Via the team:
Washington Capitals coach Adam Oates on the Capitals play against Buffalo…
“You’ve got to give [Buffalo] some credit. They played good. They’ve been playing better lately. They played a good game. It was a pretty even game. At the end of the day, minus the penalties, shots are the same and chances are pretty similar. [Mikhail Grabovski] had a chance to win it with a minute left there. Sometimes you’ve got to wait and see how the game evolves. We don’t ever want to take chances against anybody, and we didn’t really have breakdowns or give breakaways or anything like that.”
Washington Capitals coach Adam Oates on moving up in the standings…
“You want the points. You want every night and we talk about it from day one that really in the season there are noisy games. You want to get points every single time you can because it will bite you later in the year. We wanted two points, no question, but the way the game was going I’m glad we got one.”
Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward on tonight’s shootout loss…
“We were hoping to put together a little run here a little bit. It’s tough for sure. We did salvage a point, which is good thing. We just have to get some rest and move on to Tuesday.”
Washington Capitals goaltender Philipp Grubauer on the penalty kill in the second period…
“The second period was tough for every killer. I don’t know how many penalty minutes we got out there. We dominate them 5-on-5 and we try to stay out of the box.”
Washington Capitals forward Jason Chimera on generating offense against Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller tonight…
“A couple of shots there we had some good looks, but you have to get more bodies in front of him [Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller]. I think Wardo [Joel Ward] had a good tip there at the end. That’s the way you have to score goals. He is a good goalie. You’ve got to get some bodies in front. It takes a lucky one kind of like mine to get in there, sometimes a rebound and stuff like that. He’s a good goalie and shows you why he’s on the US team, and things are going really good for him right now.”
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin on tonight’s game…
“I think we had a couple penalties in the second. A couple of bad ones, but we killed them. Sometimes when we have those kinds of penalties you don’t win the game. PK [penalty kill] guys in the game and guys who don’t [play on the penalty kill] not in the game. I think 5-on-5 both teams didn’t have any chances because everybody played solid today. 50/50, we score one goal and we can win the game.”
Buffalo Sabres coach Ted Nolan on limiting Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin…
“That’s what we talked about before the game. We said ‘we gave him 12 [shots] last time, let’s try to cut that in half this game.’ We knew what kind of player he is. I thought the whole team played well tonight.”
Buffalo Sabres coach Ted Nolan on forging a new identity for his team…
“We want to play on the right side of the puck, and we want to create ourselves an identity. What type of team do we want to be? Not a team that plays one way for 20 minutes and then slips off for five. It was one of those games where we [would like] to bottle this and play like this all the time.”
Buffalo Sabres forward Tyler Ennis on his first-period goal…
“I actually collided with a guy down at our end, and he was kind of slow to get up. It was accidental but I jumped back in the play and we had a little rush…and the puck was just sitting there for me. It’s a good feeling.”
Buffalo Sabres forward Tyler Ennis on playing effectively on the road…
“It was a really good road game. We tried to keep the shots even, just play kind of greasy, play hard. Special teams win games and it got us the win tonight.”
Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller on his team’s performance tonight…
“I thought it was a real nice game. I thought the guys got the puck deep. They worked hard. We generated some power-play opportunities because we were moving on our feet and working. We can’t go line rush for line rush with these guys. We can’t allow them to have so many power-play opportunities. So I thought we did a nice job.”
Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller on his save against Capitals forward Mikhail Grabovski…
“That’s one of those ones where you’re just completely out of options. The puck came through traffic, hit me right in the pads instead of the stick and I knew I was in trouble. I saw him kind of reload and get in position… More often than not those guys are going to score. I don’t think he got quite all of it and he gave me time to put a plate on it.”