May 9 afternoon quotes: Dustin Brown

On whether the team’s mood has lightened:
“I think our mood hasn’t really changed from Game 1 to now. Again, everyone understands. We went through it last year. Darryl always says ‘Four wins make a series,’ so we’ve got to just refocus. Today was an off-day and get treatment and just kind of get yourself ready to go.”

On whether the team has started getting the feeling of 2012 back:
“I think that feeling’s never really left. We got down 0-2, but our confidence as a group and our belief system as a group has never really faltered. Being down 0-2 – it’s one of those things you kind of have to deal with, and we have the type of guys in here that can deal with adversity and find a way to get the job done.”

On whether the team expects a more physical and desperate performance by St. Louis:
“Obviously they’re going to be fighting for their lives. They’re up against a wall, and it’s important to understand their desperation, but we have to play with – I think desperation is a scaryu thing to play with. We’ve got to have a controlled and confident group going into Game 6. Sometimes when you’re desperate, you get running around and you get out of place. It’s more about being even keel going in.”

On the keys to playing in a close-out game:
“I mean, you hear this a lot, but especially at home, it’s getting off to a good start, especially after the start we had at Game 4. We found a way to battle back, but you have a team up against a wall, you get off to a good start, get a lead, it plants a seed of doubt pretty early in the game. It can go a long way in getting the outcome you want. It’s a matter of individuals preparing to do the little things, especially early on because they’re going to have a big push.”

On whether he feels any extra need to take it upon himself to carry the team to victory:
“I mean, there’s instances where that happens, and it’s not just the guys with the letters. We’ve had different guys that do that throughout this series, and going back to last year’s run, we had different guys every night stepping up and having a shift here or a shift there that kind of pulls everyone else along. That’s the fun thing about a team sport, is you’ve got guys you can lean on, and every night it could be someone different.”

On Robyn Regehr weathering skates, pucks and elbows to the face as an example of playoff hockey:
“Yeah, I mean all those things happen in the regular season. It’s just playoff time you don’t see anybody complaining about it, and that’s probably the biggest difference.”

On whether Darryl Sutter has “changed,” “mellowed” or “relaxed” since last season:
“No, Darryl’s Darryl.”

On whether Sutter’s message has lightened, or whether it comes with the same volume:
“He’s probably harder this time around because he doesn’t want us to rest or think it’s going to be easy, probably because we lost two games and we lost four all our postseason last year. I think he’s just trying to bring more attention consistently. He knows what we went through last year, and everyone understands that, but it’s just a matter of refocusing, because it’s going to be a different postseason this year.”

On whether the physicality of the series is as intense as it seems from the outside:
“I mean, both teams have some pretty physical guys. Part of what makes both teams successful is hard puck battles, and when you have two teams that are like that, there’s going to be more physical play, I think. There isn’t a lot of open ice in the series. All the goals that have been scored have been a lot of odd-man rushes…those are the only times goals are scored because all the other times the ice is so hard to gain an advantage on because you’ve got guys running into each other, rubbing each other out and playing hard.”

On whether he enjoys that style of hockey:
“I mean, it helps my game, the way I play, getting physically involved, especially right off the get-go. For me, personally, I haven’t minded it.”