A combination of a lot of things. |
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. |
A lot of players on this team have played for this coaching staff. That gives us a little bit of a leg-up experience we didn't have in 2002. |
All I know is that we've played pretty hard against this team. I think we have a great deal of respect for them. If you respect your opponent, you're going to be ready to play. |
Am I concerned for both of them? Sure, there's concern. I'm more worried about them than for me. I'm kind of like you guys, I'm trying to figure it all out, too. |
As a coach, I've learned really there's not enough time in the day to get ready for the next opponent, ... You're always looking for an angle, and it just seems like you always run out of time to get ready for the next game. |
As I said seven days ago, it doesn't involve me. I'm not involved. I've said it for seven days, it's over and done with. |
As I said to the players after the game, the difference right now is a team like Detroit, you can feel their belief. They believe in what they're doing and they believe they're going to win. You have that feeling when you walk by their locker room. And our team is a little bit fragile right now. |
At the beginning of the Finnish game, our emotional level was not at the level of the Finns and that is when it becomes alarming. This should be the greatest week of their lives. |
At the end of the day, everybody lost. We almost crippled our industry. It was very disappointing what happened. |
Ballard's hit tonight was a tremendous hit. I haven't seen that in hockey in 30 years, a hip check like that, ... We've got to keep believing what we're trying to accomplish here and stay within ourselves, not get too emotionally excited and not get too down, simple as that. |
Ballard's hit tonight was a tremendous hit. I haven't seen that in hockey in 30 years, a hip check like that. We've got to keep believing what we're trying to accomplish here and stay within ourselves, not get too emotionally excited and not get too down, simple as that. |
Blake takes a nice shot, and I think that changed the momentum of the hockey game. We just couldn't find our way back into it. |
But that team won a championship. |
But you know it's time to move forward. We will invite him to our training camp. He's an elite player and I expect him to have a great year and be part of Team Canada come February in Italy. |