Gulls Off-Day Transcript - May 4
May 4, 2017 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
Jordan Samuels-Thomas
On his goal in Game 5
It definitely felt good to get that goal there. They had some momentum after that goal they scored in the third so I thought it was huge to kind of cut off their hopes, so it was huge. Obviously it felt really good for me to contribute in that way.
On the team gaining experience vs. Ontario
Every game mattes. We dropped Game 1 and now it's 'you don't want to be down two games.' And then we were up 2-1, were tied and facing elimination, so I think we were in every situation whether it was leading a series or behind in a series. Ultimately we encountered all of the roller coasters that you would have in a playoff run so it was good to get that out of our system. Hopefully all of the guys learned from that.
On expecting to face San Jose in the postseason
Obviously both teams have to take care of business. They went five games, too, against a Stockton team that was hot. I don't think it was necessarily expected but I think going toward the end of the season we knew that San Jose would ultimately be in our way for us to reach our goals.
On the challenges of facing San Jose
I think they play with tremendous speed and it's not just going forward. I think they play with speed going back as well. If you have the puck, you need to work hard when you have the puck because they're going to be right on you. When you don't have the puck they're pushing it forward. I think we need to manage our speed and match that speed, and I think good things will happen. Breakouts will be huge for both teams. Both teams are good offensive teams and defensive teams, and I think breakouts might be really big for us.
On Troy Grosenick
For a goaltender confidence is huge so I think the biggest challenge is to break his confidence. He has every reason in the world to be confident with the season he had. I think in this locker room we also need to be confident to know that we have had games when we were able to get some past him. Not to say that he didn't play well, it was just we need to be confident in ourselves and our ability to do what we need to do to win the games, and getting to him will be a major part.
Jaycob Megna
On lessons from series
I think just the resiliency. Losing that first game at home was big. We responded well in Game 2 at their barn, and then coming back home for Game 5 and finding a way to get the job done definitely built a lot of character. I think it was good for guys to experience that.
On the team gaining experience vs. Ontario
They were a tough out. Obviously they've won championships, they beat us last year, a lot of the same guys were back. They know what it takes to win but our guys were learning on the go here. We have some veterans that have helped out. It felt really good to get that series win.
On the San Jose Barracuda
They're very detailed, they're good on the forecheck. They don't have a lot of big forwards but they do a rally good job of staying on top of the puck and hemming us in our zone. They're very skilled. It felt like we were winning every game for a stretch there and we didn't gain much ground on them. We were probably the two hottest teams in the league the second half. It will be a really good test for us.
On the Barracuda power play
They get a lot of pucks to the net from up top. We just have to make sure we're boxing out, limit them from the first chance. Most of the time Jhonas (Enroth) will save that (first) one but it's a question of getting the second and third one out of there before they get a chance to pounce on it.
On Jhonas Enroth
He's been awesome since we got him. He left for a month there and was up in Anaheim, but since we got him in that trade he's been unbelievable for us. We know when he's back there we have a lot of confidence and whether we need to weather the storm or he's back there weathering it himself, we know we can get through it and get going again.
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