Eurolanche

Avalanche Media Day

During his press conference, Patrick Roy discussed his newly introduced system to the team, a system which has approximately 50 types of drills that will be used in both Denver and Cleveland. This will allow call-ups to not have an adaptation period when coming to Denver and immediately feel comfortable with the drills and playing style. This type of system is known to have been used recently by the Ottawa Senators. Its success is evident with how the Sens continued to play well even after losing most of their stars to injury last season. He also re-iterated that he had confidence in both the goaltender tandem and the defense, mentioning Semyon Varlamov had already worked with Francois Allaire for 14 days in Montreal and one more week in Switzerland; showing great commitment towards improving his game. The defense should also improve, with the return of Ryan Wilson and a new mind set for Erik Johnson, as well as key additions of Andre Benoit, who played great for Ottawa last season while Erik Karlsson was out with an injury; and Cory Sarich, who brings a lot of leadership and experience; having won the cup with Tamp Bay in 2004. He had discussions with Johnson and told him not to think live in the past, not to worry about being drafted number 1 overall and to simply play his game and be himself. The new system will focus more on offence, so many high scoring games should be expected this season, but also brought up the importance of playing a good defensive game.

Here are some quotes taken from the interviews held yesterday:

Roy: “The strength of a team is showed in the third period, how you are capable and I think this is where our players will start to learn how to be winners and build that Stanley Cup attitude.”

“Ryan has great hockey sense, he’s a player that can adjust, without a doubt, Center to Left Wing very easy. I think it will be an easy adjustment for him. I think Ryan is very solid in his own zone. That will also permit, because Dutchy and P.A. Parenteau are maybe not as solid defensively that Ryan is. I think that it will make a very good line. I think it will also take pressure off of Nathan. We don’t want Nathan to come here and be our savior, we want Nathan to be the best player he can be. I think that playing with Downie and McGinn will be a good situation for him and will allow him, you know, to adjust and fell comfortable, and we’ll see how it goes.” When asked whether or not Nathan might be sent back down to juniors he immediately retorted, “We believe in him, we’re extremely happy to have him on our team. He will play for us the entire year.”

Matt Duchene: “I’ve never been more excited for a season in my life and I think everybody has so much confidence with these two guys at the helm and the buzz around the boys its way different and its pure excitement and I think we’ll have a heck of a year.” On the changes that were made throughout the off-season and Patrick and Joe taking the helm of the team.

“I’m upset about the last four years to be honest it’s been a while since we made the playoffs and I think now is when things really start, are starting now things have a way different feel, finishing second last one year, and second last again [last year], it’s not fun and it’s something you want to put behind you. We’ve learned how to lose and now we have to learn how to win and I think it starts this year.” On Landeskog talking about the group being upset at the end of last year concerning the team’s performance

Alex Tanguay: “I still think so, I mean I’m not old by any means, I’m 33 years old, last year I felt great on the ice and certainly I’ll take the training camp to get ready and I plan on helping this team moving forward, that’s what I’m looking forward, towards the start of the year. Obviously, training camp is training camp and when you’ve been around for a while you know what to expect but, looking forward to the challenges of the new year starting.” On not yet having played his best hockey.

Ryan O’Reilly: “I’m excited for it, it’s going to be a good challenge, over the world championship I got to play a bit on the wing there. It’s a different ice surface and you have a little more time with the puck than you would  here but it’s a big challenge and I’m excited for it, you know definitely get to play with Duchene and Parenteau, two of the best players around, it’s exciting for me to grow my game” On playing Left Wing.

Gabe Landeskog: “Last year was a little bit weird to say the least, I mean come in after the lockout and I have the ‘C’ on my jersey for just you know a few months it was a little weird but now I know what more to expect, not saying I’m the perfect captain but it’s something I’ve talked about before and you’re going to grow into it. It takes a while and we have great guys around here that are going to help me and Patrick knows what’s it’s like to be a leader in the dressing room so I’m going to talk to him a lot this year and like I said were looking forward to it and for me, a little bit of a fresh start too but at the same time building off of last year.” On feeling comfortable coming in and being captain for a full season

“At that time we were all pissed off I think and we’ve had enough and were still the same right now we’ve had enough of losing and were tired of losing and want to change that. We’re all looking forward to that but this time around were more excited and pissed off.” On his mind set heading into the season

Training camp is right around the corner and everyone is extremely excited to get the season underway. All interviews can be found following this link.

GO HERE for Rookie Camp´s summary and EXCLUSIVE photos