PHILADELPHIA -- Quotes from the Sabres following their 5-4 loss to the Flyers.
Lindy Ruff
General comment: "There was a lot of emotion in the building. They got a couple breaks on tipped shots that helped them get the lead. I like where our club is at. I like their competitiveness and their battle back. I love everything about what they have done and the young defensemen what they have done in this building. We get to go back home with a split.”
On the rash of penalties: "I think we did get a little bit too jacked up. Sometimes you get those calls and sometimes you don’t get those calls. Like I said, it was a great hockey game. There was a lot of emotion in that game and we knew they were going to be desperate. I thought our response was a little too far, but I’d like to take it too far than not enough. I would love them to do so in our building."
On the animosity building between the teams: "It was an awesome display of emotion tonight. It is what the playoffs are all about. We have some guys that were able to taste that for the first time and they handled it pretty damn good. I am proud of the emotion that they fought through. I am not upset that we took it a little too far because the response is what we were looking for and they came back at them hard.”
Ryan Miller
On constantly killing penalties: "Not good for us, no matter what you think about the game. Not good. There were too many guys sitting around having to wait and too many guys wasting energy that could be used for other elements of the game. We took the penalties and we have to look at ourselves. We have to move forward.”
On emotions going overboard: "That is exactly what these guys [the Flyers] want to do. They want to get you to a certain point, but they are not going to get involved in all the scrums. Hartnell and Goose (Paul Gaustad) had a tilt, but that’s about it. I mean that is all you are going to get out of a night. I don’t think anyone wants to try Cody [McCormick] right now. They are all about putting it out there and getting a reaction. Unfortunately we reacted, I wouldn’t say in a bad way because I don’t mind that we are into the game and a little bit ticked, but we took it a little too far with some of that. You have to ignore it. You can’t retaliate, you have to instigate. I think that was the difference.”
Jason Pominville
On a close loss: "It’s unfortunate; we had an opportunity to leave here with two [wins]. Early on, I think our power play did a really good job and got us to where we wanted to be. We weren’t able to work it as good after that. We leave here with a split. I thought we competed and worked hard at the end, had an opportunity to get ourselves back in the game. Leaving here with a win is definitely fun, could have left with two but that’s what playoffs are all about.”
On the rash of penalties: "We’re making it harder on ourselves definitely by taking that many penalties and I think we did a good job overall. When you give a team that many opportunities at it, that many cracks at it, eventually they will probably make you pay. I still think overall, our penalty killers did a pretty good job tonight; they kept us in there.”
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