He was not in a bad mood nor was he angry, but his demeanor was that of a man who was already in game mode. He knows what is at stake tonight. Nobody in the locker room, he says, wants the season to end.
"We can't have any passengers tonight," he said, shortly after the club's morning skate. "They're going to come out hard. They want to finish it. We need to be better."
Game 3 is in the past. The Ducks have moved on, but they certainly have not forgotten.
The emotions they felt that night can serve as motivation tonight as they lay it all on the line.
"Every shift matters for us now," Montour said. "Every period, everybody has to be ready to go. Make sure whoever is in the lineup has to be ready to go. They've taken it too us pretty well in this series. We have to win the rest."
Head coach Randy Carlyle wants to see the team take a "singular" approach to the game tonight. He placed an emphasis on a good start by setting the tone with the first shift and "establishing your will early in the hockey game.
"Get ourselves focused on playing the right way," Carlyle added, "and doing some of the things we did the other night and not take away and go off on our own tangent as individuals."
Aside from Game 2 when the Jakob Silfverberg scored just 40 seconds into the game, a strong, quality start has eluded this team. Earlier today, Ryan Kesler emphasized the importance of hard work throughout the game. Silfverberg backed him up.
"Getting off to a good start has always been one of the keys for us all year," Silfverberg said. "When we have success, we have a really good start. We need to make sure we come out prepared and ready to work."
Silfverberg says it is up to the veterans and leaders of the team to keep them on the straight and narrow throughout the game. "We have a lot of veteran guys that can make sure we stay on the path," he said. "Those are the guys who are going to push the team in the right direction."
