The Coyotes practiced Saturday in preparation for Game 2, and the team was kind enough to provide media with quotes from today's session.
Coach Dave Tippett
On goaltender Mike Smith's workload late in the game: "We relied too much on him in the third period. I thought in the overtime they had a couple flurries but not near as much as bad as it was in the third period. But like I said last night, we were on our heels from killing penalties and didn't execute well enough to give us anything going in the offensive side. So Smitty (Smith) came up big for us, we got our first win, we all recognize we can be better in Game 2 and we're going to have to be better."
On making adjustments for Game 2: "That's the great thing about playoffs. Every game there's things you have to improve. Every game there's things you want to try to exploit on the other team. Every game is a challenge that way, and it's mentally and tactically."
On whether he was surprised about the offense in Game 1: "It's just the flow of the playoffs. Sometimes you get times when the game gets revved up and one team gets pinned in their end. In the second period (in Game 1) both teams took their timeout midway through the second period because the other team had a team pinned in. So sometimes the momentum of the game or the flow of the game just dictates that."
Shane Doan (captain)
On whether he was surprised about the offense in Game 1: "I don't know. They want to open it up a little bit, too. They've got some guys over there that can play with the puck. (Forward Alexander) Radulov, (Forward David) Legwand and that line. (Forward Mike) Fisher, (Forward Martin) Erat and their line. They can really play with the puck. Their blueline likes to join the rush and make it so it's an odd-man rush against. So, you've got to expect that there's going to be some offense. At the same time, they've got great goaltending and I think everyone talks about how great the goaltenders are in this series. And that's going to be a staple of the series."
On Game 2: "This game is huge. Everyone talks about the second and third games of every series and how big they are. We've got to find a way to win this next one. We didn't play bad (in Game 1), we didn't play great, we found a way to win and we've got to do it again, I don't care how. I'd love to be talking (after Game 2) about how we didn't play great but we found a way to win again. It would be fine by me as long as we keep finding ways to win."
Goaltender Mike Smith
On his size: "Obviously it doesn't hurt to be big. You cover more net, but like I said, I just try to get in a good position and make the saves I'm supposed to make, and then hopefully make some that just hit me, too."
On what he's thinking when he loses his stick: "I'd rather just let the defense keep their stick that way the puck can get out of our end. I practice that with Burkie (Goaltending coach Sean Burke), just playing without a stick and it doesn't happen very often, but when it does I have to be comfortable in that situation."
On preserving leads late in games: "I think as a group we want to get better in that area. We didn't play our best game, obviously. We stuck with our game plan for most of the two periods, but I think we can improve closing games out still. Obviously we lost some leads in the Chicago series and again last night. So, we have to keep trying to improve and finding ways to keep the puck out of our net late in games."