On the Game 1 loss:
“I think we got away from our game plan a little bit. I think we play well when we’re playing together as five and not making turnovers. We had way too many turnovers in the neutral zone. Our blue line to their blue line, I think that was the difference right there, just getting caught up in that and not getting pucks deep.”
On the trouble of scoring on the road:
“This year’s a new year. That’s it. You’ve got to get over what happened last year, and we’ve got to figure out a way to get some offense going here, but that starts with five-man units. It’s not just the forwards. It’s the D, too. Jumping up there, keeping pucks in and getting some O-zone time, and that’s what we’ve got to get to tomorrow night.”
On the Kings not being able to establish their game:
“I think we’ve got to play a lot better. We can definitely play better. That’s clear. I feel we could still make a game out of it in the third period there, but they came out well in the first. Weathered the storm a little bit, but we’ve got to be better top-to-bottom tomorrow.”
On the team-wide effort of attempting to clear Chicago’s top players away from Jonathan Quick:
“I think they were buzzing tonight. I think we’ve got to do a better job on them. We’ve got to do a better job on their entire team. But at the same time, too, it starts from in here. Just getting our game going. Rather than what worrying what they’re doing, we’ve got to worry about getting our game going first before you can try to do anything else.”
On ways to avoid giving up 17 shots in the first period:
“More puck possession. More O-zone time. That’s it. You give up 17 shots in a period – even if they’re coming from outside or from the walls – it means you’re not playing in their zone. So we’ve got to have more O-zone time, establish our game. We’re a grinding team. That’s what we’ve got to, get pucks behind their D and forecheck as units of five”
On the disappointment of losing a game they led in the second period:
“Yeah, you play to win every game, and that’s it, especially being up by one. We didn’t bring our best game, and we’ve got to be better tomorrow.”
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