On what he liked about the team defense in Saturday’s win:
We didn’t give ‘em much. Most of their opportunities came after we had full possession of the puck, which means we checked well. We just have to make better decisions with it.
On whether he was content with the checking, opportunism and spread out scoring:
Actually, it hasn’t spread out that much. It was related to Lucic and the defensemen. Kopi had a hell of a game, and after that we were looking for not getting away from the fact that we haven’t gotten much production in terms of offense from so-called third and fourth lines, period, this year.
On having seen Tampa Bay recently, and the Lightning’s high-end skill:
That’s an obvious trait. I think they have star power, and they have the back end, with Hedman and Stralman on the one pair is probably as good a pair as there is in the league in terms of distributing the puck up the ice or carrying the puck up the ice. We have to handle them, and obviously they have very good goaltending.
On Andrei Vasilevskiy, and having seen him twice last season:
He’s a big, athletic guy. I don’t put a whole lot of stock in last season. When you don’t see teams from the East live very often, you have to put it on video.
On whether the team has discussed finishing up a “special” homestand:
Never talked about it once. Try to do it a game at a time and know who our opponent is and start the game with one point and see if there’s a way to get two.
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