0:00

Marcus, you know really other than the one year

0:02

in 2018-19 whatever you're not used to this Obviously,

0:07

it's been a tough tough year for you But

0:10

what's just the demeanor around the team to just

0:13

make sure that this is a one-off? Yeah,

0:16

I mean that's how we feel we

0:19

feel like this is the season kind of got away from

0:21

us and Just

0:24

been a grind it's been It's

0:27

tough to explain it. It just said

0:29

the start wasn't wasn't great wasn't clean.

0:31

It wasn't something that we anticipated Everyone

0:35

coming to training camp was in good spirits and

0:37

then you know thinking for

0:40

open for a great season and it just

0:42

seemed like we got behind the eight ball early and couldn't

0:44

really find our groove and It

0:46

snowballed from there and obviously you

0:48

let it coaches go and you're trying to find

0:51

a game again which we we did and then

0:53

we ran into injury problems and I

0:55

mean that's it's tough on Heinze for

0:58

coming in and you know having things go

1:00

really well and start and then you know

1:02

Go pretty self really fast. So It's

1:05

just a frustrating year. Then that's what you can

1:07

just chalk it up to the word frustration is

1:09

probably what it is. It's something

1:12

that we know we this isn't who we are

1:14

and you know

1:17

you said a one-off but It's

1:19

frustrating not making playoffs. I mean, this is that this is

1:21

a place that deserves playoff

1:24

hockey and and the fans the fans definitely

1:26

deserve it and you know, you don't make

1:28

it you let them down and You

1:31

know, but just personally to not being

1:33

around being injured again has been frustrating

1:38

Feel really confident now, you know the surgery

1:40

and everything that's that's taking place and knowing

1:43

how I did last year with my right side You

1:46

know personally, I feel like it's it's

1:48

behind me now and now I can just focus on

1:50

this offseason and have a really good offseason coming the

1:53

best shape of my life and and more

1:55

importantly mentally sharp that You

1:58

know, we got to we got to make sure that we're There were a

2:00

playoff caliber team their season and and that's

2:02

the mindset. So. Yeah,

2:05

there's a skill. They had a total one off and

2:07

then I'm. A year that that

2:09

discuss in his for time I asked reasons.

2:12

You. Mentioned the start I know it's hardly are they

2:14

gonna completely of I didn't even like Dean setting

2:16

can't like you and make it more game by

2:18

situations because he would prepare. You guys can start

2:20

last currently is or anything. The caught you by

2:22

surprise the most about the way you guys started

2:24

firms as I just went to losses but the

2:26

way you guys play against. It

2:29

or a I do try to labour view

2:31

it in some residents and go back to

2:33

when it all kind of and south and

2:35

early on am in year years you win

2:37

that game home opener here on me your

2:39

by try time my my my bags half

2:42

of. The movie Montreal and and now

2:44

I'm. An hour then the skylight.

2:46

the next couple games can he goes on.

2:48

Bit of a slide and I'm. Fine,

2:51

thanks. I won't say on are

2:53

prepared as as it is the right term I

2:55

I think just dumb. You

2:57

know it's a cell, like it around and

3:00

games on. We let up a lot of

3:02

goals, ran away and early and games and

3:04

aid that the mentally it insisted he does

3:07

is a cell like we were. Coming

3:09

from behind her, trying to play from behind

3:11

the the entire damon and we started off

3:13

him in the puck drop in and he

3:15

looked back up in oh sorry a one

3:17

for themselves that happen a lot too often

3:19

around the five and probably the first twenty

3:21

games. For this team

3:24

and I'm he can't play are to my

3:26

daddy gonna be unavailable? Jump on seems and

3:28

and be that in. I can now play

3:30

with leads and we we rarely did that

3:33

citing that that mentally exhausted arson and damn

3:35

the grind for sure I'm in and I

3:37

got suffering. They get more so. Practices

3:39

dictator practice him more serious and it

3:42

becomes little bit harder of the rank

3:44

and it's uncomfortable for himself. I'm as

3:46

narrowed to like something specific that happens.

3:48

I mean there's there's someone said real

3:51

sad ever get but com for for

3:53

the most part the starches really. in

3:56

of we didn't see commoner just scan i'd it

3:58

kind of snowballed and then And it really

4:01

felt like we gave up a lot

4:03

of goals early on and tough timing

4:05

too. I feel like penalty kill goals

4:07

really hurt us on the season, but

4:10

the game wasn't great. That's on

4:12

a lot of us. Daggers

4:15

where you're in a game and something

4:17

squeaks in and it just seems like here we go

4:20

again. I felt like that was a mentality. It

4:22

was just really tough to get our feedback under us. Before

4:24

I think the word resilience has

4:26

been pushed on this team a lot. I think

4:28

this year we didn't really show that resilience factor.

4:31

You mentioned the penalty cut. I know you take a lot of pride in

4:33

that individually as a team. I know there's injuries

4:35

too. Spurgeon was out most of the year. Throwing things

4:37

out year out. Aside from the

4:39

personnel perspective, did you see anything that needs to

4:41

change going into next year that can make it

4:44

back to the unit you guys had had before in the top 10? I

4:48

think when Paddy came in, it cleaned

4:50

up a bit for sure. I think

4:52

communication was there and the more aggressive.

4:56

We did the diamond and things like that. I think

4:58

just having guys on the same page was good. It

5:02

felt to me like it got better, but

5:05

we still let up some goals and some

5:07

crucial parts of the games that led to

5:09

some losses. It

5:12

wasn't great in any means. I'm sure if you talk

5:14

to anyone on the PK, that's definitely something that needs

5:16

to be addressed and practice

5:19

a little bit more. Maybe going to next season and

5:21

having Paddy and having our system in place. The

5:24

one thing I do feel comfortable with is that it's

5:26

something that we felt with Pat Dwyer's

5:29

guidance on it. It was something that it can

5:31

become better. There's

5:34

room for growth and room for guys to take

5:37

better roles out there. We

5:40

lost a lot of guys' injury. Me

5:42

not playing, it was one thing. Ecker's

5:44

playing a lot too on the penalty kill. You

5:48

lose some guys at the deadline that

5:50

usually penalty kill. He's on Spurgeon,

5:52

who I think is one of the better ones, the

5:54

smarter guys out there. He's

5:57

not out there. You need everyone clicking.

6:00

You're not going to have these guys that come over from

6:02

the age old and fill in on how they can make

6:04

it, you know, more excellent, better. It's

6:06

not right for them to be put in that position.

6:09

And at the same time, I think it's

6:11

going to need to be built up from training camps. I think

6:13

it's, I think for us,

6:15

it's going to be better next year regardless of

6:17

just having the practice time and, you know,

6:20

just reading our structure and going from there. Where

6:23

are you at in your recovery? And just, you

6:25

think your full goal, like they want to camp?

6:27

Yeah. I'm three weeks out after

6:30

surgery and yeah, I feel good. I mean, just

6:32

right now, it's just slowly going

6:37

for walks. That's

6:39

pretty much it right now. But

6:42

and then, and then just, I think in the next week

6:44

here, I get to ramp it up a little bit more.

6:46

So I just want to give it time. There's no rush,

6:48

obviously. But I know all the

6:50

way I had a schedule way ahead of the time. I did,

6:52

I think I did it May 18th last year. And

6:55

I, you know, end of June, I was

6:57

skating. So I think that's something that this

7:00

time I know I have a little bit more

7:02

time and, but

7:04

I'll still ramp it up and get ready. I'll

7:06

be skating in June and July,

7:08

August. So you mentioned you thought

7:10

this was a one off. How

7:13

do you make sure that happens? I mean,

7:15

if you look at the teams that are still

7:18

playing now, they're big, they're strong, they're tough to

7:20

play against, and they got depth, or

7:22

those areas that you think this team can improve

7:24

this summer, whether it's outside

7:26

acquisitions or just the players that are

7:28

here to close the gap in those

7:30

key areas that were deficient this season.

7:33

Yeah, I think, you know,

7:35

we talked about it. I think there's room

7:38

on our team for certain

7:41

areas to get better. You

7:44

know, look, I've been lucky enough to play on

7:47

a balanced lineup. And

7:49

I don't want to say

7:51

it, but this year was tough with injuries

7:53

and then it caused coaches to try to

7:55

put guys in maybe spots that they shouldn't

7:57

have been in. And it's

7:59

tough. You need balance and

8:01

you look around our division, I mean

8:03

a lot of teams have unbelievable balance.

8:05

So it is what it is. You

8:09

know, you're on

8:11

a line and you're getting changed up a lot

8:14

with just guys in and out and guys moving

8:16

up because they have to. And it's tough. It's

8:18

tough to generate kind of a line that can

8:20

go out and be hard every night

8:23

and be physical and has

8:25

that role or that

8:27

identity line that I

8:29

think this year we, it just

8:31

got lost a little bit. I think

8:33

that's the biggest thing. We didn't really have that where we

8:35

had years before. I

8:38

think there's two, I

8:40

think you look in our division, we're probably one of

8:42

the younger ones in the forward lineup with just younger

8:44

guys trying to find their roles. I mean, and credit

8:46

to our young guys, they played awesome. I mean, you

8:48

got Marco now who's got a full year under his

8:50

belt with us and he

8:52

played awesome and then bold is getting

8:55

better and stronger. And, you know,

8:57

you got a guy like Marat, like we have a lot of

9:00

compared to other teams in our division. Yeah, there's a

9:02

lot of younger faces on our team.

9:04

So next year should

9:07

be an improvement regardless. I think the guys will

9:09

be comfortable. Guys will understand what Heinze wants out

9:11

of them. Guys will understand what the

9:13

players around them want out of them and how to

9:15

play with them. And for

9:18

me, I think that's a positive going into next

9:20

season that that should help with making sure that

9:22

this year just stays the sure. Yeah,

9:24

I mean, your time long term, Marcus, you're a

9:26

leader on this team. Yeah, if you're in the

9:28

same spot a year from now, probably got to

9:31

be pretty concerning and frustrating.

9:33

Yeah, no, I don't want to personally

9:35

and for this team, you know, I

9:37

don't want to be in this spot.

9:39

You know, that's when things get that's

9:41

already fingers being pointed. I

9:43

don't want to have any more things pointed at me

9:45

in the sense of leadership and qualities of that and

9:48

know why we're not taking the next jump. So

9:50

that's I get that. That's a

9:52

huge responsibility you take when you're an assistant captain on this

9:55

team and someone that's been signed long term. I get it.

9:57

I want to be here because I believe in this team

9:59

that. There's great

10:01

days ahead of us, really great days. I think

10:04

the future's bright, obviously, but I don't think

10:06

it's years from now. I think it could

10:08

be next season and you guys know better

10:10

all about the stuff with the salary cap

10:13

and things like that. That's

10:15

great and all, but we've got to win

10:17

games now and I do believe

10:19

that we have a team that can do it and

10:22

adjustments being made, leads me no doubt.

10:24

We've been having great years under

10:27

these circumstances and this year

10:29

just going to wait

10:31

for us with injuries and whatnot. But

10:35

again, we're doing everything in our power to make

10:37

sure next season we come in, it's

10:40

a better year and we

10:42

also don't know what's on the line. You

10:45

might have mentioned this, Marcus, but obviously no

10:47

concerns about you playing your game following this

10:49

injury. You'll still be able to have your

10:51

physical presence because as you'd mentioned, the squad

10:53

certainly lacks a little bit of size up

10:56

front. Is that any concern at all heading into next year? You'll still

10:58

be able to be you? Yeah, yeah, no, and

11:00

then some. So that's what's exciting about

11:02

it. Yeah, no, this

11:04

surgery is what was needed. I just talked to

11:06

a little bit of an F-150 getting new suspension,

11:08

so that's all it is. I

11:11

didn't compare myself to a really good truck. It's just a

11:13

nice, stable truck. It just gets the job done. So

11:18

that's it. I think that to me

11:20

is the excitement of feeling good again,

11:22

feeling powerful and something that

11:25

I haven't been feeling this past couple of months. It's been pretty

11:28

brutal to be honest. You

11:31

can't make plays. You can't get up and be

11:34

physical the way you want to. It

11:37

drops your bench a little bit when they see guys that aren't doing

11:39

it. It

11:42

screwed with the mind a little bit this year, but I'll

11:45

be better because of it. No

11:47

doubt my mind will be better next year. Did

12:00

he handle that pressure? And

12:02

do you worry that next

12:05

year's got to be better? Because this is

12:07

a guy that's got a contract that's coming

12:09

up in a couple years. You've got to

12:11

start as a team showing him that there's

12:13

a real bright future here. Yeah. I

12:15

mean, Correll's Correll, he's our best

12:18

player, obviously for many reasons.

12:20

But honestly,

12:22

I don't think he was 100% early in the season. And

12:25

then we saw him turn around. And he obviously,

12:27

I think, overcame some things. And then we just

12:29

saw him take off in the second half of

12:31

what he was supposed to be like. But yeah,

12:34

that's a guy that we want to obviously

12:37

keep happy and make sure that he's feeling

12:39

comfortable here. And knowing that it's a

12:41

team that can get the job done, he's such a huge

12:43

piece of this team. And

12:47

you need superstars to win your games

12:49

and to pull you

12:51

out of holes. But at the end

12:53

of the day, he wants to win the championship, so do we. So

12:57

he hasn't gotten anything done, especially this year. I'm

13:00

sure he's very frustrated. And I

13:03

know he takes pride in

13:05

points in scoring, but he wants to

13:07

win at the end of the day. That's what makes him so

13:09

great and so like a bowl as a teammate. So yeah,

13:12

we got to make sure that we're supporting

13:14

a player like that. And

13:17

I mean, hey, every team has a superstar on their

13:19

team. But this guy's

13:21

different. He's built for playoff hockey.

13:23

He's built to win championships. And

13:26

I think we're going to see more

13:28

of that from Karel next year and moving forward. And

13:32

you want to see the rest of us be

13:34

a better supporting cast for him. You

13:36

mentioned that you guys weren't as resilient this year as in

13:38

previous seasons. Can you maybe pinpoint why that might have been?

13:40

Is it maybe a lot of leaders were out of the

13:43

lineup? And maybe some younger guys just need some quantum maturities

13:45

if a group needs to kind of, I

13:47

guess, take a step in some ways? Yeah, I

13:49

mean, it's tough. You lose energy right in training

13:51

camp. I mean, he's the captain. He's

13:54

the voice of our team and does

13:57

a lot of great things and helps out a lot of

13:59

situations. Over

14:01

there it just felt like it was just one

14:04

of those things where we got

14:06

behind early in the season and

14:08

just really tough to overcome some

14:10

losses and losing against teams

14:12

that we should have beat early on and it just

14:14

felt like we didn't

14:16

have that energy and that you

14:19

just, we talked about it, you just felt like there

14:21

was a sag, there was a little bit of a poor

14:23

me type vibe when goals would go in

14:25

and that wasn't usually

14:27

the case season before so I

14:30

can't really say what game or

14:32

what situation or why but I'm

14:36

a big believer in reading

14:38

a team, reading a bench, I think

14:40

that's what I

14:42

love about this game and what I think I

14:44

bring to this team is I'm able to read guys

14:47

and I just felt that

14:49

this year we just, we really, really,

14:51

you know, having

14:54

a step I would say when it came to

14:56

being down a goal or two it just kind

14:58

of felt like we felt a little bit sorry

15:00

for ourselves and I don't know if there's the,

15:02

that's not calling anyone out, it just was a

15:04

group type thing and it

15:07

got a little bit stale there and we just felt

15:09

like that's when

15:11

obviously Dino got let go or maybe guys

15:13

were waiting for a change or something right

15:15

so unfortunately that's the process

15:17

that you could feel and it came

15:19

and things got better than

15:22

things got ran into injuries. Again,

15:24

it's going to be addressed next year going

15:26

into training camp about just being that team that

15:28

needs to be mentally sharper. No, Dumbo

15:31

was that guy last couple years, energy guy, kind

15:33

of the boost between things, other guys kind of

15:35

stepped into that kind of role this year, guys

15:37

got to be more vocal to other guys kind

15:39

of step into that. Yeah, I think, you know,

15:42

I think

15:44

over the season I thought, I thought Bould spoke

15:46

a little bit more and stuff like that, I

15:48

think guys get their feet wet and a little

15:50

more confidence, I think we need that. There's

15:54

nothing worse than guys not

15:56

talking, I think there's, you know, you can hear it,

15:59

I've been on the side of it. and I've been in games

16:01

where you can hear the other bench

16:03

hooting and hollering when they make a nice play and

16:05

it sounds like they're cohesive and we're kind of just

16:07

you know waiting for some spark right so I've

16:10

been in it where guys are engaged and

16:12

mentally and it's just I think that comes

16:14

down to just turn it on yourself but

16:16

you know it's just something that

16:18

needs to be be addressed

16:20

coming into training camp next year we're just we need

16:23

to be that team that has energy all the time

16:25

I mean it's just you want to

16:27

see guys bring it a little bit more absolutely

16:29

but you know you got to get guys to

16:31

get some reps in get some more comfortable with

16:34

the team and you know guys

16:36

are gonna speak and say stuff in the room

16:38

I'm a little bit more outspoken and can can

16:41

do that but some guys don't like to do that but

16:43

I think to give them confidence and push these guys in

16:45

that direction just to make them feel comfortable and then say

16:47

it I think it just gets everyone more involved in them

16:49

they believer and you know sometimes

16:51

fake energy right just to create it and make other

16:54

people rub off on you so that's that's

16:56

what I think we need more of next season