April 4 postgame quotes: Edmonton

Todd McLellan, on allowing six goals to the Kings:
I think any time you give up five goals in a game there’s some things you’re not very happy with. I thought we had some really, really good performances from some individuals and some quite poor ones. So the ones that were at the poor end have to look at their game and evaluate what went right and what didn’t go right. At this time of year, that little lull between playoffs and finishing up the regular season, you can’t let your game dip. We’ve talked about that as a team. There’s not enough practice time, there’s not enough games to get it back so you go to sleep or you don’t think it’s important on a given night, good luck getting it back. And I thought we had a few of those players tonight.

McLellan, on Eberle’s line playing well:
I thought they were tremendous. I thought Nuge had one of his better games of the season. Milan has been good for a long, long time. Ebs competed in a heavy, hard game which was very good for us. And I thought Letestu’s line also had a pretty good night. We’re going to need those types of players, there’s others that are going to have to pick it up a little bit but we know that and we’re counting on them to do it.

McLellan, on whether the loss was due to complacency:
No, it’s not complacency. This game didn’t have a lot of emotion in it and we played some real emotionally-charged games over the last little bit. Perhaps that effected us a little bit but details and, what were we 2-for-16 in the faceoff circle in the first period. Those types of situational battles, when we’re engaged and we’re going hard, we play better in those situations. We’re going to get better and we’ve got a big one coming up in a couple of nights.

Jordan Eberle, on allowing six goals to the Kings:
Yeah they scored and it was just, I didn’t think it was our best. We gave them too many easy grade-A chances that they capitalized on and we left Talbot out to dry too much and that’s not how you win, especially in the playoffs. That’s not our game.

Eberle, on the “engaged, physical play” from his line:
Yeah, I mean, you try and find positives when you lose but yeah we cycled the puck well. I thought we held on to it well. Capitalized on a couple of chances and like you said, physical on the forecheck so hopefully our line can continue that.

Eberle, on whether the Oilers just have to hit the rest button after the loss:
Yeah, like I said, I thought we gave them too many grade-A chances. They had a 2-on-0 at one point, a couple slot chances, and like I said, I thought we left Talbs out to dry and that’s not how you win.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, on allowing six goals to the Kings:
…even from the get-go. We were up 2-0 in the first but we still were giving up, like, we didn’t give up a ton of chances but they were all pretty good, high quality chances so it kind of started from there. We were a little bit too sloppy and it just kind of let into the rest of the game. We know that these guys, they always have a big momentum shift at some point so I don’t know if we were prepared for that in the second period.

Nugent-Hopkins, on whether the loss was a by-product of the team playing well and not preparing mentally:
Well, I don’t know, I think teams kind of just go thorugh it. You play well, you have an off night, and tnoight just kind of seemed like that off night. I don’t think there’s any, I mean, there’s no guys that didn’t want to try hard. Everybody knows what time of the year it is and everybody’s still pushing and we’re obviously still fighting for a position here so nobody’s not trying. It’s just a matter of sharpening it up and making sure that we bring a consistent effort every night.

Mark Letestu, on allowing six goals to the Kings:
Six goals, that’s a week’s worth for us when our team’s detailed and the structure is there and it was leaking tonight. There was some giveaways and we were just as sound as we normally are. Ended up in the back of the net but six goals, you’re not going to win any games giving up six. So that’s something, better now I guess then a couple weeks from now but it’s a lesson we better learn real quick.

Letestu, on whether “one of these games is due” after winning nine out of ten:
I hope not. Especially not the way we lost. I think we can take losing when we’re still structurally sound. The execution’s there, we’re not giving goals where it felt like we gave away some grade-A opportunities tonight and didn’t really make them work for their offense so I think accepting a stinker or a loss – it’s not the time of the year for it.