Quote Roundup: Pens-Panthers
ON THEIR OFFENSIVE OUTBURST
Crosby: "I think that it's exciting for us and exciting for fans when you're scoring goals. Last game (an 8-5 win over Ottawa on Saturday) we had to score that many to win. It's pretty rare that you have to score that many to win. But they had a power play that was clicking and we had to find ways to get goals and we've been able to do that the last few games, so we just want to make sure we keep them out of our net, but it's good when they're going in."
Bonino: "Sometimes the puck goes in, sometimes it doesn't. I think we're making it tough on the other goalie for sure. And we've been doing a lot of it at even strength. Special teams haven't been great lately, but we've been good enough to win. We've been scoring a lot of goals 5-on-5."
ON WHAT NEEDS TO IMPROVE ON THE PENALTY KILL
Bonino: "Confidence. I think we have all the parts that make it work fine. I think if you look at the goals last game, one went off the crossbar, off of 'Coler' (Ian Cole) and off of 'Murr' (Matt Murray) and in. Another one went off the glass and in. So obviously we're not getting great bounces, but we've got to do a better job of clearing it and winning some battles. I think we're a lot better than we've shown. We know it. It helped us win everything last year. So just got to get back to that."
Cole: "I think we need to block shots, having a good stick, trying to deny those passing lanes and those seam passes, which are especially dangerous just because those really break down the coverage better than anything. And then collapsing down low around the net. We've got to make sure we don't get stretched out. Everyone is trying to make it work, everyone's trying to help. Sometimes we can get a little overaggressive trying to do that, trying to make things happen and sometimes maybe the best situation is to be patient and not run yourself out of position. The ability to stay tight, stay compact, block shots when we need to and obviously get clears is huge. Those are all obviously very basic things that everyone knows that you should be doing but sometimes it's easier said than done. But we need to make sure we get back to doing those and we'll be fine."
ON FLORIDA GOING THROUGH A RECENT COACHING CHANGE
Crosby: "We've been in that situation before and it's kind of up to everybody to prove themselves again and I think everybody becomes pretty motivated right away. So as far as kind of systems and things like that go, it's pretty hard to change everything all at once. But I'm sure they're playing some hard hockey and winning some games. I think we just have to make sure we're expecting a desperate and motivated team."
Cole: "It's a thing where as soon as that happens, you look inward and you say, 'Wow. Obviously I didn't do my job, we as a team didn't do our job because we just got a guy fired because of our play.' So I think to say they're going to be motivated and to say they're going to be determined is certainly right on. They're going to be a team that really wants to come out and any time there's a coaching change guys are playing for jobs. Obviously he's been affiliated with the team before so maybe not as much, but it's a thing where they're going to come out and they're going to want to really win this game for them and for their team. Obviously bounce back as a team. So it'll be a very competitive game but it should be good."
