As they use the expression, Mike was dealt the nine of hearts. We couldn't expect to start the season with three signed players and really not have an opportunity to sign or select a team from a group of players we thought we would have available. |
Boy, can he skate. For a big guy, look at him go. |
Cam Neely was the hockey player the other hockey players wanted to be. He was blessed with a rare blend of talent, strength and determination and inspired other players to play as he did - hard and unrelenting. |
He was a gentleman as he's always been. |
He was a gentleman as he's always been. He said it was not unexpected and he felt no animosity at that time. |
I know very little about it. |
Management traded away whatever they felt would improve the team. |
Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. What if they decided to improve scoring in the NBA and made the hoop 4 inches bigger in diameter? You don't want to artificially improve scoring. What if the NBA developed a half-court shot that was worth 5 points? You can't do things like that. |
The position we find ourselves in relative to the post-season has dictated that a change would be made. Our judgment was that it would be unfair to Mike O'Connell to continue working at this job once this decision had been made. |
This didn't have a purpose to it. It was becoming a rather awkward situation with the general manager of the team and myself and ownership. We were contemplating making this move just recently. We knew we were probably going to make it and asking somebody to continue on is just not the right thing to do. |
We fell out of it pretty substantially. |
We ran a few focus groups to see what people thought. I don't believe it was too well-received. I'd hate to see us do that [use replacements]. I don't know how all the other owners feel, but it may be our only business alternative. I hate it. I really do. From almost every standpoint, it stinks. |
We'll probably address that at some later date. |
When you think something has to be done ... you have to do it. It was not proper to let him keep doing what he was doing -- signing players, making plans for the future -- when we knew that at the end of the year we were going to relieve him of his job. |
When you think something has to be done, and you believe it has to be done and the consensus is that it has to be done, you have to do it. And Mike, in some of the things he did when he was here, believed in the same principle. |