Steve Rucchin Quotations

We feel we have a better team. I've been here awhile and this is the most excited I've been. But we have to focus on making sure that we work hard and keep that going. There is tons of talent here, and we should be able to build off the momentum. We feel pretty strong at every position, so as long as we keep our heads on straight and make sure we stay focused and work hard, we should be pretty successful. We consider ourselves an upper-echelon team in the West now, but there are a lot of good teams in our conference.

We have to be really mad and upset with what happened here. This better be a huge lesson for a lot of guys. I hope the guys are pretty upset and frustrated.

It was good coming off our last performance. That's what good teams have to do.

There are a lot of good teams out there, and if we want to be considered one of them, we have to show up to play for a full 60 minutes. From what I've seen the last two games, teams are sitting back, but our team is not poised enough with the puck. We seem to be ramming it down our own throats and moving it where they have their guys positioned.

I don't think it was so much what they did better (than Saturday night) as what we didn't do very well. It was just a bad game by us on all counts. It was the poorest of the year by far.

I don't think it took a goalie change to do anything. After the second period, things were going good. It was just a matter of time. It was just the team's work ethic. And Jaromir Jagr stepped up for us.

It's embarrassing. A lot of guys need to take a look in the mirror and quit taking those foolish penalties, which has been a problem all season long. It's going to have to stop in a hurry.

They are frustrating and demoralizing to give up, especially since we didn't score any 5-on-5 goals.

No question the third period could've been a lot better.

You work so hard to get to this point and then shoot yourself in the foot like that, it's inexcusable. It really is. Guys were losing their composure out there and that obviously can't happen. I guess if there's any light on it, it happened in Game 1. That's going to be a quick lesson for us.