Quotes from Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau following morning skate on Wednesday…
How significant has the injury of Nick Bonino been to the Ducks?
“It shouldn’t be. Don’t get me wrong. He’s a vital part of our team but we have played without Getzlaf and all sorts of guys. It shouldn’t be vital. We were winning an awful lot of games with a lot of guys hurt at the beginning of the year. We want him back and he’s a big part of our team. We’ve got guys filling in and going to do a great job.”
Is Saturday a possibility for Bonino to return to the lineup?
“He looks like he’s getting better and he would need to go full board by Friday if he wants to play Saturday.”
Can you take any positives out of these recent losses?
“No one is ever going to convince me it’s good. It does bring back things where you have to work harder to get what you want. Maybe we’ve had a little slip up of that and maybe the other teams we’ve been playing have played really good. People keep forgetting that Columbus was on a roll, Dallas was beating everybody, and Minnesota has been doing the same thing. It’s not like they are coming in here, beating us and losing to everyone else. Those three teams are beating pretty much everyone they play. That’s what happened and we face another great foe today, it’s going to be another real battle and we are looking forward to the game.”
What was the rationale behind the call up of Emerson Etem?
“Quite frankly the one thing last game was that there was a lack of energy and emotion whether it was in the building or on the bench and Emerson is a guy that can bring both of those things to the front and he’s been playing well down in Norfolk and we thought it was the right time.”
Fair to say that lack of energy and emotion should not be an issue for your team tonight?
“To me the last four years they (Chicago) have been the best team in the NHL. They may have only won the cup twice but to me they are the best team. If you can’t get up to play the best then you are in trouble.”
Ben Lovejoy talked about the fact that he and Cam Fowler need to do a better job of slowing down Hossa, Toews and Kane. How do you slow them down?
“Nobody has slowed them down yet. If any of you guys have answers on how to slow Sharp, Hossa and Toews down, all Olympians, all great players, you just have to be ready to play. One of the reasons they are great is they really pay the price by working hard and playing the right way. You have to play the right way against them to succeed. They are good and they have a great supporting cast with Kane, Shaw, Saad, and Duncan Keith has 45 assists. They are a good team. Add to the fact that there will be people from Chicago here tonight. We are going to need our crowd really into it to get a whole bunch of life to us.”
