03-17 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen Postgame

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Who good is it go without saying you were really locked in tonight?

It looked like you just thought everything was a beach ball coming out.

You could save anything.

Yeah, I feel good.

I feel like after the break, I've been feeling good about my game.

But I think the biggest thing is like, it necessarily seemed like today,

but I think we played still well.

You know, it was kind of not our best, but I think we fought through it.

And I think our defense played solid today, even though there was a couple of chances

maybe here and there.

You make the saves, obviously, in the net.

But what does it say about this club that basically you guys protected a one goal lead for 40 minutes?

I think that's just the growth we kind of have had this season.

That comes with winning, I feel like it's, we've been throwing away so many games

before in the similar situations where we kind of do something stupid.

And even personally, for me, just kind of finding the confidence,

kind of finding the calmness to play in these situations,

has been kind of point of growth for me.

What about the calmness you guys continue to show on the road?

I mean, that's another area where you guys, in the past and recent seasons,

had struggled in blue games, and this season you've been dynamite on the road as a group?

I think we just simplify.

You know, we were able to fight through those kind of sticky first periods where we sometimes

have and we're not kind of, even though there might be, you know, we don't dig too deep of a hole

for ourselves in the first part of the games.

And we were able to kind of just stick around.

So, you know, I feel like also it's a great group of guys.

We enjoy hanging out with each other.

So on the road, we always kind of, you know, you spend a lot of time with the other players.

So I think it's, you know, something we can kind of get par from.

Could you hear the fans yelling, Lou, when we were making saves,

it seemed like at times it was a home game for you?

Yeah, yeah, I did. I love that.

You know, I appreciate all our fans.

It's always great to see them on the road.

You know, especially with games like this, when we're kind of fighting on one goal late,

it's a huge thing for us and for me personally.

Is there anything in your process that you feel like you're doing particularly well since the

break that's led to the success?

I don't think there's anything too special.

I think just kind of sticking with it, trusting yourself, trusting the process.

Don't overreact anything.

It doesn't mean if it's bad or good.

You have to kind of battle through it.

And, you know, when the next day comes, it doesn't matter what happened on the last one.

So kind of just trying to be as even keyless we can, you know, personally as a team.

You and Alex have really thrived on the back and forth.

You each play a game back and forth.

Does that help you just to know, all right, you're playing this game,

you're playing this game and you know, you're going to be playing that game.

Yeah, I mean, of course, as a goalie, you want to play as much as you can.

I said it before, but the rotation is nice.

You know, you kind of can plan your physically and mentally, you can prepare on your own games.

You kind of know what the rotation will be on the road and home.

You know, Ellie and L are both, you know, unbelievable guys, unbelievable goalies.

So it's, you know, easy to kind of learn something every day and kind of keep yourself mentally sharp.

You know, a few times this season early on where you were like five minutes from a shut out and couldn't get it.

Is it pretty happy that you finally have that in the book, the one shut out?

Yeah, at the end, I was just trying to ring the puck out of the zone, you know,

just trying to get it out of there.

So, um, yeah, I mean, I think the shut out, it's, it's always nice.

But always it's a team, team thing.

I think it feels good.

You know, I think we fought hard.

We blocked shots.

We blocked out well today.

So, um, the shout out feels good personally.

But, um, we always feel good to kind of, um, see that our, you know, defense work today.

Is this a game where you had to fight for your ice too?

Sometimes it seemed like you were on top of your crease and you had to fight some of

their guys, but you were able to fight through it.

Yeah, but it wasn't, you know, I think crazy.

I feel like I kept, um, you know, tracking and puck on the side all the time.

Yeah, I don't think it was kind of, as you said, it was, uh, I felt good.

I felt confident playing today.

So, it's easy to kind of track the puck on those days.

You mentioned tracking the puck and trusting yourself.

It seemed like even on their good passing plays, you were kind of like in your spots early.

Is that part of truck, like just trusting your reads?

I guess, do you feel like you're reading the game really well right now?

Yeah, uh, it's, it's confidence is confidence playing deeper.

It's easier to read the game from the deeper.

It's, it's, I think a lot of it.

It's just knowing where the open guys are.

And I think at the end there and on the par play,

there was a couple of times where I, you know, um, made the right read and saw, saw the open guys.

So, um, in the end, it's just about trusting your game, as I said.

So it's, uh, I don't think it's something too crazy.

You made some saves on Jack, including the end, but the guy that really struck me

as being super dangerous in this game was Marner.

I mean, how, what was it like dealing with him the way he was dancing around at his own all night?

Um, yeah, he's really, of course, one of the better players in the league.

And, um, he's so skillful at the puck.

He escaped so well.

So, kind of just trying to, um, you know, I mean, I said it before,

but like, not overreact, not overplay those situations.

Have some backward momentum, don't get like, kind of caught on an all-man's land.

And, you know, just trying to weigh him out.

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