Dave Tippett Quotations

We'd like to get him acclimated with our team. Right now, you'd probably put him eighth on our depth chart among defensemen. That's an important position.

When I was in the IHL there were a few teams that used to do that. Some goaltenders just have a knack for breakaways and it can give your team a little bit of a boost. You have to know your personnel before you can make those changes and obviously Craig thinks Morrison is the guy on breakaways.

We're going to need all seven of those guys. To put numbers on them, that would be wrong right now.

We're going to dress the best team we can. And if one of those young guys is in that mix, that's the way it's going to be.

We feel the momentum is on our side now.

There are some question marks and things that need to happen for us, but I like this team.

We didn't want to take a chance with it. It's just being smart and not doing anything crazy.

We have a real focus on these seven division games. Hopefully, we have a good grasp on being able to lock up the division. Believe me, I'm happy we're playing teams like this. Our players recognize competition, and this is good competition for us.

There are things to build on, even though we're down 2-0.

There are things he does that the average person doesn't see, but we see it.

We won't be successful in a playoff game like that. We'll take the win and learn from our mistakes. It's easy to whine and cry. But we'll whine and cry our way right out of the playoffs if we do that.

When you can't make plays under pressure and you're not willing to win 1-on-1 battles, then I guess that's the game. Then the bounces. I'd like to see how many bounces go to the team playing with more desperation. That's kind of the way it happened tonight.

When things aren't going your way, he can step up to that other level. That makes him a great player. He's bearing down on opportunities. He's taking all the challenges, and that's a great sign for our team.

We're going against a team where the whole game plan going in was to take advantage of our turnovers and soft mental play. We were pushing to take that mental play out of the equation, but there were too many times it came into it.

One of the ways to make playoffs is to win your division. That was something we set out to do right from the start. We've got to keep pushing in that direction.

One of the greatest strengths we have is we are a team. That doesn't get you wins either but it helps the process of bonding together. You mix that with maximum performance and a lot of effort, and you can be dangerous.

I'd like to go out and win by a big score. But I think these character-building games will help us down the line. The more you learn about your team in close games, the better you'll be down the stretch.

But they play in different buildings there. You don't have that same flavor.

But the second thing is he just executes extremely well.

Getting cold in the shootouts at the right time. In two weeks, there are no shootouts.

From an entertainment factor, we held up our end tonight.

Frustration. Come out with effort and execution like that in Game 1 is unacceptable. It's not who we are as a team, and not who we expect to be. Our expectations are much higher than that.

Goal-scorers are guys who can get hot when they get confidence and can go on a run. Not much has been going in. Hopefully this will get him going.

If we say we're all right and meet a team in the first round that's been hungry for the last month, that's a problem. We'll do our best to guard against that. At no point are we going to say we're going to back off.

He's had a very good year. The number he cares most about is wins. The other numbers are inconsequential. That's a credit to him; 38 wins is a lot of wins.

He was very good. He's a guy we monitor every day and watch very closely because he's taken steps as we've gone along. As the pace of the game rises, we hope he will rise with it. Tonight was a good example of him playing a very good game on both sides of the puck. He made a lot of smart plays.

He scored on a penalty shot and I think he was 3-for-3 or 4-for-4 in the exhibition season. I think he's 14-for-14. That's mind boggling.

He's certainly a guy that as you become more familiar with him, he grows on you. There's a lot of factors to his game that he keeps showing you as it goes on, and I think we're still in the early stages with him. But, so far, we've been very happy with what we've seen.

He has done a great job as captain of our team this year. I think they are all hungry to prove they can get the job done.

He embraced the role and embraced his teammates, and his teammates, in the end, embraced him and played hard for him. That's the scenario we're trying to have.

He looked fine, ready to go. He could have gone more, but we kept his minutes down.

He not only understands the pressure of the game, but he has built pressure on himself with this thing and he completely understands it. Yesterday, all they wanted to talk about in the media was his shootout success, and he just ate it up. He knows it's there, and he loves it.

He'll get that taken care of and then take a little time to get it healed. The good thing is, he's seeing clearly.

He made a couple good saves. He took a lot of pressure this game on himself.

We talked about the importance of this game. Our trip would have ended 3-3 or 4-2. These are points that we desperately needed and I think our guys recognized that in the third period.

We're obviously glad that it's nothing too serious with Mike, but we'll just see how he is Saturday. That's a decision we'll make at game time. We do have some healthy bodies around, so we're not going to take a chance with anybody and put anybody in a vulnerable situation. But that being said, we want to continue to play well as a team -- and he's a big part of our team.

He's a crafty, keen player. Crafty in the way he goes about it on the ice and keen on the way he picks up things and reads plays.

He's just so calm for a rookie. You talk about players getting ready for a game, whether it's taping sticks or fixing their equipment. But he gets his mind ready. He prepares himself, and he's perfectly comfortable in those situations.

He's been real good in training camp and the preseason games. He's got a real determined work ethic right now and I think part of that is because of the injury. He wants to make sure that he's all the way back.

He's a tremendous player who does everything so well. And he's going to be especially important under the new rules.

His mind is in the right place now.

His timing was perfect. Going into the third period with the lead, you should win. Especially when you score right at the buzzer. It's really deflating.

Hockey is a game where intimidation is still a part of the game, and you'll go to great lengths to try to win a game. If you know a player has an injury or weakness, he becomes vulnerable. He becomes targeted.

He's a very smart player. He has an impact on the game, even though it's a quiet impact.

He's been a real positive guy. Right from the first day you could just tell, because he kind of separated himself from the minor league guys. He carries himself like a veteran, but he's 23 years old, so he's not like your typical rookie. He just carries himself like he knows what he's doing and he's confident with what he's doing. Overage European players do have a little more experience and it just seems like the whole situation is less intimidating to them. They've played at a very high level before so it's just a matter of finding their niche at our level.

Hopefully this is a real good slap in the face for us. The level of urgency has to be turned up several octaves now.

Hopefully this is a good slap in the face for our players. We turned the puck over in the neutral zone 30 times. When you lose execution its hard to get it back. I'm disappointed in the way our top players played and execution. It's just one game and we have to move on.

He was one of the first guys in my office when the new rules came out in training camp. 'What can I do and what can't I do?' It seems like all the rules were going against guys like him. I loved his attitude. He came in and addressed it right away and asked, 'How am I going to play these situations?' He studied it and has adapted very well.

You have to fine-tune. We try to go into each game and say, 'Here's a focal point.' We want to make sure going in that things are right.

I thought tactically we were pretty good, but we were a little sloppy at the end, which leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

I thought our team played a very good team defensive game. Hatcher had a great year and we played very well in front of Marty, but you can't get numbers like that without having an unbelievable performance from your goaltender. Marty deserves a lot of credit for that. He's the guy who a lot of time dictates a lot of the equation as the last line of defense.

I think we've gotten some timely goals, and the pucks have gone in for us. I don't know, I think we've played better games against other teams and not scored as many. I think it's a fluke thing that we've been able to capitalize on as many chances as we have.

I think we've gotten some timely goals and pucks have gone in for us. We've capitalized on our chances.

I think it's ultimately a team game that should be decided by a team. But during the season, you find a result and you just see the excitement it's given the fans and the players. It's been a nice jolt in the arm for us.

I think there will certainly be some movement, but there won't be the laundry list we have seen in the past.

Penalties with the sticks and things like that are because we're not aggressive enough. If you're chasing people from behind, hooking them, you're going to get called all night.

Our guys have earned the right to be a good team and a tight team. We've played pretty well together all year, so they have confidence they can get the job done.

Our power play got us back into the game. And we pushed in the third and got the ones we needed.

Our big guys answered the bell, Marty included, and that's a good sign.

Marty will play tomorrow. We expect Marty to be a top goaltender every night. Whether he expects it or not, that's the role we put him in, and he has to take that responsibility and give us a chance to win every night.

Marty has been focused all year on the future. This year, he's in a groove. He's just like the rest of us. The past is the past, and he's going to do what he's done for us and play well.

I wonder how the whole series has affected him.

It doesn't matter if it's Marty (Turco) or the defense. No matter how you slice it, when you give up five goals, that's a hard obstacle to climb over.

I think he's really looking forward to the playoffs. It's a chance to kind of redeem some of the demons he's had in the regular season.

I think Janne was a very solid player. You could tell the experience factor was on his side.

I thought it was a revved up game. I think that's what you're going to see going forward.

I thought it was excellent. We blocked a lot of lanes and didn't give them a lot to shoot at, and on the chances they did get to the net, Turco was real good. We got a couple of big goals but the penalty-killing was the key for us.

We needed for him to be good. We knew that fatigue was going to be a factor on our team and we needed him to give us a chance.

That was strictly for a change in momentum.

That was one of those the players really grasped. We need some more like that from him, and our team will rally around that.

That was a pretty solid game on our part. The last three games, we've put a lot of building blocks in place. We've just got to keep building on it.

That was a new move we saw today. He brought that one out of the closet.

You have to earn the right to be a good team. You have to earn it every day during the season.

We were up against the top team in the Western Conference and we look at them as a measuring stick for us. We didn't get the result we wanted, but that just shows us that we still have some work to do.

Whether it's Marty or the team, you can't win if you give up five in the playoffs.

You always have some question marks about the odd player here or there, but they are so few and far between. With the way the players take care of themselves, I'd be amazed if there's very many positives.

We don't feel we're deprived in that area. We feel we have people capable of playing very physical and very hard.

We have had some games that have been lopsided against them, so human nature tells you that it's in the back of your mind.

We need Marty to make some more saves for us. We've got to find a way to win and he needs to be a big part of it.

We've been good friends for a long time. I respect what he's done as a coach and his work ethic. We have a lot of the same views about the game. We spend a lot of time chatting. Over the years we got to be good friends and our wives are good friends.

We got these guys three times in a week, you're going to get to know each other well. I like games like that. For our team right now, it's a good thing. You like putting your team in situations where they have to compete hard, because that's when they feel good about yourself. That's the kind of games you want going into the playoffs.

We made a poor decision on our power play late in the third period and gave away a short-handed goal and couldn't get it done in overtime.

We haven't had much to play for for a while. I think that's been weighing on players' minds. But everything we talk about is getting ready for the playoffs.

Those are little mistakes, but it's not just the mistakes but how you cover up for them after. How do you give up a breakaway from your own blue line? That's just stupid play. There's no way to sugarcoat that. It's just not a smart play.

Those are little mistakes, but it's not just the mistakes, but how you cover up for them after. How do you give up a breakaway from your own blue line? That's just stupid play. There's no way to sugarcoat that. It's just not a smart play.

When any player goes down you get a little scare, but it's not bad at all. He just tweaked an old injury. When I talked to him between periods, he seemed to respond well, so I don't think it's serious at all. I just talked to him and he was planning on skating tomorrow, so there's nothing to be concerned about. I don't think there's much to evaluate.

We didn't play our game in the first period. We got a lot of penalties that put us on our heels early. We went into the dressing room and I thought we regrouped, but we came out and promptly gave up two more.

We sensed during this morning's skate-around that there wasn't much energy. Whatever it was, I thought there were a lot of guys that played below par tonight.

You look at what's down the standings, with everybody so close, the difference between four or five teams could be a point or two.

We were all right. I wouldn't class that as a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination - from play to officiating to the whole works.

We work on things, we talk about things. But in the end, that's the ultimate one-on-one, and you have to trust the player.

We put the challenge to him and he made a great impression. They can be a very dominating line. The thing about them is that they are so big and strong and in back-to-back games they came out and were just as strong the second night. They were an integral part of our win.

We do have concerns with the perception of our game and the credibility of our game.

You have to believe in your team. Just because you change lines or do something, doesn't mean you believe in them any less. You're trying to give them instant recognition.

To say he's not playing well because he's not scoring. ... There are some players you can say that about. Jere isn't one of them.

When you play sloppy like that, you get what you deserve. You're just looking for an honest hockey game from your team, and for the most part we got it. We didn't get it from everybody.

There are a few issues, but I think it's the stuff you normally have to deal with. These guys are in great shape, but they still have to get in game shape. One of the big challenges is getting the body conditioned to hitting. Not only is it hard physically, it really takes the air out of you.

When you do it and do it well, it's a good sting. That's the difference.

The players are determined and they're finding ways to win. They push toward it without pushing the panic button.

Both our goals were hard plays at the net. Brenden goes hard to the net ? just grit plays. You do those enough, and you get rewarded.