November 3 postgame quotes: Pittsburgh

Mike Sullivan, on whether Pittsburgh was able to play their style of game:
I just think it was one of those games, I think they’re hard to play against because they have a lot of structure through the neutral zone, they try to take your speed away and credit to them that’s part of how they play. They’re a hard team to play against, but I don’t think we had our legs like we’d like to have them when we’re at our best. It’s obviously a big point for us, we found a way to tie the game, big goal by Sid, and we got a big penalty kill in the overtime, so there’s a lot of positives to draw from it.

Sullivan, on Sidney Crosby “going as well as anybody right now”:
He is, you know we marvel at him sometimes with how good he is, what he does each and every night. He’s a threat most every shift, he plays at both ends of the rink and we use him in a lot of situations both offensively and defensively. He’s playing inspiring hockey right now.

Sullivan, on Crosby’s assist to set-up the first goal:
Yeah I think he’s just good at it, he knows what he wants to do with it before he gets it, he knows where Tanger is back there and he’s good at that play. That was a great play all around I thought on that first goal, everybody was involved. I thought we were quick on the puck, forced a turnover and went to the net. So he certainly has a way to make those kind of plays.

Sullivan, on whether the slow tempo of the game led to limited chances for Pittsburgh:
It was a little bit of both, I think. I don’t think there were a whole lot of chances on either side. It was one of those games where you had to fight for every inch of ice to try to get pucks to the net or try to get quality chances. As I said, I was pleased that our guys found a way to grab a point. We would’ve like to build off of that penalty kill, and I thought that was going to give us a big boost in the overtime, those guys did a great job, but it didn’t work for us. It was still a big point.

Sullivan, on whether it was difficult to play a fast game in a back-to-back situation:
I don’t think so, I think we just have to continue to work at playing with pace. When we do that, and I think we have the ability to do that night in and night out. We’ve got four lines that we can play, I don’t think we rely on—other then Kris Letang that plays significant minutes, everybody else is in a pretty healthy range where we think they can repeat it night in and night out. We think that’s one of the strengths of our team. We just have to continue to make strides to get there so we can bring that more consistently.

Sullivan, on the back-to-back games against Anaheim and Los Angeles:
Listen we’re playing good teams, so we got three out of four points against two really good teams. They’re not easy games, they’re heavy teams, they try to take your speed away and they’re physical, they lean on you. Obviously we want to win each and every game that we go in to and that’s our expectation but certainly to come out of the last two nights with three out of four points, we’ll look to the positives there and move forward.

Sullivan, on whether 3-on-3 overtime means more high-quality chances:
We’re going to try to learn from it, that’s what we do all the time. When goals are scored we try to look at it and we show our players, we try to learn from it so that we can get better in the next situation, the next time that type of a scenario presents itself. It’s no different form 5-on-5 in that regard, but I think we’ve got to make sure we heed the lesson so that we try to avoid those types of situations in the future.

Sidney Crosby, on whether he was surprised he was unmarked on the third period goal:
Yeah, I mean you just try to go there and hopefully nobody gets a stick or is able to box you out but I think Tanger made a great play to you know, have his head up and look for the stick so yeah, just one of those plays where I was able to find some open space there.

Crosby, on trying to generate more chances in the first and second period:
Yeah, I mean, they didn’t generate a whole lot either to be honest with you, it was just one of those games where I think we’d all like to generate more but sometimes games are tight checking and there’s not a lot of space and you’ve got to find ways to generate but in the third both teams kind of opened up a little bit more and generated more. But the shots, they had more on the shot clock but I think scoring chance wise it was just one of those games in the first couple periods.

Crosby, on whether the Penguins were able to “impose their style”:
It’s just tight hockey. They’re pretty comfortable playing that way, they’re always pretty stingy, especially at home. I think that’s just kind of the game you expect and you don’t accept it—you want to get chances, you want to generate but not if it means allowing things back the other way. Some times games work out that way, it would’ve been nice to get more but you’ve got to win the tight checking ones sometimes too.

Olli Maatta, on Sidney Crosby’s play this season:
Yeah for sure, it feels like he didn’t hit summer at all, he just keeps going from the last year. It’s unbelievable to see somebody playing at that level every game.

Maatta, on either team being able to impose their style in the game:
I think it was both. They played well but I don’t think we played that speed game we want to play. I don’t what it was about, maybe back-to-back or something, but I don’t think we got to the level we wanted to. We know we gotta do better.

Marc-André Fleury, on the two regulation goals scored against him:
You know there was a guy by himself on the side of the net and when I saw him he was passing it so I tried to cut the pass and I did, but I put it in my net so it wasn’t too good, you know. Second one, they got the go-ahead goal with that one so it’s always not good when you fall behind. It was kind of a weird game, a little bit. Wish I could have made the stop and keep it at 1-1.

Fleury, on whether it was difficult to get going in the first two periods:
Yeah, it was tough play, there wasn’t too much happening but there’s some games like that. You’ve got to find a way to stay sharp, stay focused and I need to make big saves.

Fleury, on any mis-communication between Kessel and Letang on the OT goal:
I don’t know, you got to ask them. [Reporter: Did you see anything unfold?] No I just was watching the back and didn’t stop it.

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