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Capitals-Stars: Postgame Quotes

Via the team…

Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on what he said to the team after the second period…

“We’re all a group. I said to the guys in the second intermission, ‘You know what, we’re down and if we come back – we have before, we could – we can’t come back playing wrong. If somehow we make the playoffs and we play like this who are we kidding? We have to figure out a way to get better together. It is just us collectively in here.’ Obviously it’s very disappointing.”

Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on the desperation of the team throughout the game…

“In hindsight, probably the thing that bothers me the most is that we had a very good first period, very good. In terms of desperation I thought the guys played very solid in the first period. We let a goal in the second period deflate us. That’s surprising, if anything. The third period is as ugly as it can get, and unfortunately those things happen sometimes.”

Washington Capitals forward Eric Fehr on the play of the Dallas Stars

“They [Dallas] are a really fast team, and they got a lot of pressure on us. We didn’t react well to it. We turned over too many pucks, we didn’t make the easy plays – the 10 foot plays – we were looking for long passes and they hemmed us in our zone pretty good. We talk about it in the room that we want to keep things simple and just make sure that we get it out of the zone, make the tag-up and re-attack, but tonight we didn’t do it very often.”

Washington Capitals forward Eric Fehr on tonight’s game…

“There wasn’t one part of the game tonight that was good enough – 5-on-5, power play, penalty kill, everything. It looked like we weren’t prepared. We talked about everything, but it looked more like a preseason game for us than a game that we needed to win to make the playoffs.”

Washington Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner on why the desire to win isn’t translating to ice…

“It’s frustrating to see it, for all of us. We are all asking ourselves the exact same question and everybody wants to do it and be the guy, sometimes it’s being 20 guys and not just the guy, and maybe that has something to do with it. I am not too sure. It’s frustrating. Obviously, we are not happy with the way that we have been playing. Terrible time to go on a skid.”

Washington Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner on why the Capitals can’t keep it simple…

“It goes back to wanting to be ‘the guy.’ You want to make the nice play to spark the team, to get a goal or make the nice pass to break us out. Very few teams can do that; it’s about playing simple, and it’s not always fun to play that way, and we sure haven’t helped ourselves by us all being irresponsible on the ice with the puck in all three zones. We’ve got to be smarter and we’ve got to make simple plays.”

Dallas Stars head coach Lindy Ruff on this game becoming a blowout in the third period…

“Once we got midway through the third, you start to feel pretty good about where you’re at. It was a pretty tight game in the first period, and we were able to put one away. I think as soon as we got two [goals], it forced them a little out of their element and to take some chances.”

Dallas Stars head coach Lindy Ruff on the team getting some depth scoring tonight…

“It takes a lot of pressure off the team because if you’re not scoring, you’ve got to defend hard. It’s great to see the puck go in the net. We made some real good plays. I thought our [defense] were real active, but I thought our forwards had some looks and instead of just shooting sometimes, they went off the back side and made some real nice plays.”

Dallas Stars forward Ray Whitney on how his team started and how they had some open looks tonight…

“We came out well and they had a couple pushes at different times of the game, but I thought we handled that well. We played a fast game tonight and we got a lot of chances. We had a lot of two-on-ones and we even had a two-on-none, so it’s not often you see that many scoring chances.”

Dallas Stars forward Alex Chiasson on his team getting some depth scoring…

“You look at last game and [Stars forward Cody Eakin]’s line has been playing pretty great…I think it probably takes a little bit of weight off Jamie [Benn] and Tyler’s [Seguin] shoulders, but they got us going tonight, and I think everyone tries to contribute as much as they can, and I think when you go into a playoff push that is what makes a difference.”

Dallas Stars forward Alex Chiasson on goaltender Kari Lehtonen

“I think he made some big saves in the second period, and even in the third [period] there he robbed them a couple times. I think we know this year, he’s our best player, and he makes the difference.”

Dallas Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen on his play tonight and whether he’s up for the challenge in the last few games…

“I just try to stay extra calm and wait for the players to make their moves. I’m fortunate to have a few good games in a row here and hopefully I can keep it going…It’s fun playing when there’s a lot on the line and every game is so huge. We just have to keep taking this one game at a time and try to win the next one.”

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