Don Waddell Hockey Quotations

Ultimately it won't be systems that win or lose the hockey games, it will be how hard those players play within the system.

Chris's name was the first name mentioned by everyone. That just speaks volumes for how he's respected in the game of hockey, and for what he's done not only in the National Hockey League, but for what he's done for USA Hockey over the years.

He has rehabbed very well so far and if it continues the way it's going we're anticipating maybe practicing in the next four to five weeks with the team. And then we're probably still two or three months away from him playing. But we're just moving along and we're handling the hockey side of it. So far to date, his rehab has gone very well.

We are extremely pleased with our team and feel very confident that we've put a solid group together that will best put us in a position to compete for the gold medal. The selection process was an extremely difficult one and that's a terrific statement for hockey in the United States. It means our talent pool in this country continues to grow.

We have a lot of good, young players at USA Hockey and a lot of guys coming. We can take the positives out of this game and out of the whole tournament.

We're very excited, you know, and Ilya is the final piece we had to get done. I've said all along, 'We're going to score some goals.' Watching some of what's happened with the guys we've brought in here and not knowing exactly how they would do, I think we're going to win a lot of hockey games this season.

The selection process was an extremely difficult one and that's a terrific statement for hockey in the United States. It means our talent pool in this country continues to grow.

It's very disappointing, because the people at USA Hockey do a tremendous job. There is a lot of pressure on people. The top people at USA Hockey are volunteers.

If you're left off this team, it doesn't mean you're a bad hockey player. It just means we have other good choices.

But I did think we would score more than we are now. We've gotten chances to score, and we haven't buried them. And you don't get as many scoring chances in this type of tournament as you get in the National Hockey League.