No two ways around it, the loss to the San Jose Sharks stings. Sure, it's just one of 82 games, but in a February that is highlighted with 10 of 13 games against Metropolitan Division foes, any loss that fails to register a point stings that much more.
What's worse is the loss was in front of a riled up, weekend home crowd at Nationwide. It sure felt like an opportunity lost.
John Tortorella and Nick Foligno were especially passionate after the loss. Here's the team reaction from inside the locker room.
John Tortorella
On if his benching of team captain Nick Foligno was related to the penalty he took: "It was a few other things. I don't want to hear any more rhetoric from the players as far as that stuff."
On his team's play: "We're not scoring. I thought we had some opportunities. I don't think we're that bad. Two power play goals against us, and we have some opportunities but don't score. Third period, I think we had 12 or 13 chances, can't score."
On his team's lack of offensive: "We just have no rhythm, no rhythm offensively. But we still developed enough offense to crawl back into the game; third goal's a hard one."
Nick Foligno
On his penalty that led to his benching: "It sucks. It's the worst feeling in the world. You just want to be out there helping your teammates, especially after a mistake, so it's a really hard one to sit there and watch. But that's the standard that he has, and I gotta make sure I'm ready to go tomorrow (at New York Islanders)".
On getting back into the game in the third period: "I don't even really have a comment on that. I just wanted to play. It just sucks having to sit there when you're feeling shitty already. That's on me, it's no one else's fault, just disappointed that I couldn't get the equalizer in time."
Boone Jenner
On how he felt after scoring his goal: "Yeah, it's definitely nice. Different emotions going through me the last couple days, so it was definitely nice to get that one."
On if his goal was in honor of his recently-deceased grandmother: "Yeah, yeah. Absolutely."
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