January 21 morning skate quotes: Colin Fraser

On whether Columbus plays a Western Conference style of hockey:
Yeah, I mean they’ve been in the West for – since they came in I think, right? So, we’re used to playing them – or at least I’ve played in the West my whole career – play them regularly. I think they’ve got that identity of a hard-working team. One of the hardest working teams for sure. You look at their playoffs, or just missed the playoffs last year – kind of put on a big push at the end. Kind of a slow start this year, but they’re rolling now. They’re a team you can’t take lightly because they have, I think, a lot of depth up front. They’re lines are pretty well balanced throughout and they’re a good team with a good goalie. People don’t talk about them a lot, but I think they’re one of those teams that if you take lightly they’ll definitely get you.

On if there is any bad blood left over from last year’s games:
For me, no – I don’t. It’s over, it’s a new season. Maybe they are, I don’t know. For me, that’s nothing. I don’t think about that. It’s just another game here that we approach no different.

On the importance of this game on the road trip:
Obviously, you head into it and you want to win all four games, and then obviously an unlucky bounce in Detroit and then a tough start last night. So you have to put it behind you. You have to move forward and we could finish the road trip above .500, winning five-out-of-eight points. Just have to be ready to go here. We have to have a better start than last game. I mean, get behind the eight-ball and chasing the game is a lot harder than playing with a lead.