Murray postgame quotes

Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts…

(on any “message” he was trying to make by starting Jonathan Bernier…)
MURRAY: “No, there was no message there. Bernier has played very well the last outings that he’s had. Coming through that long road trip in February, he had a couple of real big games. You go into Washington, and you’ve got one of the better offensive teams in the league and he does a great job. There was not a message. It’s just a decision that I made. We’re a good checking team. I think we’ve done that very well over the last two-and-a-half years. It was just a matter of making a call and trying to win a hockey game.”

(on whether Bernier might start Saturday…)
MURRAY: “I haven’t thought about that. Bernier had a real good game. He had some plays coming at him where he worked very hard to find the puck, not only with his blocker and catching glove, but he got his body in front of some shots that were outstanding saves, outstanding reads on his part. Just to stay aggressive, and find and work hard at the end of the game, again, I thought he really was on top of his game. But the guys in front of him played well. It came down to a game of special teams, power play obviously, and the penalty kill. We had a couple of very big kills at the end with six-and-a-half minutes left. That’s a huge kill for us and these games are fun to play. They’re close-checking, they’re tight, every play is important and we’re having fun.”

(on the special-teams contributions…)
MURRAY: “That’s the way it is, isn’t it? You get into a big game, it’s going to be one play, one pass, one shot, one power play, whatever. It’s just the way it is at this time of the year, and the guys really dug down and executed very well on the power play, and then bounced back a few minutes later and had to do the same thing on the penalty kill. So, nice job by them.”

(on Dustin Penner’s game…)
MURRAY: “Penner was good here tonight. First game, it’s always interesting how new players play and how they join the team. I thought he had an impact on the game, with his size, he used it several times. He had some impact hits on the forecheck in the offensive zone. He’s very responsible away from the puck, made some good plays. He’s got excellent hands. We know that, but he made some good plays here tonight coming through the middle of the ice, on a couple of breakouts. It was a nice first game, welcome to the team.”