April 9 morning skate quotes: Dustin Penner

On returning from his injury and dealing with discomfort:
“It’s dissipated now to the point where I can play ice hockey again.”

On whether he could play soccer with the injury:
“I could still play soccer with it. I just couldn’t play ice hockey.”

On whether he could play field hockey with the injury:
“No, that’s for girls.”

On men’s field hockey being an Olympic sport:
“It’s for girls.”

On his approach coming back into the lineup in the thick of a playoff race:
“It’s the same as it was before I left it. It’s a tight race in the west, and we just focus on one game at a time. It’s very cliché, but these two points – Dallas doesn’t need them as bad as we do. So that’s the mindset we have going into this game tonight, and we want to take these two and go back home to L.A.”

On Anaheim clinching a playoff spot with a Los Angeles win over Dallas:
“Bittersweet. [Reporter: Very good. You’re getting good at this.] You’re only figuring that out now?”

On whether he was rekindling the chemistry with Richards and Carter prior to the injury:
“Yeah, I think it’s always there. It’s just a matter of you have to work hard before that chemistry comes as a group, and work together, connected as five, connected as three as the defensive line.”

On whether recapturing the chemistry shown in last year’s playoffs is an emphasis for his line:
“Yeah, that’s definitely something we want to recapture. You know, it’s something that we know that can be there if we just will it to be.”

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