Postgame Quotes Nashville Predators vs. Winnipeg Jets Predators Quotes Head Coach Peter Laviolette On the fast pace of the game… I thought the first 10 minutes were really fast for both teams and we expected that and I’m sure they expected that also. I thought it got cut up a little bit by the penalties that took place through the course of the game but our guys found a way to stay in it, which was good. Sometimes it can get frustrating when you don’t score, but we stayed positive and kept working and eventually scored some goals. On getting under Winnipeg’s skin and agitating them… I don’t know if we were necessarily trying to agitate them, we were just trying to be competitive. We knew that the team that stayed out of the penalty box probably had the best chance of winning. When you’re just trying to get lines out there, it disrupts things a little bit, so I was happy we stayed in it mentally. On the Predators’ struggling power play… I think there are some things we can do better. You’ve heard me say this before – there’s always a stretch of time through the course of the season where something doesn’t go your way. You have to work at it and you give it extra attention, but we have a tremendous amount of confidence in the guys out on the ice, so I don’t see this as a long-term problem. We have to work our way through it. On Ryan Hartman’s speed… You have to remember, he’s catching a moving train. This is a guy that was caught in the off-season not being able to work out the way he wanted to and missed a little bit of training camp too. It’s nice to see him pick up to the peak speed of his game and get rewarded with a big goal tonight. I thought his last couple games he’s really showing signs that he’s coming (along). Goaltender Pekka Rinne On how good this win felt… It feels good early in the season. After losing the first home game, (a) nice response by all of us. It’s Winnipeg, you know, we just lost against them in the playoffs and you could sense that. There was a lot of emotion on the ice. I thought that the first period was the fastest hockey so far this year. It was back and forth. Second period, obviously, we had a lot of power plays, and then third period we just played really smart. Captain Roman Josi On why they haven’t been able to score on the power play this season… I think tonight it was execution – we didn’t execute very well. Just not making the simple plays and getting the simple shots and I think that was our problem tonight. I thought we had some chances too, sometimes it works for you and sometimes it doesn’t. I think execution was the biggest problem on the power play. On how big this win was for them… Feels good, every win feels good. Playing a game like that, I thought it was a really fast game right from the beginning. They’re (Winnipeg) a great team over there and every time we play them it’s a good matchup so it feels good to get that win. Forward Ryan Johansen On how the win and their play in the third period felt… It felt good, it was the step we wanted to take. We weren’t happy with our home opener, so it was a good bounce back for our group and beating a team we’re most likely going to have to go through in the playoffs, so we’ll gain some confidence from there. On the struggles of the power play tonight… We need to score, you’ve got to put the puck in the net. We’re happy with the win and we’ll be able to look at everything, it’s definitely nice to not lose that game having had all those chances. We won’t get frustrated with it, we’ll just look at what we need to do better. On Colton Sissons and Mattias Ekholm’s fights tonight… I don’t know if I’ve seen them in a fight before. (Sissons) was throwing bombs, he did great. Ekky (Ekholm) is a big man too and you just love seeing the guys sticking up for each other. On if the aggression from the Jets was a result of the Predators frustrating them… Yeah, I’d say so, if its vice-versa things tend to get a little chippy from us. I think we did a good job playing whistle-to-whistle hockey and playing a clean, hard game and we definitely frustrated them a bit. Defenseman Ryan Ellis On playing game No. 400 in the NHL… Well, only 600 more to go. It feels good, especially to get a win. It’s a good team over there so it was a good game for us. On the history between these two teams in an early season matchup… You say there’s a lot of history, but only one playoff series. I think we got Chicago, Anaheim – there’s more history with them right now, but they’re a good hockey team, it’s two really good hockey teams. Give them props, they play well, they play a hard game, a hard style, as do 30 other teams in the League. It’s really just two good teams going at it. On the fast pace of the first period and whether that was the Preds game plan coming in… I think both teams are pretty similar matchups overall from the net out. They’re a really fast, highly skilled team, and I feel like we’re the same. It kind of felt like another playoff game out there, just the pace, the tempo. They played fast, we played fast, and I thought it was a really good hockey game. Jets Quotes Head Coach Paul Maurice On managing the penalties against the Jets… There’s not much you can do in terms of personnel. You’ve got half your team gassed after two (periods) and half your team frozen on the bench. They did a great job and they kept their shifts relatively short so that they could go back out. It was as good a penalty killing as we’ve ever had – outstanding. On breaking down the penalties that were and weren’t deserved… We took two penalties we earned. I felt the line was moving quite a bit on the other one, but you’re going to have games and nights you don’t agree with the way it went and still have to find a way. I thought we did a lot of really good things to do that – stay in the fight, stay in the battle. That’s one heck of a night of penalty killing. On how the Jets played 5-on-5 in limited opportunities… I liked it through two (periods). I don’t think we were overly sharp in the third, but I had half a group drinking hot chocolate on the bench just trying to stay warm. Forward Blake Wheeler On if it is tough not being able to build on success playing 5-on-5… We were great on the kill too – killed off a lot of penalties. The three goals were breakdowns – just things that we have to clean up, but other than that large chunks of it was good. Defenseman Dustin Byfuglien On two bad bounces ending up as goals for the Predators… That’s never easy, but it’s something that we can’t let sit with us. We have to just move on and now we just look ahead to our next game and get ready for that. On if having a young roster is a risk for frustration taking over… I don’t think there was too much frustration going on in that game. I thought our bench stayed up pretty well and we stuck together. (Sometimes) the game goes like that; every team is going to go through it and we just found a way to battle through it. I thought we did a pretty good job as a group. It could’ve been a lot worse. .