Barry Trotz Quotes (58 Quotes)

I thought the power play and the goaltending were key for us. Mentally, we weren't as focused as we should be.

I can't really say a whole lot that you can print. Any time you give up three power-play goals in a game, your chances of winning aren't very good. We had a lot of guys who were taxed by all the penalties these last two games.

I thought we gave them way too much room. There is a fine line between respect and giving them too much respect. We were giving them a zone to create some speed.

It was a bang-bang type of thing. We did a good job when we went down 2-0 with Walker's goal. We hung our heads a little bit when they scored their next three goals.

This was a surprise. But I tell our guys to expect the unexpected ... When you come to grips with how you have to beat a team, most of the time you are going to be very successful.

We dug ourselves such a big hole early on. I always say that mentally and physically, you have a bank account as a team, and we had to go to the bank account real early. At the end of the season, we overdrew in some areas. When you dig yourself in a hole, it's tough to get out of. Hopefully what you saw in the 55 to 57 games in the middle stretch is more of what you'll see from the Predators. We're going to have to be more resilient.

It was a good call. Scott Hartnell threw his stick. It's taken out of his own hands, he's out of control of it.

He protects the puck very well, but I'm starting to look at those penalties, and they're pretty weak. But they are penalties, if you want to go the letter of the law. On some of them, I'm not exactly sure what the rules are. They're different rules for him, I guess.

Tomas, talk about a gold medal performance. That was a gold medal performance.

Better walking than lying down in a hospital bed any day.

It sort of validated what we've been trying to do for a long time. And hopefully it allows us to turn the corner and take the next step. That next step being making the playoffs consistently and being a threat for the Stanley Cup every year.

As a home-ice team, you want the crowd and the energy in the building. We weren't able to capitalize on our special teams, but if we get one in, maybe it would be a different story.

I feel better about where we're going because of the all-around effort and the game we played. It's the last game before the regular season but we wanted to respond with some good efforts and some good play. And I thought we did.

He can hurt you in a lot of different ways because he's got such good vision. He's got such good hockey sense. He knows and feels pressure. He knows what the situation is and studies the game. That's why he's been a top player in this league a long, long time.

It's a real good opportunity for him and our team to make a statement that, 'Hey, we're more than one player,' and I think people tend to forget about that.

I thought both teams did a great job of respecting the rules.

His game shot up to a higher level. He started slowly, but he built up until he got hurt. I'm hoping he can start the year like he finished it when he was still healthy, and maybe even take it to the next level.

I thought the rules changes would be ... perfect for him. Why he's gotten off to a little bit of a tougher start than I probably expected, I don't know. I'm not close enough to him to know that.

We're in pretty elite company. I told the team that if we can do something special, go for it.

This group wants to get better. That's a sign of maturity. But we have to keep everything in perspective. We have to retain our work ethic and work on our speed and structure.

I thought we were real sloppy in our clears and our passes and not real sharp. ... Just chalk it up to 12 games in 20 nights. Guys are trying to get a little rest, and mentally they're not sharp.

I thought Mike played really well, especially when we had some good chances. When they got the lead in the second period, he came up with a few big saves. Then early in the third, he had some big saves, especially on the 5-on-3 that we weren't able to capitalize on.

I give our guys a lot of credit. They battled back to tie it up and took it to overtime to get a point there.

We used all four lines. I thought if we would have went to overtime it would have really benefited us, but it never got there.

I guess I thought that there might be more human element allowed. You know, where it (the penalty) occurred, whether it was near the puck, whether it had any effect on the play. But no, they're doing it the same way. That surprised me a little.

They're winning our trust because they're getting the job done.

Early in the year we were getting a lot of grief from people, saying you're playing some teams that aren't quite as strong. But they were strong teams, we just sort of got their number early.

We were trying to get guys open in front of the net and it just didn't happen. We didn't generate anything there. When you get a chance like that, you have to create havoc and make something happen.

I was more concerned about how we came out, our attitude and our preparation following the break. And I was happy with all of those aspects. I think every element of our game was showcased tonight.

It's a fun time. You come to the rink with something on the line every night.

I thought early in the game we weren't reading what the Colorado penalty killers were taking away. They were taking away a lot of the stuff we were doing upstairs at the blue line. They were really nullifying us. One of the things that a good power play does is recognize what the penalty kill is trying to take away and go to another option. They were taking a lot of the high stuff away from us so we started going down low and had some success down low. That got us back in the game. The power play was huge.

I thought our whole roster played well. That's how you win in this league. You need 20 guys to contribute. We played a real smart game in terms of puck management. We did a real solid job with the puck. We had no blind or hope passes. I think we managed the game well.

But he thinks the game so well, and you don't have to skate as well if you're a real intelligent player. And we found out he was a real intelligent player, and he's been quite productive to this point. He's probably exceeded any expectations that we have.

I just said to the guys, 'When certain things end you've got to get back on the horse and start all over again. That's over with, that's a nice chapter. Let's do something now through the next 73 games. The next 73 games are as important as the first nine.

In Tennessee, it's a non-traditional sport. The casual fans are coming and saying, 'You know what I've never had so much fun at a sporting event.' And now they're coming back. That's how you build a base for any sport. That's how you get fans to come to the games - they've got to have a good time.

He's a great player. He's got great hands and he's got speed. He wants the puck all the time. He got three goals and he will be in the Hall of Fame if keeps scoring like that in the National Hockey League, there's no question. But we never got a piece of him all night and we have to set that stage that way and we didn't. He got the hat trick and he deserved it.

We had a couple of big saves from Chris Mason in the third. We had bang-bang goals in the second period and Hartnell came up with the big goal at the end. It was a key goal for us. They sort of had us on our heels, they were coming hard, but we were able to get the big goal tonight when we needed it.

There were a couple of times I thought they could've changed the course of my situation. But they've worked through it with us and I think that's made us a better organization.

Tomas isa great goaltender, but he just doesn't get enough respect around the league. He's one of the great stories we have. To see where he's come from to where he is now is wonderful. When you are coaching, those are the stories that you love. Because he wasn't in great shape, his attitude was off center a little bit, but now he's the hardest working, most fit, most professional guy. And he's still young.

Things came to us real easy in the first period. It is a little bit of human nature to let your foot off the gas a bit after a start like that. When a game is so easy at the start it is a hard game to play.

I never thought of taking Tomas out of the game. He needed to work through this in terms of conditioning. Tomas didn't see three of the goals they scored because our defensemen were screening him. We created the traffic in front of Tomas.

It's good for our team to be able to come into Detroit and play like that against an extremely good team. I can remember the first and second - and even the third and fourth - years of this franchise, we really had no belief that we could come in here and win.

One of our goals is to have home-ice advantage. We're not going to look behind us. We've just got to look forward. These are playoff-type games, and we found a way to win.

They were probably just sending out their business cards for the year.

I don't know if it was a Detroit hangover, but we were not ready to go. I thought we lost the game in the first period.

Anderson stood on his head tonight.

We frustrated them, and they took a lot of poor penalties. We knew their game plan. They wanted to bang, have a lot of energy and come out and prove a point. There wasn't much of a point at the end.

I thought it was pretty quick. I was sitting up there with a lot of the staff and I told them I didn't remember it being this fast before. Maybe it is because we have been locked out. But I remember back in 1998, it wasn't that fast.

A lot of credit goes to our penalty killers. Your best penalty killer is your goaltender and he was great again tonight.

I thought Mason played great and made some key saves. Not too many guys can win three games in a week and score a goal.