It's such a playoff failure for our whole team. This was, really, I felt, a very, very strong team and a very strong potential playoff team that we had built. What a blown opportunity this was by our team. |
It's the same thought process. These are things that at the end of the season, or at the end of your career, you can reflect on. |
Let's be honest -- the same way fans were getting bored with the game in the past, players were too. So in a game like this, with all the excitement and guys coming at you with speed, players like Chris Chelios react to that. |
Mike has been stressing driving to the net, ... Usually, he wants at least one guy driving to the net - and on that play we had all three. It was kind of a lucky play, where the Kings ' defenseman got a piece of the puck, but not all of it, and I happened to be in the right spot. |
My wife and I had a baby in October, |
No one can accuse me of self-interest in all this. You could make a case that a lot of the new rules don't help my game out at all. |
Obviously, she was very worried and concerned. She just wanted to be next to Jiri. |
One of the reasons we've been so good for so long is the group of players we have are very competitive professionals. If we were the kind of team that looked at the standings and said we can take it easy tonight we wouldn't have the kind of success we've had. |
Our approach going in was they were a desperate team and if we could get of to a good start we could get them to press. It's certainly a lot easier, a lot less taxing to play with the lead. |
Philadelphia is a great team, but I think we caught them a little tired. |
Playing hockey is fun. Going out and hooking and holding really isn't fun. |
Scoring a goal is special. Scoring a hat trick is special. I don't think you ever get tired of it. You know, obviously, once you get the second one, you start a kind of run for the puck and the net. |
Seeing as I'm on the competition committee, I support the rule changes, |
Sergei is a great player with world-class talent. Adding a player like that, I'm sure Columbus is hoping it'll get a lot of their young guys excited. |
Shortly after that, we got a couple of power-play goals because we fed off of those penalty-kills. That was the story of the night, the penalty-killing. |