April 6 postgame quotes: Calgary

Glen Gulutzan, on a good performance from Jon Gillies in his NHL debut:
Yeah he was real good. I think he settled in there and made some big saves. Made some big saves for us and he’s a big guy in that net and he looked very calm. I thought it was a real good night for him.

Gulutzan, on the Flames playing a “pretty sound three-zone game”:
Yeah we did. We got some good jump from Curtis and Freddie, Wides came in and gave us a goal. They gave us a little energy and we played solid throughout.

Gulutzan, on the importance of closing out the season in San Jose “the right way”:
Yeah, you know, right now, at this time of the year games are a little volatile. It’s not about wins and losses, it’s about playing the right way. And we did a lot of good things tonight. We managed our turnovers and all that stuff, and we were on the right side of the puck a lot and that’s important – that your habits stay intact. But certainly going into San Jose we want to do the same thing and hopefully get the same result.

Dennis Wideman, on how many breakaway goals he’s scored in his career:
I don’t know. Not many.

Wideman, on what’s going through his thoughts when he receives the puck coming out of the box:
You know what? I don’t remember. I really don’t remember. Well first I think I almost toe-picked when I first got the puck so I was thinking, ‘Oh God, don’t fall.’ Yeah, and then I was just thinking, ‘Just shoot.’ And it went in for me so it definitely felt good.

Wideman, on Jon Gillies’ NHL debut:
He was great. He played great. He made a lot of big saves. He looked really comfortable. We’re happy for him. It’s his first game and first game, first win so it was great for him and I’m sure he was really excited.

Jon Gillies, on whether his NHL debut was “exactly how he drew it up”:
I mean, that was just an unbelievable effort by our team and it was fun to be behind and fun to play behind and when you play behind an effort like that it’s easy to see why they’ve had so much success this year. And it’s nice to be a part of it.

Gillies, on how he viewed his overall game against LA:
I thought that the first period was a little jittery. Maybe let off some rebounds that were kind of uncharacteristic. The goal, our guys did a good job at keeping them to the outside. It was a good shot, but I think I’d like to have that back, too. But overall I mean, I settled down after that and we were able to come up with two points so it doesn’t matter if it’s 4-1 or 9-8, that’s all that matters.

Gillies, on his solo lap during warmups:
Yeah I actually forgot about it until I was walking out. I was like, ‘Oh, yep, probably going to be by myself.’ And pretty much just tried not to fall.

Gillies, on what his NHL debut means to him:
Yeah I think that, it’s like I said this week, it’s most special for my parents and my little brother. Those three have been – however much I’ve sacrificed to get to this point, they’ve sacrificed three or four times over. That just to put me in a position to be able to succeed and whether it’s my little brother sacrificing [inaudible] for himself or my parents, my dad driving me to practice hour an half to two hours every single day. I mean, it all comes back to it and it’s the kind of stuff you think about right now and I can’t thank them enough and I love them with all my heart.

Gillies, on what he’ll remember about his first NHL game:
Honestly, that it’s in LA which was my favorite team until I got drafted by the Flames. And it’s a building I’ve watched a lot of hockey in and online and stuff like that when I was in college. So that sticks out but I think most of all is that my parents were able to be here and my little brother was able to be here and three of my four very best friends in the entire world were able to fly out and that means the world to me.

Gillies, on when he felt comfortable in the game:
I mean, I felt ok. The jitters weren’t really effecting my play it was just kind of getting those first few shots because we had an unbelievable start so I didn’t see a shot for a little bit. But the time I settled down most I think was after they scored and then kind of chuckled to myself, ‘Well, welcome.’ And then fromt here on out I just tried to play my game and thankfully when I made a mistake or I was down and out or had a bad rebound our guys were there to bail me out and like I said, it was a really good team win.

Curtis Lazar, on how he felt his game went:
That was a lot of fun. Obviously you get a little bit of excitement with that guy playing his first game back there and he did a hell of a job. He was the backbone of our team but for myself, just trying to get my legs going. I thought Freddie was awesome as well. Brouwer complimented us great out there but it was a good team effort. That’s the type of effort we’re going to need each and every night and I thought the guys did a solid job.

Freddie Hamilton, on his goal:
I just remember busting up the side and Curt made a good pass up to me. Tried to make a little play and took a shot and can’t really remember after that other then Brouw got it and just came to me beside the net and I was lucky to wrap it in.