Sorry I didn’t get this up as quickly as I would’ve liked…But here are the
postgame quotes from Terry Murray:
I think what turned it around for us was being able to respond with our goal right after they scored their second goal 30 seconds later, coming down. Simmonds gets his first goal of the NHL. To me, that was huge. We were a little off-balance after they went up 2-0. To respond right away was very important.
On scoring six goals after just one through first two games
It’s nice to see us score some goals. That’s where confidence comes from and that’s where you can build a team a lot faster, when you have that kind of result. The work ethic has been great. The competitiveness has been tremendous right through the training camp. I thought we’d be able to score goals at the end of training camp. I thought we’d go into the season and be able to score than one in the first two games. To have a breakout here tonight is important for this young team so we can move on and continue to reinforce the things we’re working on.
On O’Sullivan
Patrick O’Sullivan, he’s a special kind of player. He’s very explosive. He’s got unbelievable vision on the ice. He made one play in the third period to find a weakside defenseman coming in when he was under a lot of pressure on the boards. That’s a special kind of play to make. I like it. I like it a lot. He’s going to be an important player to build around in the future. He’s going to be a very important player for this team to move forward this year.
On the penalty kill…why so good?
Mark Hardy. I think there’s just a big commitment. On penalty killing, you have to do a lot of things for the team. It’s hard work. It’s intensity. It’s doing the right thing, everybody on the same page. Your goaltending has to be very special. You have to have people willing to sacrifice, blocking shots, playing hard along the boards and talking. Talking is really important whenever you have possession of the puck to make sure it’s going to get out of your end. You probably have to make two more passes. Very seldom can you clear it from below the goal-line with the way teams are set up on the power play today. A little bit of talk, handoff plays and I think we’ve been doing a good job of that.
On Dennis Gauthier’s hit on Ryan Getzlaf after he ran LaBarbera in the third period
That’s hockey. (Gauthier) is a hockey player. Those are things hockey players have to do. When your goaltender is going to be taken liberties on, then somebody on the team has to help him out.
