On the loss to a “desperate” team:
“Our start was not good at all. We had too many turnovers in the neutral zone in the first period, and they came at us pretty quick and that was a desperate team. We found that out in a hurry. Going forward, we’re going to play some desperate teams [and] a desperate team in Detroit tomorrow that’s trying to get in and then [we’ll] battle pretty much head-to-head against San Jose, I think, for the fourth spot. We’re going to have to have better starts than tonight.”
On whether playoff hockey can be simulated by playing desperate teams repeatedly:
“Yeah, you can. I mean, I know we were in that position last year, and our playoffs started with about 15 games to go in the season or 20. Now we definitely know what the other team is thinking to get into the playoffs and what we were thinking last year. There’s going to be playoff intensity, and tonight we weren’t ready for it.”
On whether Minnesota gave Los Angeles any different looks from the previous meeting:
“No. It’s no disrespect to them or discredit, but we did not play our game. We can’t kid ourselves. We’ve got to be a lot better.”
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