June 9 postgame quotes: New York

Alain Vigneault, on why New York lost despite outshooting Los Angeles “two-to-one”:
Couldn’t score.

Vigneault, on Jonathan Quick’s performance, and mistakes made by New York:
Well, he was obviously the best player on the ice tonight. But, you know, we got sort of a bad rush read on the first. We deflect in our net. Same thing happened in the second goal. On the third goal we played a two-on-one right, take the pass, goes right back on their stick. Give them credit. They found a way to put the puck past a real good goaltender, and we couldn’t do it.

Vigneault, on the challenge of responding to Los Angeles’ first goal:
Well, I know there wasn’t a lot of shots on net. But we felt we played a real good period, the pace was good, there wasn’t a lot of room, both teams were battling real hard for ice. That was their only chance in the first period. We out-chanced them 4-1. We had some real good looks. Stuff like that happens. Effectively we came out hard in the second and we kept trying.

Vigneault, on using Rick Nash on the power play:
I liked his effort level tonight. He battled real hard like he’s done through the playoffs for us. Doesn’t have a lot to show for it, but he’s competing hard. I just wanted to see if we couldn’t throw a different look at them.

Vigneault, on whether he’ll remain “hands-off” with the team:
I’m going to do like I’ve done all year long and do what I think is right for the team.

Vigneault, on whether he was happy with the power play chances:
Well, you got to finish in this game. It’s a performance-oriented business. Power play had some looks, but it didn’t finish.

Vigneault, on what he’ll tell his players:
Well, I’m going to take the night to figure it out.

Henrik Lundqvist, on the Game 3 loss:
Well, you try to stay positive right now, but it’s tough. It’s really tough. We are doing a lot of good things, but you look at the goals and we put two in our own net and then just a tough play on the third one. At some point, you are going to need some puck luck and we don’t have any right now. It feels like they have all of it. We always talk about how you have to earn that puck luck, but I think we are working really hard and doing a lot of good things but when they score gals like that when it feels like we are right there and doing the right things, obviously it’s mentally challenging to try to overcome that first goal. And I think we played good in the second and they get that fluke bounce again on the second. It doesn’t matter what you think you deserve out there, you just have to find a way to win games and that’s what they have been doing. We can sit here and say we’ve played really well but at the end it’s all about finding ways to win, and we haven’t done that.

Lundqvist, on Jeff Carter’s goal:
I was reacting low and it went high and it’s just one of those plays where with a little luck there that puck ends up in the netting or in the glass, but unfortunately with half a second left it ended up in our net. It was a tough play.

Lundqvist, on the series:
I am just extremely disappointed that we are in this hole. We have been talking about it after every game that we played really well but in the end it’s about finding ways to win. It’s not about playing great. It’s about winning. We have to regroup. It’s not over. We are looking at getting the next game, that’s all we think about right now is that win. In a game like this every little play matters and it feels like they had the luck so far in these three games where it feels like that game has been pretty even, but they have just been finding ways to get the big goals at the right times. I guess and it’s something we just have to accept and try to be a little better next game.

Rick Nash, on the Game 3 loss:
It’s really frustrating. They’ve won three games at this point. We’ve had some good efforts. We’ve made some mistakes that ended up in the back of the net. We’ve got to work ourselves out of this. We’ve been down three-one and were able to come back, but even when we were down in that Pittsburgh series we took it a game at a time, and I think that’s the biggest thing.

Nash, on Jeff Carter’s goal:
That’s a tough one. To give up a goal in the last second, it’s a huge momentum swing for them. But there were still two periods left, so we can’t make that our excuse.

Nash, on New York’s special teams:
I think when things don’t work we try to switch it up a bit but special teams are the difference in this league. And we’ve got to make sure we keep goals out of our net and put it in when we get a power play. Regular season, playoffs, finals – you’ve got to have your special teams clicking. To score a power play goal, it’s a huge deal.

Dan Girardi, on Jeff Carter’s goal:
I’m not sure what happened before. I’m just laying down and the puck got passed over and it just nicks off the heel of my blade, and that’s exactly how the series is going for us right now, a couple bad bounces. At some point it’s going to go our way.

Girardi, on not getting bounces:
We are not sure why it’s happening, but we have to keep working ourselves and work hard and the bounces will come our way. It all just comes down to we have to win one game and we’ll go from there.

Girardi, on the series:
That’s just how it’s going. We had a couple of good looks and it’s just an inch higher and it’s in. That’s kind of how the games have been. It’s been little plays that make the difference.