He was terrific. He said he would be. I'm telling you, we had a good conversation that night on the phone and I was really pleased. That's why when he said he wanted to come in a little bit late, I had no problem. I thought it was a pretty good conversation and I thought he'd come in and do well, and he's done great. |
He was the best defensive player when they won their two Stanley Cups. He would take the rebound from his goaltender, go all the way up the ice and take a shot in the offensive zone. And he'd come back another 200 feet, make the defensive play again. Great talents can play defense, and he was terrific in that series. |
He'll come back with a bigger knowledge and understanding of the big picture. He'll get a feel for how much more complex it's going to be against college players. He'll understand he's a representative of the community. And against international competition he'll meet some of the best in the world in his age bracket. |
He'll want to make a few (moves), right away. Larry will want to bring in guys he's comfortable with. He's going to want to have a say in personnel. That's the way Larry is. He'll go in and ask to have guys traded. But Donnie Walsh used to tell him, 'We're not going to do what you want. I will not destroy this team.' |
He's a good, quality guy, and we have to get him back to when he was at his best, which looks like when he was with Montreal. It's nice to have that sort of quality you can count on. Every time we ran out one of our six starters last year, we felt like we had a chance to win. There's no change at all with this group. |
He's a guy who will show up, and if you didn't ask him something, he wouldn't say a word. I think that's his natural persona. But that didn't make him a bad leader. I think he's a good leader because he works extremely hard at preparing for every game. He is really, really tough, and I think he has our guys' respect. |
He's already showing an amazing attention to detail, ... I went out and spent two days with him when he was making his final decision, and by the end of the second day as a I was leaving he showed me a copy of our schedule, and he'd already penciled in all the practice times and team flight times for the entire year. |
He's been a terrific young guy. He hasn't had an opportunity to play much because he is playing behind veteran guys but we are very high on him. We think he is going to be a player in this league. He is the type of kid who every day he comes to work. He works hard and never gives in. That is a great attitude to have. |
He's coming along very well. ... I think we would be pushing the envelope, however, if we put him out there this week. He's made a very, very fast recovery. The surgery was a success. But, there's movements that you do in a football game that you can't mimic in a workout. So, we need to give this thing one more week. |
He's doing better. He got here early today for treatment, he ran on the track, said he felt good. He just has a little bit of palpable soreness, really doesn't have any evident swelling. We're going to progress him over the course of the weekend in regards to his running and just take it day-by-day, see how he feels. |
He's going to go right in and play quarterback. We'd be crazy not to watch him. I won't know until I let him get in there and let him play. He knows if he doesn't play quarterback here he would go to safety. I know he can play there. He's a natural leader. He's a heck of an athlete. I've liked Nate for two years now. |
He's got electric Randy Johnson-type stuff. Miller's a lot different pitcher (than Henry). He's a 92-, 94-mile per hour guy, left-handed, low arm slot. He's the college version of Randy Johnson. But that's irrelevant for him and Bryan. They are trying to shut the other team down offensively. It could be a great game. |
He's put together a pretty good little stretch here. The thing we've talked about the whole way is consistency through the whole year, understanding you are going to go through some struggles. How are you able to get out of them? Are you able to get out of them quicker than other players? Those are the great players. |
He's still a day or two, in my opinion right now, away from being able to get up on the mound. I've got to be able to see him air it out on flat ground before I'd even think about putting him up on the mound. So I think he's still 48 hours from being able to make a real accurate decision [about starting on Saturday]. |
He's the real deal. I think I have a very good horse. He's the type of horse that gives me that confidence he can do it. My job right now is to do the very best I can for him. One thing that's different from my Olympic experience, I was on the horse and had to do it myself. I have no control once the race starts now. |