Jonas Siegel had a chat with Luke Schenn about Dion Phaneuf and his sophomore slump. Some interesting quotes:

Well and [Phaneuf]’s got…I don’t know if snarl is the right word…

SCHENN: Yeah, a little bit. Swagger?

Yeah swagger. Is that fair, you’re starting to gain a little bit of that yourself?

SCHENN: (Smiling) Personality-wise I don’t know about that.

More after the jump.

Your game has rounded out pretty nicely the last month, two months. Where do you notice personally the biggest change?

SCHENN: Probably moving my feet a little bit more in skating and getting more involved in the play. Passing the puck too I guess a lot quicker just trying to move it to the forwards hands. It’s been a lot of work and I’ve gotten a lot of help from all our coaches and eventually if you work hard enough you’ll get out of it and I feel good right now.

Is it also just a matter of relaxing?

SCHENN: Yeah, I mean sort of. When things don’t go like you want them to especially at the start of the year, it’s easy to get a little upset and get down a little bit. Especially when everyone else is talking about how you’re playing and your confidence and stuff. You’ve just got to find a way to block it out and continue to work hard. At the end of the day you control your own confidence and as long as you believe you can get out of it and continue to work hard and want to get better and progress, eventually you’ll come around.

Well and I see you every day after practice, staying late, working with Rob Zettler after practice, working on your shot and working on a variety of things. You’ve got to be happy now that that part of your game is starting to come around too.

SCHENN: Yeah it’s Rob Zettler and Keith Acton, they’ve both been helping me out a lot with my shot. It’s just repetition. Every shot you take, kind of do it with a purpose instead of just shooting pucks for something to do. You want to find a way to get it harder and more accurate and get your head up.