Mitchell, Greene talk Olympics, practice

Willie Mitchell, on the semifinal game-winner scored by a Vancouver Island native:
I’m sure everyone’s going nuts back there, for sure. I’m really happy for him…He’s from the south end of the Island, from Victoria. All of BC was probably pretty excited about that. He deserves it. He’s had a great year. He’s a good player, and it’s nice to see guys get rewarded during a big game

Mitchell, on the gold medal game:
Could’ve been lopsided. To be honest, I didn’t watch it all. I watched the first period and a half and then watched the last maybe five or six minutes. From what I saw, Quickie played really, really well. Actually, all our players on our team played really well. I guess maybe you’re watching them a little bit more carefully than everyone else, because you want to see those guys succeed and do well. But the biggest thing is that it probably could’ve been, from what I saw, a little bit more lopsided than it was if Quickie didn’t play as strong as he did.

Mitchell, on whether his national pride surges during the Olympics:
To be really quite honest, I’ve been disconnected from it. It’s just how I approach the break, and I’m not saying everyone is that way. It’s just that I try to approach the break where I just really disconnect from hockey and get away from it so when I come back, I’m just really excited to be here, not kind of ‘hockey overload.’ So I try and get away. As much as I see of it is usually the stuff when I’m just kind of at the rink here, when it’s on the TV and I’m with the guys, and I’m watching it then. Of course you have pride of your country, where you’re from. Everyone does, and especially hockey, it’s Canada’s pastime. As Canadians, we’re all proud of that. So, of course. The U.S., it’s that team that’s just getting better and better and better, and so every time when Canada and the U.S. shows down, it’s a game that can go either way. It’s always in exciting game.

Mitchell, on whether he’s where he wants to be after three practices:
I don’t think anyone’s ever saying, ‘Yeah, OK, we’re where we want to be.’ The first day was tough. Yesterday felt really, really good. Today was kind of so-so. So I think that’s kind of the natural progress, I think, over the course of a few days, and we’ll just kind of keep getting better and better, get more battles, and more game situations and get ready to go. But the legs actually feel really good. I feel like the break did some work for the legs. Kind of managed to get some workouts in the legs. Over the course of the season sometimes you don’t have the ability to do that. So, yeah, just looking forward to getting going again.

Matt Greene, on the semifinal game:
It was a good game. Good game. Quickie played real well. Two good teams.

Greene, whether he watched other teams and teammates in the Olympics:
I just watched a lot of highlights. That’s it. I think this was the first game I really watched, start-to-finish.

Greene, on any surge of national pride when watching Olympic hockey:
It’s fun watching with friends, who are in this case Canadian, and it’s always fun to watch with the other guys, so you have a good atmosphere. You definitely root for your country. It’s a fun game to watch. You just hope for an exciting game, and that’s what it was.

Greene, on whether it was “weird” seeing Quick and Doughty on opposite teams:
I don’t think it’s weird at all. I think everybody’s played against each other enough, and there’s enough movement in the league where you play against old teammates. You get over it. You’ve got to get over that right away. You put your friendships aside, and that’s it. You just go out and play.

Greene, on whether he watches Olympic hockey as a professional or as a fan:
You got it. We’re just fans. I mean, if you’re not playing the game, you’re a fan of it. So it’s a fun game to watch, and it was exciting all the way throughout. So you’re happy for your teammates moving on, and you hope that the U.S. team can win bronze.

Greene, on Jonathan Quick’s performance in the tournament:
He’s awesome. We all knew that, though. We’ve been seeing that for a lot of years now. He’s a great goaltender, one of the best in the world.

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.