Brian Leetch Quotations

Eighteen years ago, my left knee I hurt. I've never had a knee injury in the pros.

I just wore a cage my whole career coming up, and didn't feel a reason not to have some type of protection.

I wish I could have played better. But how can you forget something like this?

I didn't want to leave. I played my first game as an 18-year-old here and I got traded on my 36th birthday.

He got me with his shoulder or his helmet, I'm not sure which. I thought the puck was going down the boards and then all of a sudden it was in front of me, and, bang.

He looks like Shaq down there in the post. He just backs his way to the net. And he's too strong, with the new rules, for anybody to be able to do anything legally to stop it.

He looks like Shaq down there in the post.

I thought we gave it away. I don't know what else to say. We gave away points today to a team in our own division. It's unacceptable.

I think a week off and then a week skating together, and we'll be back in the video room and seeing the things we've done positive. We know where we've been before and we don't want to be back there.

I was proud to be a Ranger for my entire career, and I wanted to be here when things got turned around. So I was disappointed and still am.

You just can't give up a goal in a short-handed situation.

We needed to be strong after we got the lead, but we let them back in it. We need to beat this team since we have eight games with them. We have some games left with Montreal, so we need to stay within striking distance.

The power play is based on results and not how many chances you get. We missed a chance to get points last night, so it magnified the importance of this game.

Well, I certainly don't expect to be booed.

Tonight was a big difference from the preseason. Guys were letting players skate by instead of hooking them.

Tonight was a big difference from the preseason, ... Guys were letting players skate by instead of hooking them.

To get to 1,000 (points) is nice, but it was a disappointing game.

Eddie played good but with the position we were in there was no excuse for us not to have two points at the end of it. It was a bad result, to give up a short-handed goal and to not score on a 5-on-3.

Pretty much every year that I've been involved in the NHL there's been some player that hasn't been in camp or some contract dispute.

They're two of the reasons that I came to this team, along with Thornton and Samsonov and (center Patrice) Bergeron. The young guys on the team are their best players and we need them back.

It's been strong and I haven't had any so-called setbacks or real soreness in the last few workouts. If I can get through (today's) practice with the team, I'd like to play (tomorrow night against the Isles), but that would be up to coach (Mike) Sullivan. But I think the training staff is pushing for (tomorrow) to be my return date.

It's always exciting to come somewhere you wanted to, an 'Original Six' team, and of course, the Bruins, ... It means a lot to me.

That's one of the reasons I took a one-year deal here. If the Bruins decided the best thing for the organization was for me to go somewhere else, I would only have the rest of this year in a different organization. And then I could make a decision again next summer. It would be Mike's (O'Connell) call, just like it was (Rangers GM) Glen's (Sather) call in New York.

It's like I've been saying all year. The power play is based on results. It doesn't matter how many chances you get or how long you're in the zone. Tonight at a key time we got a deflection and it looks like the power play was the difference, and in the end it was.

It's not anything serious. But it makes more sense to miss a couple of days now than have it drag on through camp.

I'm not looking forward to it. I thought I'd be a Ranger for my entire career. So to go back, I'm not looking forward to it the first few times back. It's not something that I'm excited about. It'll be uncomfortable.

I'm not sure what it is. I've never had a knee injury as a pro. Eighteen years ago, or something like that, I hurt my left knee, but . . . we'll have to see, I'm not sure what it is.

I didn't know as a rookie coming in how long I'd be in this league, so to play this long is the thing I'm most proud of.

The game was there to be won. We had three five-on-threes and didn't score. That can't happen. We had our chances, but we didn't put them in. Fifty shots against us shouldn't happen, either.