© 2025 ALLCITY Network Inc.
All rights reserved.
👋 GOOD MORNING
Happy Thursday! We’re inching our way to the weekend, and I hope your week is going well. I’ll get to the Roadrunners below, but speaking of hockey, if you haven’t caught the NHL Playoffs yet, it’s not too late, and you should! I know, I know, I’m pretty biased, but still, some of these games have been absolutely insane!
Of course, if the NBA is your thing, there’s always time to jump on the Pacers bandwagon. Tyrese Haliburton has sure made this Iowa State alum proud this postseason.
NHL Playoffs, NBA Playoffs — what a great time of year.
One last note: Remember, if this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up for the newsletter right here, and I’ll keep you in the loop with everything going on this summer! Don’t miss a beat!
On to the show!
Q&A With Tucson Roadrunners Head Coach Steve Potvin
Another AHL season is in the books for the Tucson Roadrunners.
The Roadrunners’ season ended at the hands of the Abbotsford Canucks in the first round of the AHL Playoffs, and though the end result isn’t what they team hoped for, there were plenty of positives. The club made the playoffs for the third consecutive season and several players took giant leaps in their development — and I caught up with head coach Steve Potvin to recap the 2024-25 season.
Here’s part of our conversation below — I’ll have a full writeup on the Roadrunners (along with thoughts from Roadrunners general manager John Ferguson) this weekend.
Q&A With Roadrunners Head Coach Steve Potvin
PB: Steve, thanks for taking the time today to catch up. Let’s start with your overall assessment of the season — how do you evaluate it collectively?
SP: We had to play two months of playoff hockey, and your objective is always to put your players in meaningful games. We knew when we got back from the All-Star break, the playoffs had already begun. We needed to be ‘on’ every game. So we played 20 playoff games.
I think it just prepared us for that urgency. Sometimes you need to play desperate, and sometimes when you play desperate, you find a strength that you didn’t know you had. You find intentionality and focus that you didn’t know you had. You bring your game up to another level. We were able to do that for 20 games.
PB: Did anyone on the Roadrunners’ roster surprise you this season?
SP: We were optimistic, but cautious, with [forward Julian Lutz]. We weren’t sure what he was going to bring. He had inconsistent puck touches, and didn’t really understand the system, but he cared, he was committed, and he would almost overwork at times. Then his injury happened, he was able to take a breath, he was able to watch the games. He was able to really study the game, and our system.
When he came back, he was reliable defensively. His puck touches were far better than they were when he started the season because he was able to watch and identify how he was going to try to advance the team, and his linemates. That was the objective when he sat out. Watch the game with a purpose. See where you can grow. He surprised us.
PB: Bakersfield was chasing you for almost the entire second half of the season, and you swept a weekend series toward the end when it was absolutely critical, even after they took a game a week earlier. Did you learn anything about the team during that stretch?
SP: When we lost the first game in Bakersfield, it wasn’t lost for nothing. We had shown them a game that, I’m not sure they were prepared to do it two more times. We really played physically and hard against them that first night in Tucson, and that sent a little bit of a message. The next night we beat them, we swept the series. In the last 20 games, it was nice to get the buy-in that we did, and you could really see the identity come through.
PB: What are you looking for out of your prospects heading into the offseason?
SP: You give them projects, and they watch hockey, build their hockey IQ, and keep reinforcing what they need, but also what they’re good at. Make sure they go back, review their clips, and when we see them at the end of the summer, we hope we see a player that’s evolved. His decision making is stronger, his body is physically more mature. It’s not an offseason for these guys.
These guys work, and they only have a short amount of time. When you’re on an ELC, it’s dangerous to think that you’re going to play a long time, or even beyond the three years, because let’s face it, not everybody can do this, and there are a lot of players coming in behind you. It’s important that they really understand the situation, that they’re grateful for it, and that they don’t let go of their opportunity.
Musings From Around (and Sometimes Beyond) The Valley
Snake Bit: The Diamondbacks fell to the Mets 7-1 in the rubber match yesterday, and have now lost four of their last six games. The road doesn’t get any easier this weekend, as Arizona kicks off a four-game set against the NL West-leading Dodgers this evening.
Spirit of Giving: Bonus D-backs news! I just wanted to give a shoutout to the team, which recently provided a total of $946,000 in funding to six different Arizona-based nonprofits through the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation’s 2025 Ken Kendrick Grand Slam awards.The program has awarded more than $11.2 million since its establishment in 2002.
Acing The Test: The ASU women’s golf team is off to the NCAA Championship after finishing in second place at the regional, and the Sun devils will be one of 30 teams to compete for a national championship. Arizona State is one of only five programs in the country to make the NCAA Championship at least 22 times since 2000 (25-year span). They are joined by USC, Duke, Stanford, and UCLA on this exclusive list. And if you’re keeping track ASU is targeting its ninth national championship.
🧢 Tip of the Hat by Branded Bills
Who should new Suns GM Brian Gregory target for the head coach vacancy? Our PHNX Suns crew has thoughts.
Comments
Share your thoughts
Join the conversation
The Comment section is only for diehard members
Scroll to next article
Don't like ads?
Don't like ads?
