The following quotes have been transcribed by the Philadelphia Flyers public relations department. We can’t guarantee their complete accuracy because we didn’t write them ourselves, but we provide them as a post-game service.
Flyers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky
Q: …[inaudible] shots in the first period?
“Of course. My duty is to stop the puck. The more shots I face, the more comfortable I feel in the game”
Q: How difficult was the third period when they started getting more shots on?
“It was pretty difficult. There was a lot of pressure. I had to do a lot of hard work.”
Q: What was the atmosphere like in the locker room earlier today because of yesterdays’ game? Was it tense? Difficult?
“There was really nothing special. We had a meeting in the morning. Before the game, everybody was getting ready for the game. There was nothing special said or cheerful. It was the same thing that happens every time.”
Sabres left wing Luke Adam
Q: Luke, how did you feel out there tonight?
“It was good. For a first [NHL] game I was pretty nervous going in, but I felt like I was alright. I made some mistakes out there, but I can learn from that. You take that and you build from it.”
Q: You had two great chances – Mike [Grier] set you up down the slot right in your first shift, then you had one of the post.
“Yeah I know. Those couple chances right in the first period – it would have been nice if one had went in. The first play was a great pass by [Grier], and I just gathered it and went after and opened up some ice and almost had it. Then that second one of the post, I just missed that one.”
Q: Do you have mixed feelings about tonight? The fact that you played your first game and (inaudible)…
“Yeah, sure. Obviously it’s a huge thrill to play your first game but at the same time, coming out on the losing end is not really fun. I wish we had been on the other end of that one tonight.”
Sabres defenseman Steve Montador
Q: What happened in the second period? Because you got the first six shots of the period and then they scored on that first one, and that turned it around. But before that you were playing all right.
“Yeah, I think somebody said that we had the first five chances too. I think on the road, especially early in a game and early in a period, if you get the chances then you want to do what you can to vary. We can’t just assume that we’re just going to keep getting them. So, it’s still up to us to get the chances. I think we ended up getting a number of chances; certainly enough to win. Just not at the times we needed them and certainly not enough goals.”
Q: Why do you think things came apart? Was it a lack of discipline?
“You know what, we’re going to review that. I’m not too sure. I’m not going to say it’s a lack of discipline right now. I’m going to decide to wait and say we certainly didn’t get the job done, we know that. We didn’t bury, like I said earlier, the chances that we had. It is up to us to do that. There was a time where we sat back and got a little undisciplined with some penalties and maybe with the play. But, the chances are what we have to take advantage of.”
Q: Did you guys hear from Lindy [Ruff] at the end of the second? I’m just wondering because you played a better third.
“Overall, yeah. You always want to limit the mistakes, but they’re always going to happen. I think the challenge in this league is how you react to them, how you recover from them, and then what you do about them maybe in the next play or next shift. We didn’t do a good enough job, quickly enough, in the second period on that. I think when we play without any fear, especially in the third, we did get our chances. It looked like we were having fun and obviously we were coming from behind and that’s not a fun situation. That life is what we need at the beginning of the game and at the beginning of the period, which we did have, but you have to sustain it.”
Q: It was pretty obvious that Briere bumped into Miller there.
“You know what, I didn’t see it but I heard everybody talking about so I can elaborate that way.”
Q: But the response was rather than buckle up, you guys kind of came apart. At least that’s how it looked from up there.
“I guess you could assume that’s the case. I didn’t see that play so I didn’t get any emotional reaction from it. I actually didn’t even see the replay. Certainly, we were talking about it and I heard about it on the bench. That’s not cool. It was loud in this building and they fed off that. They created some energy and I know they were challenged by their staff to show that life. They showed it at times and got the chances and got the goals. We also showed it at times and we got the chances, but we didn’t get the goals.”
Sabres goalie Ryan Miller
Q: I guess let’s get to where things kind of fell apart; and that was when Danny [Briere], it looked like, interfered with you there.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen it, I just felt something. I don’t know if it was our guy or his skate or whatever.”
Q: He was behind you. Yeah he was totally behind you…
“I had to go around him. That changed my play; I got off balance. I just hit my heel on something. I don’t know.”
Q: But you guys didn’t react well to it. I mean, you had the first six shots of the period, were playing really well, that happened and it just seemed like you guys didn’t react well to it.
“No, I mean we have to have some kind of reaction and we let it kind of go downhill. I mean, you can’t react later in the third period when you feel like your back’s against the wall and we feel a little bit slighted, chip on your shoulder. You can’t take things so hard. You can’t be so dramatic about it. Maybe it’s my fault for coming out and getting in the ref’s face but I just at least wanted some awareness. I guess one goalie interference a night is all you get around here. So, who knows?”
Q: [Head coach] Lindy [Ruff] talked this morning about, because these guys [the Flyers] hadn’t played well really, making sure that your heads were on straight. It seemed like it was for a while and then all the sudden it wasn’t. Philly, they fought off things too.
“I mean they got a break in the second and they got a nice third goal where they had speed and a bouncing puck. Then they got lucky on a play in the front, but all created by us. So, really, we did it to ourselves. We just have to clean it up. I’ve got to make some saves; bail guys out once and a while because that’s the nature of the game. Mistakes are made you just move on from them. I think we’ve taken everything really hard right now because we’ve had a few losses to start the season. Instead of rolling with the punches we get one mistake or one bad thing happens and the roofs cave in and the world’s ending. It takes us a little too long to get our composure back. We just have to be better about rolling with it. It’s going to be up, it’s going to be down, it’s an 82-game season. We’ve got to make our adjustments or else it’s going to just be 82-games. You’ve got to adjust, you’ve got to be tough and you’ve got to roll with it.”
Flyers center Danny Briere
Q: You guys broke it out in the second period offensively.
“Yeah, offensively, even though they scored the first goal, the first two periods we played extremely well. We controlled the play for the most part, that was good to see, especially after last night’s game. It was a little more tense around here today so it was good to see. Obviously the last ten minutes there we backed off a little bit but I think that’s a little bit of human nature when you’re up by four goals, but overall it was a good game on our part.”
Q: You mentioned it was tense, does a game like this help the mood and how much?
“It’s certainly going to help. I think it’s going to help everybody relax. Hopefully, offensively, get some guys going in the right direction. Goals have been a little hard to find, to come by lately, so hopefully there’s a few guys that can get on a roll.”
Q: How great is it too see balanced scoring from the team?
“It was awesome. I think we have a team that’s not going to rely on one line. We’re a team that’s built to come at you with different waves. Like I said, it was good to see some guys go and get going, and hopefully that’s going to carry on. A guy like Darroll Powe, you’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He’s been playing a while, he’s been hustling out there, it paid off for him tonight.”
Q: You want to see some games strung together, so this is only as good as your next game, is that fair?
“That’s fair. We’ve got to build off of it. We hope not to be a team that’s just going to be up one, down one, up one, down one. We want to put a string together and start positioning ourselves, make a move up the standings a little bit, not wait like we did last year.”
Q: Claude’s been talking about putting together a solid season, to show that he could do that for a full stretch. Are you seeing that, the way he’s playing full games?“Definitely, he’s been one of our best forwards so far this year. I’ve said it all along, we talk about him and how skilled he is, highlight reels that he’ll wow you with. The most impressive part to me, about him, is his competitiveness and how much he wants it, how much he battles out there. It’s one thing to have the skills and have the vision and everything but on top of it. The way he battles, it’s great to see and it’s contagious for the rest of the team.”
Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette
Q: What clicked tonight on the power play?
“I don’t know if I said it to you, I said it to somebody, for me the power play has shown good life. It was moving it around pretty good, I thought it’s been for the last couple games. You’d like to score more then what we did, but I thought that there seems to be some good movement and some consistency, there’s an attack there. A lot of times when your power play is not going the way you want it, you start to see that life first and then you start to see the results. I think the results finally came.”
Q: Were the line changes a result of the poor play last night?
“I still think were trying to find that consistency, trying to find the right chemistry and the right combinations, well continue to look at it.”
Q: Have they earned a day off tomorrow?
“Yeah, they’ll be off tomorrow.”
Q: Sergei [Bobrovsky] in net tonight?
“I thought he did good, he made some big saves. I have to go back and look at all the goals but I thought he did a good job, he hasn’t played in awhile, he’s a young goaltender, and I thought he did a good job for us.”
Q: Is it safe to say that it was a different performance than yesterday from you guys?
“Yeah, I mean I thought it was good. It took us a couple shifts to get our feet under us I thought in the first period, but after that I liked our game. We were attacking pretty good I thought in the offensive zone. It got away from us once we got up 5-1, it slipped away a little bit, and we had to reel it back in. But overall I thought it was pretty good after playing last night and coming back.”
Q: Do you think O’Donnell’s fight had an effect on your team?
“I did, I think it switched right around then. We were a little sluggish in the first five minutes of the first period and for me that seemed to be the turning point there. It brought a little energy to the building and a little energy to the bench and from there we were able to play better hockey.”
Q: How good was it to see the balanced scoring from all four lines?
“It was good. Last night wasn’t our best effort offensively with our attack in the previous game there’s just been a lot of opportunities at the net, and not the results that we’re looking for. I think we’re capable of scoring more goals than we have this year. Tonight it was nice to put some in the back of the net and to get them from different people. It seemed like everyone had a hand in it.”
Q: What clicked tonight on the power play?
“To me the power play showed up good tonight. It was moving around the puck pretty good the last couple of games. We’d like to score more than what we did, but I thought that there seems to be some good movement and consistency.”
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff
Q: Coach can you start with the play where Briere was behind your goaltender. You did get a bad break on that but it seemed you never recovered after that.
“No we didn’t. It isn’t the way we want to play. It was a little bit of a tough break but you get tough breaks at times.”
Q: And you were playing well before that. You got the first six chances of the period and were really going well until that happened, weren’t you?
“Yeah we were going pretty good. There were pockets of good play from both teams and pockets of possession in both ends. We dominated for a while and then all the sudden they would take over play.”
Q: Did you expect Philadelphia to be a desperate team? Was it pretty much what you expected and what you told the guys before the game?
“Yeah I think we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit by the penalties we took. If you want to give a team energy, you give them energy by putting them on the power play and I thought we did that. A couple of undisciplined penalties and it put us in a pretty tough spot.”
Q: Do you find yourself starching your head sometimes Lindy because you sometimes go from period to period looking very good and very bad?
“I think every team can answer that one because I don’t think every team dominates from period to period. I think you need to survive bad stretches. We have had some tough stretches where we haven’t been able to come out alive and that hurts us.”
Q: What called you out in the third where it got to be 5-1 and once again you got your game back?
“Again we had one go in where it gave us a little bit of life and we fed off that. I thought we fed off of the [Paul] Gaustad, [Patrick] Kaleta, [Nathan] Gerbe shift where they dominated play for 45 seconds, didn’t score, and then we scored after that.”
Q: How did you feel about [Luke] Adam tonight?
“I thought he had a pretty good showing. He ripped one off the post, had a chance early and I thought he handled himself pretty well. He was real good on face-offs and, by our count, we had him at seven and one. Pretty good night.”
Flyers center Jeff Carter
Q: Playing the night before, and you had a game like this, especially in that 2nd period, what does that do for the team’s morale?
“Yeah, obviously we don’t even have to talk about last night, we weren’t happy with it. We know that we have a lot better game than we showed. We had a little talk this morning, and guys came out ready to go. We had a pretty good 1st period, and then built up in the second period, and then kind of slacked back there in the third [period] there when it was 5-1, but a little to cautious and laid back.”
Q: What was the key for you in the second period? What changed in between periods?
“Well we were scared and getting on pucks. We got our forecheck down and get on the body. Get guys in there to get lose pucks, and start playing our game to get chances.”
Q: Was there anything different that you did to your power play?
“No. We have just been working on it. We haven’t changed it in three years. It was something that we pressed, just tried to get some shots and lucky to get a few tonight.”
Q: Did Sean O’Donnell make an impact because of that fight?
“Yeah, that’s why he has been around for 19, 20 years. He is a smart guy, who knows when to step up and he is the guy that will do that for his teammates. He’s the type of guy that does all the little things.”
Q: Claude Giroux said a couple weeks ago that he wants to put together a full season, where he is putting it out every night. Are you seeing that?
“Yeah, he has been good. I think since day 1 he came in in great shape. His skill set speaks for itself. When he is on the puck, he is effective and making plays and setting guys up and scoring goals. It’s been great so far.”
Flyers right wing Claude Giroux
Q: It wasn’t mentioned the mood was a bit tense, What does a game like this do in terms of a morale boost?
“Yeah, guys were a little frustrated in Columbus, weren’t having fun playing. I think tonight we were disciplined, playing hard, and we were having fun doing it. I think our guys are pretty happy right now.”
Q: Did something click there, I mean Sean had that fight right after they scored that goal and all of a sudden you guys seemed to get going?
“Yeah, we came out pretty flat and Sean, it’s a great time to get a fight going, guys started playing after that. I think it was the turning point of the game.’
Q: Could you tell right away the drastic difference from last night
“Yesterday wasn’t pretty but I think tonight, guys were working, some good position, a good fore-check and we just did everything good and I think we had a good meeting this morning and it I think it really turned around.”
Q: Did Laviolette lay down the hammer last night?
“He just showed us what we did wrong and I think guys realized how bad we played in Columbus. Guys were saying they had the lucky bounces in Columbus, but then we saw a couple plays we [had the bounces] and he made us realize we weren’t really playing the way we should.”
Q: That faceoff, did you know you could make that move against him.
“I was trying to go to the net and get Nodl back door, I think our guy was just trying to stick it to skate, and it went in. I was hoping Nodl could get a stick on that thought, we’ll take it.”
Q: Nice to get the power play going?
“Yeah, at the start of the season it was tough. I guess it’s good to have that slump right away at the start of the season and get it going, so it’s good.”
Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger
Q: O’Donnell kind of woke things up there with his fight…
“That wasn’t the start we were anticipating or looking for, he obviously gave us a spark there and did a great job in his fight. We did what we were supposed to do and responded.”
Q: What was the difference there in the power play tonight?
“We moved it around but we took the shots when they were there. We made a lot of traffic in front, we were able to get second and third opportunities by getting first to loose pucks. Really, a successful power play is one that outworks the penalty killers.”
Flyers defenseman Sean O’Donnell
Q: The team thought the game changed after your fight. Did you think at that point, they just scored, so you wanted to try and mix things up a little bit?
“Well it’s something that, yeah, once they scored and I saw I was on the ice. I thought that if there was a chance, I didn’t want to take a penalty or do anything silly, but if there was a chance to do something that would get our bench going or get the crowd going. Different guys can contribute in different ways, and I felt like the time was right to try and do something and it worked out well.”
Q: You have probably been on a lot of teams, where groups followed up with strong efforts. What is the secret to keeping that hunger?
“Well, that’s the magic thing I think. With a good team, like Detroit, Pittsburgh, and teams that just keep pushing themselves, pushing themselves, and pushing themselves. I think that’s what separates them. There are a lot of talented guys in this league, and a lot of talented teams. But, it’s the teams that can bring it every night. After you win three in a row, push it, and try and win the next won. If you go into a tough building on back to back nights. That’s the thing that we are getting to early on. We had our problems so far. The good news is that I don’t think any of us are happy with the way we played the first 9 games as a team, but we are .500. So it’s in this room, its just a matter of righting the ship.”
Q: Was this win a direct result of anything that was said this morning?
“No, I don’t think so. I think that a lot of us have pride, and we did not play well in Columbus last night at all. We said to ourselves, we knew this was a team that was here last night waiting for us. They did not play last night and give them credit; they came out and played hard. They got a quick one to make it 1-0. Maybe we were on our heels a little bit. We got the one to make it 1-1 and we seemed to wake up a little bit after that. I think it was a pretty quiet plane ride back last night. Even this morning, the guys were anxious to get out there. Anytime you play a poor game, you want to play as soon as you can to get back and get in good graces again.”
