December 8 postgame quotes: Carolina

Bill Peters, on the biggest difference between tonight and their game against Anaheim:
Little better defensively, obviously. Spent more time with the puck coming down the stretch then we did last night.

Peters, on Derek Ryan’s performance in recent games:
Well you know what right now down two guys who take a lot of faceoffs and play in the middle at times, obviously Jordo plays in the middle and Lindy can. We need guys who can play in the middle so Turbo’s in the middle and Doc’s in the middle and they’re doing a good job with it. What it is is an opportunity, we haven’t used them a whole lot on the penalty kill. I know him and Ginner have played together in the minors, used them here today and they did a great job. 3-for-3 and a shorty that ends up being the game winner.

Peters, on the Hurricanes’ first place penalty kill:
Well it’s pride, it’s the team within the team. I think that group is very dialed in and when you get in the rotation you don’t want to mess up because there’s other guys chomping at the bit, practicing, know what to do, and they get their opportunity and go on a little bit of a roll then that’s their ice time, right? So it’s some additional ice time, guys always want to play and want to play lots and we’ve had some good success here and we’ve got to continue to work hard to keep it going.

Peters, on whether tonight was one of Carolina’s “better wins”:
Well how many wins do we have, 11? I’ve liked ‘em all. I’ve liked all 11. I haven’t found one that I don’t like so this is the best one because it’s the most recent and the biggest game of the year is in San Jose the way we look at it. [Inaudible] That’s what we’ve got to try and do and then go home for a little bit and take advantage of home ice. So our team is a team that’s trending in the right direction and if we put it all together and get healthy I think we’re going to be a dangerous team.

Peters, on what it means for Derek Ryan to get his first multi-goal game:
He’s a good player, he’s a very smart player. The knock on Doc would be he’s a little bit undersized, maybe doesn’t have the top-end speed that a lot of guys at this level do have but he’s got a great hockey mind and he’s got elite vision and he makes plays. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself, he’s led a lot of leagues that he’s played in, some high-caliber leagues. Obviously the Swedish Hockey League prior to coming over back to North America and just a good player, intelligent player, good kid, good pro, and it’s a good story.

Peters, on Cam Ward’s performance:
Well we were talking about that in the room. He’s been playing good here since probably November 1st. You look at his numbers for the last five weeks they’ve been real good and part of that is always a by-product of what’s going on in front of him, but Wardo’s been doing a really good job and he’s an underrated goaltender in the fact that he handles the puck well and that really helps our transition game out of our zone and it saves some wear-and-tear on our young D.

Brock McGinn, on setting up Derek Ryan for the shorthanded goal:
Yeah we just kind of went down there on a 2-on-1 and I fed it to him first and then kind of spun and found me and I just gave it right back to him and he put it in. [Reporter: Did you see it go under Drew Doughty?] Yeah I saw it go under him for sure, yeah.

McGinn, on the goal he scored:
Rask made a good play on the wall there. I kind of cut to the middle and he kind of just laid it in softly there for me and I just found it and shot low-blocker and fortunately it went in.

McGinn, on whether he thought they had a good effort against LA:
Yeah for sure. We had a tough one there in Anaheim the other night we kind of let that one slip away and to come out here in LA and get a big win for us, that’s big. Going in to San Jose on Saturday we want to continue that.

McGinn, on Derek Ryan contributing:
Oh for sure it’s awesome to see. A guy like that he’s such a good guy in the dressing room and off the ice so just to see him get those goals is big for our team and just awesome to see.

McGinn, on whether Ryan has “a knack for pretty goals”:
For sure. Down in Charlotte we played together so he definitely scored some nice goals. He’s definitely got good hands and good vision out there so it was nice to see that for sure.

Derek Ryan, on his first multi-goal game:
Yeah it was pretty remarkable. Hard to put in to words but it was a couple of really nice goals and just one of those nights where you’ll remember it and yeah, had a lot of great feelings, great emotions going through my body.

Ryan, on his shorthanded goal:
Yeah, it was a really nice play. Brock and I have some chemistry from playing together in the minor leagues and shorthanded in particular so we’ve done that a couple times I think in Charlotte. But yeah, I felt some pressure from Doughty there and tried to get it over to him behind my back and I was kind of expecting him to shoot it but he ended up putting it right on my tape for a wide open net, so yeah it was a great play by him and probably one of those goals my family will watch for a while.

Ryan, on whether tonight proved he is an NHL-caliber player:
Yeah, I don’t think it’s just tonight that’s proven that, I think I’ve tried to prove that over the course of the early part of this season so far in the games that I’ve played and even in last year. But yeah it’s obviously nice to get those goals and feel like I can contribute at a high level in this league. Obviously one night doesn’t prove anything, proves a little bit but it doesn’t prove everything so I have to continue to play my game and continue to help the team have success and have success individually as well.

Ryan, on whether he has a “a knack for pretty goals”:
I don’t think so, I don’t know about that. Usually bang in some greasy ones, too. I played in Europe before so it was a little more wide open, maybe I had a couple nice goals there but usually not too flashy. More of a smart and simple guy, but I guess I can have a small knack for nice goals every now and then.

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