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Reign Weekend Postgame Quotes: Stothers, Dowd, Auger

12/12/15 Postgame

[Recap]

As usual, Ontario Reign Insider beat me to putting up most of the postgame quotes, but here are a couple exclusives, including the coach threatening to scratch a certain JFTC blogger:

Dowd on who stepped up in Mersch’s absence:

Yeah, I thought Brodzy played really well. I thought Z played well in the 1st period, 2nd period he had a good goal. also thought Crescenzi played really well too. Other than that? I think a strong overall game. Newbury too. It’s huge having him back. Takes a lot of faceoffs. He’s a veteran center.

Stothers on who he’s scratching tomorrow night, in light of Brodzinski and Zykov both scoring goals after their scratches:

You. [JFTC: I’ll come back with a great performance next game for sure. No more PK questions.] Then I’ll think about putting you back in.

12/13/15 Postgame

[Recap]

Of course, Ontario Reign Insider has a lot of the postgame quotes; Cody Warner of MayorsManor also had some additional quotes from the Reign about seeing Michael Mersch in the NHL. That said, there’s some solid insight here from Stothers about Peter Budaj:

Stothers on what Budaj brings to the team:

I like the way he comes out and handles the puck for our D. Makes sure that it’s away [from the other team] so they can handle it clean…He can pass it to our D, they can relay it to the forwards.

He’s smart, he knows when to cover it up when it looks like we need a whistle, when somebody’s been out for an extended shift. I think that’s all just experience. I don’t think much can phase him. He’s been through it all. Certainly, the season he had last year. Everything’s positive for him.

Guys like playing in front of him. He works hard in practice.

I think his demeanor is really good for our team right now…

I just see a guy who’s so professional in how he prepares, day in, day out. He’s a very detailed guy in how he prepares for the game, whether it’s practice…or knowing his opponents…it’s an important thing. You got to know the shooters, the goal scorers…

He’s a guy that you can ask what to expect from a certain individual that you’re playing…he’s pretty darn accurate on his assessment.

He’s also a fair evaluator of his own play. He’ll be the first to tell you if he’s not happy with the way he’s playing, if he should’ve had a particular goal. But he doesn’t dwell on it and he moves on. But again, I think that’s just part of experience.

Auger on how precious every inch was against San Jose:

Yeah, we kept throwing pucks at the net. We couldn’t crack Dell back there. We knew it wasn’t going to be a pretty one. It was just going to be a shot on net, tip, rebound. It was going to be a garbage goal. That’s how we solved him.

Dowd on why he was shuffled from line to line in the first period (he took seven of the game’s first 11 draws):

Stuttsy is obviously really particular on faceoffs in the D-zone. I think Joel Lowry, it was his first game back in a while. It’s a lot of onus to chuck him out there on a D-zone draw. Guys have been taking those all year, Crescenzi, Newbury, and myself. So whatever it is, Stuttsy had his reasoning. But I think particularly, a lot of times, it was for D-zone, and every now and then, one of the centers might get put out there to win a O-zone draw just because Stuttsy has faith in him, maybe create a little offense.

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