The sightseeing is over. We returned to our regular-season routine Friday.
It's pretty regimented: breakfast at the hotel in the morning; bus over to the rink; meetings; morning skate; do what you've got to do; bus back to the hotel; meal; up to your room with an extra hour to kill for the 8 o'clock local time puck drop.
I'm 33 now, and I do find as I get older, I don't nap as much, so I slept for, like, 20 minutes. Just kind of killed some time in my room. Read a bit. I like to read. And yeah, then just kind of right back into it. Came to the rink for the game. It's just awesome. We've just got a great group. It was nice to be back into that routine.
I think we had some great energy going into that first period. I think you saw early in the first, we had a lot of jump to our game. We played with a lot of pace. Penalties kind of killed the momentum a little bit. Had a little bit of a tough time regaining it, but I thought through that stretch where we didn't have a lot of momentum, that's where our goalie, Juuse Saros, really stepped up for us. He made some big-time saves and kept us where we needed to be scoring-wise. And then I thought our pace kind of came back again.
After Eeli Tolvanen gave us a 2-1 lead at 1:24 of the second period, I dropped the gloves with Sharks forward Jonah Gadjovich. The momentum wasn't really our way until Tolvanen scored that big goal, and I thought I'd maybe try to piggyback off that. I know Gadjovich is a gamer. I know he's a really tough kid, throws both hands. So, I asked him to fight, and he was up for it, and that's that. That's just the nature of it when you're a guy who plays the way I do.
There are certain guys you know on that team who are probably going to game for it, and it's a matter of picking the right spots. Yeah, just getting back in the saddle there. They're not used to that in European hockey.
But in terms of the overall game, I thought my partner, Dante Fabbro, and I played well. We played a role. We killed some penalties. I thought our gaps were great. We had some good offensive zone shifts too. So, it just felt really good to be back.
After the game, it's just a matter of trying to wind down. Get a good meal back in at the hotel and just try to settle down and get as close as I can to eight hours of sleep. Tomorrow might be a little different. No morning skate. I might go for a walk. I might meet up with my dad again.
It's been a good trip so far. Now it's a chance to turn this into a great trip.
It sounds cheesy, but it's true. You come back 2-0, you're feeling pretty good about yourself. I think from a team standpoint, this has been a really valuable trip for us. Guys say it all the time. You get on the road early in the season, it's good for your group, and I think a special trip like this even more so. Now it's a matter of trying to get the job done.
