair to play against, to be honest with you, with the size and physicality they both play with. I don’t love OEL on his offside, but that is the way it is with that pair right now.
Do you feel it takes away from some of OEL’s puck-moving?
Berube: For sure. For anybody who plays their offside, it is going to take away their puck movement a little bit. It probably takes a little bit away from their all-around game to a certain extent, but O’s played the right side a lot in his career. It is nothing new for him.
Joseph Woll on his performance in San Jose: “I don’t think it was my best performance… I know that.”
Woll: Reflecting on myself as an individual, I don’t think it was my best performance. I know that. The important thing is to have a short memory and to look back and find things (to learn from). I will do that. I will do the work of making sure I am learning from the experience as best as I can. I will stick to my process as well as I can.
From a team standpoint, it was pretty awesome by the guys to come back and score two late ones as they did. It was pretty cool to see them pick up the slack for me a little bit like that. It would’ve been great to get the win, but unfortunately, it didn’t go that way.
Woll on his blunder on the William Eklund goal: “My brain turned off for a second.”
Woll: Just a bad play. Sometimes, you make bad plays. I was looking up ice, and my brain turned off for a second. It is unfortunate.
Once something like that happens, you have to do your best to put it behind you. There is no point in lingering on it.
Woll was STUNNED by Eklund's skate rebounding his pass 🤯 pic.twitter.com/uiNynQIcra
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 28, 2025
