March 3 postgame quotes: Mike Stothers

On the difference between today’s game and Wednesday’s against Stockton:
I don’t know. We’ve been like that for the last little while. We play well, we don’t play so well, or we have a stretch where we don’t play as well as we could. The second period in Stockton, the first period I thought was really good, I really believe that. And then the second period we were just, oh my gosh. We couldn’t get out of our own way, we were running into each other. It was just bad. And Stockton’s a good team. You can’t do that against anybody but they made us pay. And tonight we were better, so the on again, off again. What’s going to be tomorrow?

On Alex Lintuniemi returning to the lineup and scoring his first AHL goal:
Was that his first one? [Reporter: Yeah.] Oh, for crying out loud I didn’t even know that. I just know it was a big goal for us. He played well. He’s worked hard to get back and join his teammates so that’s good. Makes us better on the back end, there’s no doubt.

On Michael Mersch’s return to the lineup helping steer the team’s identity in the right direction:
Well, I mean, it’s just so much that he brings to the table. He’s a reliable guy along the wall and defensively. He’s a penalty killer. He’s a power play guy. He goes to the net front. He’s not afraid to block shots. The only thing he doesn’t do is fight. And I don’t want him to do that. [Reporter: Privitera, you want him to fight?] If it needs to be done then, you know what, it was a battle of a couple flyweights there. Nothing wrong with that.

On Jeff Zatkoff’s first start:
I thought he was really good. Made a couple real big saves at the end there with his pad, got it down. I think it’s just a luxury to have. To have two quality goaltenders that, Soupy what he’s done for us to this point is remarkable and to play I think 35 games in a row. He deserves a little bit of time to sit back, enjoy just being a normal player. That’s a lot of pressure to put somebody under. Zats, he’s looking to prove himself as far as his play. So good for them. And I think they’ll complement each other well and I think it’s a good position for us to be in to have two guys that we can rely on and count on and you know what, they’re going to be supportive of each other as well.

On the overall effort with nearly every skater getting a shot on goal:
Still a couple of guys who had zeros across the board. Shouldn’t happen but you’re not going to have shots every night. I think Ovechkin does. I don’t know how many games in a row, and then he finally had that broken. Should have followed up to see what his next game was. He probably had 12 shots. That’s what people do. If you want to create offense you’ve got to put some pucks to the net. I thought it was a good response to a difficult loss on Wednesday night and now we’ve got to try to get ready for tomorrow, Tucson.