October 14 postgame quotes: Edmonton

Dallas Eakins, opening statement:
Obviously a tough start for our team. Playing the Stanley Cup champions, you can’t have any let off of your game, and I thought we came out cautious, I thought we had some bad luck during the game as well, but it just goes to reconfirm that every moment in the game is an important one and we can’t come tip-toeing in against a team like this. We need all of our guys to play with confidence, not let their foots off the pedal, we need to play a fast and a hard game, and we came off of that early and it cost us. About the only positive I can bring from it was the way our bench stuck together during the game. Last year it would be dissected, pulled apart, slamming of doors, controversy on the bench, and that wasn’t there.

Eakins, on whether there were some “easy” goals scored:
Yeah, there was some pizza served up on a couple, and they got some puck-luck along the way, but I’m a firm believer in that you make your own luck, and the Kings certainly did that.

David Perron, on what went wrong:
A lot of things, obviously. We knew how hard they were going to come out, and we weren’t ready. Pretty frustrating.

Perron, on whether being several players had any effect:
Absolutely not.

Perron, on giving up a shorthanded goal during an important power play:
We have to be better – PK, power play, 5-on-5.

Perron, on how the Oilers reacted during the game:
They’re a good team over there. We have a lot to learn still.

Matt Hendricks, on the Oilers’ injuries:
You’re never going to play an 82 game schedule with your whole team. We have a lot of depth in this organization, the players that came in tonight played great, played hard, and that’s what we need.

Hendricks, on whether they surrendered “easy” goals:
That’s a way to put it. We weren’t hard enough in the areas that we needed to be harder. For them to go retrieve pucks in our zone was too easy, especially at the start. Our execution on the forecheck wasn’t where it needed to be, we weren’t putting pucks where we needed to put them, and subsequently they were able to retrieve them first and execute the breakout. We were trying to play a fast game but our feet were in quicksand from the start.

Hendricks, on whether allowing six goals is “discouraging”:
It’s not where we want to be, but discouraging isn’t the right word for this team. No one in here is discouraged, I don’t feel discouragement for my teammates, we need to execute better in all areas of the game.