They Said It…
Rod Brind’Amour giving his description of things and where they went wrong during regulation…
“It was kind of a weird game. I thought we were okay to start. Events first six minutes of the second, everything’s fine. Then we took a bad penalty, and they made a nice play. Then a bad bounce on the second one. Then they just snowballed on us there for the rest of the period. I knew we were going to get going eventually to get back in the game, give us a chance to win, but you can’t have those mistakes in the second period.”
Andrei Svechnikov accepting blame for taking a penalty in the second period, which started Vegas’ snowball of four goals in 6:26…
“It started with me. Obviously, I took the penalty and they scored the (first) goal. They kept the momentum and scored a few more goals.”
Jordan Martinook on the team’s ability to fight back to force overtime…
“I love that we feel like we can come back from anything, but you can’t put yourself in a hole like we did in the second period. For them to come out like that and take total control of the game, it’s something that can’t happen, especially at this time.”
Rod Brind’Amour on the decision to turn to Brandon Bussi for the third period…
“There was no reason to leave Freddie in there the way that game was going… (Bussi) gave us a chance. (The overtime winner) is a tough break. I hate it for him, because he was playing great.”
Brandon Bussi on playing for the first time in almost two months and making his first-ever Stanley Cup Playoffs appearance…
“Honestly, I was pretty even-keeled. These are the moments you want to be playing in, right? I just put my head down and have fun with it. It was a great effort by us. Obviously, a tough bounce there in overtime. It kind of felt like it was going to be a greasy one, and unfortunately, it was in our net. We’ll regroup.”
Jordan Martinook on Brandon Bussi’s playoff debut…
“He was incredible. I think, what, his first shot (against) was a penalty shot against Marner? We know we’ve had two good guys all year, so we have a ton of faith in Bus, and he played well when he got in there.”
Rod Brind’Amour on where the team goes from here in net…
“We’ll figure all that out later. We’ve got a couple of days to reassess how we’re going to go about the next game.”
Jordan Staal on the emotional drain of a game like that and looking ahead to the next one…
“It’s playoff hockey. It’s part of the gig. It’s never easy, it’s never going to be easy, and we know that. We understand that. We’ve got a bigger hill to climb now, but we’re excited for the challenge and excited to keep playing hard and keep moving forward.”
