Dave Tippett Good Quotations

We have a real focus on these seven division games. Hopefully, we have a good grasp on being able to lock up the division. Believe me, I'm happy we're playing teams like this. Our players recognize competition, and this is good competition for us.

He's had a very good year. The number he cares most about is wins. The other numbers are inconsequential. That's a credit to him; 38 wins is a lot of wins.

He was very good. He's a guy we monitor every day and watch very closely because he's taken steps as we've gone along. As the pace of the game rises, we hope he will rise with it. Tonight was a good example of him playing a very good game on both sides of the puck. He made a lot of smart plays.

He'll get that taken care of and then take a little time to get it healed. The good thing is, he's seeing clearly.

He made a couple good saves. He took a lot of pressure this game on himself.

He's been real good in training camp and the preseason games. He's got a real determined work ethic right now and I think part of that is because of the injury. He wants to make sure that he's all the way back.

Hopefully this is a real good slap in the face for us. The level of urgency has to be turned up several octaves now.

Hopefully this is a good slap in the face for our players. We turned the puck over in the neutral zone 30 times. When you lose execution its hard to get it back. I'm disappointed in the way our top players played and execution. It's just one game and we have to move on.

I thought our team played a very good team defensive game. Hatcher had a great year and we played very well in front of Marty, but you can't get numbers like that without having an unbelievable performance from your goaltender. Marty deserves a lot of credit for that. He's the guy who a lot of time dictates a lot of the equation as the last line of defense.

Our guys have earned the right to be a good team and a tight team. We've played pretty well together all year, so they have confidence they can get the job done.

Our big guys answered the bell, Marty included, and that's a good sign.

You have to earn the right to be a good team. You have to earn it every day during the season.

We've been good friends for a long time. I respect what he's done as a coach and his work ethic. We have a lot of the same views about the game. We spend a lot of time chatting. Over the years we got to be good friends and our wives are good friends.

We got these guys three times in a week, you're going to get to know each other well. I like games like that. For our team right now, it's a good thing. You like putting your team in situations where they have to compete hard, because that's when they feel good about yourself. That's the kind of games you want going into the playoffs.

When you do it and do it well, it's a good sting. That's the difference.

We've got a great group of guys, great leaders who've focused on preparing for the playoffs. This is the time when you earn your stripes. We've put ourselves in good position; now we have to go prove it in the playoffs.

The puck seemed to follow him around. He was always on the puck and making good plays. He's not going to hit a lot of people or grind you up. But he makes good plays under pressure.

We got rewarded for the good things we've been doing. It was nice to see the team come together a little bit. The third period kind of wrapped it all up.

There was a lot good, old-fashioned hard work out there. If you want to stop the bleeding, that's a good place to start.

There's so much emphasis placed on the last time you did that, but we don't think about that at all. The regular season is to earn your spot and tell yourself whether you're good enough to compete in there or not, and we feel like we've earned that confidence.

I've thought about that before. If we had just been halfway decent against L.A., we probably would have pushed it a little farther. But this is good incentive for us right now. One of the ways to make the playoffs is to win your division, and that was something we set out to do right from the start. We've got to keep pushing in that direction.

Are they bad mistakes by the goalie? No. But are they goals that we expect Marty to stop? Yes. And that's the difference. We can be an average or below-average goalie and just wallow along, or we can we be a really good one and give our team a chance to win, and that's the responsibility we need Marty to take. And he's done it in the past, so it's not as if we're asking for something that we don't know is there.

They play a very energetic style, and they do a lot of good things that push the game along. But it would be nice to see them get rewarded every now and then.

There were a lot of guys that we put into roles where we knew they had to jump in and do a good job. They've excelled in all of them.

It's a challenge when we're playing desperate teams. We looked tired. Even when we were pushing, we looked tired. We have to get the guys some rest. But I think this adversity can be good for us if we use it to our advantage.

It's a feather in your cap. I don't think you should underestimate the regular season. For us, we had to earn our way to becoming a good team, and the regular season did that for us.

Everybody's healthy. Turco is going into the playoffs with no hiccups this year. So we feel good about where we're at.

It was less about effort and more about execution. We had some good chances and didn't score and it caught up with us.

It's way too early to be picking out line combinations. And there's still a good chance the two could play on the same line.

I like it. Fans get to see two teams punch and counter punch a little bit., It builds up a rivalry and it makes for a very good hockey game.