When I evaluate a trade as a coach, I evaluate who gets the best player. That’s all, it’s just about the best player because the best player makes everyone else better. That’s what Joe has...

We sagged — no question — as soon as they scored.

Not many teams can lose a stud like that and keep going.

We weren’t thinking, we were just kind of going, and that was nice to see. We looked like we could move.

He’s a great player. He’s skating. It’s great to see.

Getting that record is nice, but it’s not what we set out to do. But it’s nice to have. These guys are a committed group.

He caught my eye last week.

We watched in on the replay a bunch of times. It doesn’t look like that big a deal. … I’ll sleep easy tonight and we’ll have a report tomorrow. He’ll be fine.

I don’t know why Shanahan plays so well against Nashville. He gets all excited because Nashville is such a good hockey team.

Can you replace anybody? Yes. Can you replace him with the same person? No. His contribution to our team is not just measured in what you see, no question about that.

Keep attacking. The whole key is look after the puck and keep attacking. I don’t think you adjust your personnel. You adjust your mindset.

We feel we’re getting better as this series goes on. And we think we’ll continue to get better.

I just gave that opportunity to Steve. That doesn’t mean (Samuelsson) isn’t going to. … He is a heck of a hockey player. I talked to him about it. I wanted to get Steve going...

A dominant player. But also a physically dominant player.

You have to put the puck on net from wide angles to create opportunities.

There’s adversity; what are you going to do with it? Are you going to turn it into a positive ?

I think everybody realizes that we had a great opportunity. But you find out quickly that last year was last year. There are now nice pictures of the playoffs hung up around the locker room,...

That’s quite a statement. I just think when you make general statements when you don’t know, you’re probably not doing yourself any favors.

The biggest difference to me was we’re a little deeper. We think we have a real intelligent team that knows how to play without the puck. We really believe that the better we play without...

Four games in five nights and playing a good defensive team on the road, we must be doing something right.

We’re relying heavily on him for offense.

We’ll see where he’s at, … I’m hopeful of the positive side of things. You’re always concerned about good players being hurt.

We have a good team and the guys came out and played hard. With a short group you don’t want to get behind and battle back. We talked about being ready right from the start.

I thought our discipline was good. Our defense really managed the puck. The second half of the game, they didn’t have the puck much.

Dan has played real good when you start him on the fourth line and then you move him around. When you put him in this situation … we’ll see how he does. Some guys can’t...

Just like everyone here, I’m shocked at our situation. It’s hard to look at our team and think we didn’t do a lot of good things to prepare for the playoffs and you would expect...

It took us the first period to figure out how to attack it. But we adjusted and I think we were absolutely dominant in the second period.

He’s cut around the eye. I guess the bones are fine. They sent him for a CAT scan or whatever, but it sounds like he’s just fine and everything’s precautionary, so that’s real positive.

Dan Cleary came in and his face was sheet white … and I apologized to him. I had no idea. I don’t run the team. I’m just trying to win tonight. I wouldn’t have done...

It’ll be a rallying cry. This guy hasn’t done anything wrong. He’ll do a great job. He has a phenomenal reputation, and he’s a leader among men.

He’s a huge talent, and so far I’ve been very impressed with him. After spending 13 years in Detroit, it’s going to take him awhile to get used to what we do, and for us...

He’s got a little magic going on right now. But he goes to the net hard and he competes hard, and that’s what he does. He just drives the net every time. We know, and...

I was very concerned about not overdoing it, and just making it another game for the guys, … I tried to stay normal, but you would have to ask them how well I did. I...

He was as good with the puck and as hard on the puck as he is now, relative to the skill level. He was a committed guy then. I coached his older brother and his...

(Thursday) we’re going to compete. We’ve skated for two days and now we’ll start to compete. We were on a charge going in (to the Olympic break), now we’d like to charge coming out.

Edmonton is quick, and it works hard, … Edmonton just squashed Nashville (Tuesday), so it’ll be a good test for us.

Everyone knows that they’re going somewhere and everyone’s going to do their own thing, but they’re poised, they’re going to play. They play good teams. We want to carry momentum into the break.

No part of me is glad to lose,

I’ve coached some good hockey players, but he’s the best player I’ve ever coached. This guy, I always knew he was a good player, but I had no idea he was this good.

Some teams think that’s a roll.

Obviously, Columbus wanted him and it’s nice to be where people want you.

He’s fine. We are just being extra careful.

You want guys selected for those teams. It means you have good players.

It’s just a poised, veteran team.

There are a whole bunch of teams right now that think they have an opportunity. Everybody looks at us and says, ‘If they did it, we can do it.’ The measure of a great coach,...

He’s got a little magic going right now.

It’s like a lifetime. You just think about it. The season is long. We’re at game (65) and it seems like forever. Think about coming, and putting on your skates, and how many coaches have...

It’s not like we hadn’t had tons of chances, we just weren’t finishing. The big thing we wanted to do was not panic and just keep doing what you are doing, get people to the...

Can you imagine how good you must be for them to do that? This is Canada. They’re saying you can’t wear that number. You must be pretty good, and pretty good for a long period...

We can do a better job with our discipline.