From the team:
Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on the confidence of the team…
“We honestly haven’t talked about statistics, where we are, how many in a row, “man we’re playing good.” One of the things we talk about is that I expect those guys to be pros. You can enjoy it tonight for sure, it was a good game. Tomorrow we focus on Ottawa. Just like when it doesn’t go our way, I don’t want it to linger, we treat that as [professionals].”
Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on shifting the momentum…
“You want to stick together. There’s times where you obviously don’t want to take penalties to do it, but I think that it’s great that we killed that penalty. It is important; obviously we have to protect our guys.”
Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin on holding on to win after losing a four goal lead on Saturday…
“That’s the way we talked after the second period. We talked about don’t lose any focus, don’t give them any opportunity to score goals, play safe and play for a win.”
Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin on the importance of the win…
“It’s always nice to get the two points and put the pressure on different teams. For us, it’s a big two points and we’ve got a hard road trip coming up. That’s the kind of points we need.”
Washington Capitals forward Martin Erat on the win…
“We learned our lesson. It’s still regular season and we are learning our lessons. It’s a good time when you’ve got the lead to stay out on the attack.”
Washington Capitals forward Martin Erat on scoring his first goal as a Capital…
“Always a relief to get the first one with a new team. The most important thing is we got the points.”
Washington Capitals defenseman Jack Hillen on the team picking up its play…
“When the big guys play well, everybody else picks up their game, it seems like. It all starts with Ovi [Alex Ovechkin] and Backy [Nicklas Backstrom], and Holts [Braden Holtby] has been playing great…it starts with Ribs [Mike Ribeiro]. We have some unbelievable talent on this team and when they are playing well, it makes everybody else look good.”
Washington Capitals defenseman Jack Hillen on his jumping into the play more…
“The reason I jump up in the play is more for defensive reasons. It helps shut down gaps and when pucks turnover you can squash the play early and give them momentum. If offense comes from me jumping up in the play, that’s great, but really it’s about me doing my job and being a good defenseman.”
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle on how he breaks down tonight’s game…
“We weren’t very good, we didn’t do a lot of things well. We circled all night, we didn’t play stop and go hockey and it looked like we had nothing in the tank, nothing to give. It just seemed like we got worn down and we weren’t playing anywhere near to the level on which was required in tonight’s hockey game.”
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle on Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin…
“Great player. He’s a dynamic player, he scores goals from a lot of different areas and everybody knows where he’s going to be on the ice and he still scores points and gets goals from there.”
Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Ben Scrivens on having this kind of night on a spot start…
“Yeah, it’s tough but that’s my job right now. Next time, I’ve just got to find a way to give the team more of a chance but that was a tough game. It seems like I didn’t play my best but I didn’t get the best bounces either but you know what, I’ve got to come up with some more saves to help the team out.”
Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Ben Scrivens on Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin…
“You just try to give yourself the best chance to stop the puck. He’s obviously got an unbelievable shot, a world-class shot, you’ve just got to try and give yourself the best chance to stop it….He’s got a shot that’s beaten a lot of goalies in this league so it’s a challenge every time.”
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Mark Fraser on hoping this is more of an aberration tonight…
“We know the quality that we can play, we’ve done it all year. We haven’t had big hiccups like this or mental lapses for a couple months. We can’t afford to have it [happen] at this moment, especially with the postseason right around the corner.”
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Mark Fraser on Caps forward Alex Ovechkin…
“That’s the quality of a player like that when things are rolling well with them and him in particularly, you can certainly tell. He’s very lethal, very dynamic and energetic out there. Everyone on the ice knows when he’s on the ice, that’s just his presence. You have to be aware when he’s on the ice because of the quality and the skill level, he’s just so powerful.”