Ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Mammoth, head coach Jim Hiller discussed John Tavares’ recovery, Darren Raddysh’s play, the need to generate more offensive-zone time, and the importance of limiting Utah’s opportunities off the rush.
It was great to see John Tavares out there, even in a red sweater. What are the chances we’ll see him back in game action this weekend?
Hiller: I don’t know. We’ve still got to do some progressing, but closer. That’s all I can give you, right? We’ll get him into a practice with us, hopefully sooner rather than later, and then see how he does there and make the next step.
How do you feel the team has adapted without Tavares? We talked when he got hurt about how tough a piece he is to replace.
Hiller: I think we’ve done all right, no question. We went on a bit of a run there, then stumbled a little bit out west in the middle of the trip. But I think we’ve done pretty well without him. But he’s an important player. He really is. He does so many things well. So many things don’t get talked about or written about, and he does them really well, beyond just the leadership he provides in the room.
What are some of those things?
Hiller: Just really strong in puck battles. A really great offensive player who goes to spots that you hope everybody would get to. He understands where to go, and when he gets there, he’s able to make a play out of it. And then understanding the game without the puck.
I had John way back when he first showed up here, right? At that point, he was one of the top offensive players in the league. Now he’s still maintained his offense, but he’s really added a strong defensive game. He really, really understands the game, and he goes to the right spots without it.
What did you learn from the loss in Utah that you can apply in the rematch tonight?
Hiller: Again, and I hate to sound like a broken record, but you can’t turn the puck over against them. They’re a dangerous offensive team. You can name four or five players. You can look at the stats. But if you make it a short track for them, if you let them come from the red line, and if you let them come from your blue line, then you make it hard on yourselves. I think that’s what we did in Utah. They had those rush goals.
Darren Raddysh was talking about perhaps overpassing at times and not shooting at the right times. Why hasn’t he been able to produce the goals we saw last year?
Hiller: A lot were on the power play, and our power play is pretty effective. He’s been an excellent distributor, more so than a shooter on the power play this year so far.
I think some of his best looks have been blocked. In desperation, the opposition has made some pretty good blocks. If you can think back, he’s come in from that point, he’s bombed a couple, and they’ve gotten blocked. Those were his most dangerous opportunities.
But I’m not necessarily concerned with that. He’s moving the puck for us. I don’t know if we expected him to be this strong defensively, playing some of those hard minutes against top players. We like his game overall.
How surprised are you by the scoring chances Zack MacEwen can generate? We saw him working on tips, and he had a slap shot the other night.
Hiller: I think he’s skating as well as he’s ever skated. He had the injury, and you get a long time to be by yourself and rehab and train and focus on your power. He’s come out of that faster than he’s ever been. I had him for a short time in LA, and he didn’t skate this well. Credit to him for doing the work. He’s an extremely effective forechecker, and he has a heavy shot, so he’s playing to his strengths.
Do you think your team is spending enough time in the offensive zone, or as much as you’d like?
Hiller: No, not as much as we’d like. There are different reasons for that. It could be just some practice time. If you noticed in practice yesterday, a large portion of the practice was spent on that. Hopefully, we see some results of that, but that’ll get worked in more and more.
As we came into the season, we felt like we wanted to try to get skating and do some things without the puck first. We gave that some attention, but probably gave the defensive side a little bit more. Now we can turn this month into working on that.
Is there a key to doing more of it?
Hiller: You’ve got to put the puck in the right spots on the forecheck. That’s really where it starts. If I go back to the Utah game, we gave the puck to their goaltender too many times. If you do that, you can’t forecheck. In the second period in Vancouver, we got it in, we stopped the puck, we came with the second guy, and we won the puck. Then you play in the O-zone. It’s not one or the other. They’re connected, and it starts with good dumps.
We’ve seen players around the league make trade requests this year. Generally speaking, how would you approach that with one of your players, and what challenges would it present to a coach?
Hiller: That’s a big challenge, of course, but it’s just too hypothetical. I think we’re in good shape here. It’s not our case right now, and I don’t want to speak to somebody else’s. It’s just not something I can wrap my head around here right now. I appreciate the question.
