The Carolina Hurricanes lost 7-6 to the Washington Capitals Friday night in the shootout in what was a wild and unpredictable game.
There were six lead changes in the game and both Sebastian Aho and Sonny Milano ended up with hat tricks.
After the game, Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Aho, Jake Guentzel and Evgeny Kuznetsov spoke with the media in Washington. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On the game: It was a weird game. Just every little bad bounce seemed to go against us tonight. You have those two goals that get called back. A couple of weird things around the net, just bounces that didn't really go our way. I think we ended up two power plays and they had [six] and we couldn't kill them tonight. That was the difference in the game. Just a weird game for us. But every time something went wrong, we were able to dig ourselves out, so I give the guys a lot of credit for that.
On Jake Guentzel's passing ability: He's a good player and he's trying to make his teammates happy. I think he'll start getting a little more like, 'Okay I can shoot and score,' but you can see that he's always looking to find everybody. But I thought he played a good game.
On Seth Jarvis: He's consistently playing hard and doing the little things so we reward him by putting him on the ice. Obviously he's a good player and we're surrounding him with even better players, so that helps.
On the team's response goals: The bounce back ones where something bad happens and then we seem to be able to recover pretty well. It's really been like that all year which is a good sign because you're going to have things not go your way. Especially us. There feels like a lot of that. So maybe it's a good thing because we've had a lot of practice at it.
On the high scoring game: It wasn't like there was a lot of shots either. Everything was just kind of finding its way into the net tonight.
On Pyotr Kochetkov: He actually made a lot of good saves it's just that every bounce was kind of weird around the net and seemed to go in. Can't really fault him on any of that. I actually thought he played really well.
Sebastian Aho
On the game: It was quite the game. Obviously not our best. Too many penalties by us, like myself. Gotta be more careful with the stick there. Putting the team down for four minutes there for no reason. Stuff like that with coming off the back-to-back and the same guys having to kill after kill. There's no rhythm at the 5-on-5 game. Kind of hurt us, but having said that, a couple of good comebacks. We battled till the end, so effort is there for sure, but like I said, we have to be more focused on not taking penalties and not giving them all the momentum in the game when it's not needed.
On Jake Guentzel: You can see him every night out there. Works his tail off, skates well, plays fast, scores goals, makes plays. My first two goals were just tap ins due to his unbelievable vision. Just a great player to play with and lucky to have him here.
On his lines chemistry: I think we're just three good players who play the game the same way and work hard. That's kind of our key to success. That everything just starts with working hard and just try to find those speedy wingers and use their speed to create some offense.
On what he wants to see from the team: We just try to win hockey games in any way we can. Obviously we fell short of that tonight, so just have to learn from these games and just try to use it for the future. You need all kinds of experiences through the season to be the team you want to be. You learn from a game like this. You move on, flush it and the go to the next one.
On where his third goal went off of: [My] knee. Good pass by Necas.
Jake Guentzel
On the game: It's good to get a point. We gave them a bit of free offense on the power play and they have a good power play, so you can't do that. But it's good to get a point, I guess, and we'll move on.
On what's made his line such a good fit: I mean, [Aho's] such a good player that he makes it easy for me to play with them. Him and Jarvis have been nothing but unbelievable for me so it's been a fun little run here and hopefully it keeps going.
On primarily being an assist guy so far: It's just how it's been playing out. You just try to be a well-rounded player so we'll see how it happens.
On it being a high-scoring game: It was just a weird game. There wasn't much flow. A lot of whistles, a lot of timeouts. It was just one of those weird games you play in and you have to adjust.
On the end of regulation: That's the thing. When you comeback and score a late goal that's huge. At least got a point. Wanted two. For us, it was a tough one, but hopefully we move on and try to get the next one.
On Evgeny Kuznetsov's tribute: It's special to see what he's done for the city. He's obviously been a high-end player so it's really cool to see when the fans get behind him like that.
On what he's anticipating for his own tribute coming up: I don't know. It's going to be interesting, but I'm excited for it.
On Seth Jarvis: He's a pure goal scorer. He's just always around the net and finds those little soft areas. You don't realize how good of a shot he has. It's been unbelievable to play with him and hopefully we just keep the chemistry going.
Evgeny Kuznetsov
On returning to Washington: That was exactly what I expected. It was a tough game in a way. I think it was the third game in four nights. One of those where it was hard for us, but I think we fought pretty good. They were fresh, we were not. So I think overall it was a pretty good game.
On his video tribute: I didn't watch it. I was looking down.
On the standing ovation he received: That was special. I think both crowds, the one in Raleigh right away and then this crowd cheered for me. It means the world for any player. I want to say thanks for all the good and bad memories. It was an amazing atmosphere. I spent a lot of years here, so it was all happy today.
On if he had any memories going through his mind being back here: No. I was exhausted and tired. Said probably a few times already, but I was off for 50 days and now played three games in four days without practices. Especially on a back-to-back, it's not easy.
On why he and Guentzel have fit in so well with Carolina: I don't know. We're trying to do the simple things. Don't do anything special from outside so we don't mess up anything. Just trying to get in shape and trying to understand the system and all the stuff. A lot of stuff.
On his appreciation for his time with the Capitals: It's huge. Thanks for everything. It was an amazing 11 years and it's just nice to be back here and play hockey. I wish them all the best. They have a pretty good team and it's all positive.