Ken Hitchcock Great Quotations

We?re going to take Randy right through to the end of the day here and see how he looks. He had a really good first game, which was most impressive. I like what he does. He?s very smart and the way the game?s being played right now you need people who are smart offensively and defensively. He?s done a great job.

What a great play off the boards, ... He went one-on-two and beat everybody off the boards.

I found him to be a good friend and a great competitor, and one of the most loyal guys I worked with and for. He has wonderful people skills and he allowed everyone to flourish in his respective role ... he put his ego aside to allow that. I respect Pat Quinn the coach and Pat Quinn the man much more.

We made some great strides last year, but there's another level out there. I think it's a group effort to get to the next level. We don't need one thing from one player, we just need a little bit more from every player. We are capable of taking the next step as a group, but it's just a little bit more from every player.

I think the concern is you don't want to waste a great performance by a goalie. We got that type of performance. But we didn't execute offensively for him.

I thought we got better as the game wore on. I think the concern is you don't want to waste a great performance by a goalie. You need your goalie to win those games.

We played great yesterday (Saturday in a 4-3 loss to the Rangers), didn't get rewarded and came back and we had a flat start. They took advantage of our mistakes today.

We have to try to catch them. They have some tough games and they have to come back in our building and that should be a great game again.

We?re winning games without Peter?s line scoring goals for us, and that?s a great sign. We?re winning games different ways. Sometimes it?s with speed and skill. We had to grit it out today.

We saw 12-14 games where we had our top six guys back there. Our defense on the back end was awesome. When we were healthy, we had a great group. We could defend, we could join the rush, we could be offensive and we could do anything. Getting Joni and Eric back will give us something to build on after the break.

We talked this summer, and the one thing I told him is you find out pretty quickly you have to put a lot of fingers in dikes. You spend a great deal of your time just fixing everyday problems. That's kind of what a coach is, a problem solver.

We're disappointed. We played a great game. We deserved a better fate. It's the best game we've played in a month.

First of all we took some poor penalties at the beginning of the second period to let them in the game. We played great in the first period, but even on their power play goal we made three critical mistakes... There are two things that really concern me right now. Against the good teams we lose the special teams game and when you can't kill a penalty, that's a big concern.

I've seen young guys who've played great and I've seen them absolutely overwhelmed. I've seen young players literally in the fetal position during a series because they're overwhelmed by the intensity and the emotion of what's going on. And I've seen guys raise their level.

This is the state were in right now. We played great yesterday and didn't get rewarded. We had a flat start to this game. Montreal took advantage and scored 5-on-3. They took advantage of our mistakes. We have to regroup. We have to get some healthy guys back in our lineup. We didn't play our best game today. We have some things we have to talk about in the next 48 hours.

They?re similar players. Simon probably shoots the puck off the rush a little bit better, but they?re both determined players. It?s a great feeling when you go out for a game and you never have to worry about whether a player is going to be a committed player. I never worried about that once.

Even when things get a little hairy like they did in the second period, we gathered ourselves and did a great job.

It was a great start. All four lines contributed. We are getting better every day now. You can see it in the practices and you can see it in the game. We are getting healthier and we have some continuity on lines.

It was a great feeling in the locker room, it was a great start, and then it was bang, bang, bang. It was over. We poured so much into it and then the air went out completely. The deflation was unbelievable.

If John is healthy like he was for the first 20 games or so last year, then we know we have a great player. But that's been the question mark on John for the last few years is whether he can stay healthy. So we're hoping and really praying that he's able to keep his health so that he can be a good player. If he's healthy he's going to be an impact player. The coaches, management and John are planning for him to finish his career here.

In the NHL, it doesn't matter with the standings. Especially this team, they are over .500 at home. And they have a great work ethic. If we don't match their work ethic, how is our skill going to take over?

The difference was we had a great start to the game and played very well, but when they got their power plays, it shifted the momentum back their way. We did a lot of things really well today. Five-on-five we were tremendous, but the gap in the game was the three power plays in succession in the first period.