Quotes of the day: Gallagher, Anderson & Ducharme

WINNIPEG - The Canadiens practiced at Bell MTS Place on Sunday afternoon.

SHOP: Locker Room Flat Blue Cap
Following the on-ice session, forwards Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson, and interim head coach Dominique Ducharme spoke with reporters via Zoom.
Here are a few highlights from their respective chats:
Gallagher was asked if there's a real sense of urgency in the dressing room with the midway point of the regular season on deck:
We've been talking about being urgent all year just because of the way the season is, but as the condensed schedule goes on and you're playing the same teams every night, points are critical to come by. You can't afford to go on these losing streaks. The urgency always needs to be there. You're just going to see it amp up and amp up each and every game you get closer to the end of the season, and so will the desperation level on every club. You can already sense it. You can just feel it growing and building, and by the end of the year, it's just going to continue to go higher.

The Habs' alternate captain also discussed the team's ability to handle adversity:
We've had a couple of losing stretches. You want to cut these things short. We lost a couple on the road in Calgary. We come into Winnipeg and the desperation level needs to be high. You're not happy with losing two, and you really won't be happy if you lose three in a row. You need to cut these things short and make sure you put some positive streaks together. That being said, there's really no doubt. I'm extremely confident in the group that we have. I know that we can handle this properly. The answers are there within the room. It's just on us players. Everything else is taken care of. We've just got to do a better job as a team of sticking to our systems, trusting our systems, and when we do that, it goes well. But we need to do it more consistently.

Anderson, meanwhile, stressed the importance of righting the ship in Winnipeg this week before flying back to Montreal:
These next two games are very important for our team. The last two, I don't think we were engaged in the game where we should've been. The communication wasn't there, the support wasn't there, and those are the things that when we do that, we have success. I can guarantee that tomorrow everyone's going to be flying out there and ready to go because we have to. The points are getting so tight right now, and these next two games are going to be very important before we go back home.

Like Gallagher, Anderson commented on the club's ability to overcome adversity as well:
I think that all good teams out there go through adversity. It's how you handle it. Right now is a very important time in the season. We've got to get back on track and start taking it one game at a time and going about our business here.

For his part, Ducharme discussed the significance of the two upcoming contests against the Jets:
I always approach the next game as the most important one. I think we made a lot of progress over the last couple of weeks. We took a step back on Saturday night, but we just have to use that in the right way to attack each game with the same mentality. We didn't do that in Calgary. If we learn from that situation, it'll be a loss that will also help us grow.

He also praised his players for recognizing that things must change immediately:
It's a good group of players. There's no doubt about it. I said it before, but I'm impressed with how fast they learn. It was just a bad night on Saturday. That isn't the way we want to play. That isn't our identity as a team. The guys know that. They can see the difference in the game when we aren't following the plan and getting away from our good habits. There's a lot of improvisation, and that isn't a recipe for success.