THEY SAID IT
Evangelista on scoring his first goal of the season:
“It feels good to finally get on the board and contribute to a couple of wins back-to-back. I was happy to get the ball rolling a little bit in New York and finally get on the sheet and then finally bury one tonight. Hopefully, I can just keep the momentum going in the next couple games.”
Sherwood on Nashville’s effort in the win:
“We weren't happy with the first period, so we needed a response. Luckily, we did that in second and were able to finish the game against a struggling team like that… There’s never an easy game in this league. We knew that they were going to come out hungry and fast and obviously they're going to push extra hard to get their first one, so we needed to play our game. It took us a little bit, but we were able to establish our identity.”
Sherwood on the play of Saros:
“He's the backbone of our team. He makes it look so easy. When we did come out flat-footed, he was able to weather the storm for us and then just give us enough time to kind of get going, and that's the difference right now. We’ve got to put a full 60 together next time.”
Sherwood on providing a jolt of energy in the second period:
“It's a blessing to be in this league. For me, I just try to stay hungry and give the team whatever energy we can to establish ourselves. We take pride in playing here, and we want to make this a hard place to play for other teams. Energy is a thing that I always say – but it’s contagious, and I try to bring it every night.”
Fagemo on scoring in his Preds debut with his mom and brother in attendance:
“I’m just super happy to get the opportunity to show my game. I’m just trying to shoot the puck every time on the power play… That’s a super special moment for me and my family as well. That’s the first time they saw me play in the NHL, so that’s super special.”
Novak on recovering from a slow start in the first period:
“I think it was just a reset in between periods. They were skating hard all night, so we had to come out flying, and I think we did a pretty good job. That shift by [Sherwood] kind of propelled us into the lead and then we were kind of carrying the game from there.”
Head Coach Andrew Brunette on his assessment of the game:
“We were a little bit slow everywhere, but we managed the game very well. I thought for the most part we had timely scoring, timely power-play goals and some big kills. [Saros] gave us a chance. Every win in this league’s hard, but it was good to get one here.”
Brunette on the play of Novak:
“He’s got a tremendous hockey sense and feel for the game with some vision and creativity, as long as he puts the effort in away from the puck. He’s a really good player, and he sees things that not too many players see in our league, and it’s a really good skill set… It’s fun to see him get rewarded, because he brings a really good dimension to our team.”
Brunette on Evangelista scoring his first goal of the season:
“It’s crucial – not just for a young player, but for any player. He had some opportunities that didn’t go in. He started squeezing it and started thinking, so hopefully this wipes it all clean. He’s had some really good opportunities that haven’t gone in, and tonight it went in… He’s a pretty confident kid to begin with, but I think any time you get one, you always feel better.”
