Morning Skate Quotes From Erik Cole and Lindy Ruff
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars will face off in a “win or go home” scenario game tonight in regards to their opportunity to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Today’s morning skate was an eventful one for the team, especially for unrestricted big name free agents like Erik Cole and Shawn Horcoff. With the trade deadline expiring on Monday, March 2nd and the Stars in a sketchy-at-best scenario towards the rest of the season, they are the top names being tossed around to unload.
Here are a few quotes from Dallas Stars F Erik Cole and head coach Lindy Ruff in regards to a few different hot topics:
Erik Cole:
In regards to the trade deadline being tomorrow:
“Well, that’s tomorrow. I’m just gonna worry about today. That’s the best I can say. There’s nothing that I’ve heard other than what has been reported. As far as it is, it’s all just rumors so we’ll leave it at that.”
On his exceptional play as of late:
“I’ve had a much better opportunity and gained more responsibility playing in different situations. I’m able to get up and play with some of the top guys. It’s all helped. I said at the beginning of the year that I felt like I could help out with some secondary scoring. I feel like I’ve played a pretty good brand of hockey.”
Lindy Ruff:
On Alex Goligoski and Ales Hemsky missing the morning skate:
“It was an optional skate. You missed one guy. Roussel wasn’t there either. But you didn’t ask about him. Do you not care about him? (Insert chuckles here).”
On Jhonas Enroth’s play since the trade:
“With Jhonas, if you look at the Winnipeg game the first goal he couldn’t do anything about and the third was a breakaway. So I’m just gonna put him in net and let him play.”
On the new rivalry made with the Anaheim Ducks over the last year and what he expects from his team tonight:
“I think there will be a lot of good energy. We play a team in the playoffs and you have those confrontations with the individual players, the disappointing end to it for us obviously. I think you build some rivalries and we built one through a playoff series. Things get pretty intense.”
On the expectations tonight and going forward after the tough stretch:
“I expect the same effort. I want to see the same effort. I want to see us dictate play. I want to see us win a majority of the puck battles. If we win those battles, we win the bigger games. The effort to defend was excellent last game. I want to see that type of effort, that attention to detail where we aren’t giving up the odd number rushes, staying out of the penalty box, winning the special teams battle, and battling in the face off circle which is usually a big thing.”
On losing third period leads:
“The number of teams that press and go hard has gone up. That helps create chances and odd number situations where you need your goalie to make some saves. But around the league now you see the high risk plays they try and create the high risk plays when they are down. There are lots of examples of teams that are coming back or had the lead and can’t hold it. When you’re down, you either take a risk or live with the loss. Sometimes you may worry about your goals against average, but I say to hell with that. Try to win the game and if you lose, you lose.”
On what a day like this is like for an “Erik Cole” or “Shawn Horcoff:”
“They’re pros. They understand. You’ve got an obligation to try to prepare and help the team win. There’s really no other answer to it. They look around the league and see deals being done. They know where we are at and what the possibilities could be.”
On Erik Cole’s play this year:
“Erik has played very well. Personally, I think he’s played his best hockey this year, all around. Some of last year he was dealing with an injury. Little bit of this year he was up and down, but over the last two months he’s been really good.”
The Dallas Stars will try and salvage their season tonight against the Ducks. Puck drop is at 7:00 PM CST in Dallas.