SAY WHAT: 'IT WASN'T ENOUGH'

MILAN LUCIC ON HOW THE GAME PLAYED OUT:

MATTHEW TKACHUK ON LESSONS LEARNED:

"There's not a lot of panic in their game."

TKACHUK ON GENERATING OFFENCE:

"They weren't giving us anything. The couple chances we had, we scored on. There's no way they were giving up a ton today. The way they play, their depth... They've got four lines that can wear you down. Their D move the puck very well and they defend very, very well. You saw that in the third. They're a top-tier team in this league. There are a lot of guys over there with a lot of playoff experience and they know how to play in those tight games. We had a couple chances there in the third, but not enough to try and continue to put one past him."

TKACHUK ON STRONG PUSH IN THE THIRD:

"We controlled bits of the game, but not enough. You see why they're one of the best teams. They took it to us when they did and did a great job of protecting the lead in the third. When you have 10 or 11 shots after two periods, it's going to be tough for you to have the lead at that point and we didn't have it. That's a team that has a lot of depth that knows how to win and they played a good game. They're a good team - a really good team."

MIKAEL BACKLUND ON HOW THE GAME TURNED:

"We came out well, but they got some momentum in the second half of the first and carried that over into the first part of the second. I thought it was an even game. We tried to push in the third, but it wasn't enough."

GEOFF WARD ON MATCHING UP WITH NHL'S BEST TEAM:

"I thought we played them tight. We had the scoring chances 12-11 at the end. Chances were even the last two periods. We felt we were tight enough on the defensive side of things. Offensively, we probably would have liked more likes, they would say the same thing and the played a pretty good defensive game against us. After the first 10 minutes, they really settled in and good teams do that."

WARD ON THE STRANGE BOUNCES:

"They're a good team for a reason. They go to the net an they get rewarded for going to the net. We have to be a little more diligent of what's going on. I just thought those two deflections off the end wall were very quick. They were bang-bang. I don't know if you can necessarily fault anyone. ... It was kind of weird to assess how they got their goals tonight."

WARD ON NEEDING SIMPLICITY, OFFENSIVELY:

"I thought in the offensive zone when we got our forecheck going, we were effective. But I really thought that when the puck went up to the top tonight, we could have generated some more shots to the net. I thought we were deferring a little bit, looking for passes at the top instead of shooting it."