Digging yourself a hole is one thing. If you have the character to dig yourself out of it, that's another. I don't think the game was handed to us by any means. The guys really dug deep. That's impressive. |
He brings a different element. He's one of a kind. |
He's predictable in a good way. He doesn't make crazy, high-risk plays. He follows the system and is responsible in knowing what he has to do. And he has good speed, is strong on his skates and finishes his hits when they're available. He does all the little things well, so he's earning more and more ice time by proving himself. |
I hate to see a guy float through a game, make one fancy move and decide it. |
Marvin isn't a big guy [5 feet 11, 190 pounds], but he's ratty and gritty, in a good way. He stuck his nose right in there and has a crisp game. He was a pleasant surprise. |
Montoya was great, and we need that. He had been through a bit of a rough patch, and we hope he's through it now. If he can give us effort like that night in and night out, we're in good shape. That's how you hope a guy bounces back, so you have to give him top marks. |
That group of penalty killers aren't slackers. They're [tops] in the league, and they've been strong all season. Those were two especially big goals. |
The guys really rose to the occasion tonight. They could have been demoralized and could have thrown in the towel. It was real good resolve and real good character. |
There are no easy opponents in the playoffs. The easy opponents get left behind in the regular season. Whoever you draw, everyone is going to bring their game up a level because it's the playoffs. |
These were three big, important divisional games this weekend. It's a big, big weekend. We're two-thirds of the way there. Now we just want another big effort [today]. |
We played real well. [Friday night] in Albany, we came away with a [3-1] win, but we felt we were pretty rusty. Well, we got some of the rust knocked off and we came out with fresh legs. It was good to see. |
We're still continuing to iron out a few bugs. Things always seem to change game to game, so you're always revisiting or retooling. And obviously we want to make sure the team's conditioning is top-notch so they're rested and fresh yet well conditioned. It's no different than any other season where you're always building toward the end and hopefully peak. |