The New York Islanders won again Monday night, their franchise-best 15th win in their first 21 games. Though it was a close one, they outshot and outplayed the Flyers throughout, kept close only by Steve Mason's 46 saves.
So naturally, head coach Jack Capuano was pleased, and Jaroslav Halak -- who earned his third shutout and made a big stop in the shootout -- was stoic.
Some excerpts from the Capuano video above, and the Halak video follow below. These and clips with Brock Nelson and John Tavares are at the IslesTV site.
Capuano on the game:
I thought we deserved to win the game. Thought we played extremely well, our goalie made some big saves when he had to, we gave up some chances on our power play and Jaro made the saves.
On the team's groove, or swagger if you will:
It's a different make-up, a different attitude, a bit of swagger amongst the team. … No matter what the score is or what the adversity we're facing, or how the momentum's going, we just keep playing the way we gotta play. Our structure was good all night. You hear me talk about managing the puck…we turned a few pucks over in the first but we got much better as the game went on.
On Matt Donovan and Brian Strait filling in after being healthy scratches for long stretches:
I've said it all along, we've got guys that are battling every day in practice that want to get in. They're good players, good people, they work hard every day. I thought they played extremely well, and I let them know after the game.
On Martin's hit from behind:
No [didn't think it would be a major]. [Schenn] turned at the last minute, and it was a penalty, but I think the referees know [Martin]'s not that type of player. When I first saw it I didn't think it was going to be five [minutes].
Overall:
We made them defend a little bit more. But again, it's a defend-first mentality. That's what we want to make sure we concentrate on, and when we do that we get our chances offensively.
Halak
Poor Halak gets a shutout, yet is asked repeatedly about Mason:
He stood on his head tonight. He was great for them, stole a point. But we did a lot of good things tonight. I think in the first we were maybe a little slow, slow pace at first, but we found our way and got better.
[later]
Yeah, Mason was good, we did everything but get it in [during regulation].
On Claude Giroux's attempt in the shootout:
He made a good move. But fortunately for me he didn't lift it up. So I was fortunate to get my arm there. I'll take it.
How high is the confidence of the team right now?
Ohhhhh, I think, well, they always say you're as good as last game. So we have to keep playing the same way, enjoy the game we won tonight, but back to work tomorrow, got to win Wednesday night.
On the penalty kill:
It is important, it was good tonight. You have to have a good PK, and tonight it was good when it had to be.
Halak: Not as animated in the post-game as Nabby, but that .922 save percentage rather rocks.