Jason Spezza Quotations

We're going to snap out of it. It's not something we're in for the long haul. We've just got too good a hockey team here.

We know how important the game is for them.

The only way you get experience is by playing in these things. I haven't had any experience because I haven't had a chance to play in any of these. We've always made the playoffs, so I never had a chance to go to the (men's) world championships.

Murray definitely called us out. So, we played with more intensity tonight.

I have full confidence in him. And I think he's proving to other people now that he can be the starting guy.

I don't know what is going to happen or where we would stay or if we could practice. Hopefully, we're at least going to get to practice with the team. I guess we could go to the games and sit in the stands. If that's the case, maybe (Staal) and I will be just there having beers, watching the games.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about it a bit.

He got abused (yesterday) and kept going back for more. He worked hard and kept going at them. He was going hard all night to the net.

It adds an extra element to the game.

I think with the talent we have, we knew we were a deep team, we knew we were a favorite coming into the year, we had high expectations for ourselves and we still do. We expect to keep this pace going. We know in order to be a team that wins the Stanley Cup, you have to be consistent.

Last night everything we touched went in the net, and tonight it was tougher to put them in, but you can't make any excuses, we took too many penalties, we weren't skating as much and they took the play to us early on.

I was disappointed not to be one of the initial 23 guys but it'll be a good experience just to go over there. You never know if there'll be injuries so you've got to stay ready.

I was disappointed not being one of the initial 23 guys getting dressed, but it's a good experience to go over there and be around these guys.

I think so. The Stanley Cup is our goal. That's what we want to win, and nothing else is acceptable for us.

It doesn't bug us at all that people talk about us as a contender. We know we have a great team, and we know we have to go out and show it.

It doesn't matter what time of year it is, we want to win games. That's good for our confidence to keep winning games. We want to be ready for the (regular) season.

I'm slowly getting better ... it's still kind of day-by-day. It's definitely frustrating, any time you miss games it's frustrating. But the most important thing is we heal it properly and it doesn't become a reoccurring problem.

I'm stronger physically and I think stronger mentally, too. I'm bigger than people think because I'm not too physical normally. But, in the playoffs, you have to elevate your game. You play the same team so often, you'll get picked on if you don't.

We have to realize we're not playing good hockey right now. But we still have one game left until the audition is over and the real season begins. We still have a little time to sort things out.

Yeah. They know how to win. They won it. We're jealous of where they were two years ago, and we want to try to get there. It will be big for us on our road to try to win the Cup if we can beat the Stanley Cup champions. It's definitely a motivating factor for us.

We played well. Different guys are stepping up.

We probably didn't match their intensity early. And Ray kept us in it early.

We didn't play the way we wanted to play in the first and we made adjustments.

We're at home and we want to be the ones who come storming out of the gate and make it tough on them.

We have got to play better with the lead. We don't squander too many leads in the third and we don't want to make it a habit.

We were talking about making dinner plans and getting a reservation somewhere but it was good that they got it fixed. With the compressed schedule, the worst thing that could happen is we'd have to re-schedule the game.

We weren't quite the same as we were before I got injured but I'll shake the rust off and hopefully we'll have a good one tonight.

You get a team down 3-1, you want to close it out in your own building. You want to put the final nail in the coffin.

Special teams are big. That's how you're going to win games down the stretch.

You're going to get down in games and you have to learn to battle back to win them and we did.

You don't want to lose three in a row to anyone. But we've got a good thing going here. We're winning hockey games and we just want to keep it going. The more wins you get, the better.

They're like us. If they get the first goal, it's hard for us to come back. They try to play us tight. We have to open the game up against them.

It's tough to have that happen, but we knew it was going to be a grind. They're a good hockey team. There's no point putting our heads down now.

It's the biggest pick-up after the trade deadline, in my opinion. We've missed him the whole time. We're already a pretty deep team ? when you get Marty back, it's going to be great.

It's out of your control, so it won't be crushing (if not picked).

It's out of your control, so it won't be crushing (if he's not picked). It will be disappointing. All you can do is go out and play. I feel good about how I've played and how the team's done. The most important thing is the team's winning and I'm the top centre on the first-place team in the league. That's what's most important. It definitely won't faze me so much that it would hinder my play.

Dany was Dany tonight. He was flying. He had the one-timer going. I was just a spectator tonight.

The biggest thing now is to try and stay up all day and getting back in our time zone. But I'll be playing (tomorrow).

It was a big goal and we were pretty excited. We battled hard for a great comeback. People had kind of quit on us in this game and we battled back to score and it was nice to get that. Too bad we didn't score in overtime.

It was nice to get the wins against the teams we're supposed to beat. What people don't realize is these guys are playing for their jobs. We took a night off against Florida and paid the price (in a 6-2 loss).

That's all behind us. All we're worried about now is trying to win the Stanley Cup.

I'm not saying they were highlight-reel goals. He skates pretty well for his size. You stick that in front of the net and you can knock in a few.

I'm not 100%, but I feel good. It's going to be good to get back in there and get playing. It was longer than I expected, I really didn't think when it happened that it was anything that was going to be that serious.

I'd really like to have my own style of game and be known as Jason Spezza, not a Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky 'clone.'

If I ever have a chance to become a top-notch guy on a top team, I think that's more valuable than anything else.

I didn't want to be cut, but it made me a better person and a better player.

You guys will write what you want to write, people will say what they want to say. I can't control any of that. All I can control is how I play. I'm trying to be the best player I can be.

The hype that follows me doesn't bug me. I expect more out of myself than anyone else does, that's for sure.

My goal is to be at the top of my game every night.

I was 13 or 14 and I met Donald Trump at a bar mitzvah of a good friend of ours, who's friends with him. He had his girlfriend at the time with him, that Melania with him. He said, 'Hey guys, if you work hard and be successful, you'll get one of these.' I'll never forget that. And now he's married to her.

You can't always be the top player, but you can always contribute. I just want to win...that's what matters.

He's one of the best -- when you can understand what he's saying.

This has been Ray's team since Dom went out.

All in all, we've got to win that game. We had a lot of chances, but it just didn't want to go in for us? What did we have? Forty-six shots? Most nights when you have that many, you're going to win, especially when your goalie plays as well as Ray did (last night).

The doctor is confident it's just a strained pectoral muscle. It's too early in the year to try to play through stuff like that.