Quotes by Rick Tocchet

“When your confidence is down the last thing you want to do is scream at the players too much. But we were playing tentative and (associate head coach) Barry Smith and I had to get on them a little bit. We were on our heels, and championship teams play on their toes, not on their heels.”

“He was struggling early. I made the change to slow the game down.”

“I would take a 3-0 lead every night. We didnt quit. Some guys think its easy. Its hard to win. Its uncomfortable to win. I thought we were into it early and let Colorado off the hook. Thats where your leadership takes over and you dont let it happen. In the end somebody has to go to the net. Somebody has to block a shot.”

“We got embarrassed. We know it. We got our (expletive) kicked. (Todays) a different game. Hopefully, in the first period well have enough guys pulling the rope the same way.”

“Hes had a hell of a year, and now hes having a little tough stretch. Were in a good situation because (Boucher) has come in here and played some pretty solid hockey . . . Its a good situation with those two guys. Hopefully, they feed off each other.”

“Hes just a fun guy who loves the game. Any time youre in a lull, adding a guy like that to the lineup elevates people.”

“Well go with guys who want to work and want to play. Thats the way were going to have to approach it from here on in.”

“When you get things back to normal, its a lot easier for him (Gretzky) if he knows everything is normal back here.”

“You know, hes afraid to answer the phone sometimes. Its like, Whats next? The best thing for him is being back in the rink. Hes comfortable again.”

“Weve got to try to win 2-1 right now. Thats our mind-set. Thats what we tried to stress today. (We said) Dont worry about scoring a ton of goals, just try to win 2-1 and we did.”