Players React: Flyers crush the Sharks in NoCal

After the Flyers beat the Sharks 5-2 in San Jose on Monday night, here’s what was being said in both locker rooms – including quotes from Joe Thornton, Wayne Simmonds and both coaches…

Sharks coach Todd McLellan on the loss:

“Even in the first I didn’t think we were as sharp as we needed to be. You know we broke the cardinal rule– when you get outworked, and outnumbered, all over the rink, you are going to lose. It’s as simple as that.”

McLellan on the game as a whole:

“I thought they were harder than we were in all facets of the game. The goaltender, the blueline, 5 on 5, special teams. They were just the better team.”

Joe Thornton on the game:

“I didn’t think we played well at all tonight to be honest with you. I thought we were lucky to be up 2-1 going into the third period. They got a couple of strange ones and took the game over after that.”

Dan Boyle on the loss:

“It was disappointing. When we are up after one we still did not think we were playing the way we needed to play. They get two quick ones [in the third], and obviously we didn’t play hard enough to get it done.”

Matt Irwin on the Flyers’ play:

“They were pressing hard and forcing us to make plays and we weren’t executing. That’s what we have to do, we have to get pucks up to the forwards and let them get the puck out of the zone. We have to use our speed to get behind their guys and go to work. That’s what we do, and when we are doing that well, we are a hard team to play against. We just weren’t doing that tonight.”

Flyers coach Craig Berube on the road trip:

“Good trip. I thought the guys battled and played well all three games against good teams. And we got some good results.”

Berube on quality scoring chances:

“We’ve had games like that. But I thought we did a real good job with the puck tonight. When you play a team like the Sharks, they have a lot of high-powered guys. I thought our players did a good job when they got out there with the Thornton and Pavelski lines. They did a good job with the checking and a good job with the puck.”

Claude Giroux on the third period:

“We played really well. I think today was our best game. We played 60 minutes and obviously we were down 2-1 for pretty much the whole game. But we liked the way we played. We had a lot of chances, and when we had a chance in the third, we went it.”

Wayne Simmonds on going 2-1 on their California trip:

“I think an LA reporter referred to coming to California as a ‘Bermuda Triangle’. But I think we played pretty well and competed all three games. I think taking 4 points out of 6 is pretty nice. We’ll take that and go back home.”