Raw quotes from Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau following Monday’s on-ice action at training camp in Anaheim…
On if any concerns he had a few weeks ago have been alleviated now that camp is winding down:
“The biggest concern is that I’d like to see us all play together before the season starts. The great thing for me about having camp is to get your lines. You have them set and everything pretty ready to go. Then the injury hit us and so we haven’t been able to set our lines. Hopefully after tomorrow’s game [in Los Angeles], we have one game left and five practices. Hopefully that will be enough to—you know we only had four practices last year to start it, so I’ve got to believe we’ll be okay to go if everybody’s healthy.”
On hybrid icing, something the NHL has been testing during pre-season:
“I’ve heard a lot of comments both ways, listening to radio… I think the refs in our game have done a very good job at it. I can only recall one ‘maybe’ call and who knows who would have gotten to that puck first. I’ve liked it, where I was really a dead-set-against proponent of it beforehand. I don’t know which way it’s going to end up going, but for our five games so far, it hasn’t been a factor.”
On Dustin Penner’s play so far:
“Mediocre. We had a talk with Dustin today. We want him better, but I think he wants himself better too. Sometimes big men take a little longer. We did a little extra skating today with him and we’ll probably do that on a continuous [basis] until the season starts anyway. It’s just tough. Sometimes you play fourteen minutes and you’re a big-bodied man and you need more. So we’re going to try to give him some more.”
On whether Penner is a boom or bust guy:
“When you’re trying to win the Cup, you shoot for the moon. We had tremendous success with Dustin the last time he was here. If we can rekindle some of that success—both for him, remembering what it was like, and for us, big-bodied forwards… He’s won two Cups in the last five or seven years. I sure wish I had that in my resume. He knows how to win. When you watch the play-offs, he played extremely well for the Kings. We just want him to continue that in the regular season.”
On how he judges a player when there is no history to look at:
“I make up my own mind. I don’t want to come in jaded. If somebody doesn’t like him…don’t let them try to twist your thoughts. I’ll make my own decision on him. Obviously, the people who know him – our management team and some of the players – you take input. But for the most part, I’ve been trying to handle him like I handle other players and see if it works or it doesn’t work.”
On Shea Theodore, the Ducks first round pick at the 2013 draft:
“I think Shea Theodore is…where they got him was a steal. I didn’t know Shea Theodore from Theodore Cleaver. [Laughter] I don’t know where that came from. I couldn’t think of another Theodore. He’s got, for an eighteen-year-old, some definite promise. I think he’s going to be a really good player. [Reporter: He seems to be more poised with the puck than the typical junior kid.] Yes. And I think he’s got the confidence in himself. He takes chances that a junior kid wouldn’t or an eighteen-year-old wouldn’t at an NHL camp or an NHL exhibition game. Some of it doesn’t always work, but to have that ability to, like last night, trying to do a toe-drag between the hash marks in front of the net. It’s not the brightest move. It didn’t work, but I give him credit for trying it. A lot of other guys would have panicked and not touched the puck at all.”
The Ducks travel to Staples Center on Tuesday for a rematch with the Kings. Last week, LA downed Anaheim 6-0 at the Honda Center. They won’t meet again until December 3, a full two months into the 2013-14 NHL season.
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MayorsManor correspondent Jon Davis contributed to this article. He’s a 20-year veteran of sports and entertainment writing and producing. You can follow him on twitter @westcoasthky and visit his website: westcoasthky.com – plus he continues to provide regular content for The Hockey News and TSN in Canada.
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