Neil Graham One-on-One: Playoff-Bound Texas Stars Navigate Rest, Readiness, and Injury Return Timelines

 

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

I personally had to miss in-person media day at H-E-B Center last week on business travel elsewhere. Nicholas Kingman and Rochelle Zimmerman reported the scene there including last week’s quick hit preview and an upcoming story on Cameron Hughes. Before I left, literally with my carryon in the trunk, I sat down with Texas Stars head coach Neil Graham in his office to go over the regular season and talk about the upcoming playoff matchup. The transcript here is edited for clarity and concision.

Stephen Meserve, 100 Degree Hockey: After 72 games, now the fun starts. At this point, how do you assess the season overall when you look at all 72 going all the way back to October?

Head Coach Neil Graham, Texas Stars: We did a good job as a team understanding the balance and the importance of what's needed and what we're trying to accomplish in a long season. There's two primary tasks, as you know: we're trying to make sure we're developing future Dallas Stars, and we're also trying to do it in a winning environment.

If it's done correctly, those things complement each other. But obviously there can be some polarizing moments where you have to make some decisions throughout a long season. I think for the most part it worked as well as it did because of the buy-in in the locker room. Guys recognized right around game 25 how important our consistency truly is, both from a team and individual standpoint. We started the year 13-12, and from that moment, we really took off. [Ed. Note: Texas started the year 12-11-1 and then went 12-2 in their next 14.]

You saw guys get rewarded individually with call ups. You saw guys get rewarded individually with really big offensive seasons and defensive seasons. But then, most importantly, I truly believe everyone in that room would have pushed personal accomplishments aside to assure team success. And frankly, that's probably the biggest development moment: understanding how important it is to have team success.

(Credit: Texas Stars)

SM: Speaking of personal accomplishments, you’ve got a guy like Matěj Blümel who had an incredible individual season, a point off from being the highest point scorer in the league and scored the most goals in the league. You’ve gotten to see every one of his seasons here in the AHL developing his game. What has he done to get to this point and put it all together?

NG: Well, I think Matěj is different than a lot of players, in that he's such a student of the game, and he's really added each season he's been here. If you recall, his first season ended, he came out of the gates great, got an early call up, you know, probably had a false sense of how tough it is to be an everyday player in the NHL. And that season didn't go without friction.

By the next year, he had really improved some of the things we had asked, including some wall play, consistently attacking north instead of slowing things down south. He's such an explosive player, we wanted him to really embrace the North American style. Get on your toes, play up ice, play fast. And he did that. 

This year, he's been the complete package. He's on our first PK; he's on our first power play. He's out when the goalie’s pulled on either side of the puck. He's rounded out his entire game. The message to him was always: it was never going to hurt his offense. That was evident this year. He's the most complete player we've seen in his three years, and it was also his most explosive in terms of his offensive output. So those things typically can complement each other. 

To his credit, he bought in and he believed in what we were asking of them. He's done a terrific job, not only as a player, but really maturing as an individual, embracing style of play in North America and within our organization specifically. I believe he's ready for the next step when that's available at the National Hockey League.

SM: It's important to be able to have a player with offensive skills like him who can also be the first guy over the boards on the PK. He’s got that offensive spark but also has rounded out the game. He's not going to get top six minutes in Dallas next year. Do you think that's an important part of how you develop those guys who have a big offensive upside, but then need to build that second half of the game?

NG: It's critical. 

Mavrik Bourque played very few minutes on the power play this year [in Dallas]. There was some opportunity when Tyler Seguin was out of the lineup for an extended period of time, but not a huge opportunity. And that's what we try and open guys eyes to: you have to expect that, and you have to be ready to add minutes elsewhere. Dallas is in a win-now window, so you can either adjust and make yourself an option and a serviceable player for whatever gives you the most options of cracking their lineup, or if you're too stubborn, you're not going to get your chance.

(Credit: Ross Bonander/Texas Stars)

When you mention all three of those players, Bourque, [Oskar Bäck] and now Blümel, they needed to find ways to make sure they could add minutes. I think Blümel is a great example. He's going to be in the mix because of what he's been able to do now for three years and growing each year to make sure if he's on a fourth line and he's tasked with six to ten good minutes then you better bring six to ten good minutes. That is your job. Every job matters, and that's a huge job. The guys that do that well find themselves back in the lineup, and then the guys that do that really well find themselves doing it for a whole year, and then they do it for another year, and you can make a great living. And then, sure enough, opportunity gets expanded when available. You can't control when that opportunity comes or who your linemates are, but if you've already been living that and you're prepared for it, that challenge is more manageable, and you can accomplish that.

SM: Looking at the series against Grand Rapids, the upcoming schedule is pretty wonky, right? You guys have five off days on the road between game one and two. What do you do between game one, regardless of the outcome, and game two, to keep your guys engaged and ready to go on the road?

NG: Yep, we've already executed a plan for that. We will obviously have some very important practices within that time. We'll have to balance some off days as well, and then we've already planned some things to keep our mind occupied where, when we're at the rink, and when we're in preparation mode, it's all business. And then when we step away, it's going to be important to check out of hockey in the afternoons, in the evenings, to make sure we're not entombed by it, and we're able to also breathe and keep our minds clear. And then when you get back to the rink the next day, you're excited to play hockey, but we put a plan in place. We're excited to execute it, and we'll go from there.

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

SM: In talking to Texas Stars head athletic trainer Mike DeGaetano earlier this season, he mentioned that rest is a weapon at the end of the season. You’ve got the home ice advantage, and now you have rest before you have to go fly. You guys can rest up. You can have more practice days. Just how important it was to earn that extra couple of days and avoid the 4 vs. 5 matchup?

NG: You always want to avoid that four/five, if doable. We have before, and we've also been in that four or five. I always say: play your schedule. And if you're playing the four/five, you make that work. And if you're not, you make it work. Rest is important this time of year, but it also has to be purposeful. You have to be calculated. You can't just say, ‘Okay, we're just going to rest. There's a plan, and there's a reason for what days you're putting in a certain type of work and what days it may be minimized or building some potential energy back to then execute even better the next day. We have a great medical staff. We talk to them. We check in with the correct equipment to make sure we're also maximizing the days when we are on the ice, but then also allowing for enough recovery time to make sure the next day is purposeful.

SM: Looking at the goalie matchup, Texas obviously has two goalies who could start games in the playoffs. What’s your outlook on how you’re going to deploy them in net?

NG: Yeah, I'm very happy that we have two goaltenders we can play either night.

SM: Sometimes you pick a guy and you ride him. I think about the 2018 Calder Cup run when they picked Landon Bow but switched to Mike McKenna midway. Willie Desjardins stated before the playoffs started that he intended to alternate the goalies every game. Do you tend to ride the hot hand? If you have a guy and he has an off night, do you go back to him?

NG: If I give you all the good stuff now, how are we going to get fans in the building? You'll have to find out and see.

SM: It's a decent matchup against Grand Rapids. You guys are 5-3 against them this year with some overtime games in there. How do you feel about the matchup? What do you think are the strengths that you're going to bring against that club?

NG: It's a good matchup for both clubs. Obviously, it was a very tight series. I respect the way they play. I respect their coaching staff. We're going to have to be at the top of our game to have the success that we want. Frankly, when you get into playoffs, I feel like that's a pretty big staple. Everyone's good. 

They've obviously added a couple decent prospects from overseas, as well as some players back from Detroit. On the flip side, we have a couple guys up with Dallas, so we always root for those guys. They're living out their dreams playing the NHL, and they're playing for a Stanley Cup. Those are good situations to have, and it means we've also done our jobs to get them ready for that moment. But it's going to be a new animal. 

You can look at some team tendencies, as well as potentially some individual line combinations, stuff like that, which we do, and you’re always prepared for that. But until game one starts, it's probably going to be a whole different animal. It’s playoff intensity. We're going to have more hardness in our game. I expect them to have more hardness in their game. All the stuff that we sit back and watch on the couch in the NHL playoffs that make it so crazy, you're gonna see the exact same thing in the American League playoffs.

More importantly, it's a terrific time of year. It's an opportunity for our team now to step up and do what we've been striving towards all season. We're a confident group, but we also have to make sure we execute correctly.

Big man Elder Söderblom will return from Detroit. (Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

SM: With some of those guys coming in from Detroit and overseas, especially the top prospects like Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and Axel Sandin-Pellikka, they only played a few games at the end of the season so there isn’t a lot of tape there to be watched. Do you do a little bit of adjusting on the fly in that first game to see how they're deploying them and where you can exploit different things?

NG: Yeah. I mean, obviously you can't fully anticipate exactly where they're going to be, whether it's special teams or D partners or forward pairings. You have an idea, but you also don't want to live and die on what you think is going to happen or something else happens. And you're always going to be able to watch some film. It's so readily available now. Whether it's in Europe or North America, everyone can see tendencies or traits for guys, but I think more importantly it's going to be about how we play in our moments and how we recognize limiting time and space, physicality, being on the right side of pucks, regardless of the guy on the other side.

SM: Speaking of guys back in the lineup, is there an injury prognosis on Antonio Stranges? 

NG: Yeah, we'd love to have him back. He's been a huge part of our team all year. He's week-to-week. 

SM: Kyle McDonald as well, he had a lower body injury there that looked worse than Stranges’ injury.

NG: Yes, Kyle is in a worse situation. We won't be able to see his return this season.

Texas starts their series against Grand Rapids tomorrow night in Michigan with Game 1 at 6 PM CT.