Danault: 'Legends are born in the playoffs'

LAS VEGAS - The Canadiens secured a 4-1 win over the Golden Knights on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena.

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Montreal leads the series 3-2.
Following the game, forwards Eric Staal, Phillip Danault, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki spoke with reporters via Zoom, along with assistant coach Luke Richardson.
Here are a few highlights from their respective chats:
Staal on Suzuki's outstanding play in the postseason:
He's super competitive. Like a lot of guys on our team, his compete level is really, really high. Obviously, the skill set is there and the intelligence is there, but you need to have that extra compete and that level of competitiveness in order to make a difference. That's the number one thing I love about him and all these guys - our compete and our willingness to do whatever it takes.

Staal on finding a way to win another huge road game:
That's been our mindset this whole playoffs, continuing to do what we do, regardless of what happens. I don't think we change much. We do what we do every single shift. Every moment we have, every opportunity, we have to try and be difference-makers for our team. Each guy does that. The result wasn't there last game, but we're trying to continue to build our game better and better through this series, and tonight was a good step. It's the oldest cliché in hockey, but the fourth one is going to be the hardest. We're fortunate to have the opportunity at home, and we'll be ready to go in Game 6.

Danault on the team's solid penalty-kill:
I don't like to say that we're perfect during a series. We still have work to do. We're all trending upward together. Carey has been incredible for us. That's been the most important factor in terms of killing penalties. Everybody is on the same page. We're working together. It's about teamwork, like the win.

Danault on Montreal's youngsters coming up clutch in Game 5:
I'm very impressed, just like I've been throughout the playoffs. They're proud competitors. They work and do the right things every shift. They want to win. Legends are born in the playoffs. They've done excellent work so far. We need one more win, and we want to do it at home.

Kotkaniemi on the Habs' excellent performance in hostile territory:
We had a really solid 60 minutes tonight. All four lines were running nicely. It's a lot easier for our team when we can run all the lines and have success with all the lines, too.

Kotkaniemi on rebounding after a disappointing result in Game 4:
It's the confidence that everyone has. There's a mindset that we really have nothing to lose right now. Everything we do is just to win. If everyone trusts everyone like we're doing right now, that will take us a long way.

Suzuki on limiting the Golden Knights' scoring chances in Game 5:
We did a great job of killing plays through the neutral zone. We had great back pressure and great sticks, so they were turning a lot of pucks over in the neutral zone. We weren't letting them gain the blue line. Even when they were in our zone, you just saw defense all around. Guys were blocking shots and making big plays. We really need to keep that up.

Suzuki on collectively defying the odds in the playoffs:
At the start of the playoffs, there were a lot of people counting us out. Even when we were down 3-1 to Toronto, there was belief in this group. We were put together very well by Berge in the offseason. The guys that were brought in really gave us a huge boost. Just the experience that we have, us young guys can really lean on them and just go out there and play our game. We're a really confident team right now, and that's really, really helpful during the playoffs.

Richardson on the Canadiens' approach to Game 6 with an opportunity to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Final:
We're definitely excited with what we're doing right now, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We have good experience in the dressing room. They say the right things. We finish off games the right way. We're going to go into the next game, and it's one game to win. That's what we need to do. That's what we're going to focus on. Our leadership really leads this team in the right direction. The coaching staff and the management just support that. We're going in the right direction, but we're not there yet. We've just got to make sure that it's understood how much work it took tonight to win that game and put us in this position. We have to take the next step to make sure that we get to where we want to go.

Richardson on Cole Caufield's emphatic response to comments made about his shooting tendencies by Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner:
That's always the tactics in the playoffs. There's always some back-and-forth in the media. Cole's fun to watch. You see that big smile. Everybody loves him. He's got a lot of energy. You watched him at the World Juniors and I watched him play at Wisconsin. He plays the same way, with energy. When he scores, it's like his first goal ever. He's so excited. When other guys do things, he's jumping up and down. He's a real hockey player. I don't think anything's going to faze that guy. I'm sure he's been told his whole life that he's too small to play, and he's proved everybody wrong up until now, and now he's in the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, not just competing, but contributing every night in different ways, especially on the scoresheet. I don't think anyone's going to really affect his game plan.