March 20 postgame quotes: Washington

Joel Ward, on Los Angeles:
They’re a bigger team, bigger, physical team. They finish their checks a lot and they come out hard in this building. We knew that. They had some pressure on us for a bit. I thought we countered and I thought we had some good zone time and chances. Even at the end [Quick] made a big save on Brouwsie there at the end. We had some chances for sure.

Ward, on adjusting to Los Angeles’ style of play:
I don’t know. I think I had an idea of what they were all about. They play a good structure and a physical, defensive style. Obviously, they have some guys on the offense that can wheel. For us, it was just to get up in the play both sides and getting pucks in and just staying with it. I think that’s what we did and obviously Halak made some huge saves to keep us in. We got at least a point out of it.

Alex Ovechkin, on missing some scoring opportunities:
Yeah, like especially when I went to shoot the puck. I tried to see where the goalie is and that kind of situation when you look where the goalie [is] and put eyes on the puck. It seems like it’s too late. I’m pretty sure I’m going to find a way [to score], but I have to score five-on-five. Especially that chance that I had, it’s kind of up to me 100-percent.

Ovechkin, on Los Angeles’ defense:
The first 10 minutes we kind of [wanted] to see how they play, and after that I think the second period we played very well. You can see we had great chances to score, but we didn’t. And the third period was the kind of situation when we have to score a goal and we did it and we’ll take the point. But I’m pretty sure if we’re going to play like that in the future, we are going to have success.

Ovechkin, on defending Los Angeles:
You can see how we played in the neutral zone. We had the puck and we put it right back and we didn’t give them position to change. I think our forecheck in the second period was pretty good. When we control the puck in the zone, it’ the most important thing, we cycled the puck and find the third guy high. And our D played great in both ends.

Mike Green, on Los Angeles playing a different style from other teams:
Yeah, they do. They’re very well structured in the way they play. Obviously, with the talent they have and the skill level, it’s a great combination and it’s tough. But I thought we played well against them tonight. Unfortunately we didn’t get that last point that we desperately need, but we’ll keep pushing here. We’ve got San Jose next, so we’ll make sure we get our points down the road.

Green, on creating offensive chances:
I think it took a little while for us to feel them out and then once we did, we tried to expose some of their weaknesses and the forwards did a great job of that. Their goalie made some great saves, Quick, and kept them in the game. All around, I thought it was a good game. There was a lot of play in the neutral zone and that makes for an interesting game. [Reporter: What were you feeling out at the beginning?] Just to see their tendencies and sort of their structure. Like I said, they’re very well structured. We were able to kind of take a look after the first period and see how we need to play and really, it was just a simple game at the end of the day. We got pucks deep when we needed to and we were kind of able to work their D down low and get pucks out front. I thought the F-3 did a great job of kind of sniffing out areas to get chances and then he was also in a great position to get back checking and we can transition and go back in.

Adam Oates, on the game:
I thought in the first period, we came out a little slow. For some guys, it’s the first time in this building. They’re a good team and a good team in this building. We got through the first period and I thought the second half of the game we played a good hockey game.

Oates, on if they were surprised by Los Angeles’ game plan:
No, that’s who they are. The goalie played great. The goalie maybe stole it for them. But they play a hard-nosed, physical game and they did. I’m proud of the guys for the way they stood up to it. The second half of the game, I thought we kind of took it to them. We had a lot of good chances. I would say we carried the pace a little bit.

Oates, on Jonathan Quick:
He’s a great goalie. He won the Conn Smythe a couple years ago. His reflexes are obviously fantastic. He’s an upper echelon goalie and he proved it again tonight.

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