Comments from Sharks’ locker room after 3-0 loss to LA in Game 5

Following their 3-0 loss to the LA Kings in Game 5 on Thursday night, here’s what they were saying back in the Sharks’ locker room…

– Coach Todd McLellan on the overall game: “Game 5, coming into their building, they were going to have a hard push. We talked about that before the 10 minute game and the 50 minute game, they came hard right off the bat but we got through that without getting scored on, the rest of the night, the other 50 minutes, we weren’t very good and moving forward, maybe that’s a good thing because we have a lot to improve on and need a better effort from a lot of people.”

– McLellan on the performance of his top players: “When we put those types of players out on the power play we should be able to execute a lot better than we did. You have to give LA credit, they played well too. But our go-to guys weren’t particularly sharp tonight, when that happens your depth has to come through as well, and they have to provide a little spark, a little bit of energy and maybe get you one.”

– McLellan on where they go from here: “We are going back to our building; we have a couple of days to regroup, to rest. When we’ve played well this year down the stretch we’ve played quick, efficiently, we’ve made tape to tape passes and that didn’t happen tonight. We weren’t the team we wanted to be.”

– Captain Joe Thornton on not getting the fore-check going and too much Jonathan Quick: “They just did a better job at getting the pucks out. We didn’t put it in a good place to get it back. That’s why they were more effective getting it out. We definitely had our chances but we just got to bear down. We’re getting those opportunities.”

– Thornton on power play issues: “It kind of looked like it was a bit nervous for some reason. I don’t know why. We just have to have some poise. For whatever reason we didn’t have the poise on the power play. If our power play is going good, you can see guys get some confidence and when it doesn’t you can see guys get down and that’s what happened tonight. We’re going home. We just have to win a game at home.”

– Logan Couture on the overall game: “Myself included, we were bad tonight. That’s why we lost. We’re not going to win if our best players are not our best players. We need to step up. Quick played well. When you get chances you have to score; it’s the playoffs. We had enough chances to win tonight. Guys need to start bearing down and scoring some goals.”

– Couture on the start of this game compared to last game: “We weren’t good at the start. We weren’t good at any point of the game tonight. We didn’t deserve to win. Our power play was brutal: our passes weren’t on; guys weren’t shooting the puck; break out was off and timing was off.”

– Couture on the Sharks’ confidence level going back home: “Got to be confident. Season is on the line. We are playing for our lives. I expect to see us as a desperate team. I expect our best players to be way better, myself included in Game 6 and play well at home. I’m confident. I think we are going to go home and win game 6 and we’ll be back in LA. (on having two days off). We have a lot to look at from tonight’s game. We did a lot of things wrong. I’m sure it will help us look at some video and get better.”

Bonus video with goalie Antti Niemi: