Rapid Reaction: Sharks def Kings in San Jose

After the Sharks beat the Kings 2-1 in San Jose on Thursday night, here’s what was being said in both locker rooms – including quotes from Jake Muzzin, Joe Thornton, and both coaches…

Kings Head Coach Darryl Sutter on his team’s play:

“I thought we played real well, the challenges is that they’re a really good hockey club.”

Sutter on Greene’s first game back:

“He’s alright, he had to take some minutes, he had to play a scrappy game and that’s what he had to do.”

Jake Muzzin on crowd atmosphere:

“This is a tough building to come into and play, we stayed calm. I thought we did a pretty good job getting pucks in. I’d like to see a little more pucks on net, a little more commotion around their net, like they did to us. For the most part, our breakouts were pretty good, if we clean those up a little more, spend more time in their zone we’d get more scoring chances.”

Muzzin on the playoff-like atmosphere:

“When you’re looking at the standings, everyone knows that it looks like this might be a little preview of whats coming. Definitely these last couple games are teams that are fighting, teams that want to get home ice or whatever it may be they are fighting for a spot, its all going to be a little playoff game.”

Dustin Brown on loss of Drew Doughty:

“He’s obviously one of our best players and we have got to pick up the slack. There’s not one guy that can replace him and we go from there.”

Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan on his team’s play:

“It was an overall better effort. Better defensively. Not as sloppy. The intensity and the attention to detail was much better than it was against Edmonton. The opponent, the environment, what’s on the line, it brought out the best in us.”

Todd McLellan on the remaining schedule:

“We have Anaheim…actually the remaining games, those teams should bring out the best in us, as well. We are going to need to continue to get better, but our opponent did that for us.”

Joe Thornton on the game’s physicality:

“I wanted to hit something tonight, that’s all. That was the game place. We’re starting to ramp up our game a little bit. That was the case tonight. We might see these guys in 12 days or so. So it’s just play hard and see what happens.”

Joe Pavelski on Thornton’s play:

“He comes here to play, especially in these games. It’s great to see everyone feed off it. (The) crowd was into it. It was a fun game. It felt like the playoffs.”

Logan Couture on tonight’s game:

“We expected a tough, hard game in our building with our fans, which we knew would be into it. That’s probably the best we’ve played in a while. The most physical we have played in a while. They are a good team over there, but I thought tonight we were more physical. We played pretty well.”