November 9 postgame quotes: Stothers, Campbell, MacDermid

Head coach Mike Stothers, on a must-win game resulting in a lopsided loss:
Well, it was a must-win because it was at home but when you look at it it’s still early in the season. We need to be better, obviously. We lost 5-1, took a couple of ill-advised penalties, so we can’t go down that path that it’s the refereeing. There was a couple of bad ones. [Reporter: Crescenzi?] What about it? [Reporter: Is that what you’re referring to?] Nope. It’s an open-ice hit, guy’s got his head down. I thought the game was still a contact sport. Dermy’s wasn’t a penalty. Same hit. You play hockey, do you come through the middle of the ice with your head down? Get your head up.

Stothers, on giving up a goal late in the last minute of the second:
That was a tough one. That was a bad penalty and every time you take a bad penalty it ends up in the back of your net. And yeah, it was a tough one. [Reporter: Because up to that you had been playing a good, physical game, both sides, back and forth, it didn’t seem like anything had changed.] Yeah, I would agree. If there was a turning point, which I know you guys all look for, that was probably the turning point.

Stothers, on what went wrong:
We had our opportunities too. We got a power play and then we get a 5-on-3, we never even register a shot. So, at the end of the day, you get 21 shots at home? We had some guys who had zero shots who had power play and are supposed to be offensive catalysts. You get what you deserve. They had more shots on the penalty kill than we did on the power play.

Stothers, on the fine line of playing physical without taking penalties:
I don’t have an issue with the physical ones. We just had a 5-on-3 advantage and we take a roughing. You know you’re going to get that one. And what’d we get, a hooking later on through the neutral zone? Like, come on. That’s not playing tough, that’s not playing smart. So those are the ones that yeah, you got to eliminate.

Stothers, on why Zach Trotman did not return after his fight in the first:
He sustained an upper-body injury. So, don’t know for sure. I don’t think it’s too bad but I’d be shocked if he’s going to join us when we leave on Friday. [Reporter: Was it from the fight?] I think it was just the way he landed.

Stothers, on how goalie Jack Campbell looked in his return:
It was his first game back.

Jack Campbell, on how he felt in his first game back:
It was nice to play a game. It felt kind of like a new season, it’s been a little bit. Not the result we wanted. We can all play a little better. Got to make a couple more saves. I like the details of my game but I’m a winner and I want to win so that’s all that matters.

Campbell, on the game overall:
Just a tough game. Special teams kind of game and you’ve got to make saves on the penalty kill. The one through the screen, that one was tough. Just got to come up with it. No excuses, just got to be better. [Reporter: What do you need to do to be better?] Just playing. … I felt good out there tonight, I liked my game, but I don’t like the result and I’m not satisfied with just liking the details of my game. I want to have great performances for this group because it’s a great group. Just got to go back to work tomorrow and we’ll get results.

Campbell, on what the turning point was:
In a tight game like that, going up 2-1 to end a period, that team definitely has the advantage. That being said, you’ve got to hit the reset button either way and come out in the third and try to win the game and we just didn’t do that tonight.

Kurtis MacDermid, on the physicality of the game:
It was a physical one. There’s going to be those sometimes, so we just had to make sure you stay within your game and not get too out of control out there and keep your emotions in check.

MacDermid, on his hit that took Jim O’Brien out of the game:
He just came across the blue line and that’s a place where I want to try to stand up and make sure they don’t enter the zone easily. It’s part of my game so I saw that and I took advantage.

MacDermid, on how the team hits the reset button before the road trip:
Just learn from it and get back to work tomorrow at practice.

MacDermid, on whether he feels he’s more effective in physical games:
Yeah, obviously that’s a big part of my game and it just comes naturally. When a game like that has that sort of tone, yeah, I like that, but if it’s the other way around, then I like that, too. It doesn’t really matter.