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Currently one of the hottest players on one of the hottest teams, New York Titans forward Pat Maddalena has plenty to talk about when it comes to the postseason. Heading into the first playoff appearance for the second-year franchise, the good doctor discusses momentum, maturity, and emails from Mitch.

We did a players poll a couple of weeks ago that basically asked what is the single most important factor in a successful playoff run, and the number one answer we got was that a team has to be peaking at the right time. Is that an answer you would agree with?
Absolutely. I mean you have teams that start out very well and they go through some struggles during the year and they usually lose in the first round because it’s tough to gather the momentum at the end of the year. I would definitely agree with that answer.

So of course, my next question: do you feel like the Titans are the team that has that working in their favour right now?
I feel that right now we’re the hottest team in the league. We’ve won nine of our last eleven and the team’s coming together a lot and I feel like we’re peaking at the right time.

How about personally? I mean you’ve had a great season but do you feel like you’re really hitting your stride lately?
Yeah I just think that we’re playing an overall team game and it’s proven in the last two games that everyone is contributing and we’re getting goals when we need them from everybody. Brendan Mundorf didn’t score for four games straight and then he had four goals against Rochester, three in the fourth quarter. We’re getting contributions from everybody.

Given how close the east was this season there’s been so much talk about parity. Do you think that’s really what’s going on, or do you think there have been teams underperforming or suffering from inconsistency, anything like that?
I just really think that the records prove themselves. We split against Buffalo, we won two games versus Philly, lost one. Lost both to Minnesota. It’s kind of how you match up against certain teams. I think the top four teams proved at the end of the year that there was some parity among us four. Rochester are the defending champs, they struggled a little bit with maintaining the same type of momentum, they lost a few players and it was tough to get that fire back for them. Chicago made a great run at the end of the season which helped out a lot of teams. I guess there is a parity amongst the top four this year, we’re beating each other and the records reflected themselves.

Could you talk a little bit about what Matt Vinc has meant to the team in the stretch?
You can’t win a championship in any sport without good goaltending, whether it’s hockey, lacrosse, anything. He’s playing great and he adds a lot of confidence both to our offense and our defense.

How about Jordan Hall? Is he your rookie of the year pick?
In my mind yeah, for sure. Jordan plays offense really well, he picks up a lot of loose balls, he’s got over 100 loose balls which is hard to do in this league. He could play the transition role but the coaches kept him on offense this year. In my mind I think he’s the rookie of the year.

What would you say a couple of your other rookies, Mitch Belisle and Rory Smith bring to the team?
Oh they bring a lot of character and laughter to the dressing room which is very important. As you can tell I’m laughing right now. Rory is still a little kid at heart but he’s obviously a tough guy, he can beat up most of the men in the league. It’s kind of funny since he’s still a young man. Mitch is quite the character. Just one of those personalities in the dressing room that every team likes to have. He lightens things up. He’s funny on the road, he sends funny emails during the week. They’re both a great time, good for our team.

Do you notice a real difference in style of play between the Titans and other teams you’ve been on?
There’s definitely a different style, there’s no question. I think what Adam has done is put some athletic players in athletic positions, i.e. transition roles, running the floor. Casey [Powell] and Ryan Boyle have both learned the Canadian game very well, they’ve made that transition very well.

Was it an adjustment for you? Did it take a little while to start to mesh with the team?
For sure. Last year was a little tough, I had a great time in Arizona but life commitments brought me back home. It was tough to transition with a new team, a new franchise, starting over again. I went through the same thing when I got traded to Columbus which was a second year team. That was difficult, it took us a couple years, actually it took three years for us to really get going. It’s always tough with a new franchise.

Adam Mueller said in an article recently that he thinks the biggest difference between the team this year and last year is confidence. Would you say the same thing?
Confidence is an extremely important part of it but I think it’s a little deeper than that. I think it’s maturity. I think this team is a lot closer than the team last year we tend to want to do things a little bit more which is important on good teams. I think that there was more experience brought to the team by Jamie Hanford and Patrick Merrill. Like you already mentioned we had three rookies really step up huge for us all year. There’s definitely confidence, that combined with all of those other things I mentioned have made the biggest changes that have brought us from a 4-12 team to a 10-6 team.

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