March 3 postgame quotes: Montreal

Brian Gionta, on if this was a moral victory for Montreal:
No, I mean tonight was one of those nights. [We] couldn’t get much sustained pressure and that’s a big part of it. We got a lucky bounce on the one goal, but for the most part we weren’t able to get to the net as freely as we wanted. Give them credit, but we need to find ways to break through.

Gionta, on the loss being the result of poor offense or good defense by Los Angeles:
I thought towards the end of the first period there – the second half of the first period – we started to get our legs underneath us and started forcing things. I’d say it’s a little of both, for sure. We didn’t have the pressure up ice we wanted to. We weren’t able to establish that forecheck we normally can handle. They were just coming out too easily with not enough pressure.

Gionta, on if Los Angeles is the best defensive team they have played this year:
It was tough getting through, tough establishing a forecheck for sure. It’s tough to say who is the best.

Gionta, on being motivated by the 6-0 loss the last time they played:
It’s definitely part of it, for sure. You get embarrassed like that – especially in your own building. You know you have better and you know you can show them better. That was definitely part of it, but the other part is this is the playoff push. Every night we need to be ready and every night we need to try and pick up points and that’s another big motivating factor.

Brendan Gallagher, on the game:
I think the first 10 minutes – they certainly were coming fast. We didn’t have an answer for it, but I think after the Tinordi fight we started to play and we started to get going. And then it became a more even game. The score dictates that we were right in it to the end. We had our chances. We were able to create stuff and they’re a good defensive team. They don’t give up a lot. But for us to keep fighting is something that we can build on hopefully going into the next game.

Gallagher, on the defensive performance since the last time they played Los Angeles:
We’re a different team since we played them last. We’ve been playing our game more consistently and it’s just a matter of they scored one more. They bear down and capitalized on more chance than we did tonight. That was the difference in the game. It can go either way. It’s just a matter of bearing down and capitalizing on your chance. They don’t give you a lot, but we did have those opportunities.

Peter Budaj, on the challenges of your team blocking shots:
Sometimes it’s more work because you have to keep following the puck. I just have to get up and at least when the puck is hitting you or you make a save, you know where to be expecting the puck. When the puck is kind of bouncing around, they don’t take many shots. They had a couple good chances coming down the wing and they were always looking for another guy down the middle. They were looking for a stop up play going across the grid. They’re a very technical team. They have a lot of skill out there and a lot of size. You can’t cheat because they have good shots, they have big bodies, but you have to be ready and aware of the second wave.

Peter Budaj, on Los Angeles’ style of play:
They pressed hard but we were able to hold them off, too bad we couldn’t generate more offense. I think it was very playoff type hockey…They’re a good team, they don’t allow you to generate a lot of offense. They play a good structured game and Quick made some big saves too, so it was a disappointing game for us, we were right there with them just one or two lucky bounces.

Michel Therrien, on the game:
They played a solid defensive game and we ended up losing the battle of special teams. When you lose the battle of special teams, it always hurts.

Therrien, on the power play’s struggles:
I didn’t like our special teams tonight. Penalty killing, I thought we needed to be better. Power play, needs to be better. So the power play was good lately, but tonight we didn’t generate enough.

Therrien, on Los Angeles:
We’re not aggressive enough. You have to give them credit, they’re a good team. They’re a good team to kill penalties and they’re not easy to play against.

Therrien, on Peter Budaj’s performance:
Peter Budaj was good tonight. [He] gave us a chance to stay in the game and we’re one shot away. I thought our effort – we compete hard. We came to compete. And this is something that we ask of our team, make sure we’re going to play hard and compete…

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