Murray postgame quotes

Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts…

(on overcoming San Jose’s early goal…)
MURRAY: “That was certainly not what you want. You know they’re going to come out fast. You know it’s going to be hectic in the first 10 minutes, and they end up getting that quick goal. We came back, we competed, we got to a very good hockey game going on, as we got to the end of the second period. I thought the teams were competing in all the hard areas. We made some good things happen to get our two goals. I think it’s just a typical NHL playoff hockey game at that time.”

(on Justin Williams’ game…)
MURRAY: “Williams played really well, very well. He’s very creative, and he did the stuff he’s been doing for us all year long. Holding onto the puck, he’s able to get away from pressure, he’s able to find people, he’s got good vision on the ice and he definitely had impact on the game tonight.”

(on swapping Ponikarovsky and Penner during the game…)
MURRAY: “I liked what Ponikarovsky was doing early in the game. He was coming out and playing hard, playing physical, had a couple real big hits, had good energy. He’s stirring up some loose pucks in the offensive zone and he was strong with the puck whenever it was on his stick, making right decisions. (With Penner,) I didn’t like that first goal, when they scored at the start of the game. I felt we needed to come back and just stop at our home plate, and that play would have been over. There were just some plays that were not as intense and not as competitive as I needed them to be in the first game of a playoff series.”

(on the Kings’ play…)
MURRAY: “I feel pretty good about how we played in this first game, absolutely. We get down early but we came back and we competed hard and had lots of opportunities. At the end of the third period, we had a chance to win the game. Brad Richardson walks between the tops of the circles and it’s basically an open net. In overtime, it’s the same. He had a tap-in off that back post. So we had our looks to win. We didn’t. We come away with a good feeling, and we’re going to go into the next game ready to get going again.”

(on Jonathan Quick’s game…)
MURRAY: “Quick was good. Quick played vey good. He gave us a chance here tonight, and that’s all you ask for in that first game of a series, on the road. I thought his reads and his play on the power play, their power play, was excellent. He was in the right place at the right time, and faced the big shooters. He was real good in his game here tonight.”

(on the Kings’ physical play…)
MURRAY: “When you go into the playoffs, you’ve got to be able to hold your ground in different situations. You’ve got to be gritty at both ends of the rink, at the net. You’ve got to compete for your ice along the dot-to-boards. You’ve got to push. You don’t ever want to back down. That’s the kiss of death. The opposition is going to read that and come right after you. I really liked our compete. I liked our attitude about sticking with it. So we do feel good about coming back into Game 2.”