On being up two-nothing in the series:
“It’s a big win, the way we did it. It’s not how you want to do it, but again, it’s a huge thing holding home ice. Now we’ve got to go into their building, which they play very well in. They have very much the same atmosphere that we have down here. So it’s about getting prepared and mentally ready to go to do the right things to give ourselves a chance in their building because they protect their home ice pretty well.”
On Kopitar’s injury and whether he thought he would come back:
“Obviously when it happened, I was right there trying to help him up and he didn’t want any help. So I had a good idea he was going to be coming back then.”
On the importance of having a strong penalty kill on the road:
“I mean, PK is huge either way, but if you look at their percentages, I think they’re – I might be wrong – they’re like 37 percent at home and eight percent on the road, so they definitely use their power play to their advantage at home. It’s not only the PK. It’s being disciplined. If we take less penalties, it makes it a lot easier on everyone involved.”
On how fortunate the team feels on the timing of San Jose’s late penalties:
“I don’t know if ‘fortunate’ is probably the word I’d use. It’s ‘opportunistic’ for us, right? Power plays happen throughout the game. You get the one, and how many times have you seen it flip over the glass for a five-on-three? I mean, that’s just part of the game nowadays. It’s good that we capitalized. I mean, that’s probably the more important thing for us right now is our power play hasn’t been great, but it’s scored big goals.”
On whether the two road losses in the first round remind the team not to “get ahead” of themselves:
“I mean, we’re all aware of that, what we did. We’re also well aware of what we did last year in going up three-nothing and how that changes the series, the mentality of both teams. So it’s a matter of, again, just preparing. They’re a good home team. I think they probably had one of the best records in the west at home. It’s up to us to prepare, and we still have yet to play 60 minutes. We jumbled the lines right now because myself and my whole line, pretty much, hasn’t played to where it needs to be for our team to be successful. We found ways to win, and that’s I think the character of the team and the depth we have to be able to pick up other guys.”
On why the team hasn’t played 60 minutes:
“It’s hard to play. I mean, Rick’s line’s playing great. Our young guys, our third and fourth line – again, you need everyone playing. That was part of our success last year when we had those three-nothing leads in every series. It was because we had all of our lines rolling, and it might have seemed easy, but it wasn’t. But we had everyone going. It’s a matter of I think my line figuring it out, and figuring it out quick.”
On Tyler Toffoli’s performance:
“What makes this team good is we have depth and we have the experience together, so when a young guy steps into the lineup, he blends right in with the rest of our group. I thought he stepped in and played great, especially in the third period. He ended up getting some power play time and he took advantage of it…when you look at Stolly going out, Toff probably gets a little bit more ice time, and he took it by the horns.”
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