December 4 postgame quotes: Montreal

Michel Therrien, on Alex Radulov’s play:
Yeah he played a hell of a game for us. He’s strong on the puck, makes some good plays. Him and Pacioretty were really productive tonight and they were good. We got a really strong game so it’s good to see, that was the first time we put all those guys together and as a coach you’re always happy for the guys when they score.

Therrien, on coming out with two points after a tough game:
You know what we had a good start and we knew the Kings were a really good hockey team but we were tenacious. Three times during the game that we were behind by one goal and we found a way to score that goal to tie the game up and this isn’t a team that allows a lot of scoring chances. They’re good defensively but when we play the right way we’re capable of getting some big goals for our team.

Therrien, on whether the rest of the lineup gets a boost when Pacioretty scores:
There’s no doubt. He’s a leader for us and I thought tonight Pacioretty had a really solid game.

Therrien, on whether there’s any word on Galchenyuk’s injury:

Not yet. We’ll find out more tomorrow.

Therrien, on the changes he made to the lineup before and during the game:
Yeah we put those three guys together for the first time this year and they got a lot of results. That’s a good thing, that’s a good thing for their confidence and they certainly deserved the result. [Reporter: What changes were made after Galchenyuk went out?] Well we have to manage the bench. We talked about putting Desharnais and Gallagher together. In the first shift they got together they scored the goal before Chucky got hurt so a lot of guys had strong games tonight.

Therrien, on Desharnais’ play:
Yeah he had a solid game, played a really solid game.

Max Pacioretty, on the overall pace of the game:
Yeah it was exciting. It was a little nerve-racking, a little bit too much of a shootout but it’s nice to come out with two points. Left Carey hanging a couple times, but that kind of gave us motivation to step up and try and do what we can to get those two points. What I like is it’s a group effort, everybody contributed tonight and that’s what makes it special.

Pacioretty, on whether the style of win is important:
Yeah, you know every game is so different and I think people outside of the team get caught up in trends and scoring trends and what not, but we’re just trying to win one game at a time and every game is different. Sometimes it’s a defensive battle, sometimes it’s a shootout. We don’t like getting in to the shootout and going back and forth, trading chances, but that’s the way it went tonight. It’s not always going to be like that but that’s the way it was tonight.

Pacioretty, on whether it feels good to score two goals:
Just worried about the team and the wins. I think I’ve played a couple roles this year and tonight I was on an offensive line and I was put out there in situations to create offense and that was my role tonight. No matter what our role is with the team we’re happy to go out there and do the job and that just happened to be my role tonight.

Pacioretty, on whether the win over the Kings was a “confidence booster”:
Yeah the team definitely hasn’t had a lot of success out here so to get a win out here in LA against a big, strong team who every year competes, it’s important for us. This is a measuring stick team that I think teams come in and kind of see what they have when they play against a team like this and I think it shows a lot about our character.

Pacioretty, on scoring his first goal early in the game:
I think anytime in a game you score an early one you’re going to be floating the rest of the game. You just feel confident and you feel like the game comes easy. That’s just the way it goes for offensive guys and it doesn’t matter who you’re playing with. If you get one early you just feel like youre buzzing, so a couple of plays that I’d like to clean up personally but feel pretty good about it.

Alex Radulov, on the importance of getting two points in Los Angeles:
It was huge. Like I said, I think we played well in the first period and in the second we didn’t play the same and we can’t do that. We can’t leave Pricey by himself and battling, it’s not the way it should be. I’m glad we found a way to tie that game and go to overtime and get the huge double for us in the shootout, it was huge for us. We were 0-2 in California, and there’s no way we want to go 3-0. Everybody paid the price today and played well.

Radulov, on Galchenyuk’s injury:

I don’t know what’s happened actually, I didnt see what really happened. It’s obviously not a good thing when somebody goes down but that’s part of our job. Hopefully he’s ok, at the end he put David out and I think we did really well, too. We have to play hard, that’s the bottom line. When the whole team’s playing hard and we get going, it’s hard to play against us.

Carey Price, on the Kings’ four-goal second period:
Yeah for sure, that’s not a goalie’s favorite period but at the end of the day we had a very strong third and we found a way to win it. We’ll definitely take that against a very good team.

Price, on whether the team was on the verge of “breaking out” for a four-goal game:
For sure, we’ve got a lot of skill on this team. We have a lot of guys that can make plays and finish. I think we’ve just got to stay confident and keep grinding and keep working away on it.

Price, on Radulov’s shootout goal:
Yeah for sure. He’s got a lot of skill, patient with the puck. He’s fun to watch. He does it in practice all the time so I’m not too surprised.

Price, on whether two points is more important then the style of win:
Absolutely. It doesn’t matter how it’s done as long as we get the job done I guess. From my perspective it’s not a fun way to go about things but at the end of the day it’s two points and it’s one step closer to our goal.