1.) Congrats on the big win in game two. What do you think the biggest difference was from a very tight game 1? A couple things. First, Clint was a little more human in game 2. He still played pretty well and made a lot of good saves early in game 2 to keep his team within striking distance. I don’t think we really pulled away until late in the 2nd period. The fact that we won game 1 I think made a difference in game 2. They kind of had a losers mentality going into the 2nd game. A couple of them even asked me if we could call it a night if my team got up by 6 or more goals. It was a long, late night, but to me, that kind of gave me the message that they weren’t expecting to win game 2. They had some good scoring opportunities in game 2 but they couldn’t hit the net. It just wasn’t their night but they had a really good showing all fall league. We just had a little better night last night than they did. Congratulations to Zach Foradori for drafting a really good team. He did pretty well for his first draft.
2.) most in the XHL had your team pegged as a Fall League favorite, but there some early struggles. Did Zack make that much of a difference for you guys? He has made a big difference for us. He wasn’t expected to be able to play until mid to late October, but he messaged me one Friday night saying he was good to play on that Monday (which was late September). He was very much needed because we had just lost to team Black 9-3 without Cody. Zach playing for us as long as he did gave our team an instant boost and he has played great ever since. If we are able to win next week or the week after, I would say that he will be a big reason why we won. Regardless, he is a big reason why we are in the finals.
3.) This is the first time I’ve seen you captain a team- and to say you drafted well would be an understatement. What was your plan at the draft? Is it safe to say it’s worked out the way you expected so far? Have you enjoyed captaining this team? Bob texted me the day before the draft and asked if I wanted to be a captain. His first words were “if you are a captain, we wont be able to play on the same team”. He informed me that I would have the #2 overall pick if I decided to captain. I thought why not. It was worth the challenge of trying to draft a successful team. I messaged Dave Jewell the day of the draft asking him if he thought I should take a goalie or another good skater to take some pressure off of him. My plan all along with to draft Dave because I thought Steve Hetrick would draft Andy (Steve had first pick). Bob took Adam with the 8th pick, so I debated about taking Rob or Cody with the 10th pick. I just felt like Cody was way too good of a player to pass up on, even though he is only part time. My thinking was that if we made the playoffs and he was available, we would have a good chance to make a run. I don’t think Zach got picked until the 5th round because most captains either didn’t know him that well or they didn’t think he would be able to make it to too many games. When I took him, I had the impression he would only be able to play 2 or 3 regular season games and then the playoffs. I thought taking him, along with Cody and Dave would give us an even better chance come playoff time. I sacrificed regular season glory for playoff glory considering all teams in this league make the playoffs. If it were only a certain amount of teams that made playoffs, there is a chance I wouldn’t have drafted Zach because our team may have dug too big of a hole before he was able to play. So far, its safe to say that all has worked out. Last but not least, Drafting Josh and James gave us a couple strong, championship experienced goalies. I would definitely captain again if needed. Its fun putting a team together. I am just hoping it will be a championship team in a week or two from now.
4.) The big question- after years of playing for Bob, now you get to face him with a very talented squad of your own, for the fall league title. Do you think your family ‘inside info’ gives you an edge? Are you excited about this or apprehensive? Definitely excited for it. After the draft was over, Bob texted me and said about how great of a draft I had. I jokingly told him “see ya in the finals” I wasn’t sure if my team could make the finals with our lack of youth and our uncertainness of who could play each week and who couldn’t play. After the first half of the season, I thought other teams would have a better chance than my team would. Any team with Bob and Adam is pretty scary to play against. Adam usually plays his best in big games and I have to admit that team Orange has the best Anderson. We all know what the secret is to having a good chance to beat that team, but saying and doing are two completely different things. Knowing Bob, he will want to play a slower game and try to capitalize on our miscues. Hopefully we can get an early lead, possibly speed the game up and take them a little out of their game. All that again is much easier said than done. We will have our full team next week which should definitely give us a realistic chance to win.
Brian Anderson Interviews Dave Glass
1. You got to ref a couple games last night. Both were decided by a goal. Is it more fun to ref those kind of games than blowouts? absolutely more fun to work close games. I’ve said it before...it’s so easy to lose focus in a blowout, and that’s when you can really have problems. I felt really ‘on my game’ last night, and it was good to work with someone as sharp as Match as well! Also big thanks to Steve Kalgren for stepping up to help us out 2. What all did you observe from each of the 4 teams playing last night? well, first of all I thought Team Black played exceptionally well. Game one could have easily gone the other way, and they did a fine job of checking Bob and making home work for everything he got. Can’t say enough about how much Eric Llewelyn has improved, he would have my vote for fall league MVP. Team Pink hung around for their first game, I thought Clint played out of his mind and the entire team played so hard. They were just a bit outgunned and it showed in game 2.Team Orange...as you said, you always know a Bob Anderson team will be positionally sound. Now with Doc back there to clean up any breakdowns, they are very very tough to score on.Then there’s Team White. Ridiculous amount of talent for a draft league team. I saw some small lapses in game one to keep that game close, but to me there’s no question that the better team prevailed there. 3. Team white won in overtime and the momentum carried over to game 2. In a best of 3 series, how critical do you think it is for a team to win the first game? I’m not a huge believer in game-to-game momentum. I think White wins the second game no matter what happened in game 1. I will say, though, that losing game 1 in a best of 3 reduces the margin for error to zero. There are a lot of weird bounces at the ‘Drome, and winning game 1 means you don’t have to get every bounce in game 2. 4. Goalies sometimes get left out with all the high quality skaters. Both the games were low scoring. What can you say about each of the goalies play in those 2 games you reffed? Typically I look at Doc and Josh as the two best goalies in the league, and for the game so reffed I thought they each were slightly off their ‘A’ games. Doc’s rebound control was a bit off, and Josh let one a goal I know he’d want back. Meanwhile, Herm and (especially) Clint saves their teams time and again. Just fantastic efforts by those guys- but I’m sure expending all that energy hurt them for their second games. 5. Team white vs Team Orange. Got any predictions or observations for that matchup? As I’m likely reffing the series, I think it’s best to refrain from predictions...as for observations, all I’ll say is that they say ‘styles make fights’. White likes to control the play and aggressively attack the net, while Orange is comfortable with a counterpunching style. That could make for a great series!!
Larry K (Black)
1. Two tough losses last night. What can you say about the overall team effort despite the losses? Our effort was great. We played two good games. I had a lot of fun last night. 2. Your team almost climbed back from a 5-0 deficit in game 2. Was it disappointing not being able to catch them the full way or were you proud of how yourself and the team responded to make a possible blowout into a really close game? I was disappointed because I thought we were going to make a crazy comeback. I am also very proud of how we were able to battle back and get them on their heels for awhile. 3. What do you think was the difference between winning those games and losing them? I couple bounces one way or the other and it goes the other way. Especially in their end we had a couple open looks against Adam and just couldn't finish. 4. You drafted a couple young fellows in Nic and Trent. What can you say about their play this whole fall league and the progression they made throughout the league? Their progression was great. Once we figured out how we wanted to play and got a solid game plan down we played great hockey towards the last half of the season 5. Got any predictions for the White-Orange series? White in 2.
Cody Schuckers (White)
1. Onto the finals with 2 wins last night. What can you say about the overall team effort in the win? Our whole team played great we played a solid game up and down and we’re very disciplined and confident for most of both games 2. You scored the overtime winner in game 1. What was it like to finally put a ball past Clint considering all the saves he made in that first game? Man it was a huge relief Clint played great we had to have put on 40-50 shots on him and only put 4 past him I feel like alone I had 15 at least so to finally get one was good 3. What do you think the team did better in the 2nd game to pull away from them? I don’t think we did anything different in the second game we kept up our game and our passing along with our defense our offensive pressure and the amount of shots just finally started going in 4. Do you like the way this team is playing right now? Absolutely everyone is pitching in and contributing Brian did a great job drafting this team 5. Team Orange won 2, one goal games against Black. What kind of series do you expect from them starting Monday? It’s bobs team so it’ll be tight no matter who that guy has on his team he always has a well rounded team that competes with anyone just gotta bring our legs and do what we did Monday and I don’t see a problem
Zach Foradori (Pink)
1. Two tough losses to white last night. What can you say about the overall team effort in the losses? We played great that first game. Just couldn’t get any bounces to go our way. I think we played good to start the second game just when they scored it really deflated us. But all in all, I really liked playing with my team. I think it made me better as a player 2. How tough was it to lose that 1st game in overtime and do you think that carried over to game 2? It was rough. We played from behind all game and you can’t do that against that team especially with who they have on defense and in goal. I don’t think it carried over too much into the second game but like I said. That first goal really took it out of us. 3. Clint made several quality saves last night. What can you say about his overall play last night? Clint played outstanding. He really gave us a good shot to win the first game and he didn’t get much help from the people in front in the second game but he still played great 4. This was your first time of drafting a fall league team in Reynoldsville. Were you happy with how the draft turned out despite the losses last night? I was happy with it. We did a lot better than I had hoped for. I would definitely do it again 5. Team white will take on team orange. Got any predictions? White team is very fundamentally sound but so is orange. I’d have to give white a slight edge on the series just because of how well they have been playing. And having a full roster there for them will really help. It should be fun to watch
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