December 18 postgame quotes: Stothers, Hensick, Purcell

Head coach Mike Stothers, on the game overall and San Jose’s power play:
You take penalties, you run the risk of being scored on. The first one hit our stick, went off their chest and into the net. The second one, we took a penalty 200 feet away from our net and again, it hit something, and changed directions and went in. And the then the third one, they intentionally shot it wide off the end boards, lively kick plate, comes back out. So, you look at it and you go, ah, structurally, I don’t even know where to begin here because you’re putting your sticks in where you think are the right places and sometimes it just goes like that. But again, we put ourselves into those situations by taking penalties. I guess the good part was … when we had the opportunity in overtime, got a power play, we were able to make it count. Very resilient bunch. Guys played pretty darn good for considering they’re going on a break and their minds could be elsewhere, and then you get behind. This team never gets discouraged. They never feel like they’re out of it. But some big, big, big performances tonight. Teddy Purcell was real good for us, Michael Mersch. Soupy made some good saves for us. Soupy made some good saves for us so a good effort, we’re happy with it, we’ll take it and move on.

Stothers, on offensive success of the Mersch-Hensick-Purcell line:
Well, that’s what they do. Teddy’s noted for his offense. I think he’s probably considered more of a goal scorer, but he’s a playmaker. T.J., that’s what he does, he makes plays right? And usually it’s on the power play. And Merschy, he’s a finisher. The three of them have been real good together and you know what, I think we’ll keep them there for a little bit. Maybe we’ll try them again after the Christmas break.

Stothers, on Vincent LoVerde’s kneeing major and game misconduct:
Well, he’s trying to step up and close the gap on a guy that’s got some pretty good speed and is a shifty type of player. I think Vinny was coming up and Goldobin was shifting to the outside. Vinny caught him a little bit. … Goldobin was able to come back so I think that’s a good thing but we did lose Vinny for five and we had to play with a shorter bench for the remainder of the game. But again, the resolve of everybody to pitch in and help out and get the job done.

Stothers, on taking Jack Campbell out earlier in the week vs. Stockton and his response:
Well, I don’t know if I challenged him, I just took him out. Things weren’t going good so you just try something. You’ve got to be careful how you do it. If you do it during the course of the period it looks like you’re singling out the goalie and it’s all his fault. It’s just one of those things. It got Flinner some valuable minutes. Trying to find a positive. Got a young kid 20 minutes of experience. Never know when we’re going to need that again.

T.J. Hensick, on his performance and playing with Purcell and Mersch:
I think unfortunately for me lately it’s been not so good defensively but I thought it was better tonight, because of it you create more offense. When you get guy like Teddy down from the NHL it’s pretty easy to play with. Obviously he’s extremely talented, he makes a lot of good plays. Mersch and I just try to get to the net, get open for him, and right now the chemistry’s pretty good.

Hensick, on San Jose’s power play:
The power play’s obviously the difference for them tonight, getting their three goals. Something we’ve got to clean up, for sure. They’re a good team, a talented team, they’re in the top echelon of our division. We’ve got to stay out of the box. When you get a five-minute power play for them you’ve got to find ways to kill it, got to get the little extra little things. A win for us, big power play goal there. Moving the puck well, the four of us out there, got a big draw, a lot of help there for me on the draw. Mersch makes a great shot upstairs and a good feeling going into the break.

Hensick, on what needs to be better on the PK:
Individually, defensively, just got to make sure my stick’s on the ice in the D zone, always available for the D-men. Penalty kill wise, it’s just one of those games where I think they got the better end of us. We know we’re a strong PK team when we clean things up. We’ve got to make sure we have second efforts, blocking shots, we’ll figure it out. We feel good right now going into the break.

Hensick, on his holiday plans:
Just going home, be with the family. Looking forward to the six days away from the game for a little while to regroup, get your energy back and come back with hopefully a strong game against Bakersfield.

Teddy Purcell, on the success of his line with Hensick and Mersch:
I think we complement each other well. We’re three kind of older guys for this league so I think experience goes a long way in feeling confident about yourself. T.J.’s a guy in the middle who makes a lot of plays, keeps plays alive for us. Merschy, he’s really strong down low and goes to the net, so he creates a lot of distraction and lets me and T.J. play with it. So, when we work for each other things open up and we got rewarded today.

Purcell, on his thoughts
Yeah, I feel good. I feel good with the puck, without the puck. Stutts has put me in some positions on the PK too, which is good for my overall game. So it’s nice to come down and contribute. We’re winning more games than we’re losing so it’s always fun, especially heading into Christmas.

Purcell, on a big win going into the break:
It’s always fun when you have a break to work hard and earn the break, so to speak. We did that today. I think our penalty kill would like to have a couple back, they scored three PK goals. But it was good character for us. We could have rolled over and died. The guys get a week off here but kept battling, found a way to win, and that’s always nice.