They Said It...
Rod Brind'Amour after the defeat...
"It's been a bit of the same story. It's not that we're giving up a ton, but when we do, we just seem to find a way [for it to go in]. A couple of weird bounces there off the start and you're behind the eight ball. You've got to give them credit, they didn't give us much. They were doing a nice job of defending when they got the lead. Special teams have to be better. I did like the penalty kill tonight. They did a pretty good job. (Montreal's last goal) is a floater. That's kind of a tough break. The five-on-three did a hell of a job. I didn't like Suzuki's power-play goal, it wasn't a Grade-A opportunity. We've got to find a way to score goals."
Jordan Staal sharing similar thoughts...
"We're starting off games down a couple and chasing is never a recipe for success. I just don't think we're defending well enough. We're kind of hoping to out-score teams and hoping to out-chance teams, playing that 50/50 'we get more goals than them' kind of thing. We've always been a club that defends and defends well. We've slipped in that aspect of our game."
Rod Brind'Amour on the team's defending and what hasn't been going right for the team...
"(We gave up) under 20 shots again tonight. That's a pretty good defense. It was 11 until the last seven minutes of the game. To me, if you look at the identity of our team, it's definitely changed in the last couple of weeks. We've changed the way that we play a little bit and that's no knock on the guys that we brought in, they're great players, but we have to remember how we play the game. I think we've changed a little bit and it's clearly not working."
Jordan Staal when asked about the team's struggles away from Raleigh...
"We've got to find a way to be better on the road. It's really hard to put a finger on [what's not gone well on the road], obviously. It's really disappointing, there's nothing better than a greasy road win and we haven't done that much this year. I think it really comes down to defending. When teams are comfortable at home, they're feeling it. We've got to find ways to slow them down and keep the puck out of our net. That'll give us a better chance on the road to get some wins."
