Tom Renney Good Quotations

We had a good transition game and passed the puck up quickly. We got the puck behind people and deep. The best way to beat the trap is not let it set up.

Overmatched? I doubt it. I just thought we had a strong game. We took advantage of some things that were presented to us and I thought we were as good as we've been defensively all year.

I just like his good, honest work habits. And he's a caring player and a good teammate. And when you reward people like that with good ice time and opportunity, more often than not they'll deliver to your expectations - as long as they're realistic.

We've got to get back to good habits of how we start our games ... how we manage the circumstances in those first six, eight, 10 minutes. We have to try to dictate the terms.

The Devils have been playing playoff hockey for a while. It's a real good opportunity for us to pay attention to how you can turn a season around, and you can do that in one game. And with that in mind, game on.

The entire bench understands that these people really care and enjoy a good effort.

Let's be honest about this hockey club, gang: These guys have gone above and beyond the call of duty from Day One. One thing we can proudly do is defend this team's good intentions, their work habits and their desire to win.

We're sort of playing a hunch as much as anything. He's played New Jersey well, and our last good game of hockey was here against them with Kevin in goal, so I don't think that is unreasonable at all.

Whether it means Wednesday or Saturday, I'm not sure. He feels good that it's improving. If he feels good, so do we.

In the nature of the game, things have a way of balancing out. We've got some pretty good shooters, we've got guys who can score in the shootouts. That's just the way it goes. I think we have to be real careful we don't analyze ourselves to a standstill.

It's improving. It's encouraging, after today at least, it seemed like he had some good treatment.

I think that what's happening now is that this side of the pond is starting to realize exactly how good this young fellow is. Certainly in Europe and those of us who have had experience over there sort of saw this coming ? not to this degree, I'm not going to take credit for that. But certainly people are starting to realize this guy's for real.

It's a reference point, that's probably the biggest advantage we created for ourselves out of tonight. We did come from behind to beat a real good hockey team and we have to use that for what it's worth.

It's a team that lost its poise and it's composure, simple as that. We clearly talked about what needed to be done in the second period and if we would have given ourselves a fighting chance by playing even-up hockey, there's a good chance we win the hockey game. We lost our composure, saw some selfish hockey, some undisciplined players and some guys who chose to think of themselves before their teammates.

If you don't come out the gate well you stumble. Then you have to try and make up ground against good teams.

They take good point shots, create traffic at the net and they're hard people to move. Whoever wins the specialty-team game should win the game tonight.

Time will tell, but he's a good player. It's not like this guy came out of absolutely nowhere for us.

It may affect our transition game. He's got really good poise with the puck, he's got good deception where he can look people off and then make the appropriate little outlet pass. Those are real critical to our transition game and how much time we spend in our own end.

Certainly he delivered what he needed to do for us from that point of view. I'd like to have gotten him a little bit more minutes and that'll happen in the future. Just watching his game, he's got good hockey sense. We'll continue to work with him . . . and develop him even further.

Some teams aren't sure they can win. Some teams hope they can win, and some teams know, not just that they can win, but that they're going to win. I'm not sure we're there yet, but we really believe that every night we do give ourselves a real good shot at winning the game. That's part of the evolution. I'd like to get to the point where we know we can win.

We've earned the privilege of feeling good about what we've done. But we have won nothing. We know we need our A-plus game in the playoffs, and now is the time that you make sure you're there when the time comes.

It (this season) is a good springboard here, but it doesn't mean we'll have the same success -- it doesn't mean we'll have the same team. We could be younger, quite honestly.

Even if we were playing Ottawa, we need a good start. We need good starts. We need to get back to good habits about how we start our games. How we manage the puck, how we manage the ice those first six, eight, 10 minutes is important. And we have to dictate the terms.

We hung in with them. That's not good enough. We don't want to 'hang in' with anybody. We want to win.

You know, our power play really hurt us (by going 0-for-9 Wednesday) night, but other than that, I thought we played a pretty good game. Tonight, I thought we played a more complete game.

It was a good goaltender battle. Both goalies made exceptional saves.

To beat a very good hockey team, the Stanley Cup champions, was important. And we did it because we hung in there and we stuck to our plan and, in the end, we found a way to win.

Henrik played fine, I have no problem with that at all, but Kevin had a really good game against these guys to start the season. Those are those intangibles that I have the right to use and maybe not even explain if I don't feel like it.

Henrik doesn't seem to be in awe of any opponent. If I know Hitch, they'll be ready. It's a good test for us. I hope they throw the kitchen sink at us and that we're able to respond to it.

When you look at the third- and fourth-line guys, in a lot of ways they define what you want to take pride in and what we believe this city will appreciate, too. Flat out hard work, good honest work, (and) trust and care in each other.

I'm confident they'll play better. Just like I was confident we'd break a six-game losing streak and I'm confident we'll make the playoffs and I'm confident we'll do good things once we get there.

I thought they scored some pretty good goals . If you can't see it, you can't stop it.