October 21 postgame quotes: Brodzinski, Gravel, Hensick, Mersch

Jonny Brodzinski, on the game overall:
A few chances tonight. Especially on the power play. I thought we worked it pretty good. Still a lot of mistakes though that we need to clean up in our own zone and neutral zone area. We’ll be better moving forward.

Brodzinski, on his overtime winner:
It came off a change. I think it was Kempe who came back with the puck. Really heads up play by him. Our guys were tired so we got a change. And he ended up giving it to Gravs who gave it to me. Gravs swung out to the side, it was a 2-on-2, broken play. He gave it to me and I had a little bit of space. It kind of flipped up on its side and then I just took a slap shot and fortunately it went in.

Brodzinski, on playing with Kempe and Sutter:
They have a lot of speed and it just opens up the ice a little bit. Give him the puck in the middle and driving back the D it opens up a lot of things on the ice.

Brodzinski, on if this was just a typical open-style game versus Texas:
Just the little details. A lot of those goals could have not been had by them if just the little stuff in front of the net, blocking a shot or making a play. They’re definitely an up-and-down team. Likewise we are though. Every time we play these guys it seems to be a shootout.

Brodzinski, on what was said after the second period:
It wasn’t a very good period for us. Obviously they got a few goals pretty quick after a big lead by us and it’s something that we need to work on too is playing with the lead. Just the little mistakes that we’ve got to clean up.

Kevin Gravel, on the game overall:
We came out pretty good in the first there. They got in a little bit of penalty trouble and our power play made them pay a little bit. But any time you play this team and any time you play any team in this league no one’s ever going to quit. Everyone’s going to battle back. And we expected a little push back there in the second from Texas, especially a team like this who’s as offensive and has as much firepower as these guys do. Took a couple penalties there in the second. They scored on ’em, got themselves back into the game and from there it was a battle till the end and luckily we scored in overtime.

Gravel, on what it’s like to play Texas:
We try to play a pretty defensive structure in our game and those guys like to play run and gun. If we can keep the puck in their zone and make them defend maybe they’re not as comfortable doing that as they are in the O-zone. Once these guys get in the O-zone they’re tough to play against. Their D are activating, their forwards are all over the place. All five guys in the offensive zone really make it tough to play against them. When we play these guys we really try to play on their half of the ice and make them defend as much as we can.

Gravel, on T.J. Hensick’s game:
He’s a veteran. The guy knows what it takes. He’s been around. He’s played in the NHL, he’s played here for a long time. He’s an incredibly talented player. I thought he had a great game for us tonight. I thought he had a great game for us down in San Diego, too. Two goals so far. He’s a great help to our power play and he’s a good help to the depth on our team. He’s one of the guys we are going to lean on this year and rightfully so.

T.J. Hensick, on his first impressions of playing in Ontario:
It’s great. Been here last year over New Year’s Ever and I remember the crowd being great so it’s obviously very exciting to play in a good crowd like that. It gets the guys going, it brings life to the rink and if they can come like that every night we should be successful.

Hensick, on his comfort level with his new teammates:
It’s good. This group has been through a lot the last couple years. They won two years ago and they went to the Western Conference finals last year. Just trying to come in and do my part, continue to help the tradition and win games.

Hensick, on the Reign’s ability to grind out a win:
It was more of a run and gun game than we want but obviously when you can get the win at the home opener’s always huge. I think we felt too good about ourselves when it was 4-1. Maybe we took our foot off the pedal there a little bit but at the end of the day we got our two points, we found a way to win. A little adversity there having them come back but we’ve got two wins in a row, we’re feeling good and hopefully we can finish off the weekend tomorrow.

Hensick, on finding early success with the team:
That’s more my type of game just trying to be offensive, especially on the power play. This is a good group, like I said, they’ve been through a lot the past two years. Starting with the coaching staff I’ve learned a lot since I’ve been here, how they want to play, the up-tempo style of play. You’ve got to work for Stuttsy. If you’re not working you’re not going to play. It’s been fun, it’s been exciting. I’m trying to get better each day as is everybody else. We like our group. It’s two wins right now out of two and we’ll regroup tomorrow morning and hopefully get a third one tomorrow.

Michael Mersch, on his goal:
We won the faceoff on the power play. Kempe made a good job snapping it back and it went from Brodz to Backs and Brodz shot it on net and I was able to get the rebound. It was a good play all around. Good execution on the faceoff and that started it all.

Mersch, on the early success of the power play:
I think it’s just a fresh start to the year. Last year we had some troubles on it. It’s a fresh start to the year so I think that’s the biggest thing.

Mersch, on what happened when Texas got back into the game:
It’s tough to remember. I just remember the shots, they started. We were up big in the shots and then they started to climb back so that’s the biggest thing I remember.

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