Murray postgame quotes

Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts…

(on the game…)
MURRAY: “That was a playoff game. There was good checking. There were some big hits. There was some scoring. It was a fun game. And big goaltending at both ends. Both guys, I thought, were very big. They came up, not only in the overtime and the shootout, but on the 5-on-5, there were a couple of plays that both goaltenders looked outstanding.”

(on why he decided on Stoll shooting fourth…)
MURRAY: “You have a shootout group. We put it together a couple years ago. There are seven, eight guys in there that are the shooters in a shootout. It just comes down to making a selection. In that selection with Stolly, I’m looking at a left-handed catching goaltender and a right shot. His read on that is to shoot the puck.”

(on Ponikarovsky’s goal, and the preceding shift…)
MURRAY: “The shift, that was the kind of shift that you have to have. You want to continue to play the game the right way, making plays, getting on the puck. We’d been doing a lot of good things in the game, and you just want to continue to do it. I thought the shift was absolutely outstanding. Recovering pucks, after they tried to clear it two or three times. Scuderi keeps it in. You just want to keep pucks going to the net. Good things can happen. I think that’s a clip you could pull off and just show your guys in development camp, or training camp, and just say, `This is the attitude you have to have.’ It ends up being the tying goal, a huge goal. I was happy for Poni, because he has had a difficult stretch here as an L.A. King. A couple injuries, but maybe that will be the catalyst to really get him starting to put the puck in the net more consistently.”

(on Ponikarovksy’s play tonight…)
MURRAY: “It took a few games, at the start of the year, to get settled in, and then after that he really started to play well. Then the injury happens. I’ve got him out on the penalty-killing here today. The penalty-killing was huge, a four-minute penalty kill in the third period. That was big time. You’ve got to dig in and just get it done, and everybody did. Ponikarovsky was a part of that. I think his ankle is good, he’s feeling good and, again, hopefully this goal can really give him the confidence that he needs to keep going.”

(on keeping Heatley, Marleau and Thornton off the scoreboard…)
MURRAY: “That’s a team effort. You’ve got to have the right D pair out there, to try to match that up. We believe on the back end more than the line matchup. And your goaltender has to be very big. Quick was outstanding. That’s three games in a row, now, for him, that he’s been great. When you have those premier players in the game facing you, you just have to make sure that everyday is tracking back. A real important part of it, against that team, I think, is to put back pressure on them, because they do a lot of crossing. They do a lot of delays, and looking for weak-side defensemen, so back pressure is critical, with your stick down, looking and anticipating those kinds of plays. Everybody was on board with it.”