Dallas Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen spoke to the media on Monday, April 13th during the Stars’ exit interview day. This was the last day that the media would be able to freely talk with the players and coaching staff before training camp in September.
Kari Lehtonen noted that he needed to be better and that he knows the team is headed in the right direction.
Here is coverage of Kari Lehtonen’s entire interview:
On how rough it was not being able to catch the teams ahead of them:
That was definitely a tough part of the season. I know I needed to be better. It’s tough when you’re trying to get things going and you actually find something for a couple games. After that, we had a few games where we didn’t do as good of a job. But this year was able to teach a lot to us. What we’ve got here is exciting and we’ll come back really hungry for next year.
On how taxing his rollercoaster year was on him:
It was hard for sure. But it’s part of the job. I still enjoy this game a lot. So I just have to keep going, have a great summer, and come back hungry. I wish we would start in about two weeks from now, but that’s not the case. It was tough, but we’ll learn from it.
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On how he takes from his good and bad streaks and uses them for improvement:
That’s a big part of goaltending. There’s going to be highs and lows and how you manage them is huge. I’ll have to be better at that too. When things are not going great, I’ll need to be patient and just keep doing my stuff and try not to do too much. That’s the hardest part. When you get scored on a couple of times, it’s easier to become more aggressive and start going crazy, and that’s not usually what helps. I need to stay calm and believe in this group and myself and get the job done. We need to get better inside of games. There are too many times where we played really well and the game got away from us a few times. It’s just learning and being patient as a team. We have great offensive talent, and if we get down one or two goals, just keep doing what you’re doing and not go crazy there and start trying to change things.
On what changes should be made defensively:
There’s things we need to sort out. I think those last few months we started figuring it out and all we can really do is model that, and when training camp comes next season we’ll have a better idea of what kind of hockey this group needs to play.
On if he should be focusing more on his own play:
Yes. As a goalie, it’s more of an individual sport. Inside of the game, it’s about what I’m doing that no one really sees. I just have to be locked into every shot, and I think that’s easier because I don’t really have to focus on everything else happening on the ice. I just need to be ready for each shot.
On how he deals with the rumors of if he’s a playoff goalie or not:
There’s always that. You have to get the results to get the chance to play. I realize I didn’t have a good year and I need to do a lot of work to earn a chance to play again. That’s pretty simple.
If he plans on changing his offseason routine:
The last three summers we’ve figured out a pretty good program of what I need to do and it’s worked pretty well. So I don’t think that is going to change too much. I’m just going to take a couple of rest days off and get ready to work hard.
We will have complete coverage of exit interview day as the week goes on! So far, we have posted complete coverage of all but one interview, being Jason Spezza’s. We will have Spezza’s up early this week, so make sure to check previous ones you may have missed and check back daily for the final one!
Next: John Klingberg Speaks To The Media On Exit Interview Day
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