Ken Hitchcock Hard Quotations

We want first badly. As hard as we've worked, we've earned that right. At one time, before we were decimated by injuries, we were first overall in points. Today and Friday are points we must have.

We were banging around it so hard in the second that I felt, even though we were down 4-1, that if we made it 4-2 early (in the third), which we did, if we kept going we could still tie up the hockey game and maybe win it. We had a lot of good chances, but we didn't finish and then they scored the fifth goal.

He has an honest appraisal of himself. He's hard on himself and he's demanding of himself. That's what makes special players. You talk to anybody who is a special player in the league... They put more pressure on themselves than anybody else does.

When he's healthy, the way this game is played now, it's built for him. He's quick. He's smart. He's hard to get a handle on physically. He's a huge asset. It's not just him as a player, but he makes people around him better. He's a good teammate.

We thought with maintenance we could keep him healthy through the season. Then he got banged hard into the boards and we looked at the recovery time. The specialist in Nashville recommended immediate surgery.

I think the proving ground is when we play this way, we have success. It's a hard way to play. It's difficult and very demanding. The decision you have to make as a team is do you want to play this way and win or do you want to find an easier way to play and take your chances? They like playing and winning.

I think you're seeing in our team the realization of how difficult this challenge is, how hard it is, is starting to grasp everybody. I think you'll see our team starting (today against the Czechs) to dig in at a whole new level.

I thought we got better as the game wore on. When you're killing back-to-back-to-back penalties, it's hard to get momentum. That's living dangerously. You can't expect a team at home to go 0-for-9 again.

I think everyone is hoping physical play will be allowed. Our team is built that way. You cannot play in an emotional setting without getting physical. Over 82 (regular-season) nights, there are times it's hard to get physical. But when your focus is on playing the same team every second night, it's hard not to get physical.

Players get hurt and we don't how long they're going to be out for. We're going to get a real hard look at these guys right away.

That was a hard, bizarre game. It was really hard and it was really, really bizarre.

Those are usually a reward for hard work. Good players score those goals. Guys like you and me, the puck would end up in the seats.

Those are the decisions that, when you don't have to make them or when you make them because people are playing poorly it's easy. The hard decisions are if we continue to play well, then it's going to be a tough thing to do, because you don't want to screw around with what's working.

We're trying to play catch-up far too often, and that's a hard way to play hockey.

When you have as many penalties as we've got going on right now, it's really hard to keep a rhythm on power play. We try to play as many units as we can, because if we're going to get seven or eight or nine power plays, it's hard to keep that energy because players get tired.

We've played hard and we dominated at times, but we've made mistakes at critical times.

We want to finish strong and get first place in the division before the break. That's something we've worked very hard for and we very much want.

Even as hard as we play, we're doing things to ourselves that end up being very frustrating. We make mistakes, and at the end of the day it winds up zapping our energy.

It's a best-of-three now. This is two teams that are very closely matched. Both are playing really hard right now and there's not much difference.

They are never out of it because of their power play. We knew that if they got the (power play) chances, they are going to be hard to play against.

He sets the highest standard for himself and everybody on the team and when he goes, we go. He is hard on himself, demanding on himself and that is what makes special players.

You know that if you just stay with the program, the home team is going to be the one that presses. We've caught people pressing hard when the game is on the line, and we've caught them on some odd-man rush situations. And we've won a lot of points late.