On where the team is at compared to this point last season:
“We’ve been getting points out of games. We’ve been winning some games, finding ways to win some ugly games. We played well in some of those, deserved to win some of those. Some of those we didn’t but found a way to do it, and I think that was similar to last season. We were playing a desperate kind of hockey that we need to play, and sometimes when we’re that desperate, we play our best hockey. You want to be on edge. You don’t want any surprises from your opponent, obviously. You’ve got to be prepared that way, but when we’re ready and focused and a little bit desperate we tend to play our best.”
On whether the rest this week is helpful in a compressed season:
“Yeah, this schedule right now is kind of back to where it’s a normal-season-kind-of-schedule where we have a couple days in between games sometimes, and then there are some games where it’s every second day, as opposed to March where [for] four or five weeks there it was pretty crazy. But it was the same for everybody, and everybody had to get through it. Some teams did it. Some teams didn’t. Getting the rest when we can – that’s all you can do. There’s two days of the week – it’s game day, and non-game day, and that’s pretty much the way it is.”
On whether it’s “dangerous” for a rested team to play against a team that played last night:
“That’s not even in our mind. You can’t think of it that way. There’s been many instances when that’s gone against you the other way, whether it’s for us or for the other team. You can’t overlook any teams, especially a team like San Jose with the talent they have and the experience they have over there. They’re going to come ready to play. There’s five, six games left in the season. The standings are where they are. You overlook any team and you’re going to be down early, and you’re probably going to lose the game. No, we’re not doing that.”
On how “big of a boost” it will be to get Matt Greene back:
“It’ll be great. Just the type of person he is, too – I’m not talking about the type of player he is. I’m just talking about the type of person he is, too, around the dressing room and around the guys. It’s all positive, and it’s all good stuff. On the ice, obviously what he brings is similar to what Reggie (Robyn Regehr) brings. Anything to win. Anything possible to win and get the two points come playoff time…Blocking a key shot, we’ve seen it time and time again with him, whether it’s with his face, his leg, his body, whatever. It doesn’t matter. It’s whatever it takes to win, and that’s how you win, if you have guys like that. It’s not about the points. It’s not about the assists, the plus-minuses. It’s not about any of that stuff with a guy like that. It’s about winning.”
On whether Greene “says the right thing at the right time” and “picks his spots” to converse:
“I think he picks his spots. It’s key to pick your spots, I think. You want to read the situation in the room, and the feeling of the team, I think, too, and if you need something to be said, I think there are certain guys in here that’ll say that and try to read that. On the other hand, it can go the other way, too. There are times to just be quiet and just let everybody focus and get ready for the game and do their thing. Yeah, he’s a great leader. We missed him this season, for sure. We’re going to be very, very happy and glad to get him back.”
On what makes San Jose a dangerous team at HP Pavilion:
“They come hard with a quick forecheck, a fast forecheck, and if you can’t withstand that pressure, if you don’t have that composure under that pressure, you’re not going to do very well. You’re going to spend a lot of time in your own zone here in this building. We’ve seen it personally, and we’ve seen it with other teams, watching film. So we’ve got to be ready. We’ve got to be calm and composed with the puck and make plays and come off the ice together and support each other. Support each other in groups of five – groups of six in our zone, and then we’ll hopefully have a good night.”
On what he has seen from Antti Niemi this season:
“He’s been solid. He’s just been a constant for them, really. He’s played a lot. He’s made some big saves. Every time you watch the highlights, he’s had good games. He’s kept them in games, won some games for them outright. That’s what you need. You need that out of a starting goaltender, a good goaltender in this league. If you’re a good team, most likely you have a good goaltender.”
On the importance of winning on the road:
“Yeah, we haven’t played very well on the road, especially in our division. We haven’t done a good job in Phoenix, in Anaheim, in here, in Dallas. We haven’t done a very good job. It’s one of those things [that] we’ve got to get better at. We’re both fighting for home ice. That’s a given. But you’ve got to win in tough buildings. We know that. We know that from last year. We experienced all that stuff. It’s just another building we’ve got to come to play.”
On whether San Jose’s forecheck and puck possession game is similar to Los Angeles’:
“Yeah, well, it starts on the dot, too. It starts with faceoffs, and they’ve got a good faceoff team. We feel we do. We’ve got to make sure we’re good on the dot tonight and battling, and not just the centermen, but the wingers coming in and helping out and trying to get puck possession because they’re a team that loves it. They play with it, obviously. We can combat a lot of what they’re trying to do by winning the faceoff and controlling the puck and taking our game to them as opposed to starting in our own zone and trying to break the puck out and go from there. We’ve got to try and take our own game to them.”
On Brent Burns’ contributions as a forward:
“He’s just wheeling. I think it was the first game he played forward was the game against us in here. He played very well. He scored. I think he had an assist. He was all over the ice, so we’re going to have to control him amongst some other guys. Boyle on the back end. They’ve got their skill kind of spread out amongst their lines now. Full team effort. Full team effort on the road is going to win tonight’s game, and if we don’t have it, we won’t win.”
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