February 24 practice quotes: Richards, Jones

Mike Richards, on Canada winning the gold medal:
It’s no secret that Canada loves hockey and it’s big for us. I know how exciting it is and how excited they are. So I’m happy for them.

Richards, on Jeff Carter celebrating the gold medal victory:
I don’t think he’d have much time to. He’s back on the plane a couple days after. I think it really sets in a little bit more in the off-season when you get to look back at it.

Richards, on competing in the Olympics:
It’s tough because you’re continuing to play while everyone is working out and resting, but that level of hockey over there is about as high as it’s ever going to go. So you’re more prepared coming back.

Richards, on preparing for the playoff push:
We’ve shown flashes of playing well. We just have to maintain that.

Richards, on the level of play before the break:
We understand the position that we’re in. We’ve got 23 games left and even though we didn’t play very well, we’re still in the same position as we were before. So we just have to look to not repeat things.

Richards, on how difficult the back-to-back games will be:
I don’t know. I’ll tell you after.

Martin Jones, on how his assignment to Manchester helped him:
As a goalie, it’s important to play games and obviously practicing hard and working on that stuff in practice is important, but it’s hard to rep playing a game. So it’s good for me to go down and get some time in and I’m excited to be back and get back at it here.

Jones, on seeing lots of shots in Manchester:
Yep, for sure – and we played really well. Like I said, those first few games I was back I wasn’t getting much work, but over the course of the seven games it was good. I was able to get some looks at different situations and work at some stuff. So it was good for me to do that.

Jones, on not having as much of a break as his teammates:
I mean it would have been nice I guess, but it’s just like any other year really. So I haven’t really put too much thought into that.

Jones, on Colin Fraser joining the Monarchs:
He’s good. He’s a great guy to have around, especially in a young locker room like we have there. He’s a great teammate, a great leader and he’s playing really well. He got a couple big goals over the weekend for us. So he’s doing really well.