I don't think he thinks about it. |
I know if we want to take the next step we want to play more for sure -- 19 or 20 minutes, for sure. |
I tried to get it between his legs but he read it. I was lucky because he lost the puck when it bounced by him. The first chance I didn't really get a shot away but I got a rebound and scored (on my) backhand. |
It was very important to get that goal. They didn't get back in the game. |
It's our national sport, so this is the greatest. |
Other countries don't see us as a world contender. But back home, every tournament we play we're supposed to win. After the last Olympics and what happened against Belarus, you could feel in the locker room before the Switzerland game that if we lost we couldn't fly home this summer. |
Penalties are still killing us, especially in the offensive zone. You've got to move your feet. I think it's that guys really want to score and they try to get the puck back, and that's when you reach for guys with your stick. |
There's a lot of pressure on us. Back home, the media thinks every time we play in a tournament, we're supposed to win. |
They are our biggest rivals ... there's no question about it. A lot of people in both countries will be focusing on that. |
They've got the whole Rangers' mafia there. They always play good together and they're better when they play for their country. |
We didn't really get any power-play goals where we set up the puck and worked it the way we wanted. Still it was good to get five goals. |
We talked about it before the game, to get a good start. They didn't play their best and we got a couple good bounces in the beginning there. We kept it going for the first 20 minutes so it was good. |
You could feel it on the bench. The team was so much more relaxed. |