Here were Randy Carlyle’s postgame comments:
“Those are ones that you bang your head against the wall and you try to figure out how we could perform to the level we performed.We didn’t have anything going in a lot of areas. We tried, just got frustrated. Pucks got away from us in every situation where we could get any momentum going, and then it was just, you know, got frustrated, tried to do too much as individuals and it just fed their attack.”
On how much the goaltending was responsible:
“When you give up eight goals, the goaltending has to take
some of the responsibility. But in this situation, there was 20 guys, and the
coaching staff have to take responsibility for this. Not goaltending. He’s one
member of the team. That’s our responsibility.”
On the standings:
“What happens is, as these games wind down, the teams that
we’re in the pack against, it becomes must-wins. The pressure’s squarely going
to be pushed toward us. Can’t put any more plainer English on it than that.”
On the team’s response:
“Number one, they don’t feel very good about themselves. I
think from a team standpoint, we just have to recognize and … look in the
mirror individually, where can you be better? There’s a huge area where we
could be better. For whatever reason we weren’t able to get it going today. The
puck bounced away from us. What’s emblematic of the game is the last goal. We
hit the post with our goaltender out, they rim the puck around the boards, hits (the wall) and goes in our net — 200 feet. It was the eighth goal of the game,
but it just put an exclamation mark. It just hit you where the sun doesn’t
shine.”
Did you underestimate Atlanta?
“I don’t think we did. I don’t view it as that. I just felt
that we didn’t do enough of the little things and get involved. Our skill set
was very, very poor. Moving the puck through the neutral ice. We were again a
victim of five straight penalties in the first period and that was a result of
a lack of moving our feet.”