Quote Roundup: Pens-Sabres
By
Pens writing staff @PensInsideScoop / Pittsburgh Penguins
ON THE SABRES
Sullivan: "They're very dangerous. They have a lot of skill, up front in particular. There's such a fine line between winning and losing in this league, sometimes a team's record isn't an indication of how good they are. At this early part of the season, the way we look at each one of our opponents, Buffalo is the one tonight. We just have a lot of respect for them. They have a lot of good players, I think their forwards in particular are really good. They have the ability to score goals. I think they've faced a little bit of adversity in this early part of the season but they have the potential to be a very good hockey team. I know it's going to be a hard-fought battle and we're going to have to be at our best."
Ruhwedel: "There's been a lot of turnover since I was there, so they're a lot different. The whole structure of the organization is different. They have our old associate GM, too. They're a good team, a lot of talent, up front and on the back end. So I think it'll be a good matchup. We just need to come out and play our game. Playing fast, playing hard. Just having that mentality that we're going to work hard for each other and give it our best. I played against them once since I've been gone and that was a little weird. I don't think it will be as weird tonight. But it'll be good being on the ice with them."
ON STAYING DISCIPLINED
Sheahan: "Killing penalties with the new rules and everything, it's tough. If you can get rid of those penalties and try to play hard, keep your stick down, things like that, it'll make things a little easier."
Sullivan: "It's something we discussed this morning in our morning meeting, because it's critically important to winning hockey games. It's hard to win if we're going to take five or six penalties a game, it's a tall task to ask our penalty killers to kill that many in a game. It affects our team in so many ways, it overtaxes the guys that are killing penalties, it takes certain players out of the game and out of the flow of the game that we don't use on the penalty kill. I think it has a significant impact on more than just the special teams when we take the amount of penalties we're taking. We simply have to be more disciplined and control what we can so we don't put ourselves into positions where we have to take those types of penalties."
ON WHY THEY'VE BEEN SO GOOD AT HOME THIS YEAR:
Crosby: "I think you just feed off the crowd and the energy. I think we've definitely had better starts here than we've had on the road, so you're not chasing the game. That gives you a much better chance of playing the right way and getting the result you want. When I look at both as a whole, the starts go a long way for us."
Hagelin: "We like playing at home, we've been getting some pretty good matchups at home. Having our fans behind us, it's exciting to be out there on the ice and you want to do everything you can to give the fans what they want and that's a win."
ON BUILDING OFF THEIR LAST GAME, A 5-4 SHOOTOUT LOSS TO NASHVILLE
Sheahan: "I think for the most part, we stayed pretty consistent. We got down a few goals but I think we came back hard and I think it was a pretty intense environment and we played at a high level. They scored those penalty kill goals, which we would like to get rid of, but I think for the most part, we stayed consistent and we fought through a little adversity."
Rust: "For us it was just about managing the momentum swings. Playing in another team's building, maybe they get a goal or two and we wouldn't respond as well as we would have liked. Towards the end of that stretch we did, and that's something we're going to keep trying to build on, is when things don't go our way at first we have to fight through that adversity and try and have good bounce-back shifts."
ON STAYING POSITIVE THROUGH SCORING SLUMPS
Crosby: "It's nice to see one go in (on the shootout). Unfortunately it's in a losing cause, but I mean, that's the way it goes sometimes. The biggest thing, I've said it a number of times, is just getting chances, and trust that it'll go in. Last game I thought there was a lot more there and just got to continue to do that. At some point, it's going to go in."
Sheahan: "It's tough when you're not scoring the goals that you want to be. But I think we know in the locker room that we have a lot of depth, we have a lot of guys who can contribute, so it's just a matter of time."
