Randy Carlyle Quotations

Ultimately, the player makes the decision. The one thing we were adamant about was we didn't want 20 minutes. If it took 100 minutes, we wanted him to commit to 100.

We have to get points out of it. We're playing teams that are all in our conference.

We did not compete at our best level. I thought that they wanted it more than we did and they went out and played that way. The bottom line is we have to prepare ourselves for more of a team effort than we got from our group tonight.

We deserved a better fate, but we didn't get it. My message was that we worked extremely hard and did a lot of good things. We're not going to let this get us down.

We've talked about it. You cannot, cannot - stress cannot - use your stick. It's experience. This is a new area of the game, the way it's being called.

We made a decision probably three weeks ago that we were going to go with some of these guys. We made a list of six or seven, and those players were on it. We thought we'd change it up a bit.

Obviously, we had planned to have Sergei as part of our hockey club. Things happen behind the scenes, and you have to make adjustments. It's unfortunate that Sergei got hurt. He did everything right from the beginning of training camp, performed at a high level. I can't say a bad word about him.

Obviously, their game plan was to go after our skill players, and that's posturing for the playoffs. That's the way the playoffs are. You earn every inch of space on the ice. I think the officials are going to have to take control of some of the situations. I thought they did a heck of a job tonight in that respect.

Nothing changes. One game at a time. We're not in a position to do anything more than try to improve where we are in the standings and improve our position for the playoffs. We're going to continue to push in that direction.

I don't understand how they called that many power plays against us. I don't understand how we're that bad. I guess the Detroit Red Wings get those calls in their building.

He had been scoring a lot in practice and we talked to him about it three weeks ago. He delivered.

He has a workmanlike attitude as every member of their hockey club does. You have to credit them with their work ethic.

He is not in a danger situation at all. No concussion, more along the lines of an upper-body bruise.

He had a large hand in our ability to win. Some nights he's required to make more stops. This was one of those nights.

He fits into the same category as the rest of our hockey club. We weren't good enough, and he was part of it. He wasn't as sharp as he needs to be, and the team wasn't as sharp as it needs to be.

He fit into the group. We weren't good enough.

He came in in great physical shape, ... It's always a positive for a coach when you see your veteran guys leading in that direction.

We try to make sure we take care of recovery, do lots of stretching, and focus on the core part of the body, specifically.

We took some penalties at crucial points. We just didn't defend well. We had our opportunities, we just didn't manage to get the puck past Nabokov.

We took some inopportune penalties at critical points. We gave them too many opportunities and too many quality chances.

We took far too many penalties, and we got worn down. The fatigue started to set in. The second period, things started to get a little crazy, and we got out of sync. Fortunately, we were able to get it back.

We took a different approach, doing some off-ice stuff. The players would rather do that than come to the rink and get skated. We had a little laugh, a little team bonding and it really showed tonight. We had lots of energy early.

He's a friend of mine. You never like to see an individual lose his job. It's a difficult time for him and his family. I wish him all the best, and I know he'll bounce back. He will coach again - I'd almost be willing to bet.

He responded well; that's what you expect of a veteran player who drew a lot of attention to himself in an incident like that. He turned a negative into a positive. He used it as a motivational tool.

He's a skilled player; as with any skilled player, if you give him time and space, he's going to make plays.

Historically, I've always been the type of coach that made a decision to give the individual a chance to redeem himself. I've always done that. I believe in that. That's part of the relationship you build with players. Nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes.

He's a superstar. He plays every situation, night in, night out, has the ability to elevate his game, and does all the things that are necessary to provide you with leadership.

He's a stay-at-home guy, he does everything at 100 percent all the time and keeps it simple.

He was pushed back in the crease four or five times.

He was going along at a fairly good pace and making great strides. Then he suffered the concussion and really struggled after that.

He was a force out there at all times. He's a dominant young player. He's the real deal.

He did everything he had to do to dominate the game. He was a force out there. I think at times we stood around and were in awe of him.

I think in these situations, the player tells you what's going on. We understand that it's not ideal. He says his pain tolerance is bearable, and we'll continue to go on. Obviously, it's something he's willing to put aside at this point. You have to support the decision that he makes.

I thought we were in control. Then all of a sudden, we got into a few penalty problems in the third. They had life, but I give our guys credit. We were resilient and stuck with our game plan.

I thought we did a lot of good things. We're not down but we understand this is the type of game we have to play.

I thought we deserved a better fate, but we didn't get it. There is no use worrying about it. We can't change it.

I thought we didn't play 60 minutes, we played about 50 minutes.

Our players deserve the credit. They took the responsibility. We got down 3-1, we battled back. We found a way.

Our work ethic was there. We got the opportunity on the power play and took advantage of them.

Other teams are enjoying more power plays than we are, ... I don't understand how they can call the number of power plays called against us for simple infractions. It's beyond my belief we're as bad as taking ... was it nine?

Robby said that he felt that he didn't even touch it. He thought it was there and it went off their player. That's why he was confident, when he came to the bench, that they were going to allow the goal.

Our players worked extremely hard. It was a fast-paced game, and it wasn't no-hit hockey. It was a physical game and those are tough ones to play.

Our relationship goes back a long way. Our kids played minor hockey together in Winnipeg. There are roots there.

It does stretch the road trip out because then we go to Ottawa and sit there for two days before we play again, but we felt it was one of those things we should do.

I think he fit in with our hockey club. Tonight we weren't good enough.

I thought it was a masterpiece. It was a game where we were able to get things going in a positive direction after the first shift. We had a few miscues and we took a penalty right off the bat, but we were able to regroup and get enough pucks past their goaltenders.

We put a little too much pressure on him by taking too many penalties.

We have to step up as a group. There are no ifs, ands or buts. We didn't play anywhere near the level required (Tuesday). They won more one-on-one battles than we did. They started with the puck more often. They got inside and they were more physical than we were. We have to match that.

We really stayed with our work ethic. Our players seem to enjoy that.

We got down early but found a way to claw back. The one thing that this group has demonstrated all year is resiliency.

We got beat by a very special player. He did everything he had to do to dominate the game in the goal-scoring department. He's a dominant young player. He's the real deal.

We had more structure, but our penalty parade took us out of the hockey game. You can't continually give teams the quality of Dallas power plays. They made us pay.

We had lots of energy early. Lots of things went our way.

We have to make sure our players are disciplined to the point, where they can't put themselves or their team in a situation that's going to cost their hockey club goals, momentum, whatever you want to call it.

We were frustrated by our lack of offensive punch. We had our chances, but didn't finish.

Those are the type of wins that really make you feel good about yourself. We went out there and we earned it.

We are playing for positioning. Tonight one shot beat us.

The penalty parade took us out of the game. We can't continue to give a team the quality of Dallas that many power plays. They made us pay for it. ... We took too many. They got momentum from it.

We played a lot harder tonight than we have in a lot of our games, particularly on the road.

We're doing something other than going out on the ice. We just felt that with our travel schedule and the games that it was getting monotonous, redundant. What we're trying to do is just bring everybody down, regroup and focus. The mental preparation is as big as the physical preparation when you're stepping into this Game 7 scenario.

We were able to ride it all the way in. Not picture perfect, but effective.

We didn't have much going other than the fact we scored a couple power play goals. We did not compete at our best level. I thought they wanted it more than we did and they went out and played that way.

We didn't have a very good start. You get down 2-0, it was one of those games that they were better than we were early, by far.

We battled hard - there's too many positives out of this game to get down.

We put ourselves in a position to win. We just have to find ways to close those ones out.

We've got to get more people involved and play four lines. We had our chances, but we didn't get the job done.

We've got to find ways to win rather than finding ways to lose.

Training camp's not fun, especially the first day. It's not supposed to be fun. It's about work. We understand that the players are getting a first opportunity to be put through their paces, and our work ethic and our commitment to conditioning will be very, very hard.

We've had to battle back. Points are too important now and we've got to find a way to shake ourselves out of those doldrums early.

We've got a long way to go. There still are a lot of points available.

We had three two-on-ones against us today and it resulted in three goals. You don't play loose and you don't give up those types of quality scoring chances and expect to win and I think we were fortunate to get a point.

We got a big goal early and our psyche changed. It seemed like we expected it was going to be easy. They proved differently.

You have to play with a high level of energy night in and night out. I thought tonight was our best team effort of the year.

You guys have heard it so many times I'm sure you're sick of it.

When you lose the shootout, you feel like you lost the hockey game. But we didn't lose the hockey game. We lost a point and they gained a point. That's the reality of it.

When you lose a shootout, you feel like you've lost the hockey game. We didn't lose the hockey game. We lost a point and they gained a point.

We did a lot of good things. I can't be disappointed with our effort, that's for sure.

We are going to have to be first on the puck in a lot of different situations, and this group has not backed away from doing that all year.

The result is the biggest negative. Our effort was good, we had chances, but we just didn't bury the puck.

The transition for him hasn't been smooth. He's one of those kids who's trying to find his way right now.

Is it the end of the world? No, they're up 2-1 in the series. The bottom line is we have to prepare ourselves for more of a team effort than we got from our group.

Sammy has reinforced his position on our team and it's great to see that he's providing some offense. Does he want to be a five-goal scorer? Or a 10-goal scorer? Or a 15- to 20-goal scorer? He's proving he wants to be the latter.

Our expectations are that we're going to try to play an uptempo game, and our players seem to have responded positively to that.

Our execution level was nowhere near where it needed to be,

After the first 10 minutes, we got through a nervous time and we started to do more of things we're able to do as a group. Are you happy that your group competed and got their feet wet. Yeah, you're happy in that sense, but you're not happy with the outcome because we lost the hockey game.

The officials have set the standard. We cannot be in the penalty box as much as we were (in Game 2).

They provide us with the Olympic break and we have to take advantage of it. Our expectation will be for our players to come back fresh and ready.

They didn't panic. Down 3-0 and 4-1, they still found a way to claw back. They deserve all the credit in the world because they stuck to the game plan and never wavered.

You don't want to do anything that you haven't done before, or do anything drastic. We prepare our hockey club the way we think is needed, and it's worked for the better part of the year. Now all of a sudden we come out of the break and we can't find that. We will bang our head against the wall, and we'll scratch and claw and try to find ways to motivate people that have to be mentally more prepared.

This is the worst game we've played in a long time. But was it the worst game we played or the best game they played? They did some things that forced us out of our comfort zone, for sure.

It's even stricter. It's been very evident, on any of the games that you've watched since we've come out of the (Olympic) break. The other night was a prime example of that. Some of the calls were stricter enforcement of the letter of the law that it was at the beginning.

It's a tool that has become more prevalent in the past 10 years; it's less stressful on the body.

It wasn't pretty. I'm sure both coaches are not extremely happy with the way both teams played.

It wasn't pretty, but we'll take the outcome. We put ourselves in position to win it.

It's a warning sign. We have to make some adjustments, and we have to play harder in those situations.

It's always difficult to travel that far. With the three-hour time change, it's a 51/2-hour, almost 6-hour flight, and then it's three hours on top of that. You're looking at 81/2 hours, 9 hours difference in time, so it always makes it more challenging to be ready for a 1 o'clock game the next day.

It's like, I guess, the Detroit Red Wings get those calls in their building.

It's so close. The difference can be one mistake. If you make a mistake, you're pulling the puck out of your net.

It's amazing. We did a testing of our rookie camp, then there was a testing done of all the veterans,

It's hard to be critical of our group because things have gone so well. We've worked so hard and then we have a game like this where we weren't as sharp as we have been. I'm not going to criticize our team for this hockey game.