"We Got a Good Feeling in Here, and Guys Are Bought In": Larkin, Rasmussen, and Lalonde React to 3-2 Win in Anaheim
Dylan Larkin, Michael Rasmussen, and Derek Lalonde discuss Detroit's 3-2 win in Anaheim and perfect 3-0 tour of California
Last night in Anaheim, the Detroit Red Wings came from behind to beat the Ducks 3-2 on a late Michael Rasmussen goal. The win—Detroit's third in succession—clinched a perfect 3-0 trip through California, the team's first such trip since 2008.
Here's what Dylan Larkin, Rasmussen, and Derek Lalonde had to say after the win:
Dylan Larkin:
On trip as a whole: "It's a huge trip for us...We left Detroit feeling like we played a couple good hockey games, and the results were coming, and they came on this trip. We played well. We kinda found the mojo we had when we were healthy and getting great goaltending. I believe the PK was maybe 100% on the trip...We had a lot of big kills...It's a good feeling in here, and we need to build off that going home."
On resilience after early goal: "We felt like we shouldn't have been in that spot, and we got a little flustered. We got a little flustered when things got physical, and there was some shots being taken out there. I think it's pretty clear that when Klim [Kostin] is out we don't really have anyone that is gonna go out there and go toe-to-toe with someone, and that's okay. But we gotta just focus on playing hockey and staying out of it."
On boost from Alex Lyon: "It's been everything. We've really tried all year, Newsy's tenure here, it's been about defense, and we're trying to keep the puck out of our net. And we did that tonight and scored some timely goals. It's nice having Alex in there. He's so good at cleaning up rebounds and just making sure things stick to him."
On his goal: "Everyone does the 1-3-1 on the power play, and I got moved to that bumper spot last year with [David Perron] coming to our team. He's really good at finding myself in there, and it's just something that if you buy into that position, you get rewarded. Sometimes the play has to go through someone else to get it set up, but I really feel like I can work as hard as possible to win pucks back for those guys and get open. We had some looks tonight. We had looks on the last one as well. It's good to see us snapping it around."
On turning tide after difficult December: "I feel like we felt sorry for ourselves for a little bit there before Christmas with the schedule and injuries. It's just managing the ups and downs in a long season. We had three big wins, and we're gonna practice tomorrow before we fly home to continue to work on things. We got a great feeling in here, and guys are bought in to what we want to do before the All-Star break."
Michael Rasmussen:
On taking all six points from road trip: "Huge yeah. Every point counts, and every point will add up, so it was a really good road trip for us."
On penalty kill's success and importance: "It's big. Obviously good special teams win games and got a power play goal tonight too. Penalty kill has been good. Alex has been great back there too. It was a good effort."
On his goal: "Just trying to build a wall there, get some sort of a piece on it. Obviously a great pass, so just tried to re-direct it and get it in."
On benefitting from more practice time after busy December: "That's huge. Obviously, we need to practice and work on things. Some of our game was slipping there. I think we've worked really hard in practice, just consistently try to get better. It's a group that really cares and wants to get better, so that's just kinda what we've done."
Derek Lalonde:
On what went right in victory: "Our special teams I thought was excellent. That's been a trend of late. Obviously our penalty kill has been lights out here of late with a really nice run. But what both special teams gave us was momentum. We scored on the power play, but we [also] had a ton of good looks, a couple posts, some open looks. And it just gives you some momentum, and obviously some huge momentum on the kill. I thought our goaltender was excellent tonight, and I thought our five-on-five game for the most was pretty good. A good solid win for us and a really good road trip."
On PK's success: "Some detail within it. Obviously some saves. As much as we've had some practice time and a little reset with our five-on-five game, we've obviously had some practice time and some reps with both our special teams, and I think that's translating into our play on the ice."
On boost from five-on-three PK: "That's what I was talking about. We're getting momentum off both our special teams, and that penalty kill was huge. The whole period we basically felt like we were down the whole period on our heels."
On getting offense from depth players like Rasmussen and Joe Veleno: "Huge. The way we're built we have some offensive guys, and those offensive guys are producing. And when you get some depth scoring like that, you're gonna hopefully run into some of these good stretches...If you play and get detail in your game and you do some things like get depth scoring, you're gonna get a good stretch, and we're on a good one right now 4-1."
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