January 16 postgame quotes: Clifford, Lewis

Kyle Clifford, on whether Tampa Bay took away Los Angeles’ time and space:
You know, definitely. They play a fast game, and we’ve got to play a little better in the D-zone – five guys connected. We didn’t do that tonight, so it allowed them to use their speed.

Clifford, on the challenges of finishing:
I think we’ve just got to get a little better being connected as five guys. Like I said, tightening up D-zone allows us to play in the O-zone a little more.

Clifford, on whether Anze Kopitar’s absence was felt by the team:
We think we’re a strong team mentally. We’ve got to pick up when a guy’s missing. That’s on everybody.

Clifford, on what Ben Bishop and Tampa Bay did well defensively:
Yeah, defensively as a team, we made some mistakes, and that allowed them to use their speed, and we’ve just got to tighten up. [Reporter: I mean offensively. Your team, not being able to score.] I thought we had our chances. We had a couple power plays and just have got to find the back of the net and bear down.

Trevor Lewis, on what Tampa Bay did well defensively and in checking:
Their D come down on the boards a lot and keep a lot of pucks in and create a lot of turnovers that way. I don’t think we were quick enough there, especially at the beginning. Boods kind of held us in there and Cliffy got us going a little bit, but it was definite;y a slow start.

Lewis, on the surplus of giveaways:
Yeah, they were pressuring us hard. Like I said, their D were stepping up on us a lot and forcing us to make those bad plays. Obviously we were too slow, and we’ve got to really speed our game up here.

Lewis, on whether there’s a certain mentality entering a game with Anze Kopitar out:
I think as a team everyone’s got to step up a little bit. You lose your top guy like that, everyone’s going to have to help out. Unfortunately we were missing a little bit of that tonight.

Lewis, on whether the team’s play has been up-and-down:
I mean, I think we need to get better at our starts again. I think we just started off slow and Boods kind of held us in there. Once the game got going a little bit, then we started getting [inaudible]. But we’ve got to get back to playing the full 60 minutes again.

Lewis, on whether it was difficult to lose on a “flukish” goal:
I think we gave up a lot of chances, too. Boods was awesome for us, but we’ve got to clean up for him.