After a solid start to the pre-season, Phil Varone remains happy but not satisfied with his on-ice play and looks to make the most of the opportunities he's being given as he aims to crack the Sens' NHL roster.

On being able to show the different components of his game:

A big part about making a team and making an impression on an organization is showing the different things that you can do. I've shown a little bit of my offense but then there are other things that I need to show the coaches and management like that I can play different roles depending on who's in the line-up and who's not in the line-up. I have more in me. I'm happy but I'm definitely not satisfied with both games. I know I have more to give so that's kind of my focus going forward. I appreciate the opportunity that they're giving me playing with two extremely good players in this league so I'm trying to take advantage of it but like I said I have a lot more to give.

On playing on a line with Kyle Turris and Mike Hoffman:

They are both extremely good with the puck. Turris is very smart. I usually play centre so playing with a centreman like that makes moving to the wing extremely easy because he sees the game so well. And then Hoffman is so fast and can shoot the puck better than anyone in the league. When I have the puck I have to make little plays to them, get to the front of the net, play a little gritier and stuff like that. Be good defensively and just play hard. I have the confidence in myself to know that I can play with guys like that and make plays so it's that and just doing the little things right.

On the increased focus on speed as opposed to size in NHL line-ups:

I think speed is taken out of context sometimes. I don't always think it's how fast you skate when people talk about speed. Speed is your pace of play, speed is how fast you can think. There are going to be guys who aren't the best skaters but they still play with speed and they're still fast because they are thinking one step ahead. For me, I wouldn't say I'm fast but I think I can think the game fast. I understand how to get from spot to spot and I'm not afraid to go into the areas that I need to go into. That's what I'm trying to focus on and like you said, that's what the coach likes.

On the coach's high pace practice style:

You get your work in and then you're done. There's no fooling around, you're not wasting any minute and that's what he's trying to preach. He's trying to preach that for every minute we're going to have we're going to make it useful. Whether it's him telling us something and teaching or whether it's us doing it. I think that's big. When he explains a message, he gets it across and we're professionals and we have to do it. I like it. Does it get tiring? For sure but then that's when he talks about the third period when we have legs and other teams don't. That's when it's going to be beneficial. I think everybody in this room believes in that.