Toronto Marlies Media Availability Playoff Practice | May 8, 2023

Max Ellis [Music] Max the celebration the other night when you guys take that first round almost looked it was happy to be sure but almost looked like you guys had it in your mind that there is a greater purpose Longer Road Ahead yeah I think uh obviously you know winning the series is a good thing we put a lot into it but I think there's a goal at the end of the road that we want to achieve and I think everyone knows that the job's not finished yet so uh that's what we're striving for you look at this room and just how well it has got along in the last three weeks and I looked through practice and just how intense practice has been over the last three weeks so what do you contribute to guys leaning in so much and not only the practice games as well but yeah I think it starts from our veteran guys who've been through it before tell us you know you just every practice every Puck every game means something so you want to practice like you play and I think at this time of the year everything matters you know every little play matters so we start in practice everything's hard and it translates to a game take away from that playoff series yourself just that the whole experience of it and you know how much more hockey there is to play yeah I think it's uh it's exciting to start I mean uh with the way our team's playing right now the way guys are competing the way guys are battling everyone has that uh that look in their eyes right now and I think it's awesome to see um I think for us it's just continuing to focus on the goal at the end of the road and every shift hard nothing kind of said that more to me than than Kyle Clifford at the end of that game gets the empty net goal I mean it doesn't seem 100 necessary but it absolutely suddenly seemed necessary yeah 100 I mean it's uh he's set in the example I mean even in game one just finishing a chef finishing his check finishing it you know uh everything he does is hard I think it sets an example for the rest of us that someone who's been through it someone who has two Stanley Cups someone who knows what he's doing uh someone for us to look up to and uh that's just the example he sets right there Jordie Benn Jody what do you guys take out of that first round what do you learn about yourselves as a team oh we definitely realized uh what works and what doesn't um you know we uh game one it was uh one of those things that everyone was clicking game two nothing so you know and then three and four you realize what uh what works and what doesn't so um it's good that uh we got her done we know we uh we need to do for uh this next series I found the reaction interesting more than anything else almost looked like a veteran team out there even though there's a lot of guys that have never been through this before almost seemed like they knew there was a road ahead here yeah I mean the confidence in the dressing room does um with how young these kids these guys are it doesn't really matter they uh they look like they've been around for a while and it uh it just shows that uh it doesn't matter where we are in the series or what the score is you know these guys are confident that we can get it done last three weeks you guys have had some crisp and high-paced practices uh what drives the energy when you're not playing a lot of games but you end up doing a lot of practicing it's just fun it's fun to be around these guys um it's fun to get into the dressing room guys are we're all bullshitting and laughing together and it's fun to get on the ice and you know it's just uh it just rolls it rolls everything just rolls together you have fun in the dressing you have fun on the ice and you just start working harder it's fun that lend itself to the teamwork you see on the PK which was so important in the last series yeah it's just you got a job to do on the PK and obviously on the power play as well so um it's fun to to do the job right and Greg Moore to get it work hard and get it done great you guys have had three weeks here of very crisp and purposeful practices everybody seems to be just humming along in every single one of them what do you think of today's practice and and what the reason might be these guys just continue to zip along yeah energy is great today I thought practice went really well obviously our our team is excited to be going on to the next round and facing a tough opponent like Rochester so I got a couple days rest and now we're back at it and everyone's excited it's been a bit of a trend I I wonder if that contributes a little bit to not only the success you guys have in that first round but also a little bit of the mood around the team yeah the this first round that we've played was definitely a confidence builder for us and a little a little bit of recognizing our identity and how we need to play and the buy-in and everyone's kind of talking about it really excited about the plan that we have and um and try to execute it again you take a look at how important the PK is in that in that first round and I just wonder if that is a product of of just these uh just the group that there is it always seems like the PK needs a little bit more cohesive teamwork about it there's definitely a mindset of taking pride and defending uh which I think a lot of our players and our key players do have that John snowden's on a great job all year with organizing the group on the penalty kill and I did feel as though uh as I'm sure everybody did it that was a really key component to us having success in that series with how many power plays we were able to kill off um and yeah just the sacrifice that guys make on The Penalty kill I block in shots and how much energy they burn that is for the team that isn't necessarily for creating offense for themselves I look at a guy like Kyle Clifford and I look at that that empty net goal and and I think that kind of has a little bit of a stamp of what this team is beginning to be even more so about is just that little extra grit and determination that it's necessary to put an opponent away he's 100 led by example throughout that entire series uh Cliffy has been amazing at teaching showing especially our younger guy is what it takes at this time of season we're very fortunate to have him on our team were you surprised at the reaction it almost looked like it wasn't crazy but it looked like it was purposeful like they all know even though they have not got a lot of you know AHL playoff experience that there's a big road ahead yeah we have confidence in ourselves that we can make a big push here and uh and again that that round has helped us believe in ourselves and we're excited you could tell today that the guys are excited and the belief in our team and get on to the next round