Mark Eaton Quotations

We remember the great atmosphere here, how inspiring the fans were. This is why you play. This is the best time in the year. Being able to start at home makes it that much better.

We were definitely more into it in the third period. It was an important game and an important third period.

If anything, I think we're playing too loose. Maybe we have the mentality that our schedule has only one playoff team in our remaining seven games or so. But this is the NHL, and every team has pride and every player has individual pride. There is no such thing as an easy game.

I said a few words to them, but I'm not going to call myself Rudy or anything. I played there, so those guys can see that they're not too far from reaching their goals. If I can be any kind of inspiration to them, that'd be great.

Our job right now is far from over. Last time we were just happy to get in, but now we're looking for home ice.

Our first period today was atrocious, probably the worst period all year. It's the NHL. Any team you spot three goals, it's going to be a tough time coming back. We just need to get off to some better starts and get some momentum coming our way.

We had a lot of quality chances and we all thought it was just a matter of time. (Anderson) had been playing well against us and we talked about just getting people in front of him.

We've done it plenty of times this year, come back in the third. We had a (four-game) losing streak there and we knew this was a key game for us because teams are creeping up on us.

We're the fourth-seeded team, so we know we're going to have to win a few road games. Now is as good a time as any. This is an important game. We'd like to win both games, but we want to get at least one.

We finished up the last couple weeks playing some of our best hockey of the year, especially defensively, and the old cliche 'Defense wins championships,' that's an important part of our game.

We tried to learn from our mistakes (Monday). Their success comes from their defensemen shooting the puck and the guy in front not allowing the goalie to catch the puck cleanly. If they shot the puck, we wanted it to be from the outside or the boards.

We feel like we're in a pretty good spot right now, but we still want to work our way up. There's still almost a third of the season left to play and there's a lot of teams lumped together so we know that we can't afford any long stretch of losses or we could be on the outside looking in.

The thing that makes it difficult is that every team in this league has a lot of pride. If you see that a team has beaten you the last three or four games, a sense of pride takes over and you say, 'Enough is enough.' It's like what we did earlier this season against Los Angeles.

After nine years I think it's time to give someone else the chance.

It was fun and it brought back good memories. I probably hadn't swung a bat in five years and I'd never used a wooden bat.

It shows you right there what kind of a player he is and what kind of heart he has. That's what playoffs are all about ? even though you've already been through a long season, all the aches and pains seem to go away. You know the Cup is just 16 wins away.

It's such a competitive league that you can't turn it on and off like a switch. You want to stay on top, stay in playoff mode and stay in high gear. You don't want to have to get up again after taking a week or week-and-a-half off.

The losing is coming at a bad time. We have to figure out a way to win games. It doesn't have to be pretty, but we have to win.