Ducks Summer Q&A: John Gibson

As part of our Ducks Summer Q&A series, we're catching up with several players to see how their offseasons are going, their outlooks for this coming season and more. Next up: Ducks goaltender John Gibson.
How has your summer been?
It's been good. I've been going back and forth between Pittsburgh and California. My wife [Alexa] and I just bought a new house out there, so we're trying to get that done before the season starts. Most of the time, though, I've just been in Pittsburgh with my family, training here.

Did you travel anywhere this summer?
We took my family and my wife's family down to the Turks and Caicos Islands for a week just to get away and enjoy some family time. We did that a few weeks ago. Now I'm back in Pittsburgh for about two more weeks before I head back to Anaheim.
Have you hit the ice yet as part of your training?
I'm starting to get back on the ice now. I've been doing a lot of stuff in the gym recently, but right around late-July to early August is when I like to get back onto the ice.
There has been some change with the club this offseason, notably the hiring of Dallas Eakins as head coach. Did he reach out to you?
We went out to dinner a few weeks ago [in Pittsburgh] and had a really good talk. He was really open to getting some feedback. We had a really good conversation. Definitely makes you excited for the season to start.
You also have some familiarity with him as a coach, even though it was brief.
He coached me for like 10 games or so with San Diego, but I knew him a little bit before that. We definitely kept in touch even when I was in Anaheim. He would text me every now and then. Having that relationship definitely helps.
For him to fly out to Pittsburgh to meet you over dinner says a lot.
It's awesome. Especially coming all the way to Pittsburgh and taking time out of his busy summer was awesome. For him to reach out, it shows he cares. He wants to win that much so he's getting a head start on everything. It's really exciting.
What excites most about the upcoming season?
The way we finished last year, we proved to ourselves, with the guys we have, we can still go out there, compete and win. I think it gave everyone confidence to hopefully come into this year and get off on the right foot. Make sure we get ahead of everybody and do the opposite of last year. It seemed like we fell behind early. Hopefully we can use what we did at the end of last year to get off to a good start this year. The main thing is making the playoffs. Last year was the first year where we had the taste of us not being in the playoffs and having the long summer. That's the goal for everybody, to make the playoffs and do whatever it takes.