Toronto Marlies head coach John Gruden discusses his team’s 4-3 loss to the WBS Penguins in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final. The series is now tied 2-2.
On the team conceding three goals in the second period:
Their goalie made some really big saves early to keep it at 2-0. They got a little momentum from those big saves he made. And then we just got a little loose.
We missed a couple of coverages in front of our own net. They didn’t do anything other than just put pucks to the net, which you do at this time of year, and they got rewarded.
Again, we had a big pushback in the third. We scored a big goal.
Our guys do a lot of good. We just have to eliminate the catastrophic. If we do that, we’ll take this series back over. I think they know that. I don’t need to tell them all the time about it.
It is playoff hockey. We have to understand that turning the puck over won’t work against a team like that.
On the message to Easton Cowan after his costly turnover late in the third period for the game-losing goal:
What a play he made off the faceoff on the re-route. We had four breakaways. We had chances to score some goals, and their goalie is seeing it. We will need to take a little out of their page and be a little quicker to get pucks to the net with traffic.
He will be a pro for many years. He is a gamer. Sure, he would like to have it back, too, and so would all of us. But it is not going to define who he is as a person and who he is as a Toronto Maple Leaf.
It is big boy hockey. He will go back out there and be Easton Cowan — the best version of him — and find it, fix it, and forget it. Hey, everyone makes mistakes at the end of the day. He is a teammate of ours, a great young player, and a great kid. He’ll bounce back.
On Cowan’s overall performance after returning from injury:
I thought it was really, really good early. They lost a little momentum and didn’t play as much in the offensive zone. They’re all going to have to understand that you won’t always score every shift. You can win a shift by reloading, getting above, and making it difficult on the opposition.
Again, I thought he did a lot of good things. He made a nice play on the power play on the second goal.
He is a great young player and a great kid. He will bounce back.
It is 2-2 now, and here we go for Game 5.
On how the team has adjusted to the Penguins’ transition threat:
I liked it. We made it harder and slowed them down coming out of their end. I thought we did a good job of getting above and allowing our D to step up. As long as we have a good F3, slowing them down is the key.
We did a really good job, but sometimes, we didn’t manage the puck very well. That is a mindset. You won’t be able to make a play in the middle of the ice all of the time. Sometimes, it is okay to throw it off the glass when in doubt. “Mark Giordano it out,” he says. He made a lot of money doing that.
Again, we’ll bounce back.
On Ben Danford playing with confidence offensively and activating into the rush:
He is not jumping when he is not supposed to. He is jumping because he is gapping up offensively and defensively and is seeing holes when we have full possession. If we don’t, he backs up. He doesn’t get caught.
I haven’t noticed one time when he got caught and got stuck in the offensive zone. He does a really good job of reading the situation, identifying it, and then we don’t lose him as a back-checker.
It is good for him, as a young defenseman, to be able to jump into those situations and be a threat offensively without getting caught defensively.
On the physical edge of the series ramping up:
They’re a team that was down 2-1. We are going to get their best. They’re a good hockey team. That is a tough division on the other side. For them to come out of there, they’re doing something right.
They have some young players and some older players who are committed to doing the simple things. So are we. It’s a good series.
This was a tough way to lose, but it is hockey. We can’t hang our heads. We have to make sure we keep them high and understand what works. It’s 2-2 in a best-of-seven.
It was a little rougher today. That is okay. We can play that game. It actually suits our style a little bit more.
