Trent Yawney Quotations

Waivers make it more difficult. No manager wants to lose a player for nothing. To lose a player after you've invested all this time and money in him is like cutting your nose off to spite your face.

We've still got some work to do. It's a work in progress.

We want them to experience what it's like to be in that situation. This has been a hard year for everyone -- not just the kids, but everybody off the ice who are trying so hard to make this thing work.

We abandoned what worked in the first period. We wanted to pass the puck into the net, not shoot it. It goes back to very simple hockey. Pucks to the net create excitement for everybody.

We abandoned what we did in the first period. That's when we shot and went to the net. After that, we started looking for the pretty play, and the pretty play wasn't there.

We abandoned what was working in the first period, and that was shooting the puck. We wanted to pass the puck into the net. In the first period we shot the puck and went to the net.

Let's call a spade a spade. Their goalie played very well.

Obviously, it's a sad day for the NHL. He's been a great ambassador for the game. ... He's probably been through more than any other superstar.

I don't know about Andy's confidence. He's practiced very well, so it's more a mental thing than anything else. He'll have to fight his way through it if he wants to play at this level. The backup job was open in training camp and Andy won it, but that doesn't mean it won't change throughout the year.

I don't think it should be much of a surprise with the type of year we've had.

I don't think our power play generated enough quality chances from the start. They've got the best penalty kill in the league.

He's got to play better than that. That's the bottom line.

He was disappointed. He's a proud athlete. I expect him to respond in the right way.

He had bad positioning with his stick, but up until then he'd played well.

He gave us instant credibility. Those guys are paid big bucks for a reason. They're the heartbeat of a team.

He made some good saves. You aren't going to win without good goaltending. He looked a lot calmer to me than he has all year.

He made a big save on the first penalty shot. It was a nice move on the second.

He's always been good. He's definitely their leader. He's a terrific player no matter who he plays for.

His position is very difficult to break into, whether you're 23 or 27 ? and he's 20. As a coach, you hope that you haven't given him too much sometimes, but he's responded to his tough nights. The next night he's always better. He's a very focused young man, and if he remains that way, he'll have a nice career ahead of him.

He's going to get a good taste of what he needs to work on. When he moves the puck, he's very effective. When he hangs on to the puck too long in an effort to make a pretty play, he gets exposed.

When they play a collective team game, it's better than the coach telling them about it. We've always talked about it. Tonight, we had more guys on than off.

He wasn't doing anything to not be put in in that situation. After just one game, it's too early to judge him. He was really nervous, which was understandable. But I saw enough of him in the minors to know what we're getting.

He wants to talk to some different people. I don't know anybody who welcomes surgery when rehabilitation can be used. He's doing the right thing.

Our goaltending has been average and that's maybe been generous. With Adam, even in the minors last year he played very well -- he put us in the playoffs -- but there was no in-between. He was either outstanding or awful. There was no middle ground.

Playing with poise under pressure is something you can't teach.

It epitomized this team. They don't give up.

I was really pleased. It was good to see two NHL teams playing again. It was a penalty-filled game, but hockey is back.

We have some guys coming back, so there is going to be competition for playing time. We can only dress so many players.

We played OK at first. In the second we got away from our game and in the third we couldn't complete a pass.

When a team makes a trade, it's obviously not happy. Our first two periods were disappointing. We weren't committed to playing together or committed to our game plan.

What I'm seeing in him is a more relaxed player. He had been putting too much pressure on himself.

We really didn't see their transition game other than the first part of the first period. Their forwards are so skilled that they can really turn something very average into something that's very lucrative in an awful hurry. We managed the puck pretty well tonight.

The power-play goals were all missed assignments. We abandoned what worked in the first period: That was shooting the puck. We wanted to pass the puck into the net.

When you get those opportunities early and you don't take advantage of it, they usually come back to haunt you.

Throughout training camp, they've been our most consistent defensemen. Barker, he's coming out of junior. I'd like to see him elevate his assertiveness. He does everything at one speed, and I think he's finding, as more and more of the regulars are playing, he's caught in between sometimes.

We turned over the puck far too much. They took advantage of their opportunities. We had the game on our stick, but we didn't finish.

You feel bad for the guy. It's difficult coming back from one injury and then starting out with another. When we lose him, we lose steadiness behind our blue line.

Eventually Corey will get a game. Each day at practice he gets a little more comfortable.

Andy was OK. He was better than he was.

Andy wasn't happy, but that's the way it goes. He'll battle back. He's battled through things before, and he'll battle through this.

Ellison's come on as of late. Bourque's a goal-scorer. He finishes his checks and plays hard, but when he has an opportunity, he'll bury it.

There's such a fine line. It's a little risky, but we'll make the call through how he practices. There's no right situation for him.

I've said it before: You're not going to win in this league with average or below-average goaltending. Tonight it was below average. But Crawford was awesome for a kid that was thrown in there.

It was to remind them what professionalism is about. The first one was a stock 2-on-2, and the second, we left the most important area on the ice wide open.

The teams that skate the best are not going to necessarily win all the time, but it makes it a lot easier.

The temptation was there after their fifth goal. But I decided against my intuition. He's got to learn to battle through it.

At training camp, we had to decide what kind of player he should be. Should he just shoot the puck, or should he be a steady defenseman who could do other things? He's got to do more than shoot the puck to play at this level. He had to learn that. He's still not nearly out of the woods, but he's made progress in the games he's played.

A smart decision on his part. We're talking about a professional in a field where shoulders are important.

That's his job. He played solid, and historically that's what he's known for.

You might be witnessing the team which might be in the Stanley Cup Finals.

This is a player who missed a lot of hockey the last couple of years. To think that he can come back like Superman and save the day, we're not thinking like that at all. We want him consistently healthy, where he can come to the rink without feeling any pain.

This might have been the best display of goaltending on both sides that I've seen this season. It was a little like a playoff game with the saves they were making.

They're a quick team, but I told him that the puck moves faster than they can skate. He's a very, very good passer and sees the ice very well.

It's all part of growing in this league. Adam has bounced back before. We've got to get a happy medium with him. He's either great or not very good at all. He knows that. We've got to get him to be more consistent.

It's tough on everybody, but it's the position we're presented with, and we'll try to make the best of it. Whether you're young or old, there's still an evaluation process.

For a young guy making his first start, he passed.

It'll be a new lease on life for Anton. I hope he gets consistent with his game and has a real long career. I still believe Anton will develop into the player everybody thought he would.

It'll be a minimum of four to six weeks. He's got a dislocation.

It's very similar here. You've got to minimize the train wrecks.

They (Hilbert and Munro) played well. Especially early, Adam made some big saves and it was nice to see Andy get a couple of goals. He's worked hard. Anytime you can get guys like that chipping in goals it helps, when you can score by committee.

It was a feeling I had. It wasn't' indicative of the way he was playing. That's not why I pulled him. I felt that maybe we needed something different.

I just want to see him play somewhere.

He's looked sharp in practice, and he's excited. It'll be a good challenge for him and the team. He'll surprise some people.

He's like a riverboat gambler. He likes to take chances. We'll have to curb that a little bit. He doesn't have to lead the rush down the ice, just support the first wave.

He's a one-of-a-kind player. He has an element that is very difficult to put into somebody, and that is he's mean. People don't like to play against him.

If he continues to do that, he'll be a valuable asset -- especially on a team like ours. You can throw him up front for a bit, put him at right wing and he'll get some energy going. Then you can throw him in the back, and he'll do the job there.

He basically earned it. Three goalies is a crowd. So something has to be done. I think that he took advantage of his opportunity and it's not like the other guy didn't get an opportunity.

He played a solid game and was there when we needed him.

You've got to feel bad for the man. This season's been like a horror movie for him.

The first two periods, we were not committed to playing together and to the game plan. You have to be committed to play in this league. That doesn't necessarily guarantee success, but it does put you in a pretty good position for success. The probability of having success increases. But when you're not committed to each other and to a game plan, it's pretty difficult to be successful at this level.