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In spite of sporting a largely new coaching staff, the New York Titans are banking on a little bit of continuity to help them hit the ground sprinting this season and carry over last year’s late success into the early ‘09. In between running intervals and inducting big American rookies into the indoor game, Titans defender Matt Alrich, goaltender Matt Vinc and head coach Ed Comeau took some time to share some thoughts on Peysers, passing, and the upcoming scrimmage versus the Philadelphia Wings.

On making his mark on the team:
ED COMEAU: I think every coach has their own things they like to bring into a team but I don’t foresee doing an about face from anything that was done last year, I thought Adam did a great job preparing this team and getting this team to where they are. There’s really no reason to make huge changes, we’re just going to tweak a little bit in the areas where we think we can get a little better.

On avoiding a slow start:
ED COMEAU: For us in New York we’re returning most of our starters, we’re in pretty good shape. Last year at the beginning there were a lot of new guys and they were figuring out personnel and everything and it was a tough situation. This year we like to think we’re going to be able to hit the ground running and we hope to get off to a good start in a real tough and competitive league.

On fitness:
MATT ALRICH: It’s huge. For us we try to take care of that stuff before we come into training camp. We come in ready to go and in shape. We work hard and that’s something we pride ourselves on: our ability to get up and down the floor. One thing that Eddie’s brought in this year is after every drill we’ll sprint up and down the floor or side to side to keep the lungs going and get the legs going too and it’s definitely helping, but like I said we’re pretty athletic.

On rookies:
MATT ALRICH: Stephen Peyser was our first draft pick, we took him in the second round. His older brother Greg is on the team but when you look at the two Stephen looks like the older brother, he’s bigger and I think a little stronger than Greg is. He’ll step into the line-up at some point this year, maybe not right off the bat but he’s definitely got potential. The Ammann brothers from Albany are both very good, very athletic, and they love the game. They’re learning to defend the pick and roll and I think they’re going to have some success and help us as well.

On transition:
MATT VINC: We’re pushing the ball and we’re quick on the transition going up and as the goalie hopefully I’m a big part in that and can get the ball going straight away but the one thing Coach Comeau and the other coaches have stressed is that we can’t give up reverse transition. We can’t get caught in a run and gun type of game in which we’re going down and shooting quickly and then they’re coming back in reverse transition. For things to go easy on myself it’s settled five on five. Depending on how we play it hopefully what’s going to take a lot of pressure off myself is if we have the right guys getting back and not rushing things on the other end.

On goaltending:
MATT ALRICH: [Vinc] stepped up huge last year. It was his breakout year; he really started to get comfortable between the pipes, knowing that he was the number one goalie and that there really wasn’t anyone behind him pushing him out. Erik Miller does a great job as our second goalie, coaching Matt through the highs and the lows and he can step in there if Matt’s not having the greatest game. But [Matt] did a great job last year, definitely the backbone of our team, and this year he’s stepped it up.

MATT VINC: I think since I came into the league my passing has gotten a little bit better. Most of the times I just throw a quick outlet pass and my guys are so fast that usually I don’t need to throw a pass all the way down the floor. They’re so athletic they’ll actually get the ball close to the crease and they can make the whole transition. We actually do drills for passing on the fast break but I wouldn’t say that my passing game has improved a lot. I do get some assists but a lot of the time it’s because of how athletic the guys are.

On strengths and weaknesses:
MATT ALRICH: Jamie [Hanford] and Jarett [Park] really work well with each other. Jamie has the ability to put the ball where he wants with the face-off and Jarett has that explosive speed, I believe he’s the fastest player in the league, so Jamie puts it out there and he just picks it up and goes. He’s great on looseballs, great on transition, and he knows where to put himself. He’ll continue to build as a player and hopefully we’ll see him in the All-Star game again.

Offensively we’ve got some great players, Casey Powell does a great job on the right side with Ryan Boyle and Mike McLellan. Jordan Hall I think got shafted last year, he should have won rookie of the year, but in his second year we won’t be seeing a sophomore slump, I expect him to progress further and when he and Maddalena get together on that left side it’s going to be trouble.

ED COMEAU: We talked about the fact that they had a real good power play last year, scored a lot of power play goals and certainly we want to increase our percentage and our rating in this league, same as with a man short. I don’t think it’s a matter of fundamentally changing what was done, it’s a matter of working on it and trying to get a little bit better. Of course we’d like to have special teams that are in the top third of both categories and I think to really be successful in this league you need to have that level of performance in your special teams.

On the Titans-Wings scrimmage tomorrow:
MATT VINC: I’m expecting it to be treated as if it’s a regular season game. We played them three times last year and we have three games again with them this year so I don’t think guys are going to be going too easy. Two years ago we had a scrimmage with them and there was some fighting and some pushing that was going on. When you’re just playing against one another in practice you don’t really see that. The guys are so competitive that it’s going to be a great environment no matter what. It’s a team we play more than once throughout the year so we’re going to be playing hard. We’re going to want to win.

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