Glen Hanlon Quotations

With the new rules and the speed of the players and the way that the game was officiated tonight, if that's the way it's going to be, then goodness gracious -- it's an exciting game out there.

Since I've been here we've tried not to make a point of it. We just want them to be part of the solution and not look back.

I don't know why there is such a disparity. How do you give a tangible answer to that? I've gone over everything. I've looked at all the statistics.

He tries this way in practice, he tries this way in Game 1, and he's trying this way now. He's more concerned about winning games and winning the Stanley Cup.

I always go under the assumption that players are going to play until I hear differently. I'm sure he'll be ready to go.

He had three or four moves in the space of four or five feet. Pretty impressive.

He has played a lot of hockey, more than he has in the past. Unless we get a second wave of attack, teams kind of focus on him. It will be really difficult.

He give us the flexibility to do some things with our lineup, by him being able to play both defense and forward. He's got an unselfish personality. He's got some speed and one year he scored 14 goals, too. So there's some ability to shoot the puck and score.

He finished the game and looked like he had no problem. When he took his gloves off, it didn't look like he was all bandaged up or anything. My answer always is: If he's injured and can't play, I'll deal with it. If not, I don't want to occupy my time with things that haven't happened. I don't want to create problems for myself.

He made a difficult situation very easy. He played extremely hard every game. He's made a decision for his family and his career and we respect that. We just want to make sure that when we play against him, that we beat him.

He's a dynamic player, a player you can build a team around.

He's a candidate but our standing doesn't help his cause. I can say this though. I haven't seen many guys more enthusiastic for the game.

Here we are, we're out of the playoffs, and as coaches, we're all quite sad we didn't get the extra point. It's just another example of a team that's fairly resilient. For a team with 61 points, I think there's likely not a lot of teams like that you could attach that word to.

Good hockey game in the sense that there was good physical play in it and to see a good scrap or two is pretty exciting. Nobody left after the first one, did they?

His test is going to be consistency. The great players do it for 10 years, and I'm sure that he will be able to handle that. He's just so all about hockey that I can't see why he wouldn't.

(The Rangers have) gone from a non-playoff team to a playoff team, and that would have to play a huge role.

He was out there doing all the things he's done so he looks like he's feeling better and ready to go.

He was playing well enough to get called up last week but we want him to play his American Hockey League games.

He's played great down the stretch. He's started to get the opportunity to play and he's got some confidence and he's gone on from there.

He keeps on doing stuff like this. Just when I thought I've seen it all, he does something else. He did a lot of things tonight that were pretty impressive. I think you got a pretty good idea of what a force he is.

Knowing him the way I do, it would have to be pretty serious to keep him out of the lineup.

I thought our guys played hard and we're proud of them. We played right through to the end. We're a physical team, and we're going to make teams pay the price.

I think the two people involved would likely wish it would just go away. This time it's not quite the same as it was the first time. There's special games for each player in the room. It's a close group, and I'm sure they would like to win for Alex, but it's just our next game.

I respect the fact he's worked hard through this and been a good team player for us. Anytime there's been a skate or practice or meeting, whatever, he's given us 100 percent of his time and effort. But he's made it clear he wants to leave.

Our next step of improvement is to play a 20-game stretch where we go .500. If you play .500 for 20 games, that's a pretty good cross-section of the schedule. We haven't spent a lot of time focusing on those things. We've tried to get better and improve and work on our systems. Winning will be a byproduct of that.

That caught me off guard a little bit. We're still waiting to get him better so he can play. It's been a long time; he's week-to-week.

I think our system can utilize his speed to the fullest. We like to apply pressure and get up the ice in a hurry, so I think this system is perfect for him. It's a fairly simple system -- it frees people to skate.

I thought it was a good game until the fourth goal. That was kind of a backbreaker.

(Johnson's) falling in line with all of the players that have worked hard all year long. To be rewarded, it's good. That definitely by far was his best game. He was the main reason we won the hockey game.

I think this is a good confidence booster for this young club. You know, before we went to Anaheim, I think we lost like eight straight (eight of nine), so it's been a long time coming. It's always good to win back-to-back games, especially on the road.

That was our best, likely our best overall game of the season. I thought we had more control of the puck than we have a lot of other nights, and so we ended up taking a lot less amount of penalties (than) we have gotten in the past.

That's the part I like. He didn't miss a single practice.

We have some work ahead of us, but we're not focusing on our first exhibition game. We're focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel. We want to make sure all steps are taken before we get to the regular season.

We'll watch this tape and use it as a teaching tool for our group.

We are what we are. That was not an NHL lineup. We're playing with a lot of prospects. People get to see some future players, but these kids are a long way away from wearing the sweater for real and it showed up.

We are what we are. I mean, it's not an NHL lineup. We're playing a lot of prospects. On the positive side some people got to see maybe some future players, but these kids are still a long way away from being ready to wear this sweater for real.

Those are the types of situations where you get opportunities and you cash in on it. Who knows what that will be a springboard to? He's got a great shot. He had an opportunity.

We were intimidated by their players and their speed. It seemed like we were in awe.

We battled hard. Physically, I thought we controlled that part of the game. We had chances at the end -- we had two whacks at a puck a few feet from the goal line -- but it came down to special teams again. Most of our problems this year have come on the power play.

What we thought would be a real negative of playing a team five times in seven games has become very entertaining.

We should never get in a situation where we have to have a valiant effort to come back. We should be able to execute a little better at the start and not get ourselves in that position.

We knew that it was going to be a penalty-fest. It's a good game for us to learn what we can get away with and what you can't get away with.

We had about 15 or 16 games in a row where we just totally outworked teams. We didn't get the result every night that we wanted, but we hit everything that moved, we worked hard -- there wasn't one team that outworked us. You're going to have a lull. We had two of them, and I'm glad we responded and didn't make it three.

When you have not won here in eight years, it's not these guys' fault.

We wanted to play Peter real hard because we know he can make an impact on a hockey game. We've seen that here. But trying and doing are two different things.

We'll just keep working on the execution. Our next step of improvement is to be close to perfect on execution of your systems.

Tonight we took a step in the right direction. We have a young group that's learning and we are proud of them every night. They work hard and it's nice to be rewarded on the road.

We just expect him to hold strong and steal us a point. It was unexpected for him to shut them out in a shootout.

We tried to create our own momentum and our own energy with about 10 minutes left. We played our game. That's the way we have to play from the start.

Did I hear a whistle before the puck went in the net? Of course not. It's a call that really hurt us.

Did I hear a whistle before the puck went in the net? No, of course not. The interpretation of the rule was explained to me and I don't agree with it.

There's a flow to the game, but when you take penalties, there is no flow.

There's no way around what we're doing. We're not going to pick five guys off the waiver wire and two weeks from now we're stuck with $3 million worth of salaries and they're not going to be here. It just doesn't make any sense.

I've never seen so many good saves in a game in my life by a goalie. They beat us at our game, and our game is outworking teams and directing pucks to the net and they did a good job at that. That's the hard part to swallow.

The shots were 8-1 at one point and 13-3 and then we had a penalty and we don't kill it. I think that was the story of the game.

The shots on goal are a concern for the coaching staff and the whole team, not just Olie. It's kind of hard to avoid those type of things unless you cut your penalties down. But we're fortunate. We think he's the best goalie in the league.

As far as losing in overtime, we didn't deserve to be there. I've never seen so many good saves in a game in my life by a goalie. They beat us at our game, and our game is outworking teams and directing pucks to the net and they did a good job at that. That's the hard part to swallow.

This is part of the progression of being a good team, having these pieces slide together. Ollie was outstanding. He was our best player out there.

It's exciting. He's going to bring some people to the building and bring some excitement.

It was still 3-1 going into the third and we still had an opportunity with a three-minute power play to do something. We didn't respond. When we hit and play physical, we are way more successful and that wasn't the case tonight. We were too far moved from one- on-one puck battles and bad physical play.

It's a great play, a great goal by a great player.

It's a decision we made internally that we needed to do. It needs more explaining, but I just feel with respect to everyone involved, it's just better not to.

It's not the Panthers that tire you, it's the losing during the whole season. You have to guard against becoming morally down.

It's going to take Brent 10, 11, 12 games. You just hope it doesn't take three or four months to get those games in. He gave us two good starts. Brent is a good goalie. And he'll give us some more good starts.

The numbers that he has put up are astonishing. But he also likes pressure situations. In big games, he's at his best. That's special.

It's like having open practices in a lot of different communities.

It was a game where we didn't play very well. We had some penalties we took. ... It was 1-0, then it was 3-0 and that was the turning point in the game.

It was a great play, a great goal by a great player. Our guys are as happy as he is for his success.

It was playing against bigger, stronger players. We're young men. They're big men. It wasn't a lack of effort. It wasn't a lack of execution.

They were on the attack all night long, and their D was up the ice all night. They're a hard team to play against.

They work so hard every night, and to go eight games without a win is difficult. For them to come out and to play that hard and play that well is a testament to the character in the room.

Their speed didn't catch us off guard. This team doesn't sneak up on anybody. We're all well aware of their speed and strengths and how well they can play defensively.

I loved it. They work so hard, and tonight was just a great endorsement of what these guys do. We were down to nine forwards. We had no players left, and in the end the ones we had were spent. For the guys we were able to put on the ice, I thought they did a pretty good job.

I know there was a (10-4) disparity in the shots. But in the first period, I think 10 of their shots came on the power play.

I'm happy he got to 50. I would have hated to see him finish at 49 goals. It would have been sad because I know what it has meant to him.

I really want to emphasize that we have good people here and we can never lose sight of that. Sometimes people focus on the things that went wrong and forget we have great players. I have told the players that I will be patient. ... I had a role model in my coach Pat Quinn when I was a player. He had a goal that he would never ruin anyone's outlook on the game.

I'll talk to him about it and see how he feels.

In Toronto you could say we created our breaks; tonight you could say Ottawa created theirs. Our major problem was reading the rush. Their defensemen were beating our fourth and fifth guys into the zone all night long. We'll likely watch this tape ... and use it as a teaching tool for our group. They're a very good team. I don't think you'll learn too much from this tape watching our team.

In Toronto we created our breaks, and Ottawa created theirs with their speed. They don't need five or six opportunities to score a goal.

His consistency is amazing. All first-year players seem to have some peaks and valleys to their game, and Alex is able to continue to play well.

I don't know if you can expect your team to outwork people every single night. You can't. It's impossible.

I felt that that was one of the few games that we didn't give a winning effort.

I don't think a right winger has scored five-on-five. We're just trying to find some chemistry.

I can choose for this situation to use me, but I'm not going to. There are a few teams who have separated themselves from the playoff race and we're one of them. I won't say we're out of it - I'll never admit that. But there is a separation where if we are to replace people, we will see a younger player.

He always seems to be in control against us and he doesn't seem to get himself in too much trouble.

What helped me was working with my breathing, specifically, using my breathing to stay sharp and focused under pressure and then cool and calm when the pressure was relieved.

The effort was there. It just gets hard at this stage of the season not to get a win out of it.