October 23 postgame quotes; Stevens on Quick’s removal

On other aspects in the loss other than Frederik Andersen having a solid game:
Well, you get down in a hockey game, you chase, and it takes a lot of energy. You could see that. I think anytime you have to come from behind in a hockey game, especially on the road, it seems like it taxes your players a lot more than if it was tied a long way. It was a pretty even fought game. I thought we’d like to see us bear down on our chances a little bit, but they’re a good team, and we knew they’re really good down low in the offensive zone. They’re a really competitive team with a high skill level when they get in those situations, and I thought that took the skill at times where it took momentum from us, but I think the big thing was that we had to chase the game a little bit, and I think that takes too much energy doing it that way.

On the late first period situation in which Jonathan Quick came out of the game before returning:
We were notified through the headset from the league spotter that he had to come out. Apparently the league office had looked at the play when he got bumped into and deemed it worthy of – what’s the term there – a mandatory evaluation. So, as we were getting Darcy ready to go in the net, they said they’ve reviewed it a second time and he doesn’t have to come out, so when we tried to put him back in the net, the referees come over said that if there’s an injury on the ice, he has to come out for one play, and I said, ‘well, he’s not injured. We were doing what we were told from the league,’ and then they came over after and said, ‘you know what? That’s never happened before.’ So that was the read on it, which is respectful. I mean, they were doing what they thought was right. We just didn’t like a guy going in with a minute left in the period. So, everybody was just doing what they were told, and in the end, we wanted to put Jonny back in because we were told he could, but then they deemed at that point that he was an injured player and had to come out for one play. [Reporter: But he had been playing for about three minutes after that.] I don’t know. You’d have to ask the league that question. Quite honestly, we want to ask the league that question, because it was a little bit disruptive for everybody, I think. Nobody to blame, really, I just want a little bit more clarification on what it was. I mean, he didn’t want to come out. He felt fine. Somebody watched the play. There’s criteria, you know – [Ed.: Stevens is referring to hypothetical criteria and not his observation] he looked a little off, it was his motor skills were off, maybe his movement they thought was different. He reached for his head. There are a lot of things they look at to try and determine. Hey, it’s for the safety of the player. We get that, so it was certainly respectful of the fact that we’ve got the best interest of the player’s safety at heart. [Reporter: So, just to be clear, John, he was pulled off by the concussion-] Spotter in the crowd. The neutral spotter told him to come off, so in the process of getting him off, they wired back down and said, ‘we’ve reviewed it, he doesn’t have to come off.’ So, then we tried to put Quickie back in the net and the referees determined at that point that he was an injured player and he had to come off for one play. [Reporter: What’s a ‘mandatory evaluation?’ Can a trainer just talk to a guy?] No, he has to come in the back to see a doctor. [Reporter: But he wasn’t evaluated by anybody, because by this time the league is saying he’s fine.] No, he was fine. Yeah. [Reporter: So nobody gave him any kind of concussion protocol evaluation, right?] No. No, he was fine.

On Adrian Kempe playmaking and his line’s performance:
Well, I thought the line was really good tonight. I thought they gave us energy and I thought he really skated well, but the line was good, and he, himself, had really good speed out there. Obviously the goal got us back in the hockey game, but he just seemed like he was a threat out there pushing the pace, and it was great to see. I mean, it’s a tough game on the road, and a young kid stepped up like that. It was great.

On whether he liked the effort despite the loss:
Effort, yes. Execution, I mean, it’s the same thing. We’re going to look at our team – I think we did some good things tonight, but again, there are some areas we need to clean up. We turned pucks over down low in our zone that I think could’ve been exits, so I’d like to certainly get that cleaned up, get some plays stopped a little quicker down low, for sure. The special teams we thought would be a factor tonight. We scored a shorthanded goal, gave up a power play goal, so we’d like to get the power play going again and clean up our penalty kill a little bit.

On whether he said anything to Jonathan Quick after his late penalty:
Yep. [Reporter: How frustrated was he, would you say?] I don’t know, you’d have to ask Jonathan. He’s a really fiery competitor, and I think emotion in his game’s a good thing. It’s not an ideal situation to be shorthanded for the last two minutes of a hockey game, but he’s a stand-up guy, and I’m sure he knows that.

-Lead photo via Mark Blinch/NHLI