Going into the game there was obviously a lot of excitement. It was hard to get a pregame nap in and hard to even sleep the night before. You just try and reset and tell yourself it's only another game even though you know it's not. We still tried to go out and play the same way we were playing all playoffs and hoped the rest would take care of itself.
We got down twice in the game and pushed back both times. I think a lot of our comebacks have come from getting back to our game in the third period and kind of carrying that momentum throughout the third. We don't give teams much life, and for our line and for our whole team that was kind of our mindset, even after they took the lead a third time. We've been there before. We know what it's like. We've been down a lot throughout the playoffs and we know what we can do as a team.
We believed if we stuck to our game we'd have a good chance at getting the next goal. There's never really any doubt in our group. Guys remain positive about the next goal and next shift and kind of just go from there.
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We didn't get the win, but the night was special for me because my friend Elise Simard was at the game. It was great seeing her and her mom, Christy. I saw a lot of people helped them out to get down here, which was awesome. That speaks a lot about the community in Denver. We kind of developed a little bit of a relationship in Victoria when I was playing junior hockey with the Grizzlies.
She was coming to the games and ended up not showing up for a few of them, so I got curious and kind of just took a little bit of an interest in it and looked into why. She ended up being in the hospital for a little bit, so I went and visited a few times and our relationship kind of grew from there. She's been a big supporter of mine for a while, and it's cool to be able to see what could be a life-changing kind of experience for her, to be a part of something so big like this.
It's kind of hard to wind down a bit after a game like that, but my sister and my cousin were in town last night, so it was nice to kind of just chat with them, see what's going on with them and their life and try not to talk too much about the game. We talked about it for a little bit but then kind of pushed it aside, which helps me try to get it out of my head and relax.
I tried to get a good sleep last night. Then Bowen Byram and I headed to the airport. We generally carpool together, for the airport anyway. We get to leave some cars home for the girlfriends. We usually listen to some old country, some full country and chat on the ride. We talked about last night, chatted about what's going on. It's kind of a good way to get your mind back and settle down a little bit, talking with some of the guys about their feelings, and everyone's feeling good.
I grabbed some breakfast at the airport. I try to do as much as I can on the flight in terms of recovery and stuff for my body, and then when we get in, I'll do some more recovery work, get a good meal at the hotel and then try and get as much sleep as I can. Everyone kind of just lays low and gets a meal together at the hotel and remains pretty tight. It's been a long few days, so we're going to try and reset mentally, kind of try and relax a bit and get the mind ready for tomorrow.
We've been good on the road all playoffs. We're not worried about the next game. We know we can get it done on the road. Going into other team's buildings, you really can't drift away from your game. You've got to stay on the gas, stay with what you know, don't let them get too much energy from the crowd, and try to silence them a little bit that way. I think that's going to be a huge mindset of ours, just getting to that right away. Try not to give them any life early.
I try to soak it all up, this whole experience. Sometimes it's hard when you're trying to stay in the moment and trying to stay in the next game, next shift kind of mentality, but there's definitely some moments where I get to look around and take it all in and realize where I'm at. But at the same time, it'd be that much more special if I can look around at the end of all this and know that we got it done.
