Via the team…
Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on the Capitals decline in play during the second half of the game…
“Maybe a little fatigue for the boys. We played a lot of hockey. It is tough sledding out there, game in and game out, and you’re fighting a lot of uphill battles. I didn’t think they executed either. Both power plays were pretty ineffective, and their goalie played well early. Neuvy [Michal Neuvirth] played well the whole game. We didn’t test them much late.”
Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on testing Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov…
“The first thirty [minutes of the game] we did [test him]. I’ve got to give them a little credit. They played well too. They got a shut-out; he [Evgeni Nabokov] played well. We had some good chances that he made look simple. The penalties – you’ve got guys playing a lot of minutes that you need their energy late. The guys fought hard until the end.”
Washington Capitals forward Martin Erat on the inconsistency of the Caps play…
“It’s hard to explain. We win [a] big game against Detroit and [then] we have to come back and get to the next game. We can go one game and then the next game come in flat. We just have to figure it out. We have 25 games left and it’s going to be a sprint.”
Washington Capitals forward Martin Erat on the importance of winning the next few games before the Olympic break…
“Every point right now is big. It doesn’t matter if you are playing the Islanders or if you are playing Boston. You have to play the same way all the time, and we have to get the points from every single game.”
Washington Capitals forward Eric Fehr on the recent play of the Capitals…
“We just have to stay out of the penalty box. We’ve been doing this to ourselves for the past two weeks. Takes the momentum right out of the game. I thought we had a great first period. I thought we outplayed them in the first and then we find ourselves in the box for the rest of the game and you can’t get anything going.”
Washington Capitals forward Eric Fehr on what the team needs to do…
“We’ve just got to find a way to move our feet. We know what tripping is. We know what hooking is. We’ve got to keep our sticks down and just play hockey. We’re not moving our feet as much as we want to, and we are getting caught behind the play. Two breakaways they had and we had to haul them down to stop a goal. It’s not the way we want to play.”
Washington Capitals forward Eric Fehr on the importance of the winning the next few games…
“They’re huge. We need to win our games at home. We just went on a long road trip and didn’t win very many, so we have to take advantage of this.”
New York Islanders head coach Jack Capuano on facing the Caps power play…
“I thought we did a good job. Obviously, they had some chances on their power play, but I thought we did a good job limiting those chances. It’s a good win for our team. We’re a desperate team. I thought our guys really worked hard tonight right from the start.”
New York Islanders head coach Jack Capuano on goaltender Evgeni Nabokov and the team’s defense…
“He played well for us. He made some big saves, obviously, on their power play but again I thought with all the power plays they had, we still held them under 24, 25 shots. I thought we defended real well. I thought we were structured tonight, and again, the guys played hard. We’ve been playing hard and haven’t been getting the results, but they deserved it.”
New York Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov on the penalty kill in front of him…
“I thought the penalty killers did a good job killing a lot of penalties against a good power play. Last time I played here, I think they scored four on us, so today was good.”
New York Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov on what it takes to get the shutout…
“In order to get the shutout, everybody is pinching in and paying attention to details. Sometimes, the luck has got to be on your side, too. A little bit of luck and pay attention to details and [you can get the win].”
New York Islanders defenseman Andrew MacDonald on the team getting some good results tonight…
“I thought the past few games, we hadn’t really been getting the results that we’ve wanted, and we played pretty good, but tonight was a great one to get, especially considering the way the games we played against [Washington] this year have gone. It was a big divisional game, and we knew these three games going into the break were going to be pretty crucial for us, and it’s a good start.”
New York Islanders defenseman Andrew MacDonald on the team’s penalty kill tonight…
“It was kind of a weird one. You don’t really want to play with fire too much against these guys and give them too many power plays. Fortunately, we were able to draw a couple when they were on the power play and negate them so that was important for us. Like I said, our penalty kill did a great job, and so did [goaltender Evgeni Nabokov] back there.”