Ken Hitchcock Period Quotations

We were a team going very well for an extended period of time. In the last 10 days we have not played near as well as we are capable of.

He was really good. He was outstanding and gave us a chance to win and it was good stuff. We had a really good start to the game and then we were killing penalties in the first period and that?s when we really needed him. ..In the end, we needed him again. It?s good for him to make him feel part of the group again.

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.

The third period was tremendous. A lot of people played very, very well today.

I've always found that veteran players play significant roles in playoffs because they know what the level is like. And over a short period of time they can get themselves to that level because they know it's a two-month season.

That one line, you can't turn it over against them. (The Red Wings) schooled us. They turned every mistake we made at the start of the third period into a goal.

You think you're snake bit and there's a lot of doubt in your game and, when you don't score for an extended period of time, doubt creeps in. Then you get the one off their skate and it kind of sets the wheel in motion and now everybody thinks they can score.

It's still not good enough. We know the rules and we took two penalties in the third period that we can't take, not when the game is on the line. You're just dealing with an unbelievable level of fire when you're giving a team like that six, seven or eight penalties.

It took us almost a period and a half to get up to the pace of the game and then we were fine. We were much better in the second half of the game and the overtime than we were at the start. I thought we were a little behind the pace at the start and then really got going.

That second period felt like the longest period I've ever been through as a coach. The first question was whether we could skate with them. We can. They've got speed and so do we.

The first period hurt us a lot. We mounted a comeback in the second, but couldn't score.