After falling behind 2-0 in the first 40 minutes Sunday afternoon, the Reign eventually tied the game and forced overtime vs. the Roadrunners. In the end, they earned their first point of the season, but it was Tucson who came away with a 4-3 OT win.
Turcotte's last shift seems to have come around 5:30 and it was short. He didn't get PP time. Something may be up.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) February 14, 2021
Mikey Eyssimont continues to be noticable in every Reign game this season. Very effective, aggressive, physical, energy player. Wrobo noted he drags linemates into the game. Good start to the season.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) February 14, 2021
A look at Byfield's first AHL goal (and a MayorsManor reference). https://t.co/QZJmZmLucO
— Andy Tonge (@AndyTonge1) February 15, 2021
https://twitter.com/HeresYourReplay/status/1361086467221692421
Daniel Brickley scores his 2nd goal of the season to tie the game. Assisted by Fagemo (2)#Reign pic.twitter.com/qq2Ec9dqAu
— Eric (@Kingsgifs) February 15, 2021
Following the game, coach John Wroblewski shared the following comments:
On Alex Turcotte, who left the game late in the first period and did not return
Lower body injury. We’ll need to evaluate further.
On making adjustments in the second intermission and eventually forcing overtime
I liked our game the whole way through. I thought the majority of guys played really well, particularly up front. I thought we were determined. I thought that guys executed systems and, individually, let’s look at a guy like Kupari. He was much more direct tonight. I thought the majority of players really controlled their shifts and brought an A-1 effort. I think that we’ve had that almost every game. With a lot of youth in the lineup, we haven’t been able to capture the key moments of games and we’re finding new ways to learn these lessons. It’s certainly frustrating. These guys aren’t repeating a lot of the same issues, which is important. But we are finding new ones are kind of popping up here. I guess that’s expected with players of this lack of experience. Now we’re starting to get to 10 games for a lot of them into their American League careers – with the five exhibitions. It’s time for guys to stop using that as an excuse and let’s start to execute a full 60 minutes, which we have not done mentally or physically.
On the play of Cole Hults, who made his AHL debut
I really liked his vision. He finds the right pockets, whether it was line rush or in offensive zone, he’s very confident. He’s the guy that we’ve noticed in practices; he’s out there scanning his ice before he even gets the puck. It’s something we’ve been trying to endorse to the entire crew – get your eyes up, get your head up, and know the play before you even get the puck. That seems to be something that’s pretty innate for him. It’s a very natural tendency. I really liked his touches. There’s probably a couple things away from the puck that we can clean up, some pinches and things like that. I love his assertiveness and the sturdy frame. For a guy that’s coming off a long time off, he looked really good. He looked really good today.
On the group looking more confident today than in some earlier games this season
They should. Confidence is earned and, I can’t tell you enough, we haven’t gotten the result on the scoreboard, but when you watch the player shifts if you’re in the analytics department — or even the eye test — just the way that guys are winning loose pucks, being able to drive play, controlling in the offensive zone, creating off the line rush. They know that they’re doing a lot of good things. It’s just up to the group to grab that 60 minutes. That’s the next step and it’s a huge one. It’s really simple – people talk about 60 minutes all the time. And it’s simple, but it’s not easy. We’re gonna just keep chipping away until these guys understand it. I think I’m gonna use this in every presser we have – these guys are banking knowledge right now on how to be a pro. This is all part of the process. It’s interesting because, just look up front, a lot of them are being thrown in the fire at the same time. It’s not the same individuals making the same mistakes. It’s something else that’s popping up. There isn’t a veteran presence around them that’s done this before. Besides Sutter and Boko, and you get a little bit with Ace and Byron too, but those guys are still pretty young in their careers. We’re learning on the fly here and it’s gonna take that full 60 minute effort for these guys to to earn the opportunity to taste victory.
On building on their first point of the season heading into the next game on Wednesday
With losing Turc, everything will kind of go into the blender. Again, we don’t know how long he’s gonna be out for, but I can’t anticipate that we’ll have him on Wednesday against Colorado. There will be things that change because of it. Also, in third period, we changed around our D-pairs. We were struggling a little bit with Durzi and Brickley. We were scraping out of our net too often with them out there together. That’s in the blender. We’ll just see how the video plays out and see what the analytics department has to say too, with efficiencies.
Tonight’s lineup and pre-game notes can be found here.
Monday Update on Turcotte:
Checked in on Turcotte situation from yesterday.
Told he's day to day, nothing serious.
Reign are off until Wednesday.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) February 15, 2021
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