December 19 Morning Skate Quotes: San Jose

Joe Pavelski, on facing Los Angeles:
They’re a good team up and down. Obviously you have to be pretty good. There are a lot of good players in this league. Third line is, obviously, if you’re playing on your game you can hopefully play in their end a lot. For our team, if we can create a little bit of momentum that way, it helps.

Pavelski, on the rivalry with Los Angeles:
It’s grown over the years. We’ve played each other in the playoffs. Obviously, they have won the cup so they have that edge there and that’s where we want to get. We know we’re going to have to go through them. We showed last year we have to find a way to win in this building. It’s been a little while. It’ll be a good win for us here tonight.

Logan Couture, on facing Los Angeles:
These are the fun games, where you play one of the best teams in the league. We’re looking forward to it. We know how tight we are with them and how they haven’t given up any goals all year. It’s going to be a challenge and I look forward to it.

Couture, on facing Martin Jones for the first time:
Shoot the puck a lot. We have pro scouts who will give us a scouting report on him and we’ll go from there. But, I don’t think we can change anything that we do. Just get shots and bodies to the net and try to get second chances. He seems like he’s saving everything right now.

Patrick Marleau, on playing in his 1200th career game:
Pretty lucky, I’ve been fortunate to be able to stay with one club for a long time.

Marleau, on if the getting a win against St. Louis prepared them for Los Angeles:
Definitely. It’s one of those tough games, those hard area games, those battles that you have to get ready for. St. Louis and LA are those two types of teams where you know the battle level is going to be really high.

Marleau, on the success of the California NHL teams:
It’s a little bit special. Hard at times, because you’re going to face these guys a lot of the time. But that being said, those are the games that get you ready for the playoffs, those hard games that everyone enjoys being in.

Todd McLellan, on facing Martin Jones for the first time:
A number or our players have [faced him] in the Worcester scenario, I think for our group it’s more of about preparing to face six players rather than one goaltender. The five others that are on the ice… position themselves well around the net. It allows the goaltender to feel comfortable and make a lot of saves. They’ve been successful playing that way. It’s not just the guy wearing the pads, it’s the other five that you have to beat as well.

McLellan, on getting a win in Los Angeles:
It’s important to win everywhere. I was asked this yesterday ‘is there a mental block or whatever it might be?’ I don’t think there is. The teams are too close. Mental blocks happen when you’re losing 5-0 consistently in another team’s building. These games are close. They’re close in our building. They’re close in this building. Game one, we made some mistakes late and they capitalized the power play in overtime. In San Jose, they had a miscue on a retrieval, it probably ends up being the game-deciding goal in the shootout. It just happens that way. We’d love to win. We’d love to play a great game and come away with it. We’re at game 35, we’ll just use this game as a one night thing. Not a springboard kind of a thing.