Lindy Ruff Key Quotations

Miller made the key saves when we needed him. That's all you can ask of him.

He scored a great goal at a key time for us.

Just to go in there and hack away at it is the key to that goal. And we stayed with it. It was easy to get frustrated after missing the amount of chances we missed. ... Just keep grinding, keep working.

I thought coming out in the third period we really set the tone. We made a statement that we were trying to go after it. We went after it hard. We got some key saves, some key defensive plays that allowed our power play to win the game.

Part of it is, you look at who's playing goal now. I think their problems have stemmed . . . Theodore's had a tough time. Everybody realizes he is a heck of a goalie, but he has struggled. It starts there. If you're not getting key saves or if you're not just getting the saves that allow you to win hockey games, it makes it tough on the team.

There's no quit in our team. Check our record, the number of games we've won when we've been down by a goal. You've got to give the guys credit. The number of guys we've had go out of the lineup at key times and the number of guys who have stepped up ... you've got to give every guy in that room credit for battling through adversity and doing it every night.

The numbers say that the extra goals in the league have come from special teams, so you can look at it. We've got certain players that are key players, and they play the least amount of even-strength time, but they play the most amount of special-teams time. The opportunity to be a plus player in some of those situations isn't there.

That flurry he faced, he made the saves. However he made them, he made them at a key time of the game for us.

The key to deserving the victory was the amount of battle we had in the penalty-kill situations.

He's a player now that is a lot more determined to be good in all areas of the ice. He really wants to be part of the big team picture and be counted on in important situations, not just the flashy offense. He wants the nod in the key situations where he thinks now that he can make a difference.