A few weeks before the rosters came out, we were talking about it in the room a little bit, who is going to be picked and who is not going to be picked. You could tell he really wanted to play. He really wanted to be a part of the Olympics. |
A lot of these teams are dangerous teams because they have nothing to lose. They're playing with a lot of enthusiasm and energy and it make it tough (for opponents). |
After Mats laid it up perfectly for me, I tried to go high to the blocker side. I hit it perfectly, I got everything on the shot. I hit the spot where I was aiming. |
After Mats pretty much just laid it out for me, I tried to go high blocker side, and I hit it perfectly. I got everything on the shot. It went in the spot where I was aiming. We talked about that before the game: Try to go high on him if you have a lot of time. |
At least we get a couple days in between games after tonight. That's going to help us a lot. |
Edmonton has been playing for their lives for a month now. I thought tonight was the first time we got up to their level of intensity, and now we can look forward to getting back to our fans on Saturday. |
Edmonton has been playing like that for the last month going into the playoffs. We were kind of the opposite. |
Getting the lead was important. With the short bench, we kept the shifts short and kept working hard. |
Having a few days off here and there has helped. Winning helped. |
He looks real comfortable at center. He's anticipating a lot of plays, too, jumping at the right time and scoring great goals when he gets the opportunity to. |
He looks real confident out there when he's got the puck. You can tell that the other teams are backing off when he's got it. When he's got the puck he's hanging onto the puck, beating one or two guys. He's drawing two guys, too, to him, so he's just going to create so many chances -- if he's not going to score, other players around him are going to score. |
He's a great captain. He leads by example, especially in the playoffs, you can see that, the way he goes out and battles, plays hard. He doesn't say a whole lot, but when he says something, I think the whole team listens to him. |
He's got a great shot, and some nights, he's looking to make that extra pass. I think the coaches have talked to him about taking the shot and being there for rebounds, instead of him passing it up. |
He's real good in his own end so it's worked out well playing with him -- he's covering up for me when I join the rush or get up there in the play. |
He's very strong around the net, very strong on the puck. He's good at getting rebounds, goals in close, so we know he's going to be battling in front of the net all series. |