INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM: Blashill, Bedard and Rinzel REACT to Fifth Consecutive Loss vs Columbus

What's the thing that troubles you the most right now?

I don't look at it that way at all to be honest with you.

That's a prudent way to look at things.

All we look at is what we did well, what we didn't do well,

how we can grow and give better.

That's the only thing that we look at to be dead honest with you.

So we'll continue to do that.

And if I looked at tonight's game,

I think we do more of the second half.

And that's when we're a successful team.

And I thought we were...

We weren't very good until kind of...

We ended up having to go lead,

or that you know, go lead a first challenge,

and kill that down.

I thought we were really good after that,

and that we were the better team.

So I think the score chance would 12 to the second half of the game.

So for me, I don't look at it, you know.

I don't look at it...

I look at it as real as I can.

And whatever we did poorly and can correct,

we'd work on that and whatever we did well,

we emphasized that.

What you make of how you guys responded in today's second period,

compared to how, yes, they would have been.

Yeah, I know, obviously, you know, every game,

that kind of is a life of its own.

You know, again, you know, we've gone through a back-to-back journey

that was really poorly,

and we've been way better lately on these.

You know, it's an interesting schedule

that you're playing this many at home

when the other team's sitting here.

Like, that's probably not the best business model,

but that's neither here nor there.

Everybody has back-to-backs.

Everybody's going to have,

this is similar back-to-backs.

There's this problem.

It doesn't always make sense to me.

But that's neither here nor there.

So I think we've gotten way better

at understanding how to play in them.

It's part of the growth process.

You know, again, I thought we were the better team

the second half of the game.

Now, they, you know, credit to them.

They're playing well.

Bones doesn't play well.

They're a big, strong team.

They've got speed, they've got a little bit of everything,

and they're doing a good job.

So it was certainly, you know, part of it

is I think they kind of clamped down the second half of the game,

but I thought we'd push pretty good.

When you think of it as a line.

I thought, I thought Sam played good.

You know, I thought he played good.

I thought he had an impact,

skating, moving the puck,

and with less kind of big errors

than maybe when he left.

And I think that's something we talked about,

just being making sure that, you know, at the end of the day,

you've got to judge the pauses versus the biases.

And it's really hard if you have a whole bunch of biases.

And I thought today, outside of maybe one decision,

not a kind of lead kind of step in the ozone.

I thought he played well.

When you look at the power play,

is there a component in this here right now?

Is there someone just that type of player

or some reason why it's so extended?

I wouldn't say that.

I wouldn't say that.

I would say we have the components to be good.

You know, power plays are for fickle.

Like, you get confidence and you start really going.

And right now, it doesn't have confidence, obviously.

And, you know, I mean, if there's a big kind of

bearing, not less than the reality is when you lose

the special things about it's really hard to win.

We lost the special times about it.

You know, will I take some of the chances we got?

Yes.

Certainly the chance from Betsy to Franky

is an unbelievable save by all this, like,

it's not a real traffic in 6A,

but that's going to happen sometimes.

So, you know, we just got to continue to find ways

for this group to gain chemistry.

Certainly, I think our breakouts have not been good enough.

That's probably that the drop breakout is an area

that either we're going to switch the breakout

or it'd be better at the drop, one of the two.

I'd like a bit of a broken record for you.

How do you get out of it?

Yeah, I just kind of clean things up a bit.

You know, it's hard to leak, so I just figure it out ways.

So, like, you Frank and Tyler had pretty good chemistry tonight.

Did it feel like you guys kind of had that right from the jump?

Yeah, I think it's a game that we got better and better.

You know, we've seen a couple goals

and visual energy and confidence.

Oh, yeah, probably got some luck.

I'd also hope we build up that.

I feel like it was a better effort than last night.

Yeah, definitely, but better especially after first.

We didn't have that kind of period that we did last night

before we gave up 4-5, but at the day results are the same.

We feel nice for Frank to get away after all he's been through.

Yeah?

Yeah, it's always nice to score, so obviously we're going to get

the first one to come back in the dream.

Get that off your bag down as nice.

Are you feeling better than you did when you came back?

Yeah.

Yeah, back in, I guess.

What's the feeling of the power plant that's been a while since you guys scored?

Yeah, probably what you expect.

I'm frustrated, so I'll try to figure that out.

Is that a chance there at the end?

I don't know if it's been there.

Or it's the end still.

How'd you go on your first game day?

Oh, yeah.

I felt good.

I felt pretty decent.

Yeah.

I hope you're good.

What takeaways have you had from your time in your opera?

You know, a lot of things.

Just kind of a big part is kind of a defensive aspect of the game

and then I think just, you know, part of it's realizing

that 90% of the game is just 50-50 shifts.

And, you know, it's just about winning those 50-50 shifts.

So, yeah, nothing has to be flashing or crazy.

It's, I think, just learning to play with my brain

and to kind of use my brain to beat guys and whatever it may be.

Do you feel like a better player now than when you went down two months ago?

Yeah.

100%.

I think my defensive game has actually grown a lot.

Just kind of the awareness side of it,

and kind of the use on side of it,

just kind of no end pucks it through me.

The power plays mostly strut,

just kind of leading up to your return here.

What do you think you can do, kind of?

Good time back, I'm trying.

Make plays, right?

Yeah.

Just wherever it may be, you know, I want to make plays

and whatever it may be.

So, you know, if they think I can help there,

that's my goal.

So, you know, just about wanting to help this team win

and that's a good example.