Derek Laxdal Quotations

We're a physically and mentally fatigued team right now.

I don't know what kind of history they had there, but obviously we had some history tonight and last night. And it makes for some entertaining hockey.

I thought from start to finish the guys put in a great effort tonight. I thought they kept buzzing, buzzing.

I thought our guys played a great first period. You get a big lead and you play hard and sometimes it's hard to hold on to a big lead. But it will be a good character-building game for us.

This series was good for our confidence. We got three solid goaltending performances.

The playoffs are the best time of the year. The sun is shining. The plants are budding, and playoff hockey is in the air.

The reason I pick the captain is a lot of the times it becomes a popularity contest in training camp.

We have a big one coming up in Alaska. We've got to make sure we go up there and play solid hockey. It will be a good test.

We literally got outworked in every zone. It was a clear, simple, good ass kicking.

There's a great taste of playoff hockey right there. ... Tonight was probably more of a normal game you're going to see out of these two teams.

The boys were all over him for the celebration.

The big thing is, when you're coming to the end of your career, your love of the game intensifies. When you're in the dressing room, there's such a camaraderie. They're you're family. If it is your last year, then that magnifies it.

You never know in the playoffs. You may have to pull one guy and put the other guy in. And if the team knows it can play well in front of both guys, it's a great situation.

This is the kind of series you could see in the finals. It's kind of sad, but it sets up great playoff hockey.

It's a seven-game series. We stole two there and now they got one here.

I told the guys we'd feel a lot better after the game if we won. ... Right now we're beat up and sick, so we'll take points any way we can.

It makes it easier if you can play both guys. If you get a guy hurt or especially if you get one called up, you know you can stick with a guy for four or five games. Right now, we're just trying to make sure both guys are competing down the stretch.

That's overtime. That's the excitement of the game.

That said, I don't want to disrespect their record. They're a very good team. We're definitely the underdog, and we'll take that underdog role.

I don't want to talk about the refs. There's no use in talking about the refs. That's not the reason we lost the game. I'm more disappointed in my team.

He's not going to do anything flashy. He's not going to skate the puck end to end. He's not going to have 15 hits a game, because his body just won't allow him to do that. But he knows how to play within his means.

The key was the shorthanded goal. I thought Dan Hacker did a great job of sparking the team.

The guys battled hard and never quit, they even got more energized in the third period.

You want your goaltenders to be good friends and want to work for each other and pull for each other. Competition is very good within a team, but it has to be the right competition. If two guys are battling and they don't want each other to do well, then it's not healthy for your hockey club.