Rick Tocchet Quotations

When your confidence is down the last thing you want to do is scream at the players too much. But we were playing tentative and (associate head coach) Barry Smith and I had to get on them a little bit. We were on our heels, and championship teams play on their toes, not on their heels.

I got a summons the other day about (it). It's not a hockey-related issue, it's a football thing. And at this time I can't comment any further.

We've got to try to win 2-1 right now. That's our mind-set. That's what we tried to stress today. (We said) 'Don't worry about scoring a ton of goals, just try to win 2-1' and we did.

He was struggling early. I made the change to slow the game down.

He didn't play a lot but he did what we asked him to do.

I would take a 3-0 lead every night. We didn't quit. Some guys think it's easy. It's hard to win. It's uncomfortable to win. I thought we were into it early and let Colorado off the hook. That's where your leadership takes over and you don't let it happen. In the end somebody has to go to the net. Somebody has to block a shot.

Janet tells me he's bored out of his mind. He needs something to do.

I remember when I got traded there. I think my third game, I had four assists and I never made it outside our blue line. I still don't know how I got four assists that night.

We got embarrassed. We know it. We got our (expletive) kicked. (Today's) a different game. Hopefully, in the first period we'll have enough guys pulling the rope the same way.

You know, he's afraid to answer the phone sometimes. It's like, 'What's next? The best thing for him is being back in the rink. He's comfortable again.

We'll go with guys who want to work and want to play. That's the way we're going to have to approach it from here on in.

When you get things back to normal, it's a lot easier for him (Gretzky) if he knows everything is normal back here.

We were on our nubs tonight and the guys just gave it their all.

In your career, it's nice to be known that you stood up for your teammates but it's also nice that when your team needed a goal, you were put out in those situations.

He's just a fun guy who loves the game. Any time you're in a lull, adding a guy like that to the lineup elevates people.

There are certain things about my game I don't want to change, but I think it's about time that I realized I can't fight every battle. Three hundred minutes in penalties is way too many. Way too many.

Eddie is like one of those great relief pitchers in baseball who gets the strikeout at the right time. Belfour comes up with the great saves when you need them.