Quotes of the day: Muller, Drouin, Evans & Kulak

TORONTO – The Flyers may be leading 2-1 in the series, but the Canadiens put up another strong performance in Sunday night’s 1-0 loss to Philadelphia in Game 3. The defeat did little to rattle confidence in the Montreal contingent as they get set for the fourth game of the series on Tuesday. Read below for highlights from Monday’s media availabilities with Kirk Muller, Jonathan Drouin, Jake Evans, and Brett Kulak. 

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With an established group of veterans and an exciting cluster of young stars, the Canadiens have come together as a team since the League’s Return to Play began. Muller has enjoyed being along for the ride:

“It’s a fun group to coach and be a part of. We play in a market that’s very competitive and there a lot of demands. As a player, the battle drives you and you have to be ready to play and practice every day. Some of these guys have been here for a few years now, and it’s a good challenge for them every day. What it does is it really makes you gel together, because you go through the good and the bad on a daily basis. We have some great leadership; guys really care, they want to win. They really play for each other.”

Video: Muller on the excellent goaltending in the series

After going 2-for-6 on the power play in Game 2’s 5-0 win, Montreal couldn’t light the lamp in three opportunities with the man advantage on Sunday, and Muller believes the Habs need a better second effort and net presence in order to turn things around:

“We don’t want to be a one-and-done power play. We want to get into the zone and have confidence to set up and execute the plays that the guys want to execute. I think the key is, [the Flyers] have done a good job of, similarly to our PK in this series, of really making it that it’s one shot and not many second or third rebounds. In order to create more offense, we have to generate some more opportunities on second and third chances and get into those hard areas.”

The Flyers’ success in shutting the Canadiens out stems partially from their ability to throttle the neutral zone, and Drouin noted that Montreal will need to adapt in order to get through and generate more offense: 

“They did a good job yesterday. Their forecheck is something they’re good at. They have big bodies, so when they get it on our D’s, we’ve got to find a way to give more time to our D’s to hold them up. When they’re forechecking, they’re coming full speed. It’s up to the wingers and centers to hold one guy up, give them some time to make everything easier on the breakouts for us. Obviously we want to keep the puck off the wall, as much as we want, get the pucks to our centermen where they’re flying in the middle and kicking it out to the wingers, but the Flyers did a good job yesterday. We have to adjust a little bit to that extent where we keep it off the wall, make sure we’re skating and everyone’s moving, our D’s are involved, and we’ll be fine.”

Video: Drouin on the team’s confidence in the series

The Habs gave the Flyers six power play opportunities in Game 3, and Drouin admitted his squad’s trouble staying out of the box had an effect on their momentum and took them away from playing to their strengths:

“We’re a 5-on-5 team. When we can keep it to 5-on-5, that’s where we show our strength. In yesterday’s game, it was hard to build momentum, especially with the penalties we got in the first period. The Flyers are a good power play team, when their players have the puck. We have to keep our games to 5-on-5. When the team is playing well, we’re rolling at 5-on-5, everyone participates. If we’re able to stay out of the penalty box, it’s huge for us, it’s huge for team momentum, and it allows us to not have to defend against their best players for big chunks of time.”

Evans gave his take on Muller’s impact on the Club since taking over from Claude Julien behind the bench: 

“He’s been great. It’s unfortunate what happened with Claude, but he’s stepped in and has done a great job. He’s been getting the guys going. He’s making it pretty simple on us; he’s just telling us the keys to help us get some success and get some wins. He’s just been a really great influence, very positive on the bench, very vocal, and I think it’s really helping the guys out.”

Video: Evans and Kulak on the team coming together

Kulak offered up his assessment of goalie Carey Price’s puckhandling ability and how much of a difference it makes in countering the Flyers’ forecheck:

“He’s one of the best in the League, I think, in handling the puck. It especially makes it hard on the other team – they don’t really know what to do on their forecheck a lot of the times. The puck goes to him and we as D-men drop ourselves into a position where he can make pass to us, and they sometimes don’t know to come to us and cover us. And if they do, then Carey is able to make that first pass to a centerman or even up to the winger. It just makes it probably really hard on the other team. And for us, it’s usually if the pass option is there, for us he at least makes it tape to tape.”