SHARKSPAGE

WCSF Game 3: Post-game comments by San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan, Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock

Post-game comments by San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan:

We are just trying to win games. There is no talk, or any thought about (tying Montreal’s record for playoff overtime victories). Again, the teams are so evenly matched. It is a bounce, a break, a save here or there that went our way tonight. The game itself was the tightest game yet. I didn’t think we skated particularly well. I didn’t think we had enough guys going. For us to continue on, we need to have more guys.

All year, especially early in the year when we weren’t winning we were concerned not so much about special teams, power play penalty kill, but a lot about our 5-on-5 play on both sides of the puck. When you look at the game tonight, power plas played even. It was important for us to try to match their 5-on-5 play. We stuck with it in the third period. It is hard to hold a lead right now, there are so much tension and stress out on the ice. We just kept getting pucks to the net and one went in for us. In overtime I am not sure we were the better team. They had a number of chances, goaltender made some good saves. We were opportunistic when we finally did get that chance.

Please don’t (bring up the Detroit 7-1 win in game 4 last year). We have tried very hard as a coaching staff to eliminate and seperate last year’s series from this year’s. I think I have referenced that a number of times about the different lineups and all of the circumstances that come into play. There will be a lot made out of the same date, overtime, all that type of stuff. It is completely irrelevant in my opinion. I hope it is because we took one hell of a licking in game 4 last year.

There is no doubt they had better scoring opportunities in the overtime period. It is as simple as that. Our goaltender had to make a couple of tremendous saves. They put themselves on the power play. We took a holding penalty that wasn’t very good, it was Seto’s second one of the night. Here we are talking about a player scored the winning goal and had a hat trick, yet coach isn’t very happy at a couple of his penalties. We have to take the good and the bad together. They were a better team in the third period. We needed that one opportunity, and I am glad we ended it when we did.

I just had a quick chance to look at it on the way in (Setoguchi’s second holding penalty in OT on Bertuzzi). I thought it was a lot like last night’s Nashville Vancouver where two guys were tied up, it could have gone either way. The officials did a very good job tonight. They didn’t have an impact on the game one way or another. We have got to move on.

Very big. You need heroes. You need people to step up, Seto was ours tonight. I kind of whacked him earlier talking about his penalties, and we will have to deal with that. He has got a tremendous trigger. He puts himself in situations where he can shoot the puck. He has got a couple of good players playing with him. When they split their line up with Datsyuk and Zetterberg, we had hoped we would have gotten a little more space for Jumbo, Patty and Seto. I am not sure that we did, but we earned a goal.

(Winning game 4) is obviously going to be our goal. CLiches, the last one is the toughest one, whatever you want. It will be as hard on us as we make it. Again tonight, we didn’t have a lot of polish, we didn’t have enough players in my opinion to play. We got away with one. We will have to be better. They have proven to us that they are not going away. They did it last year, and they sent a very stern message to us in game 4. We have to be much better than we were a year ago. We will try to approach the game a little differently, and try to prepare a little better.

We had won two games at home. We liked the way we played. I told you the (line matchups) weren’t going to make that much of a difference. It was going to be settled with the 18 skaters and 2 goaltenders. I think by us not going there immediately is a reflection of how much we believe in Logan Couture. He has to line up against Pavel Datsyuk. That is not an easy job. We have a ton of confidence there. We felt, we hoped that we could get a littl more space without having Pav and Hank out against Jumbo’s line. I guess when it was all said and done, we needed that last shot and we found it.

(Heatley) is fine. He came back. It was a hell of a hit. It took a lot of courage to pick himself up and get off the ice. He came back and played admirably.

Post-game comments by Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock:

It is a tough pill to swallow, especially when you are down 2-0 already. Obviously it was a game we could have found a way to win tonight. We had every opportunity even into overtime. I thought we made a mistake on their tying goal. D-zone coverage-wise where Boyle slid in, it was unfortunate. Our power play was good tonight too, but you always like to have a couple more stops on the penalty kill. It is just one of those things. We gave up chances on the power play and so did they. Obviously disappointed for us, we got to take tomorrow and get regrouped. We have to win a game.

They are finding a way, that is what good teams do. When you win a series, and four 1-goal games, you don’t think it’s that tight. You just find a way to win.

I don’t know what we were (on the power play), 2-for-4, or something like that, 2-for-5. It was a good opportunity for us (in overtime). I thought Pavel had a great opportunity right away in overtime as well. We had some good opportunities. We played in their zone for a lot of the overtime, and we didn’t score.

I thought we were on our heels a little bit (in the third period). Also on the power play for sure. Like I said to you on the tying goal, I thought that was a poor play by us. Then I thought for the next few shifts. Tonight I thought really was a pretty good hockey game for our team. For both the second period, which we had dominated, and the fourth period, we tilt the rink pretty good. We had lots of opportunity.

I thought our forwards were good. The question asked already, I thought the third period we were a little careful. Pretty good hockey game. Most nights if you play like that you are going to find a way to win. We didn’t find a way to shoot it into the net. On a line change there, Z is coming back in. He puts his stick down. Setoguchi passes off his stick, or it hits his stick, and goes in the net. It is just the way it went.

I don’t know (why Setoguchi was so successful), he just shot it. I thought on the power play, on the one goal he actually, I think he might have fanned on the shot actually. It went in. He just shoots the puck. I thought Thornton was real good today. They scored one even strength goal both on the power play otherwise. He shoots the puck. That is what shooters do.

To me I am going to spend no time worrying about the series. I am going to spend our time getting prepared for one game. And then after we win that, I will get prepared for the next game. It is way easier going about doing it like that. It has been done 3 times in the NHL history, and it was done last year by Philly. It is not easy. There is no question about it. But I think what we got to do, everybody is feeling bad tonight there is no question about it. We will get up tomorrow, get regrouped, and get right back at ‘er.