SAY WHAT: 'WE WEREN'T SHARP ENOUGH'

OLIVER KYLINGTON ON DIFFERENCE IN THE GAME:

ON THE TOUGH SCHEDULE:

"It's the same for everyone else. I think this time of year, it's... The mental game, you have to be sharp mentally and prepare and be ready to go every night. We have to reset and recover and have a good game on Thursday. It's as simple as that."

ON OVECHKIN:

"He has a good shot. He does pretty much the same thing all the time, but when he gets his chances, he capitalizes. That's special with him. A player like him, you have to play him tight, you have to minimize space for him out there and just be on top of him all the time."

DAN VLADAR ON HARD-FOUGHT GAME:

"We lost, right? Can't be really positive. Another day tomorrow, sun's going to come up, got to get better tomorrow.
"Obviously, they have a lot of power especially at forward, so I kind of saw it coming."

DARRYL SUTTER ON HOW IT PLAYED OUT:

"I thought we hung around and needed a couple saves, needed to bury a couple chances. There were some Grade-A's that we had to get a two-goal cushion at some point. I think their depth showed up a little stronger than ours. We did what we wanted to do - try to come out in the third and split some minutes up, get three or four minutes out of everybody. Didn't like a couple of the goals, though."

ON OVECHKIN'S TWO-GOAL NIGHT:

"He's a goal-scorer. The goal he scored, we turned the puck over and (gave) it to him right in primetime for him, right? That's what he does. And you know what, the looks he gets on that powerplay, too, I think our killers did a good job against him."

ON FIVE-GAME-IN-SEVEN-NIGHT STRETCH:

"I think the guys have played a lot. I said that last night. Weren't as sharp last night. That was evident. When that happens, that tests the guys who get the minutes and see how they hold up and some of them didn't."