Ahead of the Leafs vs. Islanders game, head coach Jim Hiller discussed the areas his team needs to clean up after their season-opening loss to Montreal, Darren Raddysh’s adjustment to Toronto, the Rielly-Raddysh pairing, early impressions of Kirill Marchenko, and lineup changes for the second game of the back-to-back.
After a night’s sleep and a morning review, what’s your take on where the team is?
Hiller: I think defensively, we played a pretty strong game. The majority of their chances came off some breakout turnovers from us. That’s not a defensive breakdown. That’s more of an offensive breakdown with the puck on your stick. That’s something we have to clean up because we gave a couple freebies that way.
Offensively, we just didn’t execute. We really weren’t sharp. I think the Matthews line, on three or four occasions, really moved the puck pretty well. A lot of times, we were putting it in skates, or it was bouncing on our stick. We’ll have to execute better offensively to put some more pressure on the other team.
Raddysh mentioned it was an emotional night for him. He comes home, signs a big contract, and there are expectations. What’s your sense of how he’s handling everything?
Hiller: We’re all humans, so you have a little extra pressure because of all the things you mentioned, no matter what. You can say, “Just relax and go out there and play,” but I think he’ll have to work his way through that. I think getting the first one out of the way probably will help.
Where is the chemistry between Raddysh and Morgan Rielly? They only had one preseason game together because of Morgan’s situation. Where are they at as a pair?
Hiller: It’ll take time. There’s no question. We’ve talked about this: There are lots of new guys. We’re trying to get this thing together as quickly as we can, but we all know it’s going to take a little bit of time. We just want to shrink that time. I can’t put a date on that, but everybody will get better together.
Will a couple of last night’s scratches get in tonight?
Hiller: Yeah, both will play tonight, and Stoli will start.
Who’s coming out for both?
Hiller: I’ll wait on that one. I’ll just let you know both are going in.
What’s the challenge with the Islanders? They have a certain defenseman everybody’s heard of.
Hiller: That’s the first thing that jumps out at you: Schaefer, of course, and then Sorokin in net. He poses lots of problems for most shooters.
A new coach who I know pretty well, so the style of play probably has changed just a little bit. Played against him a lot over the years, so we’ll have to be ready for that.
Have you talked to Gavin coming off last night’s game, or does he have the internal IQ to know what to do to adjust tonight?
Hiller: I haven’t talked to him much, no. That’ll come in due time. I’ve certainly talked to him plenty of times, but you come in, it’s a back-to-back, and it’s an emotional night. Right now, we try to just let him recharge. I might touch [base with] him before the game when he gets in here later.
Marchenko comes from a small market. Has there been discussion about how he’ll embrace the chance to play in a big market like this?
Hiller: Here are my early impressions of him: He just loves hockey. You guys will have plenty of chances to talk to him, but he’s really happy and excited.
I was just talking to Auston about him, and he really gets a good feeling from him. He’s asking him lots of questions. He’s just really into the game.
I don’t think he’s going to overthink that part of it. I just think he’s really focused on his on-ice play, and that’ll probably help him.
What did you see from the power play last night?
Hiller: We just didn’t move it quick enough. That was the one thing. If there was one area of the game where we probably had the opportunity to at least get tied or get ahead, it would have been the power play. We need to be more dangerous than we were.
What was last night’s experience like for you, being the head coach this time around in this building?
Hiller: It was great. It really was.
I wish we would’ve won. I said it again last night: You always want to win. That’s why we’re in the business. I can talk about all this other stuff, but we want to win, and it hurts when you don’t win. I was disappointed because of that.
Through the process, watching how the team played and listening to them on the bench between periods, I was really happy with the energy, the team togetherness.
Montreal is a pretty good offensive team, and we did a pretty good job of suppressing some of the rush play and that sort of thing. But again, just too many turnovers.
What did you see from Easton Cowan last night that made you want to bump him up and give him a few shifts with the Tavares line and at six-on-five?
Hiller: He’s had a really good camp. I wasn’t here, but what everybody tells me, from last year to this year, he’s had a great summer. I’ve just been really impressed with him in my time here.
Somebody asked before: You do well, and you should get rewarded. We thought he had a pretty good game, and we wanted to reward him for that.
