OTT@MTL: Quotes of the night

MONTREAL - The Canadiens snapped their five-game winless streak with a 3-1 victory over the Senators on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.

Following the game, goaltender Carey Price, forwards Brendan Gallagher and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and interim head coach Dominique Ducharme spoke with reporters via Zoom.
Here are a few highlights from their respective chats:
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Price talked about the team's efforts while short-handed, keeping the Senators from breaking the contest wide open when Joel Armia was assessed a double-minor early in the first period:
The penalty killers were huge for us. Everybody was working in unison and executed everything well. I thought we just did a great job of eliminating plays and closing seams. I thought that everything we wanted to do we accomplished.

The Habs' starter also shared his thoughts on getting his groove back after a tough stretch:
I was just thankful to get back in the net and get that opportunity to get another crack at it. The whole time, it's just been focusing on the process and keeping things simple, and the guys played very well in front of me tonight to help me out.

Gallagher, meanwhile, was happy to help Ducharme and assistant coach Alex Burrows pick up their first wins in their new roles:
Both Dom and Burr have been working incredibly hard to implement their system and kind of put their footprint on this team and get us playing the way they want us to play. The work ethic that went into this, it's just a building block. We're not satisfied. We had to work hard to get out of that little skid that we were in and we don't want to go back there, so we're going to stay humble. We understand it's one win. Each win in the NHL is hard to come by, so you enjoy it, but when you leave the rink, you get ready for the next one. We know how much work went into this. We'll just continue to build on what we've been working on here. The exciting thing is that there are areas in our game that can continue to grow, and if we do that, we can get back to being a team that other teams are worried about.

The Canadiens' alternate captain praised the play of defenseman Jeff Petry as well, and the incredible progress he has made in recent years:
When he came to us, he was in a situation where he wasn't really wanted in Edmonton. We were pretty unsure with what we were getting, but it didn't take long to understand the talent that he had. You look at the playoff run we went on that year, he was probably our best defenseman. Since he came here, he's been able to have that impact. He's a guy we use in every situation. He's a very, very good teammate, and he's continued to get better. At this stage of his career, to continue to improve says a lot about who he is and the work that he puts in, his brain and the intelligence he has for the game. We're fortunate to have a player like that. He's definitely one of the best in the League. We're just lucky to have him.

Kotkaniemi discussed the Canadiens' success with the man advantage versus Ottawa:
We were moving the puck pretty well tonight. We were trying to drive the play towards the net all the time. If you keep shooting, that gives you a lot of opportunities to score. We were good in those areas tonight.

The 20-year-old Finn also talked about adapting to Ducharme's system:
I like it a lot. At first, we changed little things. I could feel that day by day we were learning a lot of new things so we could try and play our game with the new system. I think it's pretty similar to what we did in Laval last year. We saw a lot of the same things. I'm actually feeling pretty comfortable with it.

The Habs' bench boss was asked about Jonathan Drouin picking up the game puck for him:
I didn't know that it was Jonathan who collected the puck. When we got back to the dressing room, I said something to the players and Shea gave me the puck. It was a nice gesture. I've known Jo for a long time. I think it's 10 years. I'm happy for our players. We've been through a rough period. We deserved to win on Saturday night in Winnipeg. Wins aren't always pretty when you snap a streak like that. But we're seeing that we're headed in the right direction and we deserved this win.

Ducharme was proud of his group for a number of reasons:
We faced adversity. The Senators play the right way. They worked hard. They do a bunch of things that make life difficult for their opponents. I'd say we faced more adversity tonight than during the game in Winnipeg. When we had tough moments, I liked the way our players regrouped. I think it's good experience for our players to keep on growing as a team. We handled the situation well.