Stars-Avalanche: Postgame quotes

Here are some quotes following the Dallas Stars’ 5-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche Thursday night. These quotes are provided by Stars public relations.

Stars Head Coach Lindy Ruff

On Erik Cole and Alex Chiasson’s play in tonight’s game:

“Both guys were good. Erik probably gave us his best game of the preseason and Chiasson was close behind it so it was nice to see. I thought Erik really skated well and was probably in on four or five good opportunities.”

 On the team’s defense tonight:

“We gave up a dozen or so shots on penalty killing, but 5-on-5 I thought we did a pretty nice job. There were a couple of kills and a couple of shifts where we got caught and we just stayed inside and weathered the storm, but other than that it was a good showing.”

 On Kari Lehtonen’s play tonight:

“He made a couple big saves at the right time. There wasn’t a lot of action and you worry about a goaltender that doesn’t get a lot of action. He was there when we needed him.”

 On using this game as an evaluation for the season ahead:

“I think they got a good handle of how we want to play and you know that’s important – we’ve got a big week ahead of us. So tonight was a good game to look at and take film from and just hammer home the small areas of the game.”

Stars forward Alex Chiasson:

On how the team played tonight:

“I think just the way we started compared to last game. I think were outshooting them in the first 10-1 and that’s good. I think we came out pretty quick. We looked pretty good in their defensive zone and I think that was one of the keys tonight. Overall it was a great effort, Kari [Lehtonen] played outstanding and I’m looking forward to next weekend”

On his goals tonight:

“I think most of my goals come from [in front of the net], that’s where I’m comfortable. If you don’t go in front of the net, you won’t get scoring chances. For me, really, it’s just to go [in front of the net]. There are other guys on the team that are good shooters and good passers, and if I go there I can usually get the chances throughout the game.”

Avalanche forward Matt Duchene

On what the team can take away from the game tonight:

“It was a sloppy game on our part, they made it tough on us. We weren’t sharp enough tonight. We’re learning new systems right now, and I think at times we’ve got to be diligent there, but you also can’t forget to play the rest of the game too. I think our offense suffered a little bit tonight just from that. Once we got the puck, we did not have the killer instinct, that attack mode going, and I think that will be something we need to work on.”

On playing the Stars in back-to-back games:

“They had a full line up tonight, and they are going to be a good team, and they are in our division, and we got to have a good record against them simple as that. So obviously, we dropped two preseason [games], but they don’t really mean anything. We’ve got to be ready for them once the season starts.”