We've been struggling for a few games, and we haven't played our best hockey yet for a full 60 minutes. And I think we showed in the first period against Ottawa -- a great team in first place -- that we can play five-on-five against anybody.
Quotes about five-on-five (12 Quotes)
I don't think a right winger has scored five-on-five. We're just trying to find some chemistry.
There's no benefit-of-a-doubt stuff in the playoffs. You're in the big parade now and you have to participate. If we give ourselves a chance to play five-on-five hockey, then who knows
Decker gets a minute here or a minute there, so it gives us another body. I guess it's as good as it's going to get. We still can't go five-on-five, but we have nine healthy bodies.
He can do it all, especially this year, he's proven that. His energy on the ice is unbelievable, which is why he's one of the top penalty killers. Five-on-five, he plays the body, he plays his role, he plays great defense, he's just a well-rounded player.
On the power play, I'm trying to take more shots. Even five-on-five, just getting more shots through, and try to get open, too.
I think we proved we can play five-on-five with them and we really had the game under control. But then we gave them that five-on-three and they get a couple power-play goals. We have to stay out of the penalty box.
Five-on-five we're a pretty good hockey club. We've got some areas we've got to address.
It's totally different. You're not going to see the physical playoff style if everybody is afraid of penalties. So far, we've won our games on special teams and we've lost our games on special teams. Five-on-five is like the dodo bird.
Our game plan is always to stay five-on-five, and they did a good job of taking us out of it early. But we kind of sent the message back a little bit.
We showed we could play with them and score five-on-five, which was important. I don't know if it was a mental block or what, but it was good to get those. Guys were going to the net hard and it made a difference.
He's got the clearance to go full board to do anything we do half court. I think that will be the telltale after about a week or two of that whether he can do five-on-five and get up and down the court and start to do everything.