On the win:
Actually I’m not all that happy with that one. What was it, 10-9, 6-5, I don’t even know. It was ridiculous. That’s not how we play. It was good that we got one more than they did but that’s not going to win either team a championship. We need to correct some things and we need to be harder to play against and better defensively. What’d we have to score 6 to finally win? Crazy. We’ll work at it.
On what he thought led to the momentum shift in the second period:
Yeah, the stupid penalties we took. What’d we take? Slashing in front of our bench. They score. Take another one, holding, I don’t know what it was. Whatever it is. Are you kidding me? So there you go, let’s start right there with lesson learned. Texas. It’s 4-1. And I even said after the first period don’t be patting yourself on the back boys because they’re like the same team as last year and same team as San Diego was last year. They live for power plays. You give them power plays, I don’t care how big a lead you have, it’s not enough. Young guys, American Hockey League, it’s the way it works.
On T.J. Hensick’s play and what’s impressed him:
Best game so far. He’s made some great strides. This has been new to him. First of all he’s a very good hockey player. He’s always been able to create offense and get some points but he’s learning rapidly the pace and the work ethic that’s required to play in this organization and so even practices have been an adjustment for him. The systems are new, responsibilities of the center iceman, how hard those guys have to work both in our zone and the offensive zone. So it’s been new to him. It’s great that you brought that up because we singled him out as a coaching staff after the game. I don’t know how many points anybody got. I don’t really care so long as we got the two points and we got a win. But I said we made some real growth with this guy. We were showing clips between periods with the guys and his awareness and his commitment – he’s buying in. You give your props to a guy like that. He’s doing a great job for us.
On Vincent LoVerde’s game:
What’d Vin have, a couple goals from the back end? He’s your leader. He’s your captain. We expect big plays from him. Vinny’s been around for three years. When we were just coming out [of the locker room] you can see he and I have a pretty good relationship. I know Vin’s always going to give us his best effort and tonight he was able to get some points. I don’t know what it finally ended up. [Reporter: Two goals and one assist.] Two goals and one assist, all right. That’s pretty good for a defenseman.
On Jonny Brodzinski’s overtime winner:
There’s a lot more that Brodz can be bringing to our team but that’s the beauty of him. Sure if you ask him he would say it wasn’t one of his better games. But he has that ability that not a lot of guys have that it just takes one shot and it finds a way to go in. It’s so hard it goes through a goalie, it leaks through a goalie, or it finds a way in. At the end of the day he’s the overtime hero just because he’s a prolific goal scorer. Good for him. It’s in game number two rather than game number 18 like last year. Last year we had to sit him out before he got his first one. We don’t want to go down that path.
On Adrian Kempe’s confidence carrying the puck playing center versus wing:
There’s a maturity to Kempe. There’s a comfort factor that he’s an experienced guy now. You get caught up in the rush, now we need to finish the rush. You can’t have everybody inching up out of their chair and then ‘Ughhh.’ Let’s take it a step further and jump out of our chair and go, ‘oh my god, what a play.’ And we’re stomping our feet and we’re taking the puck out to center because we scored. That’s what it’s all about. Bring everybody to the brink and then say, ‘aww,’ sit back down on your hands. Finish it.
On seeing former players Andrew Bodnarchuk and Nick Ebert with Texas:
It was nice to see Bods playing back there for them. We had him in Manchester. Loved that guy, would take him back in a heartbeat. Good to see Ebs. He’s getting a chance to play on a regular basis. Happy for him, too. He works hard. He’s a committed guy, he works hard, gets himself in great shape. So I hope it works out well for both of them, just not against us.
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