On the St. Louis Blues:
“They’re an improved team, obviously from the last time that we played them, the past regular season. The addition of Bouwmeester and Leopold and probably the biggest difference would be they were really down to one goalie last year after splitting them. I think it affected their team. So they’re clear who their goalie is now.”
On Mike Richards not playing in the third period:
“He struggled before the game. He’s been sick.”
On whether there’s a confidence boost, having beaten St. Louis eight straight times:
“Regular season’s over, and it really has no bearing on anyhitng for me. Zero. I don’t know what it means. If we’d have played Vancouver – we just as well could’ve played them – they kicked the [—-] out of us this year, and I’m confident in playing them, too.”
On how Matt Greene feels:
“Well, I’m sure he’s happy. He gets to come to St. Louis with us tomorrow. [Reporter: You’re going tomorrow?] Yep. Sunday. What else are we going to do?”
On whether there’s any disappointment over not finishing in fourth place:
“It’s two years in a row we’ve missed it by one point. That’s all it is. At some point you think about how close it is through the course of the season. Am I disappointed? No, because quite honest I’m very proud of the players. Heck, there was a point in January that you were one of em that said we weren’t going to make [it]. ‘You’re in 14th or 15th place. How are you going to catch up?’
On the team’s road struggles “of late”:
“It’s over and done with. ‘Of late’. The season is over and done. We had a great season, to be quite honest.”
On whether the team is playing the way he’d like going into the playoffs:
“We played them very well tonight.”
On whether the team plans on staying at a hotel while in Los Angeles:
“We don’t know when we’re playing yet, so it might be tough getting a room.”
On whether there’s anything specific he’d like to see the team improve on:
“Well, quite honest with not having Brownie the last two games, and then trying to get Greener back in, in a perfect world you always want to be settled in your lines and your pairs going into the playoffs, but obviously that’s not going to be the case. The condensed schedule has affected us. Talking about when our games are, if you look at last year when we played St. Louis in the second round and also in the Vancouver series, there were times in that series you guys where we played one game in six days. Not between series, during series. This year, they’re going to jam it down your throat. You know that. The depth part of it and being able to mix is maybe something that will help us, because that’s what we’ve been doing. I really don’t know. We’re into a whole different [thing]. Just because the way the season was in terms of how it was so compact, we’re probably going to see that again.”
On whether size and depth makes Los Angeles a team “built for the playoffs”:
“No. I think our opponent is, too. They’re not going to forget last year. As I said, everybody’s doing it. You’re not going to catch anybody by surprise now.”
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