Glen Hanlon just wrapped up his pre-game talk with the media. The scratches (Matt Bradley, Steve Eminger and Milan Jurcina) remain the same. Olie Kolzig will be in net, and he will face Johan Hedberg, even though rookie Ondrej Pavelec dominated the Caps two weeks ago in Atlanta.

There was a lot of stuff from yesterday's practice that did not make the newspaper, so here is some of the cutting room floor material.

From Chris Clark

On the one-goal losses: "It is harder to lose those, because you are in it right to the end. You are battling right to the last minute. I don't know how many times we've pulled the goalie this year. But then again it does that we are not that far off. We're not getting blown out."

On the line shuffling: "It is tough for coaches and management to find out who is going to click. That is probably the hardest job and you think you can figure it out during training camp and over the summer."

On the fans voicing their displeasure: "We need passionate fans. It is good. They are intelligent fans and if we are not playing well, then they should do that. It is good for us to know that they are paying attention and watching and wanting to see some hard work and wins out there. If they’re not doing anything, then it is no fun to play in front of them."

From Olie Kozlig

"If guys want to hang their head and feel bad, these next 60 games could be disastrous."

"It is different this year because of the expectations. We are a good hockey team. It sounds like a broken record and the reporters probably get sick of hearing us say this, but we are playing a lot better than we have the past couple of years. The points aren't in the standings and obviously the goal-scoring isn't there like it was the first part of last year."

From Glen Hanlon

"I've never seen our team tight. In all the years I've been here, I've never seen our team play tight, and we could have been tight a week ago or two weeks ago. I think it was a culmination that got to a point – we're addressing it as that's the breaking point. We've identified that you can’t play this game tentatively."

"I don't think any team can come out and play well from start to finish every game. I haven't seen three periods where we played totally different [until Monday night]. I think for the most part we've been pretty consistent."