Tom Renney Time Quotations

We have to get Kevin going, get him rolling. I wouldn't mind giving him a chance to go back and play the Islanders. He had a tough game the last time he was there.

We've earned the privilege of feeling good about what we've done. But we have won nothing. We know we need our A-plus game in the playoffs, and now is the time that you make sure you're there when the time comes.

He said he felt a little tight. By the time I left the ice, I wasn't aware there was much of a problem. But certainly talking to (trainer) Jim Ramsey afterwards he felt very uncomfortable.

Jaromir really cares about this kid. He's helped him with his language; he talks to him all the time in English.

Our intention is that every time we go on the ice we have a purpose, and there is a level of performance that is acceptable and one that isn't. Sometimes we help them understand what acceptable is. Today was no problem. They worked hard.

We need him. This time of year, it's more about playing than practicing.

Time will tell, but he's a good player. It's not like this guy came out of absolutely nowhere for us.

It was time to circle the wagons and clearly explain to the guys that we need to be better and we've got to commit ourselves to what we have been about in the past if we want to do anything with the future. And I'm talking about (tomorrow). We want to make sure we win that game, and to do it, we have to be a much better hockey club than we were tonight.

It may affect our transition game. He's got really good poise with the puck, he's got good deception where he can look people off and then make the appropriate little outlet pass. Those are real critical to our transition game and how much time we spend in our own end.

It's interesting; at what point in time do we stand up and say, we need this, we've got to fix this, change this? We know what we want, we know what we need. We also know we're not going to give up young people to do anything at all. We also know some of those solutions we don't have here this year are coming.

It's time to circle the wagons and explain to everyone we must be better. I'm disappointed in what we have chosen to do here in the last few games and I don't like that. There's a lot at stake here.

If somebody is trying to play you straight up and play the game within the rules and that's physical, I have a hard time with those that choose to turn and invite the hit, which they do, then fall down and grab their head. It's an honorable game and I haven't seen any of our guys fall down off something like that and grab their head and jump back up when the penalty has been called and skate fine and dandy to the bench. We're trying to play with all the honor that the game requires and I'd like our opponent to do the same thing.

I just like his good, honest work habits. And he's a caring player and a good teammate. And when you reward people like that with good ice time and opportunity, more often than not they'll deliver to your expectations - as long as they're realistic.

You've got to have a minimum of two options every time with the puck. If those options are gone by poor positioning by your teammates, you're in a pickle so you try to do things that just don't exist. We made some bad choices, not just him.

All the cliches fit. It's a very valuable time for us if we get through this adversity, because it's going to galvanize our group and define our organization moving forward.