Mike Kitchen Quotations

When he first came, his play was OK and then it's dropped off of late. I think he's lost his confidence a little bit. He's got to shoot more. He's got to go to the net and be a little more greedy with the puck.

No, not at all. Our effort was terrific out there. Our guys played their hearts out.

If it's going to help the organization, you have to consider that and make that move. We've got some guys that would really add some depth to other teams throughout the NHL, especially those teams that are on a playoff run or in the playoffs.

He will have the opportunity to get good ice time. His role might be more than with some other teams. And put in that situation, I think he'll play well. I expect a real good year number-wise.

He gives is a chance to win every night. He made some great saves on their 5-on-3 (during the final minute of the second period and first minute of the third.

He deserves everything he's gotten here. He's worked hard; he's been a good leader in the room; he's been a tremendous leader on the ice. He's been terrific for us all year long.

I think that's the decision they have to make. It could be a month, it could be longer ... I'm not sure.

I think fatigue set in. You understand it when you're an athlete. Everything starts to shut down. You make poor decisions with the puck. We made plays out there that we haven't made in a long time. A lot of that is through fatigue.

We couldn't give (Downey) the ice time that he thought he needed, so we had to make a move and take a look at some of these young players because we've got to make decisions on them coming up.

We played hard tonight, I thought we had a good effort. We had penalty trouble once again, some deserved and some not. You get into two 5-on-3 (power plays) for that amount of time, that's tough -- they're bound to get a score. It was almost 19 minutes of power-play time for them.

We played hard, I thought we had good effort.

We had some scoring chances, but it's tough to get it past Luongo. He looks very calm in the net and you look at their coaches, they look very calm over there.

We moved it around. Had a couple of chances, but the first day we worked on it was today. You can't expect miracles out of it.

There's not very many systems that work if you don't have the work ethic. And it just spreads through the whole team. I don't care what system you play. If you don't have that effort there, it's not going to work.

This is an exciting time for our team and our fans. I'm looking forward to getting behind the bench and coaching the Blues again.

The way we started the game was the most important factor for us tonight. It's one of the areas we've struggled in all season. We showed them from the drop of the puck we wanted to win the game.

They protect the lead so well and they've been doing that for years. We just got off to a slow start out of the gate. If we had started the first period like we'd played in the third, we'd have been much better off.

It's just day-to-day. He just tweaked his groin. And anyone who does that in training camp, we're kind of more on the cautious side than anything.

It's about time we got a break. The team needed it; the dressing room needed it.

It's an unfortunate play. That's the way 2005 ended, right there.

It's tough to get it past Luongo. You could see their coaches were calm the whole night. They didn't get too excited at any kind of scoring chance we had.

It's part of how you start the game. If you start the game well, it gives everyone confidence. Our confidence isn't at a very good high right now. It doesn't take too much to throw us off our game.

It's been going on for maybe the last two or three games. That's what has happened with the leads we've had. Because we take penalties, we lose momentum and then we lose the lead.

Oh, it was terrific. I think once we get going here, the fans are going to really enjoy our game, as you can see out there. It's a quick game, there's lots of open ice, so I think the more the players get used to the rules, the better the game's going to be.

They'll just have to play it by ear and see what's going to take place. It could be a month, it could be longer, I'm not sure.

He's probably looking at ... in a full year ... probably getting 20-25 goals.

I don't want to make any excuses, but I want to back up the guys a little bit because it's been a tough January so far. We just finished seven (games) in 12 (days) and five in eight nights. That's a lot of hockey and it looked like it caught up to us.

You can't take it at the end of the game.

You've got to know where the puck is. It goes off the glass, you've got to look around ... for the puck.