October 12 postgame quotes: Winnipeg

Paul Maurice, on pulling Michael Hutchinson:
I thought we were playing with enough compete to come back. I liked some of his saves, but you get into a game and you don’t know him as well as a coach and the reaction. I wanted to make sure that if we were going to get one or two to go for us, I thought we were generating enough and doing enough to come back in that game. Certainly LA is not the type of team to do that, but I wanted to give us a chance to win.

Maurice, on generating scoring opportunities:
The chances aren’t enough to give what we gave. I thought we could generate those chances without giving anything up. We should be able to do that. Clearly they’re going to get their chances. They have good players and they’re going to score goals. But we gave more than we had to to get what we got.

Maurice, on Blake Wheeler’s fight with Robyn Regehr:
I like his fight and his compete. That happens fast. We talk about fights in hockey, that [one] happened fast. He didn’t like the hit, nobody did. You want that reaction rather than for me to turn around and scream at the referee for a call. Clearly you don’t need someone else to come out and answer for it if it happens then. It’s dealt with then. I like the way, how hard he plays. I like how hard he competes and it’s a good example for our team.

Michael Hutchinson, on whether he agrees with the decision to be pulled from goal:
Yeah, I gave up three goals and we were at a crucial point in the game. So I can’t argue with the coach’s decision on that.

Blake Wheeler, on whether he didn’t like Robyn Regehr’s check:
I felt it was knee-on-knee. I think if it was the other way, I think somebody would do the same thing. No, I don’t think I overreacted.