Dallas held an optional practice on Friday in Frisco.
Dallas held an optional practice on Friday in Frisco.
DALLAS - Head coach Pete DeBoer didn’t mince words during his press conference on Friday at Comerica Center, especially after watching his group suffer its first regulation loss of the season to the Maple Leafs.
"Let’s be honest. We’re 4-1-1, but there’s a couple of games in there we could’ve lost earlier in the year. We probably deserved to lose, but our goalie bailed us out or we found a way to win," said DeBoer. "I think this was coming. It was inevitable."
Inevitable, yes, but there are some key improvements that can be made going forward to keep disappointing results like the 4-1 final score against Toronto to a minimum.
Starting strong in the first period is a major point of emphasis right now, especially after generating just five shots versus Sheldon Keefe's contingent through 20 minutes.
"We’ve got to stop putting ourselves in that hole. This is bigger than a one or two game issue. It was an issue last year for a while, and then we got it fixed. Previous years before I got here, it was a big issue. I remember when I came in, that was one of the things that was talked about quite a bit," explained DeBoer. "We want to make sure that teams coming in to Dallas know that from the drop of the puck, we’re going to be a handful. I don’t think we’ve given them that yet."
The potential is obviously there, though, with a star-studded roster like this one.
"I think we’re still a work in progress. We’re still searching for our 60-minute game of how we want to play and our identity within that game. I think we’ve seen spurts of it," said DeBoer. "I think everybody’s going through the same process with their teams. There’s very few people right now in the coaching staffs walking around going, ‘We’ve got it all figured out.’ I think it’s natural six games in. I think we’re inching towards the team that I foresee us being, but we’re obviously not there yet."
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