Playoff Quotations | Page 5

We're still trying to win every game we can even though we know we're not going to make the playoffs. It's fun to go against a team playing for something and to try to take away points from them. It's nice to beat a team that's in the playoff hunt.

With the experience that we have, we should have a decent year. A lot of these guys have three years of varsity experience. They know what I expect, and we want to win the section and win a playoff game.

We have all the ingredients to compete at the playoff level. Taking care of the ball and playing defense will become even more important down the stretch.

We have an eight-game playoff series. We're excited about it. They have a real good team. Let's get there and get going.

We couldn't afford to quit at anytime in the game. We've had our backs to the wall the past few weeks and every game has been a playoff game for us. This one put us in the tournament.

We know that we have to go out and try to win the playoff championship. The rest of it is out of our control.

We have two weeks to make a decision on playoff roster. He doesn't have to show me. He's got to show his teammates. You don't have to show me anything. I didn't come here to make friends. I came here to be the best manager I can. You got to make those guys believe you are ready to go. If you're not ready to go, I'm sorry and I'll take my chances in a different way.

We have to worry about a playoff spot. We've had a pretty good year, got a lot of wins. The way the game is being played now, especially with the shootouts, a lot of the teams out west are good teams. It makes for an exciting race.

We just didn't show up for last week's game against Joshua Springs. I told our kids that they (Excelsior) would come out and hit you hard because they have some good players, and you'll have to execute our game plan better than you did last week. The other teams are looking for that opportunity to beat us and have that second-place playoff spot, and we really need to step it up.

We played playoff hockey. We played like men out there and we played like a team.

We played our match-up zone. They didn't get any good looks. We played this like it was a playoff game. Friday's game at Rockwall is a playoff game.

We believe the leagues should determine their playoff teams through their bylaws. We feel the coin toss isn't a good way, but encouraging coaches to run up the score is even worse.

We can't afford not to have him for 35-40 minutes in a playoff game. I'm not going to criticize the officials because they're working hard, but it is something that needs to be looked at.

We can strengthen ourselves to be a team that's resting on Wild Card weekend and earning a home playoff game to advance. If you do that, that's a significant step toward the ultimate goal of winning a world championship. It doesn't guarantee anything, but to me, that's next on the wish list.

We came out in the second and played hard. We want to be in that playoff race and this game was crucial.

We hadn't given them a lot of reason to be excited in the past. We had some talented teams that fell short. It was huge to get that first playoff win. Now they're on board. This city is bursting at the seams in support for us. It's great to run out on the field knowing they're behind us that much.

We have the opportunity for two playoff games at home. A lot was on the line (Saturday).

We were still a very young franchise. If we had just won one playoff game (the fans) would have been happy. To go as far as we did, they were ecstatic.

We were short-staffed tonight, but came up big with 10 players and a very disciplined win to guarantee a playoff spot.

Tripp gave me a ring and said, 'Whatever you do, either lose by five or win by five because if you're in a playoff you have no chance.

Yeah, we're still in the playoff hunt, but it's still a big hill to climb to make it. We probably have to win out the rest of the season.

Yeah, we don't have much playoff experience. Yeah, we've got to show everybody. We're not Stanley Cup contenders. We've got to go out and prove it now.

We needed somebody to step up and make plays during the playoff stretch. Hopefully I can continue to do this throughout the playoffs.

We needed playoff replacements for the Florida Pit Bulls and Gallup Talons. We chose the Ohio Aviators and Boston, partly because Boston changed ownership during the season and did a good job.

We needed it. Leavitt was pushing us for one of the last couple of playoff spots. It was big for us to win on their floor.

We need wins. They have been few and far between right now, but we're only two wins back of a playoff spot. If we can go on a little bit of a run and put some wins together, we're right in the race.

We need to win out in conference games for a home playoff game.

We need to win. Every game for us is a playoff game.

We need to step it up another notch before Wednesday. It seems like we've been sitting around on our heels the past few weeks playing not to get hurt. When you do that, you wind up playing not to win, and we have to clean that up before our first playoff game.

We needed to win this game. This will help with the playoff seed we get.

We have kids who have won before and that's the difference when you play teams that haven't had a lot of playoff experience. Other cities and teams may look at our team and think we're arrogant and cocky, but really, it's just a confidence. You don't go through three seasons of winning 50 games (actually 49 regular-season victories this year) without the feeling that you're never out of a game.

You know it's all around the league right now ? the Predators are playing teams that are not in the playoffs. They should walk in. Honestly, sometimes those are as hard as games against teams you're battling for playoff spots.

We've been fighting for the last couple of games to keep these guys focused. We're trying to get them to understand that when you're playing against a team fighting for their playoff lives, they're going to give it everything they've got.

We got things done at the right time tonight. Every time we went down we kept our composure and got back into the game. We were able to get a lead and sustain it. We showed a lot of character being that those guys (Washington) already had their playoff shirts made up and wanted to wear them after the game. We didn't give them a chance to do that, now they have to do it somewhere else. We had an extra incentive to beat them and that gave us a great lift. We just did everything right tonight.

We got them right where we want them. The stage may be set for one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history. He's clearly frustrated that they haven't really been able to get the ball to him.

We had everything in line. You couldn't ask for anything better, at home two weeks in a row. We thought we'd already clinch, at least a playoff spot, much less the division. We're going to go back to the drawing board. I don't think anybody has lost hope.

We had different circumstances. At 7-5, understanding that every game at that point is going to be a playoff game got us battle-tested, ready for the playoffs, a lot earlier, because we turned it on in the latter part of the season. We were in playoff mode.

We fought. This was a playoff atmosphere. We wish we'd have been able to match their intensity down the stretch. But we didn't. We just did not execute. We were hesitant. We didn't get to the foul line. We didn't deserve to get there. We didn't make strong enough moves.

We didn't end their playoff hopes. They ended their own when they lost to Buffalo (earlier this week).

We have a tough stretch of games coming up, but we're going to do our best to mix up the playoff race a bit and finish off on a good note.

Those fans in Boston, they're very passionate about their Red Sox and they were fighting for a playoff spot. Here, we had two teams that are going home on Sunday, just trying to honor the game and finish out the season. You want to play the game hard and professionally, finish out your contract and do what you're paid to do. Other than personal pride, there's really nothing on the line here.

We ain't even thinking about the division title. We've got to get better. That's all we know. We've got to be able to beat the two Texas teams (Dallas and San Antonio) and Phoenix in a playoff series, so we've got to get better.

We know it's going to be a playoff atmosphere. We only played them once, and we can't sit here and brag and have a chip on our shoulder like, 'We put them out last year and we beat them early this year.' Because you can be beat on any given night in this league.

We know it's crunch time and that each and every game is like a playoff game for us. We want to show Chicago that we want it more than they do. We've got to play with the same urgency and focus that we've had in the last few games and we should be OK.

You didn't have any remorse, didn't have any regrets. You came in and led us to our only playoff win ever.'

We don't have the luxury of being far enough ahead in the playoff race to be able to find positives when we don't win. The results overwhelm everything else.

When you spend so much time in the minor leagues, and you've been successful, you wonder if it's ever going to happen. He got a chance to go up there for an extended period and had some success, was on the playoff roster, which most people will never be. He came back with a new vigor.

We are 0-4 in league right now and are beginning to put our backs against a wall in terms of playoff position. It is very important for us to go out and perform well and work hard to get a victory versus Monroe on Friday. We have a goal of getting a home play game. That means we will have to finish third or higher. So we have some work to do, but I have total confidence that we will be there at the end of the year.

We are ready. I think that most of the players realized, right after that playoff game, that they were going to have to work harder than they did last year. The team has been running, lifting, hitting and working out every day. I'm very excited about the season.

We did what we had to do to win. We are fighting for that third playoff spot and the kids worked hard for the victory.

We had a playoff game tonight, a playoff game last night and playoff games for the two weeks before that.

We had an opportunity to get in the playoff race, and to come back with a goose egg is very disappointing for me. It should be disappointing for the players, and it's disappointing to the staff. When you have young guys like that, we make so many mistakes on both ends of the floor, it's hard to recover from that on the road.

When you're playing playoff teams, it is more of an indicator of where we are and how we're playing.

We're not going to get a favorable draw in the playoffs. So we need to play better volleyball if we want to make a playoff run.

We played a solid 14 minutes but the bottom line is you got to play 60 minutes, it's a playoff atmosphere and we've got to do a better job. We've got to play a lot better defensively in our own end.

We played against very good teams, playoff teams for sure, maybe candidates to win the Stanley Cup. They're already playing playoff hockey and I don't think we're playing it yet. The two games teach us we are not there yet. We have to play smarter.

We played 82 games that we considered playoff basketball. That's the way we're going to play. We're going to defend, we're going to move the ball offensively, and that's why I told our guys.

We didn't play well and they did -- that's a nasty combination. We ran into a Forest Grove team that is fighting for a playoff spot, had a week off and I think we got their attention last time we played them.

We're learning to close out games. Winning games like this shows we're a playoff team. We're going to go, we know that.

We're not feeling the best right now. The highs and lows in playoff hockey are unbelievable.

We battled, we fought - this was a playoff atmosphere. We wish we would have been able to match their intensity down the stretch, but we didn't.

To me, this had all the ingredients of a playoff game.

Yeah. He had spent a long time in this organization. For us, it was sad to see him go. He was sad to go. He?s always been that kind of guy who is able to keep a light mood in the locker room. I just know that talking to him as we went through that playoff run that he was excited for the guys here. He really was. He is just that kind of guy -- a genuine kind of guy. But you could just sense that he wanted to be a part of it. And you just want those kind of guys in your locker room.

We're at home, and that's huge. Who wouldn't want to be home for a playoff game?

We're down 1-0 in a mini playoff series. We'll bounce back. We have to come out hungrier and with more hustle.

You look at the beginning of the year, everybody was thinking that we were a team that, if we were lucky, we would be battling for a playoff spot in the end. That wasn't good enough for us. We found a way to clinch early and only finished three points behind Ottawa. We showed we belonged with the best. It's the same attitude that we're going to bring to the playoffs.

You don't put on this sweater and go through the motions. I know some people might think that's what we've been doing, but we haven't. That has not been why we are having the season we are having. It's not difficult at all to go out there and do the best you can even if you're out of the playoff race. That's what we are being paid to do, and I think we are doing it. Tonight, it was enough for us to win.

We definitely can't underestimate them. We already have this year and we didn't get three points off of it. Maybe if we would have beat them last time we would have been sitting in the playoff spot right now.

We definitely want and expect to be a playoff team. We're glad our owner has the confidence in us and that he believes we'll be a playoff team.

We definitely think we're a playoff team and we definitely think we're capable of winning the Super Bowl.

We believed we were going to go there and win, keep our playoff hopes alive. Of course, everybody's talking about the streak being broken and everything else. But really, for us, that was just another team in our path and another game we had to win in order to go on and achieve the goals we set at the beginning of the year.

We're excited to bring in a veteran player like Sam who brings nine years of playoff experience and two championships, ... The addition of Sam strengthens our backcourt. He's a big-time scorer who is one of the best in the league when it comes to taking and making the big shot in the closing moments of a ballgame.

We're excited to bring in a veteran player like Sam, who brings nine years of playoff experience and two championships. The addition of Sam strengthens our backcourt. He's a big-time scorer who is one of the best in the league when it comes to taking and making the big shot in the closing moments of a ballgame.

We stayed in it and we kept fighting back and fighting back. We missed some free throws down the stretch we would like to have had. But this was a playoff game, with a playoff atmosphere.

We've been working on things all year and now it's starting to come together. (This win) gets the playoff jitters out the way and lets us focus now on Reedsville.

When the playoff picture isn't there anymore, it's hard to get motivated. But I think we are doing fine and especially these last few games we have to go out there and have fun.

The expectations are a whole lot higher right now. I think a lot of people are expecting us to definitely be in the playoff race. . . . We ourselves are expecting to be in the playoff race.

With 18 games left, I think everybody is getting into a playoff mode here. Let's face it, from five on down to eight, there's going to be two or three games separating (the teams). So each win is really vital.

We were right there. We had good enough chances to do it. Guys were in the right spot. We?re playing playoff games now. That was a playoff game.

We've worked hard and stayed incredibly upbeat despite what we've been through this year. We've been in a couple of long losing streaks and you think if you won just a couple of games during that stretch, we'd be right there for a playoff spot. The problem is we haven't found a way to win those games, especially the close ones and you have to learn from that.

We were wired up to play. You hate to say it's payback, but they're where we want to be. We want to catch them. ... It was like a playoff game tonight for us.

We can't sit here and say this team is in huge trouble. We're in a playoff spot right now, and it's up to us to keep it.

We considered this a playoff game on the road tonight. It's analogous to the Steelers in that we have to go on the road and win three more in a row in the tournament.

We clinched a playoff spot, which was huge.

We clinched a playoff spot tonight, and if we beat Mineral Wells at home Tuesday night, we'll wrap up at least a tie for the district championship.

We have four more days together as a team, ... and then I'll be sitting at home looking at the playoff games - and we should be there.

We're all concerned about where we finish, but I don't know if there's anybody you want to play. It's going to be a whale of a playoff once it's finally decided.

We didn't play great. I had a chance to win there on 18 and didn't get it done, and he gave me one on the first playoff hole. I was lucky to get by with a victory.'.

When our backs are against the wall, somehow we always come out swinging and play a great football game. So our backs are against the wall the rest of the season, so that's a good thing. It's a playoff run from here on out and we understand that. We have two big ones coming up.

We would love to bring a playoff game back to the city of Denver. Trust me, I know we haven't won the AFC West since I've been here. Trust me, I know that, and you don't have to tell me that. But that's what we push for. We're pushing to win our division, first of all. And once you win your division it gives you a home playoff game and possibly home-field advantage and you go from there.

This (road trip) is one of the last chances for us to get in the playoff race. We need to wake up as soon as possible.

This reminded me of April and a playoff atmosphere. It's early, but we've got Columbus Monday, and you need games like tonight to prepare for your region games.

There hasn't been one game where one team has taken it from the start and just rode with it. That's just playoff hockey between two evenly matched teams. We don't really expect too much different in Game 6.

We're young and there's only one thing to get out of this and that's experience. We came out flat in the first half and being two down, that's tough against any team, especially at the playoff level.

We knew the Sharks are real hungry now hunting for a playoff spot so we knew it was going to be a tough game.

We're out of the playoff picture, so our role is to play spoiler and also build some momentum going into next season. We've put two in a together row and we've got Lee, who's already clinched the district race. Hopefully, they're looking past us and we could string four together if we can get some breaks.

We're not quite there yet. We're definitely a playoff team, but we're not with the elite teams of the league.

We're not kidding around any more, we really want this playoff spot.

This year we didn't want to leave anything to a coin flip or anything else. We wanted to win a playoff spot outright and not have to worry about anything extra that counts.

We just have to regroup against Riverside and try to get us a playoff berth.