20220118_gaudreau

JOHNNY GAUDREAU ON GETTING A VICTORY:

ON MOOD IN THE ROOM:

"When you go through a stretch like this, it's tough to come to the rink. For me, personally, just try and keep it light. Crack some jokes here and there. But at the end of the day, it's hard coming to the rink when you're not playing well and you're losing games and you're falling out of the playoffs and keep going down through the list. We do our business on the ice and off the ice, we've got to make sure... like I said, keep things light and make sure we're enjoying coming to the rink, because we're pretty privileged doing what we do. It's difficult sometimes, but you try and have fun with it."

ON SAM BENNETT'S RETURN TO CALGARY:

"It's great. He had a fresh new start in Florida and is playing well. Good for him. I was pretty close with him the past seven, eight years we played together. It's going to be fun to get a chance to play against him."

"Focus on that first period"

BLAKE COLEMAN ON ACCOUNTABILITY:

"If you spoke to all 20 guys that will be in the lineup tonight, they all think they can play better and have more to offer. That's where it starts - the accountability with yourself. Once you've worked on your game and have gotten yourself to where you need to be, then you can hold others accountable and go from there."

ON FACING THE PANTHERS:

"It's pretty simple, really. You've got to be a great checking team. You've got to be a great defensive team, committed to playing in your own end. Typically, teams like this will give you your opportunities - you don't have to force it because they're so aggressive, so you're going to get your chances that way."

ON GOOD WEEK OF PRACTICE:

"We've really put a strong emphasis on checking this week at practice and that's what our team's recipe is. I think regardless of our opponent, that's got to be our recipe for success, and we've just got to get back to it."

"We know the urgency is now"

DARRYL SUTTER ON LAST MEETING WITH CATS:

"We actually played really well in there. We didn't finish chances and once we got behind, then we started turning pucks over to create chances - and that's a no-no against them. I'd say the other thing is that something that's really uncharacteristic for our group is we gave up the two powerplay goals in the first period and they were basically lost battles in the corner. Pucks went low to high and they went to the net - beat us out of the corner and beat us to the front of the net. We have to be a lot more competitive in those parts of the game and it showed up in our penalty killing."

Coach on tonight's big tilt

ON FLORIDA'S RISE TO PROMINENCE:

"If you look, they came really close to beating out Tampa last year. Rivalries are created between good teams, not proximity. Tampa being the two-time champ and Florida built their team - with a new general manager coming in - built their team to beat Tampa. If you look at their depth of the organization now in terms of who they can move guys around and not miss a beat. And that's what you need come playoff time. But you need to beat the champion."