November 26 postgame quotes: Stothers and Mersch

Mike Stothers, on San Jose’s effective power play:
They did what they were supposed to do. Get a power play, you score on it. So, that’s what they did. The game’s pretty much summed up in the fact that we took four penalties and they took one. That was a team that played at home last night and had a bus ride here [last night], got in about 3:30, 4 o’clock in the morning. And all’s we could muster was one power play. Tells you right there we weren’t moving our feet very well, were we? And they had four power plays? Then when they got their opportunities, they made the most of it. The one power play we got, what’d we draw? Nothing. Diddly. Squat. So, get what you deserve.

Stothers, on the Reign lacking details in their game:
Details? There were no details. That’s exactly the message that was sent between the second and third. We harped on details, we talked about details and then we didn’t follow through on any details. When you look back at the game, you look back at their goals, you look back at the situations we put ourselves in, and it was details. You mean to tell me when we got a [trails off]. They ice the puck. We get an offensive zone faceoff so you’ve got a tired line out there. And then we take a shot, Brodzinski, from an impossible angle that goes wide and rims all the way down to our end so their team can change, get five fresh guys on the ice. That’s a detail. Just one of many details.

Stothers, on how frustrating this loss is especially after Wednesday’s win:
Well clearly it’s frustrating for you. You just keep shaking your head, too. Yeah. Disappointing is not the word. You guys can’t print the word.

Stothers, on Campbell looking uncomfortable in 2nd and if there’s an update on his health:
Well he made it through the game. I don’t know. We had a lot of guys that looked uncomfortable. They made me uncomfortable. When you’re a goalie and you’re looking at the breakdowns that we had in front of ya, you’d probably be a little uncomfortable too.

Stothers, on how important discipline will be against San Diego on Sunday:
There’s good penalties and there’s bad penalties. You can’t have the best skater [Kempe] in the league take four minors in the last two games. So, I would say, lack of discipline, poor decisions. We’ve got another guy [MacDermid with 15] on our team that’s leading the league in minors. So, whose fault is that?

Stothers, on Kempe’s chances, particularly on move in close he couldn’t finish:
That’s probably a guy who should have one good chance every time he’s on the ice. You should find the back of the net, on that chance, on that opportunity. He’s a young guy. We keep talking about how this guy’s going to play in the NHL. Guys that are going to play in the NHL make that play, they finish it off. So, he’s not quite ready yet. He’s got some growing to do.

Stothers, on the team’s overall need for growth:
Well, there’s a lot of growth. We just talked about it. You said it’s like night and day from one game to the other. You start with your back end. It’s pretty green. So, there’s going to be some mistakes made. There’s going to be some hiccups along the way. So, yeah, I can be tolerant of that but when you’re trying to emphasize how important it is to do the little things right and the inconsistency is there from game to game, again, you’re going to get the results that you’re getting – win one, lose one. Win one, lose two. So that puts you right in the mediocre range as far as I’m concerned and that puts you right in the middle of the pack. We need to grow up and start playing like we think we’re capable of.

Stothers, on the importance of righting the ship against San Diego:
Every game is important. It’s a divisional game, it’s against San Diego. We’ve already given points to Stockton, we’ve already given points to San Jose. So, at the end of the year and you’re looking back and you’re going, ‘oh geez, how come we’re fighting for a playoff spot?’ Look back to the start of the season when you just gift-wrapped points to other teams, a team that played at home last night and bused all the way here and clearly looked like they had more energy, were harder on pucks, won every single battle that was out there, outskated us, you name it.

Michael Mersch, on San Jose’s power play and overall thoughts of the game:
It’s hard to look at it now. Initial reactions, they had a few more shots on us, five or six maybe, last time I checked in the game. They scored on their opportunities, we didn’t have the details. So, that was the difference in the game.

Mersch, on whether frustration started to set in during the game:
Well it’s frustrating when you don’t do the details in the game and then you don’t get the results. Just got to get back to it tomorrow and come out right from the first shift and go from there. Like I said, it’s frustrating.

Mersch, on Wednesday’s win followed by tonight’s loss:
Yeah, we had a really good game against Stockton and we can’t put it together back-to-backs. In order for us to be a good team we’re going to have to do that. Like I said, just sticking to the details and doing that hopefully we’ll see results.

Mersch, on the mentality going into a tight turnaround:
Well it’s frustrating right now so just recover and then come back to the rink and try to win tomorrow.

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