Ken Hitchcock Quotes (213 Quotes)

He's real impressive. His skill level and his skating level are incredible. I think that he's a special player, but I don't think there is much extra pressure on him right now. I think right now he's able to find his own level because we are competent back there. We have good players back there so he's going to be able to develop at the proper pace. But when you have a player who is that strong, everybody gets excited. And I think we are all feeling like this is a terrific opportunity for him and the franchise.

I think we were overwhelmed the first 10 minutes. That's my responsibility. We were embarrassed, embarrassed by the way we performed and embarrassed by the way we finished the hockey game.

It's huge. He's a point-a-game guy, a big-time plus player.

They live off the power play and we gave them power plays. That's what is really disappointing.

Whenever there's something in the stomach, you get nervous but I've been assured it's nothing. I'm still going to be nervous until Peter is back on the ice playing pain-free.

Peter felt real good today. He felt 100 percent, actually, and we pushed him pretty hard.

If it's working, then we'll stay with it. If not, we'll move (combinations around) and, quite frankly, in the first five games we do want to see other combinations either during games or during practices.

Eric calms things down big-time back there.

Well, put it this way. If he put together five days of practice like he did today and didn't feel any ill effects, then maybe you could start to think along those lines, but it's not something anyone is planning on at this point.

Management has given us a real fighting chance here to have a real good team. And it's our job now, coaches and players together, to try and put this thing together.

I thought we got better as the game wore on. When you're killing back-to-back-to-back penalties, it's hard to get momentum. That's living dangerously. You can't expect a team at home to go 0-for-9 again.

This was as dead as we've been in a month. I don't remember us playing this poorly. We had no work ethic. Their workers controlled the hockey game. Our goaltender was outstanding, but when you go on the road and allow almost 50 shots on goal, it's not good.

I think that it's given a lot of people, including myself, time to pause and reflect,

We've played hard and we dominated at times, but we've made mistakes at critical times.

That's who he is. That's the way he plays. He's got a really big heart, good skill level, but it's his heart and his competitiveness that he carries with him. What's interesting for me is, the game was on the line and he was the best player on the ice. That speaks volumes for a 20-year-old player.

I think we play better when we're desperate. The big question mark now is, can we answer the bell again a second time We've played some games like that in our building and then we haven't come back with near the emotion or intensity. We have to play with the same sense of desperation or increase it for more minutes if we expect to win.

The third period was tremendous. A lot of people played very, very well today.

We played a heck of a hockey game. It could have gone either way. I thought we got better and better as the game went on. We did a lot of gritty, good things in the third period. We deserved at least a point, and maybe two.

Those are the decisions that, when you don't have to make them or when you make them because people are playing poorly it's easy. The hard decisions are if we continue to play well, then it's going to be a tough thing to do, because you don't want to screw around with what's working.

Robert has gone through the natural growth of a good goalie,

There wasn't a darn thing wrong with our five-on-five game.

Put him on hold I don't know about that. That's only going to make Don madder.

I guess I need to apologize. I know better than that. I kind of lost discipline the way our team did in the game.

I've seen our fans just will us in playoff games. I think home-ice is something you need. It's very important. It's real difficult when you constantly have to win road games in the playoffs.

We put a lot of focus on not allowing scoring chances, but (also) spend a lot of time trying to use everybody offensively. Both our teams were very, very good offensively in junior. To win, you have to play defense, just like in basketball, football and baseball. But we would like to win 6-0, not 6-5.

The two games they were together there was tremendous chemistry. They want to play together. They both really want it badly, and we're going to take a look at that.

The only thing I know is that we've always responded to losing in a really intense fashion. The response to winning has been our problem. I'm not sure why that's probably a discussion for July or August. But it's been the M.O. of our team for a long time

Any player who thinks he is owed anything is wrong. You talk about the best players in the world, and they understand that. They always think they are a week away from going into the stands.

This is a huge deal for the players. For once in their lives, they get to feel like an athlete, not an entertainment machine. They live with everyone else from different sports. They get to represent their countries, which is the biggest thing for these players. From the experiences of '98 and '02, this is a big thing.

Look, it's my responsibility to get the team ready, OK This is on me. We were embarrassed for our fans and for the city of Philadelphia with the way we played. We've got to make amends when we go back home and get this series back even. We've got a lot of work to do.

They pushed the level out there. It's not about whether we can keep up. We don't have a choice.

Were lucky. These guys come up and play and they dont miss a beat.

When I look at Simon, I see the same player I've seen for two years. But now he plays with a center man who is a playmaker. I see a guy who gets to the puck who never got to it when he was here previously. He gets a lot of goals off the rush, which he never used to get before.

Those are usually a reward for hard work. Good players score those goals. Guys like you and me, the puck would end up in the seats.

He's tying to play hockey, but he's certainly not a player in this series. He's just moving ahead. He's our captain and he's trying to lend support.

You know that if you just stay with the program, the home team is going to be the one that presses. We've caught people pressing hard when the game is on the line, and we've caught them on some odd-man rush situations. And we've won a lot of points late.

People just have to sit back, calm down and see what happens. Let's see how practice goes today. Let's see how he feels, and we'll go from there.

Their tenacity, speed and hunger controlled the game.

We were a team going very well for an extended period of time. In the last 10 days we have not played near as well as we are capable of.

Keith, when he feels good, is just going to come to the games, he's just going to observe the team's play, take notes and hopefully give us some insight, kind of like a player-coach who isn't playing.

I told (the media) that this was going to be the rotation a month ago. That's the formula. I'm sticking with it. Talk to me on Sunday.

I think the concern is you don't want to waste a great performance by a goalie. We got that type of performance. But we didn't execute offensively for him.

I thought we were a little lethargic during the first two periods with all the travel we've done. Our timing was better and our checking a lot better in the third period. We did a better job of getting ourselves into a scoring position later in the game.

(It means) exactly nothing. You cant read anything (into it). Hes trying to play hockey. But, hes certainly not a player in this series.

The difference was we had a great start to the game and played very well, but when they got their power plays, it shifted the momentum back their way. We did a lot of things really well today. Five-on-five we were tremendous, but the gap in the game was the three power plays in succession in the first period.

I haven't made up my mind. I've said this before, I'm not in any hurry right now. It's not a big deal to me.

I find the entertainment value of the playoffs is out the door. It's all about competition. This, to me, brings it back to grassroots where it's one team playing another team and it doesn't matter who's covering the game or who's watching.

We need Joni to not get so shook up over what goes wrong, but focus on what went right.

It's the nature of our season. We're in first place in one category. We lead the league in the unfortunate category of injuries.

When you're starting to play catch-up, you have to open up the game and sometimes you come back and sometimes you give up more.