Not only did Jeff Carter score twice Monday night, he won all five of his third period faceoffs, was not credited with a turnover and led all forwards on L.A. and St. Louis with 20:05 of ice time.
On the team getting off to a good start:
It’s something we’ve kind of talked about here – just getting a lead and playing with a lead. We haven’t done it much this year. It was a great play by Mike on the first one to win that battle and Slava jumping up and making a great pass. All I had to do was put my stick there and it was a goal.
On “trending upards”:
Yeah, we’re on the right direction, that’s for sure. I think we thought Detroit was at the time our best overall game. I still think it is. I think we were better in Detroit than tonight. But we were solid tonight. We did what we had to do on the road. It’s not easy coming in here and playing these guys. It’s a step in the right direction.
On his second goal:
It’s just a transition play and I had some speed coming up the wall and Ells made an unbelievable pass to me. It just landed on my stick. I don’t know how he saw me. I just had enough speed to get around the D. Elliott’s a big guy. He kind of goes post to post, and that five hole opens up.
On scoring twice:
“The top guys need to put some goals in the net, and its not secret that we’ve kind of struggled at that lately. For us to win games, were going to have to get going here, so it was good.”
On improving zone entry and success in getting through the neutral zone:
“Better, yeah. Better. Something that we’ve talked a lot about, again. We’ve worked a lot on it – short little passes and supporting guys and whatnot, and it’s a work in progress, but it’s coming.”
On Slava Voynov’s improvement:
“I think he was great for us last year in the playoffs, ever since I got here. I don’t think anybody wants to go down to the minors, but for him to go there – what Dean said earlier – go there and play big minutes, and kind of get that confidence up, even higher than what it was, I think its really showing in his game. He’s strong. He’s making good reads and making good plays and hopefully keeps it up.”
On Jonathan Bernier’s performance:
“He was great. I know he’s been itching to get in there. He made the saves that he had to. He didn’t give up many rebounds there. He kind of swallowed up pucks. He did a great job for us.”
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