Via the team:
Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on the Capitals intensity tonight…
“I told the guys, obviously I expect them to be a little tired… I think we got rewarded by doing the right things. Sometimes that’s going to happen and sometimes it’s not… tonight they went in. As a team we did the right thing.”
Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on the progress of this season…
“I would say honestly for a while there hasn’t been too many bad games, in terms of that there have been moments which you have waves and you’ve got to conquer the waves…I think we’ve been playing decent hockey and hopefully we’ll continue to grow.”
Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom on the play of the Capitals…
“We’re really happy about this one. We knew they were a great team, and obviously they played last night and had a long flight. We were aware of that and we wanted to come out hard. We’re a little lucky to score on our chances at the beginning and we just followed our game plan from there.”
Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom on facing Jaroslav Halak…
“He’s a great goalie. Some nights you can be on top of your games and some nights you’re not on. It doesn’t matter who they put in the net; it is always nice to win hockey games.”
Washington Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin on scoring more goals from in front of the net…
“Oatsey [Adam Oates] talked about how I have to stay more in the middle of the ice in the offensive zone because lots of pucks go there, and I can find the rebound there. It’s working.”
Washington Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin on the play of the first line and Nicklas Backstrom…
“Backy [Nicklas Backstrom] has a good vision. He reads the game well. I just have to be open all the time. You can see that we had good chances in the second and the third.”
Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby on the play of the St. Louis Blues…
“They threw a lot of pucks at the net. Their game plan is to get traffic, rebounds. Every game is different. Some games you get 20 shots and a lot of them are scoring chances, and games that you are just looking through traffic all night. We had a good night.”
Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby on the play of Nicklas Backstrom…
“Nicky deserves just as much credit for the goals that Ovi [Alex Ovechkin] scores as he does. He should be looked at like that. Nicky does a lot and as his teammate of his, you can’t say enough about what he does for that line and the team – as a leader and as a player. He’s our steadying guy. He’s a guy we look up to.”
St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock on tonight’s game…
“I think we made some turnovers from the red line back that really hurt us. I thought when we made it 3-1, I thought we were really making a comeback. I thought we really battled. We got great effort from [Vladimir] Sobotka’s line. That line was outstanding. I really thought when it was 3-1 we were going to win the hockey game. I thought we had them on their heels. We were really coming on the forecheck, and we were really creating a lot of turnovers. They got that fourth goal and it kind of took the wind out of our sails a little bit.”
St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock on the first period tonight…
“We didn’t have the checking start that we normally do. We were soft on coverage on a couple of goals. It happens. When you are coming on a back-to-back you need a really good start in first period. We didn’t get it. We need almost like tied or better and that will help you.”
St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester on a rough start to the game…
“I mean in a back-to-back game we knew we had to be ready off the start. They are a fast starting team. In the first period we were a step behind. You get down like that against a team like that and it’s tough.”
St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester on how his team played tonight…
“I think everyone in here realizes we could have had a better effort. Bottom line I feel that if we play the way we can, we give ourselves a chance to win every night. We didn’t have our best game that’s for sure.”
St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Sobotka on his thoughts about the game…
“I think we had a sloppy start and then we couldn’t execute. Their goalie outplayed us and that can’t happen.”
St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Sobotka on playing three games in four nights…
“It’s hard; it’s hockey. Everyone has almost the same schedule. That’s not an excuse.”