Mario would be the guy who would take over a game with his unbelievable skill that nobody else could really match. |
Our second period was awful. We started to play too much of their style. |
Seeing people cheering for him and hugging him was almost sickening. He deserved every hardship because it was an awful thing that he did. It wasn't accidental. |
That's one of the reasons we fought so hard to win the division. But it comes down to the players. The fans can only cheer and support us so much. Within this locker-room, that's where the meat and potatoes are. |
There are expectations to have a better playoff than last time -- there's only one way to do that. Last time, there was more of a happy-go-lucky feeling. We expected success, but we didn't demand it. Going in, it's a more mature team, a more mature outlook. |
There's strong character in our dressing room. Right now, it's just a matter of execution. If everybody shows up and does their job, I think there's a ton of confidence. |
They want to slow it down and stretch things out, make cross-ice passes and have a lot of open room. |
To us, it's about climbing the standings. You win eight games and you're still tight with everybody. That's just the nature of the beast. It's nice to win, obviously, but you can't get too excited about it or you'll let it slide. Start patting yourself on the back too much and you're one or two games away from getting caught again. It doesn't give you a comfort zone. |
We also share in the belief we do have what it takes in this locker-room and there's no great piece of the puzzle out there we're missing. |
We just haven't had that consistency. We've thrown some good periods together, but from game to game that consistency hasn't been there. It's something we've got to look back to getting back on track (Wednesday). |
We're having a good season. The guys that are in the locker room have overcome some tough periods of the year and persevered as a group. We've been tested a few times. Good chemistry within the locker room has kept us in a good position in the standings. |
We're not the team that is on the highlights every night with the pretty goals. But we're also not on the highlights giving up the pretty goals. We didn't change much this year. With this team, the emphasis is always going to be on our end. |
We've come this far this year and built a solid base with the guys in the room . . . |
When [a team's] facing elimination, it's always going to be the toughest game you face. |
You don't want him to drop the gloves all the time because he's our star player. But when he does, nobody's too disappointed because that means he's fired up and ready to go. |