Craig Patrick Quotes (38 Quotes)


    We've been pleased all along with how our young kids are coming along. What's unique now is that they're all getting an opportunity. So yeah, we're pleased, but we expected it sooner or later. Seems to be now sooner rather than later.

    I was surprised. He came in, he closed the door. ... It became pretty apparent once he started (talking) that he was heading down that path.

    It was great to see him score that goal. This is a big stage, obviously. It doesn't matter if you're a hockey player, a basketball player, an entertainer, a figure skater -- whatever. It's the biggest stage in the world.

    He wasn't playing like he was two years ago, and I didn't see us re-signing him. This was a good opportunity to get a player for the future and someone who can do the job defensively this year and possibly beyond.

    We're starting to get used to each other and play more like the way I thought we'd be able to play. But we get a good lead and we're still giving up some goals I wish we wouldn't give up.


    It's like it was back in the early '90s when we were coming to camp with a chance to win a championship every year.

    We were positioned well for what we had to deal with, and it's worked out very well. For the first time around in this, it was hard to really anticipate what might happen, but we're very, very pleased.

    It's been an interesting year for sure, there's no doubt about that. It's the new NHL and it hasn't unfolded as we expected, but there's still a half season left and we'll see how it goes the rest of the way.

    We did this for the first time in the summer of 2003, and we believe it's a good way for some of our young prospects to come into town and get to know a little bit about our organization and our city before training camp. We'll put them through a series of tests, and they'll also have a chance to meet with our coaches and trainers.

    We expect that he will be able to begin exercising in a matter of days and return to the lineup in a brief period of time.

    He's going to be an off-ice conditioning program for the next 10 days to two weeks and then he will be reevaluated after that. They are going to try and get the right level of medication that he needs. Medicine is not an exact science, so you have to test things and try them. They are in that process now.

    This is our third time around at it. It's going to work this time. The players will adjust and there will be a different game. Definitely.

    Definitely, in John's case. It's very special to get these kind of people not just great players, but great people in the locker room.

    We're done negotiating. We're just waiting for the answer.

    He's played well, but the bottom line is winning hockey games. We want to win hockey games, and hopefully, he can help us do that.

    He didn't make the trip because in the third period last night he was having a recurrence of an irregular heartbeat. Obviously, we're concerned about it, so we left him at home.


    Jocelyn brings a wealth of experience to our goaltending corps and will help us tremendously as we move forward.

    His biggest benefits are his passion and his energy level.

    He was talking about skating (yesterday) but I'm not sure.

    We're down to a bare-bone operation in terms of players. After this weekend, we'll be down to 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies, and any time you get in that situation and have an injury, you can bring people up (from the American Hockey League) on emergency, and it doesn't affect what's going on down there in terms of being able to go back and play in the playoffs. That's important for us because we want to see these guys as much as we can this spring and make some decisions on them for the future and for our lineup in the future.

    It was real simple. I surrendered right away. It's great to have his name on a contract, and now, we can move forward.

    We thought the best precaution was to have him enter the hospital for observation.

    We've seen him over the years, and the scouts have good things to say. He's got good speed and good skills. Cross obviously has great size. He's sound defensively but can move the puck well, too.

    Guys are starting to gain a lot of confidence. Hopefully, it's time to climb up the ladder, and if we keep playing like this, we will.

    He hasn't achieved what we thought he'd achieve, based on the way he played two years ago. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of explanations for why things haven't gone that well this year. But a lot of guys haven't played up to the level that we'd anticipated.

    I thought they did very, very well. The whole staff did. They had a lot of energy, they played hard and they did a good job.

    He really hasn't had a great opportunity to play in Carolina. He's been behind some guys who are probably better than he is.

    You're going to do it his way or not going to play, and from what I've seen this year we need that. We all believe we have the ability here.

    I think we'll take our time. The doctors said he could be working out in as soon as three days, but we'll monitor it and see how he's doing when he gets back.

    He'd been complaining about his hip since Montreal. Actually, he had a little tightness there before, but in Montreal (on Jan. 4) he hurt it in practice. We didn't think it was that serious, but it kept bothering him and bothering him, so he decided to get an MRI done.

    We're delighted to have Kevin back where he belongs, with the Penguins. Kevin brings a passion to the game that is second to none.

    He meant an awful lot to us, both on the ice and off. He had a great career, obviously, everywhere he was. But here, he solidified our team in the sense that he gave us a top two line person that made it a 1a and 1b situation, which no other team had at that time. He was very, very important to us winning our Stanley Cups.

    We want to give him a good look here, see what he can do. We're hoping he can show us something.

    That's the one thing we've got to be careful of -- him feeling the pressure, putting it on himself to get back on the ice. We've got to calm him down from here on out, we've got to make sure it's right. We've got to not listen to him this time and say, 'No, Mario, not until we say you're ready.

    We look pretty on paper, but what are we We'll find out what we are, starting today.

    We didn't have the budget to give them. Now we do, and we can pay the going rate.

    It's good for hockey, and it's good for his area. It's interesting, the way it worked out. It's good to have this many hockey players in town.


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