MTL@VAN: Quotes of the night

VANCOUVER - The Canadiens closed out a successful road trip with a 5-2 win over the Canucks on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.

Following the game, forwards Corey Perry and Jonathan Drouin met the media, along with defenseman Joel Edmundson.
They were followed by head coach Claude Julien.
Here are a few highlights from their Zoom-based Q&A with reporters:
Filling in for an injured Joel Armia, Perry couldn't have asked for a better debut with the Habs, registering his first goal of the season and collecting four shots on goal while logging 15:19 of ice time. Admittedly, it wasn't long before he got his rhythm and timing back playing alongside Tyler Toffoli and Jesperi Kotkaniemi:
The first couple of shifts, I turned the puck over the one time. It was quick, but once you get in the flow of the game, I've played a few games in this League, it comes back. I felt good. The hands felt good. I played with some pretty good players tonight, so they made it easy on me.

While it was tough watching the first five games of the road trip from afar as a member of the taxi squad, Perry is thrilled to be a part of a team with major potential:
You want to play every single game. It's a different situation, but at the same time, we have depth on this team and some great players in this game. I'm here to win and I believe in this group. You can see it through the first six games and through training camp, everybody's here to win and show everyone that we mean business. It's a step in the right direction coming off this road trip and we've just got to continue that.

For his part, Edmundson was asked to comment on his fight with Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers. Edmundson approached Myers during the pre-game warmup to ask if he'd drop the gloves during the contest in response to his hit earlier in the weekthat resulted in Armia suffering a concussion:
I just took it upon myself and just asked him. I don't know if anyone saw me asking him during warmups, but I didn't feel the need to tell anyone. I just wanted to take control myself. I respect him that he stood up and accepted the fight.

The 27-year-old Brandon, MB native, who was acquired from Carolina in September, is incredibly impressed by the overall toughness of the team right now, with players up and down the lineup sacrificing their bodies:
We want to be good all over the ice. We obviously want to be good offensively, but we've got our small guys laying the body and blocking shots, too. We're big on the back end. It's a team that can do it all, so it's been fun and we just had a successful road trip. We've just got to keep doing that. I like the way our team's been playing.

Drouin, meanwhile, couldn't be happier with the way things played out on the road - collecting 10 out of a possible 12 points - but the journey is really just beginning:
We're happy with the way we're playing. We wanted to start strong. It's always nice to get going on the right foot. We don't have to try and catch teams ahead of us, especially in our division this year. We're playing three-point games every night. We wanted to start like this, but we can't be satisfied. We have to build on this. We have four lines producing. Everybody is playing well. We're really happy. We have to keep building and we'll get even better.

Drouin also praised the work of Nick Suzuki, who extended his point streak to six games on Saturday night with the first goal of the game. It's safe to say he's a fan of everything Suzuki brings to the table:
He trained the right way this summer. He's a player who pays special attention to the small details. I think he's a mini Patrice Bergeron. You can have confidence in him in many different situations. I play on the wing with him and I know he'll do his job in the defensive zone. That allows me to be more offensive. He's going to become a great player. He'll continue to develop. He's really focused, and he takes in a lot of information. He always wants to know what's happening. He's like a sponge. It's fun to see a young player like that improve and learn every day.

Julien genuinely appreciates the way his players handled themselves during the six-game trek, particularly in the finale:
We have a good locker room and a good group of guys. I think all of them have their focus in the right place. We were leading 2-0 tonight and the Canucks came back with a pair of goals. I liked the fact that our team didn't panic. We stuck to the game plan. We found a way to score the next goal and retake control of the game. Those are good signs. It shows that we have a good room. There's no panic. The guys support each other well. I think that was very evident tonight, especially with Edmundson's reaction at the start of the game to show that he didn't like the hit on Joel Armia.

Julien also applauded the way Perry went about his business in his first appearance for Montreal:
He's such an intelligent player, and he has good hands. He's very dangerous in the slot. He has good vision and he makes the right plays. He's someone who can still bring a lot to a team. He did well for a guy who was playing his first game.