Craig Conroy Quotations

We started great, everything was right on schedule.

Usually I kind of understand him, but tonight I couldn't even understand what he was saying. I think it was Slovak. I don't know. He was pretty happy, though. It was nice to see him get a couple of goals because he played there so long.

We're doing a lot of good things. We just need some finish.

We're finding ways to score goals. This effort gives us some confidence. Hopefully, we can get our power play going on all cylinders after tonight.

With the opportunities that we've had on 5-and-3 and different things, you know it's frustrating right now. I don't know. The fans still believe in us. They're still cheering out there, so we know this isn't over. We have a chance in a couple days to come back and play Russia. We have to be better, and we have to find ways to score.

If we get them back, that's great. But until then, everyone else is going to pick it up. We can't cry about it now. We've got only 22 games left and we've got to go out there and get it done.

He's been a big part of USA hockey for a long time. It's surprising. He's kind of synonymous with USA hockey.

He made some real big saves. There were two or three plays, I stood up on the bench thinking they were in and he made the saves. If your goalie plays well in a tournament like this, you're going to have a chance, and tonight he definitely played well.

We talked as a team that his was a big game. If we won we'd be up by 10 points, if we lost we'd be up by six, so we wanted to put some distance between the teams behind us. It doesn't matter how pretty the wins are, we have to get as many points as we can.

He's big and strong, skilled and yet passionate about the game. You want more and more people to know him, because when they get to know him, they're going to love him.

I think we played nervous at the beginning and we were tense. We know they're a team that's struggling, but that's a dangerous kind of team.

I think a wake-up call is sometimes needed. Andy was here a long time ... now John's in and we have to get ready. We don't have much time.

It is a tie and we played for a win, but we do not have to worry about the rest of the tournament.

I saw 'Fro.' The puck got dumped in, so I just said, 'Oh, I'm just going to go to the front of the net,' and all of a sudden he had it. I don't know if there was anybody around me or not. I just know he put a great pass on me. He just threw it on my stick and it was in the net. It was a pretty good feeling.

Our team has under performed to this point in the season, ... This change was necessary to advance our team to a greater level of success.

I think our team played great -- a great team game. We're back to where we were at the beginning of the season. We're not turning the puck over like we had been, and we're doing the little things you need to do to win games. We were rewarded for our hard work.

Maybe that first period scared them a little -- it scared us, too,

We need someone that's impartial, that hasn't been here a long time to get guys going to that next level.

That was the difference tonight. We had some opportunities, some chances to score, but it just didn't go in for us. The bottom line is we're going to score goals. We just have to work hard and keep moving forward and not let this bother us.

That weighs on people's mind, and I think Dave thought about it and said, 'I'm going to make a change right now and move forward.

That's been our problem -- we haven't been able to score goals.

I was pretty surprised. I didn't go to the orientation camp and I haven't done a lot of stuff with USA Hockey. ... They're just going with anybody they feel can help them.

We had a lot of opportunities, but we have to find some finish.

We had our chances. They capitalized on theirs and their goalie played great.

We had opportunities where we could use our speed and get going on them, ... And we capitalized.

We know this isn't over. We know when we come back in a couple of days and play Russia, we have to find ways to score.

Those are turning points in the game. We had two of them (5-on-3 power plays). Not to be able to capitalize, you know, that's been our problem up to this point.

When a team is struggling and having a hard time winning you can't go down early. But mentally we have to be stronger. We have to battle back, find a way to score one and get ourselves back in it.

We gave them numerous opportunities . . . and they ended up capitalizing. It's worse than ever for us.

But Kipper was awesome and now maybe everybody in Calgary believes we can give this a real shot. You can ride a goalie a long way in the playoffs.

Both teams played hard, ... Seven more games against them ? it's going to be a battle.

We've pretty much put ourselves in the position where we have to run the table. We got to start playing smart out there. We're not playing playoff hockey.

We just let them come back. The bottom line is we made some mistakes and they capitalized.

We didn't help ourselves with all the penalties.

There's no need to panic. But we definitely have to get some more wins.

Off the ice? He's just one of the guys you enjoy being around. He's a good friend. He would do anything for you. He would do anything for this game.

A punch like that goes around the league in a hurry, ... But we have talked at length to him in the past about being a physical factor without just squaring off against the other team's tough guy and getting into a situation where teams are reacting to what he's doing on the ice in terms of who he's hitting and how hard he's hitting, and that's the role we've seen so far.

A wake-up call, sometimes it's needed. Andy was here a long time. If we didn't make the playoffs, there was going to be changes - players, personnel, everybody.

That's where we have fallen down the last two years, and it has killed us. If we get rid of those, we are playing .500 hockey, and we are right there with everyone else. That's what has been disappointing. You look at Minnesota last year and they were able to do it. We gotta believe that we can do it.

It's always a tough thing. He was playing so well in the beginning of the year and then his back acted up. It would have been nice to fly over with him.

It's always on. I watch the tape and I look in the stands behind the bench and I see people I knew growing up in my hometown.

It's probably way too late now to book a flight on the Concorde, but people can still get the high-end treatment with executive jet leasing programs, ... A few of these companies are offering deals for about $5,000 that include a flight across the country, a night at the luxury hotel and formal dinner. If you've got the financial wherewithal to spend that kind of money, there are any number of ways to do it.

It's tough. We feel like we're working hard and winning battles, but we aren't able to find the back of the net. We have to find something deep inside and start scoring goals.

That kind of epitomizes the way the tournament's been going for us.

It's disappointing. The team's better than we showed, and that's the problem. We just weren't able to find any wins.

Not being able to capitalize is our problem.

They kept taking that lead back but we said (goalie Mathieu Garon) is going to shut the door and we've just got to move forward.

It was huge for this team. We had a bad stretch and now we're trying to turn this thing around. We just had to find ways to win. We're down two (goals) to one of the top teams in their building and we battled back. We're starting to roll again. It's a good feeling.

That second period, in probably a three-minute span, there were four or five odd-man rushes and they capitalized. We really let them take it to us in the second period. We're trying to get the system.

The fans still believe in us. We can hear 'em out there.

The consumer has to ask for the deals. It's not the chain stores that are going to cut you a price break last minute, but the smaller independently run store owners who realize that if their products are still sitting on the shelf after the big day it won't do them any good.

I knew he was upset; he didn't say much in the room. He just kind of packed up his stuff, took a shower and he left.

He's emotional after the games. I don't know if he was just emotional or if he really meant it.