Bob Mancini Quotations

I thought that the power plays made (gaining) momentum very hard. There wasn't much flow to the game. It made it hard to do anything, for both teams.

It starts with attitude. Getting rid of the jerks. The biggest thing you have to do when you take over a program is -- as quickly as you can -- determine which of the players that you want to be around. Which of the players that want to be players and go from there. It's tough because sometimes you have to get rid of good players.

It's the new directive and you don't celebrate too much after scoring 10 goals because you can go out tomorrow and get 10 scored against you. That's the way it is -- you're never really out it. It's 9-5 and you take some penalties, give up a couple of five-on-three advantages and it's a brand new game.

I think desperation is a key. We have to play with desperation and not act in desperation. Any time you're in a playoff series, it's about how you react. How we react to being down 2-0 and how we react to losing this game will make the difference.

We need to work on our penalty-killing. We have to pay attention to special teams because of the way they're calling it right now. The players have to understand that, if they move the puck quick, good things are going to happen.

We're moving the puck at a good tempo. We have players that can really play offensively. The players are embracing the concept of unselfishness. They don't care who gets the goals.

The second most important thing for the first half of the season was the character and leadership in that locker room. They all get along.

We played well and had the majority of the scoring changes. We took the play to Plymouth, but we have to give them credit. They took advantage of their opportunities.

I thought we played hard in the third. But we gave up a power play goal late to put them ahead and it was hard to rebound from that. I give our players on the bench a lot of credit after that goal against. They didn't quit. They didn't want to quit. They continued to play hard.

My issue with the whole thing is that I don't believe that they applied the rules correctly. They way I understand it ... is the referees are in charge. They're supposed to have a decision. They need to call goal or no goal and (in replay) determine whether it's conclusive or inconclusive. I'm looking forward to talking to the league tomorrow.