HEAD COACH SHELDON KEEFE
On what he liked in tonight’s win:
Yeah, a lot of things. We get scored on first and we don’t let it snowball. I thought we just gathered ourselves and made a couple little tactical adjustments that the guys caught on to quickly. I thought it turned the game for us in the first period there. So we’ve got ourselves the lead and then gave it up, then came back and built an even bigger lead. Just a lot of really good things. Then the third period, we just have to — you know that they’re going to have a really strong push and it’s important for us to not crack. They get the one and we stayed with it even shorthanded on the back end. Some guys battled really hard. A lot of really positive things for us in terms of winning a close game.
On if he feels a game like tonight is how the team grows:
I certainly do. I’ve said we talked about, it’s that feeling, it’s going through it, it’s finding a way, it’s losing a leader in the back end in Jake Muzzin. Just finding a way to get it done and not cracking. I thought we did a good job. They had a push, they threw a lot of pucks at our net in that third period, but I think if you were to go through it you would see there wasn’t a whole lot of quality in terms of scoring chances or anything like that. The guys did a nice job of protecting the net and Freddie made solid saves and didn’t let anything get in at the end there for us. A lot of really good things — the penalty kill, power play.
On the severity of Muzzin’s injury:
We don’t know. We’re going to have to see how it is here tomorrow and kind of go from there. He obviously wasn’t well enough to return. We’ll give it tonight and get more information tomorrow.
FREDERIK ANDERSEN (26 SAVES)
On the performance of the defence after losing Muzzin for the third period:
Yeah, I thought we did a really good job of just kind of covering up for each other and playing hard. I think throughout the whole group was great today. The PK was great, we generated some offence off of that and some huge momentum and then the power play did their thing, so it was a great game overall.
On Nylander’s goal:
I didn’t see it until after, but it was pretty special. I think it just creates extra reach for him and you don’t really expect it so not everyone can pull that off but good for Willy. It’s pretty.
TYSON BARRIE (2 ASSISTS)
On tonight’s win:
I think it was great. I think we played a really solid game. We had a good response to what happened to us last week. It shows a lot of character in this team, and then having [Muzzin] go down and the guys just kind of battling and grinding out a third period is a really good sign for us.
On what he liked best about tonight’s performance:
I think just the way that we responded to some adversity. We’ve got guys go down and they make a big push in the third, but we don’t break like we have in the past. Everyone just kind of mucked it up there at the end and we got the two points, which is what we need right now.
WILLIAM NYLANDER (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)
On his goal:
I didn’t really have time to think, it just kind of happened, but it was a nice to put one in, that’s for sure.
On the play Mitch Marner made to get him the puck:
He had a good stick there and then he waited him out. He put his stick to the inside, so he was able to feed it down to me, which was great because I had some space down there by myself.
On if he was trying to elevate the shot:
Yeah, I can’t really see anything so I’m going by feel. But obviously, yeah, you have to get it up there you want to score. Vasilevskiy is good along the ice, so you’ve got to get it up.
JOHN TAVARES (2 GOALS)
On what he liked about tonight’s win:
Just sticking with it. We didn’t get down. We didn’t get away from the way we needed to play when things didn’t go our way. We did a lot of good things tonight, in terms of the way we want to play the game, to our identity. Also, just this time of year, it’s a battle out there each and every shift. Just staying with it and understanding that it’s not always pretty but just digging in, playing hard, playing as a group, sticking with it, doing what we need to do. It’s one game, so build on it and obviously each game only gets more important as we go.
On how tough it is to see Jake Muzzin suffer an injury:
Yeah, he’s such a key player for us. He’s been playing great. No question it’s a big loss, but at the same time we can’t hang our heads and think ‘why us?’ As a group, collectively, we’ve got to all continue to step up and fill that void and continue to play better. When guys get more opportunity, that’s their chance to take advantage of it, relish it and thrive with it.
The view from left field 