Via the team:
Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on generating energy in the beginning of the game…
“We obviously came out pretty good, had a power play – they get one and it kind of deflated us, and we seemed to fight uphill battles after that the whole night.”
Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on learning from tonight’s game…
“We always do that, no matter what, win or lose, we always do that. It’ll be a little harder tomorrow because it was a game you were looking forward to – a team that you want to beat. There’s lots of ways to lose games, and that’s not really one way you want to do it.”
Washington Capitals center Brooks Laich on keeping the Washington Capitals together…
“It wasn’t our best effort, but through the course of the season there are going to be games like that. But you have to stick together. That’s the main thing. The last 10 our record was pretty good. Don’t pull apart, just stick together.”
Washington Capitals center Brooks Laich on the feeling after tonight’s game…
“We are never satisfied. You hope that you are never playing as good as you can because that means that you are never going to improve anymore. But, tonight I think was an exception. Tonight was something that we haven’t seen for a while. What’s usually been a strength of our game, is our puck movement, and our support and tonight it was a detriment for sure.”
Washington Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner on the play of the Pittsburgh Penguins…
“They [Pittsburgh Penguins] were amazing through the neutral zone. They came with speed every single time, always had three guys, if not three, then four. Didn’t give us any time to pinch. It was a great game by them and bad game by us. And we didn’t possess the puck at all; we didn’t get our cycle game going. They were making us turn and chase pucks all night. It was tough, real tough.”
Washington Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner on tonight’s loss…
“Yeah, absolutely it’s disappointing. Extremely disappointing. We had a chance to be in first place and to beat the team that we are battling against. That would have been really nice, but we will get another crack at them a little further down the road and just keep trying to beat that teams that come up next.”
Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby on facing more than 30 shots in two periods…
“I don’t feel like it’s too much. I feel like I can handle that. You don’t get pucks thrown too often. You get goals like the first goal that just have eyes when you through them at the net, sooner or later you’re going to get luck on your side. But in saying that, even though there is a high shot total, I thought I could have done better in the game today.”
Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby on the Pittsburgh Penguins having more possession time…
“That’s the big thing. You face a lot of shots against, and that obviously means the other team has a lot of possession. And obviously you’re not getting many chances to score. Regardless of how many shots we get or chances we get, I thought I could have done a better job.”
Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma on his team’s start tonight…
“I don’t know if you expect to hop out to that kind of shot advantage, but certainly with the pace and how we played was excellent. We got some real good scoring opportunities, and we get the faceoff goal that gets us out in front. But equally as important, [Washington] had opportunities on the penalty kill there, especially in the first half of the game, and that was a big point.”
Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma on getting the early lead but not letting off the gas pedal…
“There was a lot of good in this game, but the third period, only giving them four shots against and really playing solid the second half of the game that way. There’s still plenty of opportunities to go back the other way and score some goals, which we did, but we didn’t give up a lot and we didn’t give them opportunities to get speed in space.”
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby on the Penguins start being the key to the win tonight…
“Our start was great, we came out hard, really set the tone and got that first [goal], which was important to us. I think, all-around, our [penalty kill] was really good. [Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury] was solid and a lot of good efforts from everybody.”
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby on the team defensively…
“It starts with defensively, we didn’t give them much, and we generated a lot in that first period. The second [period] was kind of 50/50, they came a little bit harder and turned the puck over a bit, but we shut things down really well in the third [period] and did a good job with that.”
Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury on this win meaning more because it’s against Washington…
“It’s probably more [important] to get the first place just to get that win. It’s always a good rivalry with them, but the thing you’ve got to focus on is the win and we did so that’s good.”
Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury on how the team did defensively in front of him…
“I thought most of their chances were on the power plays, but other than that, everybody helped out and everybody came back in the zone, helped out around the net. The [defense] was blocking shots and kicking the rebounds away so it was a big help.”