April 24 morning skate quotes: San Jose

Dan Boyle, on Antti Niemi’s play in the series:
He’s made the saves when he has needed to. The first two games, nobody is going to talk about that because you’re talking about six goals, seven goals against Quick. I think last game, even though it was a 4-3 game, I think especially in overtime is where he probably showed his best stuff. That’s another thing, you’re not going to win a cup without a goaltender making the saves. He’s got to keep doing that.

Boyle, on having a ‘killer instinct’ heading into the game:
That’s not a media thing. I think you have to put teams away whenever you can. You don’t want to give anybody any hope. And then there is the other side of it which is rest, which is very important. You don’t want to play any games with that. You put a team away when you can.

Boyle, on the team’s focus ahead of Game 4:
It’s up here, it’s mentally. You can’t take any shortcuts. You have to almost trick your mind into thinking that this is it, this is the only opportunity. Easier said than done, but it’s very mental and that’s it. You just have to go out there and play like its Game 7.

Boyle, on Tomas Hertl and Matt Nieto in their first postseason:
They’re doing great. I think Hertl obviously came through big, but has had a difficult year with the injury. But man, he’s just played great. Matty Nieto has been spectacular all year. He doesn’t get mentioned as much, but I’m very, very impressed with what he brings to our team. He’s just a good kid. He’s done a tremendous job.

Boyle, on what was learned from Game 3:
We probably gave up a few too many odd-man rushes. I think maybe that was a little bit of a difference between the first two games and last game. Other than that, they’re a good team. I don’t know. Just go out there and do what we’ve done best, which is play physical. Our power play has come through with some goals and our depth has proved to be a big factor also.

Todd McLellan, on the size of Joe Thornton and Brent Burns:
I think they’ve played their game, the same way they’ve played all year. Burnsie is somewhat reckless, which enhances his ability to play I think. He’s a big body that goes. Jumbo has always been six-foot-four for the last however many years and he’s been able to protect pucks. They’re on the same line together and they’ve done a good job to this point. Those are two guys that have to lead us now. They really have to step up and make sure our team is ready to play. We’re counting on them and I think they will get the job done.

McLellan, on Brent Burns leading San Jose in hits and shots in the series:
Those are two of his best assets. So if he wasn’t at or near the top we would have obvious concern. He wouldn’t have the puck. He wouldn’t be involved physically. So those stats reflect his strengths and they should reflect it.

McLellan, on being satisfied with how the team has played in the first three games:
Right now I dislike the word satisfaction because it’s a dangerous word. We’ve done some things well. There are areas where we have to improve. We’ve injected some players back into our lineup. It’s paid off. It was a calculated gamble. We talked about that early in the series or before. But we’re not where we need to be. As the series goes on, it’s tougher and tougher to win. The word satisfaction doesn’t exist in our world at this point.

McLellan, on having four games to get a single win:
We don’t look at it that way. We’ve got one game to win one. It’s a simple as that. Our desperation level has to match or exceed what we’re going to get from Los Angeles. If we think we’re playing with mulligans, we’re in trouble.