Clarke loaned to Canada for world juniors - Durzi “a great find for our hockey club,” and more on a Wednesday practice day

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• News post

• Jon Rosen

Notes from Day 3 of a six-game, 11-day trip

• Alex Iafallo
• Sean Durzi
• Brandt Clarke
• Pheonix Copley
• Trevor Moore

• Todd McLellan

# Todd McLellan

He’s been a great find for our hockey club. Very competitive, first of all. We can talk about passing and playmaking and power play and all those types of things, but his competitiveness is the number one thing that he has. Shows up every night and lays it on the line. He’s got a lot of courage on the ice, he tries things that sometimes other defensemen don’t, but that’s what makes Sean Durzi Sean Durzi. We’re quite fortunate to have him.

we lost so many defensemen that we had to make a conscious effort to protect the ones that were coming up. We weren’t quite sure they would fit in or how ready they were. As it turns out, they were more prepared than they thought they were, and the team made the commitment to protect them, so the combination of both allowed us to win some games and get us to a situation where we really pushed at the end of the year for playoffs.

I think the game has been going that way. It takes a tone early, and it seems to stick with it. It’s hard to correct that tone. That game against Seattle that night, it was a shootout at the OK Corral, and it wasn’t a six-shooter, it was a nine and an eight-shooter. But the talent that’s coming in now has changed. It’s deeper, there’s more of it, there’s a belief that everybody can contribute offensively. Teams’ makeups are different now. The fourth line is as dangerous as the second line some nights because of the skill level. Back in the day, that fourth line was loaded up with different types of players, and your fifth and sixth defensemen were perhaps built a little different and had different roles than they do now, and all of that adds to more puck movement, more offense – and you can’t forget the rule changes that came in a number of years ago. The generation that’s entering the league only knows that. Never played any other way. We rarely talk about checking from behind, because they’ve grown up with that rule change. They’ve never had to play both ways, so it’s a pretty freewheeling game right now, and probably not a lot of fun for the goaltenders or some nights for the coaches, but for the fans, it’s great.

I’m sure [Alex Iafallo] legs and his hands probably won’t feel as good as he’d like them to, naturally, but his mind was sharp. He went to the right spots and he had a real good sense of timing. I liked that line. I thought that line played really well.

# Alex Iafallo

I didn’t have to do much. I just got the puck and gave it to Lizzo, who made a great play.

it was hard to watch, but I was still cheering the boys on.