I've always found that veteran players play significant roles in playoffs because they know what the level is like. And over a short period of time they can get themselves to that level because they know it's a two-month season. |
I've coached against Peter and he'll take numbers and get even in due time. You won't hear anything about it, until you see a body laid out on the ice and you'll wonder how that happened. |
I've seen our fans just will us in playoff games. I think home-ice is something you need. It's very important. It's real difficult when you constantly have to win road games in the playoffs. |
I've seen young guys who've played great and I've seen them absolutely overwhelmed. I've seen young players literally in the fetal position during a series because they're overwhelmed by the intensity and the emotion of what's going on. And I've seen guys raise their level. |
If his neck responds to the treatment like we think it will, then he'll be available for us (today). |
If I lived in Washington, I would pay whatever the season ticket was to watch this kid play. He's a special player, a unique player who comes around once every 10 years. |
If it's working, then we'll stay with it. If not, we'll move (combinations around) and, quite frankly, in the first five games we do want to see other combinations either during games or during practices. |
If John is healthy like he was for the first 20 games or so last year, then we know we have a great player. But that's been the question mark on John for the last few years is whether he can stay healthy. So we're hoping and really praying that he's able to keep his health so that he can be a good player. If he's healthy he's going to be an impact player. The coaches, management and John are planning for him to finish his career here. |
If Jon had the attitude he has now he would have been a 30-goal scorer. He was unable to sustain the level of play necessary to keep him in the lineup. |
If our team was loaded and had everybody in it and we were making the mistakes we're making now, you'd have a very upset coaching staff. But there's big picture stuff going on and we've got to keep it realistic. |
If you can't get ready for the best team in the league, you're in trouble. They've taken on all comers this year and they've really eaten up some teams. I don't know whether it's the fear of getting embarrassed, but we've got a lot of competitive guys and we love to play in these type of games. |
In my opinion, Jon should have been a 30-goal scorer a long time ago, |
In my opinion, this is the best team we are going to play so far in the season, |
In the NHL, it doesn't matter with the standings. Especially this team, they are over .500 at home. And they have a great work ethic. If we don't match their work ethic, how is our skill going to take over? |
It certainly wasn't based on anybody's poor play and that's what made it such a difficult decision. |