Avalanche Morning Skate Quotes: Game 4 vs. Predators

The Colorado Avalanche hosts the Nashville Predators in Game 4 of the teams' Stanley Cup Playoffs first-round series at Pepsi Center on Wednesday night.
Here is what some of the Avalanche players and head coach Jared Bednar had to say about the matchup following morning skate.

On The Approach To Tonight's Game: "We have a game plan. I think in the playoffs, the team that can stick with it long enough can find ways to win. The score can't dictate the way we play. We know how we have to play, we've done it for 85 games this season. Through the good and bad, we know our identity and we know how we have to play and just stick to that all game."
On The Physicality Of Game 3: "It's playoffs, I think you naturally want to hit and be physical. Obviously the emotion of the game, guys are going to be physical. They have a good team, a very fast team, strong, and we expect them to be physical. It's the playoffs, and we are not expecting anything less than that."
On Colorado's Injuries On Defense: "Obviously they are two really good, puck-moving D that we are missing. I thought in Game 1 'G' (Samuel Girard) was our best defenseman, just bringing the puck out of the zone, going to the net. He was very dynamic, and he has been all season. It's a big loss, hopefully he will be back soon, but even if we had those guys we still have to help our defensively."
On Nashville Coming Back From Game 3: "We are always going to expect that. We are focusing on ourselves, we know what they do. We are going to try to dictate the pace, but we are always expecting teams to have their best game."

Left Wing Gabriel Landeskog

On The Importance Of Scoring First: "I think we talked about it yesterday a little bit, about whether we get that first one or not, just stick to the game plan. I think obviously last game we got rewarded in the first period and when we were in those chances as well. Playoffs and against a team like this, they're not just going to give you chances, they're not just going to hand them to you. They are pretty good through the neutral zone and fast through there, and if we can turn some pucks over there, making sure we can go back in there, I think we can make some things happen."
On Colorado's Approach To Tonight's Game: "Even the second half of the regular season is just about sticking to your game plan longer than the other team. It's a game of mistakes, mistakes are going to happen, it's just a matter of how you bounce back, how you handle momentum shifts throughout the game. Obviously with the crowd in our favor tonight, I hope they just bring it just as they did a couple nights ago, and we are going to try to feed off that again."
On Playoff Hockey: "Every inch matters, every scrum matters, every shot matters, every turnover matters. Everything just magnifies. Playoffs has an ability to [make] the smallest mistakes, the smallest bounces make you pay and shift momentum, shift momentum in the whole series really. It is just a matter of like we talked about going into the last game, making sure we go out there and play hard and let loose and go have some fun, but also stay focused and stay detail oriented. Some of that we have done a good job of doing all year."

Defenseman Duncan Siemens

On The Mindset Going Into Tonight's Game: "I think it is important for us to reset. Obviously we had a real good performance last game, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't get the job done tonight. So we are looking to regroup just like we did after the two losses and make sure that we have our best game tonight,"
On Colorado's 5-on-5 Success: "I think we have just used our speed. We have such a fast group up front, a lot of skill. They have been able to really work the puck low and find the open guy. So I think 5-on-5, that's something that we really need to key on. I think going forward that we need to make sure that we are disciplined, making sure we keep their power play off the ice."
On His Approach To The Game: "I have to make sure that I'm playing with that edge, making sure I am being physical and in their face, but you have to walk that line. You don't want to be that guy that is taking a penalty that may cost you a game. I think it is really important for me, they like to get in some scrums and stuff, to keep my hands down. Obviously being a bigger guy it's easy to be spotted, so you have to really make sure you are managing your emotion but walking that line of being on that edge."
On Physicality's Effect On The Game: "I think that's evident. I think that has been evident throughout the whole playoffs, not just our series. I think certain guys really have to watch themselves. Being a young guy in this league, not really knowing the referees and them not really knowing me, you want to make sure you aren't doing anything to get on the wrong side of them."

Head Coach Jared Bednar

On Tonight's Lineup: "Same lineup, (Samuel Girard)'s going to miss again tonight."
On Tonight's Approach: "Same game plan, same mentality as last game. We want to have a start, we want to be the aggressors, we want to get on our toes, keep pressure on the puck. I thought last game some of the things we did real well was we were tenacious on the puck on our forecheck, staying on the puck, not one and done. Created some turnovers and some O-zone play. We tried to get in and out of our zone, which we did. We blocked some shots, we kept pucks off our net better last night than we did in Nashville. Same thing, you got to play a complete game. We have talked about the Preds and how good they are and how few mistakes they make, and when they make one or we force them into one we have to be ready to capitalize on it and put it in the back of the net."
On The Pressure Of Game 4: "I don't think we have felt pressure really being here, I don't want us to. I think that we want to make sure that we are having fun. We have worked all year to get to this point, it should be a fun time. Our guys are enjoying coming to the rink, it's the best time of the year to be coming to the rink and be playing in a series like this, taking on a tough competitor. For me, if our guys keep that mentality and we continue to work and do the right things, we give ourselves a chance. I don't want our guys to tighten up at all because it doesn't fit our style or what we've been or who we have been all season. For us, the mentality has to stay the same."
On Injuries Effecting Colorado's Game Plan: "No, the reason is because we ask our guys to do that all the time. Defense isn't a six-man job, it's a team job. Same thing with offense, it's the same going both ways. You can't create offense with three players and you can't play defense with three players. It has to be a five-man unit and then you throw your goalie in on top of that. We ask our forwards to be committed defensively and come back hard, all the way into our zone with five guys, arrive down there and get the job done. When we see a break then we can go for it, but we have to be committed as a team to play defense and hopefully that helps out some of those guys. One thing we can do is we can communicate a little bit more, talk a little bit more, make each other's' jobs easier by being their eyes and ears out there. If you do that, it makes everyone's job around here a little bit easier."
On David Warsofsky : "He's been good. He jumps into a high pressure situation after playing just a handful of games for us. He was better on the power play last game than he was the game before, and we are going to need him to improve again tonight. We are asking a lot of some of those guys, but for me, they are giving us all they have. They've stayed ready, they've stayed prepared, they have been paying attention and now they are coming out and working. Their compete level is where it needs to be. He is moving the puck, he is seeing plays and been a pretty good defender too along the way."
On The Message About Being Physical: "The post-whistle stuff we don't necessarily need, it's not something that fits our identity, it never has been. What I am OK with is the push back and when I say that that, it is within the play. For us, we have got more physical as the series has gone on. I think they took it to us in that department--the hit department, the takeaway department in Game 1. Game 2 when push came to shove, we were right there, probably as physical a game as we have played all year. That is led by guys like (Blake) Comeau, (Gabriel) Bourque, (Colin) Wilson, (Nikita) Zadorov, the usual suspects, but I think the rest of the guys on our team have learned to play through some of that and that is what you need to do. I want us to continue to play physical and continue to be hard to play against with our puck pressure and being strong on pucks and protecting pucks. If some of the nastiness comes after the whistle. I am good with our guys skating away as long as we are sticking up for one another. We just got to make sure we are competing when the puck hits the ice until the whistle blows."
On If Being Disciplined Is Hard To Do Against Nashville: "I don't know that's Nashville's M.O. I just think it's just this time of year, it's the competitiveness and the urgency the teams are playing with, the emotion. You have to play this game with passion and when you have two team laying it on the line, there's going to be some tempers flaring, especially when you're playing the team every second night for a week straight. It's bound to go up here as you start playing Games 4 and 5, 6 or 7, if it goes there. It gets more intense; the guys are going to keep battling harder and harder as we go on."
On Nashville's P.K. Subban's Comments: "I think that that play happens many times a night in different scenarios. To me, I looked at that play and I said maybe if he catches him and the ref sees it and he is looking at it, then he could get called for roughing, maybe. I think it is happening all over the league, I think that is the competitiveness of it. Our guys have to play through it and their guys have to play through it. I don't think the ticky-tack stuff is what should be called in a playoff series. They have battled 82 games to get here, and I think they have to continue to battle through a lot of that. I think some of them should be called, some of them shouldn't. The penalties you want to see called is when you break a team down, when you force them into a mistake and you get in the scoring area, and someone gets on your hands and takes that away or trips you or roughs you or cross checks you to take a scoring chance away, then I want it called. And same thing going the other way, I think our guys do the same thing Subban did there. To me, it's not a big deal. It's just something you play through this time of year."
On Nashville Goalie Pekka Rinne: "I can't speak to his psyche. I think that we feel that if we get on the attack and we create a certain quality of shot with some traffic, and we create enough scoring chances and we do that repetitively then we have the ability to score on him or anybody else."
On Duncan Siemens: "He has gone down there (AHL) and worked hard from all accords. He is a good pro down there, he's a great team guy. He comes up here, and he gets real clear on what his role is and we lay it out for him and how we need him to play. We don't want him to change anything. We just want him to be the best version of himself that he can be. On most nights he is, he has been consistent. He knows who he is as a player, he knows that if he goes out and plays that way, that it's good enough for us. It's a win-win for us, he's a depth player that we need at this time of the year, and he is coming in and he has done a real nice job staying within his game and his limitations. We know what to expect from him, it's no different than any other player we have. If they are consistent at what they do and what their role is as it is defined, then it is what it is. Right now, he is at the top of his game and he has played well.
Quotes compiled by Taylor Hodapp