SAY WHAT: 'LET'S GRIND AWAY'

MARK GIORDANO REFLECTS ON THURSDAY:

ON MOMENTUM SWINGS:

"You never want to give the other team momentum where they can come back and score right after they've scored, or you've scored one. We have to learn to live with the fact that you're not going to score every shift. Let's grind away, put pucks in and build shifts and have the puck more than we have this last little stretch."

CHRIS TANEV ON MANAGING EMOTIONS:

"I think we have a lot of highs and lows instead of staying even keel throughout the game. When we're going good, we feel like we're on top of the world, and when the other team scores and it feels like the world is ending. It's definitely something we need to work on to stay even keel, regardless of what happens throughout the game."

ON BOUNCING BACK:

"We can't repeat that performance again or the same thing is going to happen. We played two pretty good games in Toronto where we didn't give them much, and we've got to do the same thing (on Saturday) - get pucks to the net and create a little more in the offensive zone. But like you said, they're better than their record, they work extremely hard, and they're going to take advantage of odd-man rushes that we give them."

GEOFF WARD ON PLAYING TO THEIR 'STANDARDS':

"It's up to everybody on the team to help with that. When you understand what your standards are and what your identity is, and you play to those things, I think it becomes an awful lot easier to manage. That's the reality of it. You're never getting away from it this year. The schedule's compacted and every game is in Canada and everybody's talking about it. It's a different animal this year. The circumstances in terms of how you pay attention to your results, they become critical."

ON TOUGH SCHEDULE:

"It certainly is a factor, but you can't use it as an excuse. … Our team definitely had some fatigue to it (on Thursday), no question."