Eric Staal

And then other than that, we were pretty much similar as far as any other teammate goes.

No, we had a lot.

I mean, even when I was the old guy at the end, and Mark was too in Florida, we did a little two-on-two drill, I remember, and it ended up being him versus me.

And we were just like going at each other.

I think everyone was, I mean, we were like...

going at each other hard but like kind of laughing at the same time and like everybody that was mo was the coach and everyone that was there was watching look at these two idiot old guys still going at it and being idiots in practice and just competing and whacking each other and all that kind of stuff so yeah we've had many of those moments but that's what makes it fun that's why you why you're out there you know even when you're an old guy you still get a little the juices flowing and stick stick swing at somebody a little bit and uh it was it was a ton of fun i missed that part

Yeah, well, actually, even before that, I really liked the way they were training.

They had some pretty significant injuries the kind of first couple months of the season.

But I just think, you know, the credit to the coaching staff, they stuck with the message of continuing to push those guys to a way to play that was going to bring them to success.

And, you know, I think they just, you know, gained confidence in, you know, a few gutty, gritty wins there in December.

And then when you start to –

feel that and believe that with the talent that they have and those guys can bring every day, it's, you know, it was no surprise, you know, they, they had, you know, a good taste of, you know, what it's going to take.

You know, they put a lot of work and time and I was proud of, you know, a lot of their leadership guys to, you know, really, you know, kind of get over that,

uh hump of you know being back in the mix and and now you know now it's like they're hungry for more and excited for you know for those guys this summer to push themselves and and then be ready to go next year because uh you know they're going to be no longer uh a team kind of under the radar they're they're going to be noticed uh they've got enough talent and skill but it takes more than that and i think they just they started to believe and understand what it takes in certain situations what kind of game is presented you got to be able to play it and

They had a real solid year, but bigger things ahead for those group of guys, for sure.

Yeah, I mean, I do agree with that.

I think there were moments where there was some serious animosity.

And I think once you get later and it gets further down the line in the playoffs, everything is so important and so magnified that there's just so much focus.

Both these two teams that are here at the end are...

are just – they're dialed, they're determined.