October 10 postgame quotes: Stothers, Lowry, Auger

Mike Stothers, on what he takes away from the game:
We weren’t very good, I’ll take that away from the game.

Stothers, on whether it’s difficult to get players reeled in after partaking in Kings camp:
Well, I don’t think it should be all that difficult. They didn’t make the Kings so they’re coming to the Reign. We’re supposed to play the same way the Kings do. They played here last year, so that shouldn’t be an adjustment. So that pretty much removes all of those excuses.

Stothers, on if he’s still evaluating players or if the roster will be set by the Kings’ cuts:
Well I saw an awful lot tonight. It told me a lot about some of our guys. Told me everything I needed to know. [Reporter: Not good things I assume?] It wasn’t very good. I guess I could blame the trainers. Too much fabric softener in the jerseys.

Stothers, on the power play:
I wanted more period. I wanted some push back. Like, that’s pretty tough to watch. So, as I said. I learned a lot and what I learned I didn’t like. So it will be addressed.

Joel Lowry, on what he takes away from the game:
That’s just not a good enough effort. It doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup. If you’re shorthanded, if you’re missing guys. I think to a man we weren’t good tonight and I think it showed from the first shift.

Lowry, on what the message is going into Saturday’s opener:
I think there’s a lot of areas but I think we just need to get a good week of practice. We know what these guys are capable of, we’ve played them enough. I think we know what wins against them, we’ve beat them in the playoffs. So I just think we need to get back to playing our game and if we do that I think we’ll be more successful.

Lowry, on why he went after O’Brien after his hit on Backman:
It’s not just today. That guy last exhibition game was running around a little bit. They’ve got a couple guys who do that and I think especially when he hits a guy like Backs that’s something that needs to be addressed, especially in the preseason. We play them 12 times so they need to know that’s not tolerated. [Reporter: Are you taking more of a leadership role and feel like you have to step in on an occasion like that?] I think you’d expect anyone on the team to do that. I don’t think it’s anything different, I think that’s what a team is. I think that’s what you expect out of all your teammates.

Justin Auger, on what he takes away from the game:
I don’t think we’d be happy with how we played. It started right from the beginning. We weren’t ready to go when the puck dropped. We really didn’t have much push back for what they were throwing at us. We just weren’t clicking tonight. [Reporter: Did anything attribute to that?] I don’t know. I can’t say it was one thing or another, we just weren’t ready to play when the puck dropped.

Auger, on the power play and whether it was good to get so many looks:
Yes and no. I think it made us — It’s kind of tough. We had a lot of chances and we expect more out of ourselves and having all those chances and still only scoring one goal, we have a lot of work to do. That goes back to us not being ready at the beginning of the game to play. You could just see it out there all night, whether we were on the power play, shorthanded or even strength.

Auger, on the intensity of the rivalry:
We show up knowing it’s going to be a rough, physical game. I think we see them 12 more times this year. It’s going to be a tough season and it hurts to lose that one even though it’s preseason. We like to beat these guys every time we play them.

Auger, on what needs to be better for Saturday vs. San Diego in the opener:
I think we’re just going to have a good week of practice and come back Saturday now with a new mindset. We’re going to be ready to go when the puck drops.