A Lighter Team Comments on 5-2 Win over Isles

Obviously the room was a bit lighter last night, starting with head coach John Tortorella on down (no bleeps in this one). Here are some postgame quotes from the team after their 5-2 victory over the rival Islanders at Nassau Coliseum on Thursday night. Quotes courtesy of Andrew Gross at Ranger Rants.

Henrik Lundqvist on the Tempo: “After a few minutes, we knew that was the kind of start, it’s happened a lot of times in this building,” Lundqvist said. “They come out flying and we have a tough time settling in. It was important for me personally and for the team to stay in there. I don’t know how we had the lead after the first, but we did. Going into this game, we talked a lot about playing this team and the rivalry. We need to feel how exciting it really is. As the game moved on, we played more physical. After the tough start, we came back and played the way we should. It’s fun.”

Lundqvist on the incident with Nate Thompson: “I just jumped out and I think I hit his skate, you could see his leg went like that,” Lundqvist said. “So, in my opinion, that’s a save. (Another smile) I knew I had to jump on him so I went after his leg and I think it helped.”

Ryan Callahan on Responding: “After that last game, we showed some character to come back the way we did,” Callahan said.

Chris Drury on team effort: “The only thing that resonates with me is going home with two points,” Drury said. “That’s it.

“The outcome is no guarantee of anything,” Drury added. “We know we played harder, not even sharper, just harder physically. We have to keep it always as simple as we possibly can. Don’t even think about (Carolina on Monday), just the first 5-10 minutes of the Philly game.”

John Tortorella on Victory: “The key thing is we’ve got to start becoming a team,” Tortorella said. “I think that’s the most important thing. We’ve had a lot of changeover as we’ve gone through here. There is a new coaching staff. There is a lot of new faces coming in here. It is late December here and the important thing is for us to become a team and play as a team and play for one another. I don’t think we’ve gotten there yet.

“I thought Hank was very important there,” Tortorella added. “He made some really good saves. With some of the crap that’s going around this team right now, if you’re down 1-0 again in this back-to-back thing here with the Islanders, you’re not sure how the guys will reach. Hank kept us there, gave us a chance and then we found our way.”

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