Mike Kitchen Quotes (109 Quotes)

We keep saying that the young guys are chipping and the veterans are doing a terrific job. Maybe some teams are underestimating us a little bit ... they know we're out of the playoffs, they keep hearing about all the trades that are supposed to happen, and maybe they don't get up as much. I don't know, but our team is doing a strong job.

He played very well in the tournament and was a big part of the tournament. That doesn't happen very often when you get to win a gold medal in the Olympics.

You look at those players maybe being in your lineup. But that's the way it is. There's going to be a lot of parity in the league, and it's going to make it very competitive.

I thought we played really well. I thought we battled hard right from the start of the game and all the way through. I thought we deserved a better fate.

You can see he's starting to get it. We've been bringing him along slowly here. He is very strong in the puck area. He's surprised a lot of people how strong he is on his skates.

We used him an awful lot, we did some one-on-one (drills) and things like that. We'll see how responds tomorrow.

We got into penalty trouble once again ... some deserved and some not. You give up two 5-on-3s for that length of time ... it's tough. They're bound to get a score.

This morning, it was a pretty somber room.

We moved it around. Had a couple of chances, but the first day we worked on it was today. You can't expect miracles out of it.

It's hard to tell until you get into the real stuff, but throughout the scrimmages, I thought they've really done a pretty good job. You see they're putting their stick there and then they're pulling it away. It's going to take a long time that's mental d

You know his personality, I don't think so. I've been trying to build him up all the time. One thing he's not is an overconfident individual or player. I think I have more confidence in his ability than he does.

You could see that they were a desperate team. They want to make the playoffs. They're a strong defensive team and I don't think we were as physical as we could have been out there.

I hope the momentum comes back and we're able to establish to where we were, because we were playing pretty well as a team the last 15 or 16 games. We've had some terrific practices here.

We always knew Scott liked the point. He's got such a terrific shot, we get a lot of action off his shot. If it doesn't go in the net, we get some rebounds, second and third chances. I like how we can load him up for that one-timer of his. Generally, it's always on net.

There's not very many systems that work if you don't have the work ethic. And it just spreads through the whole team. I don't care what system you play. If you don't have that effort there, it's not going to work.

I don't think there's any doubt about keeping Keith. He was one of our best players.

We have a lot of young players in the lineup and they're going to benefit from all the experience that they're getting now.

We had some scoring chances, but it's tough to get it past Luongo. He looks very calm in the net and you look at their coaches, they look very calm over there.

He's probably looking at ... in a full year ... probably getting 20-25 goals.

He put so much on his shoulders he was drained when game time came. His play dictated what kind of leader he is. It's going to be a big loss for us.

I think that's the decision they have to make. It could be a month, it could be longer ... I'm not sure.

I think when we started the season, there was a big adjustment for him. Then he adapted very quickly and came along really well, which was good to see because we needed that veteran leadership back on the blue line. I've been pleased with how he's played.

He has to learn his to use his size better. He's not a big guy, so a lot of his moves have to be further out from the opposition. If he's in too tight, he can't get away from a guy and they can just use body position on him.

When you're in a situation like we're in now, of course there's going to be frustration there. These guys, they care. They're professional athletes who really care. There's nothing they want to do more than win a hockey game. It just seems like we make one mistake here, one mistake there, it's 2-0 and that's hard to accept.

In this league, it's all scoring at the right time. It changes the whole look of the game, if you get a goal at the right time. We've been getting those goals at the proper time and giving us momentum.

There's no ideal timing for any of this, it's tough on game day. It was a little quiet in the room this morning.

It's just day-to-day. He just tweaked his groin. And anyone who does that in training camp, we're kind of more on the cautious side than anything.

You can't do anything ... you argue. It was very obvious that he did it. I don't know how you can have two referees miss it ... I don't understand it.

I don't want to make any excuses, but I want to back up the guys a little bit because it's been a tough January so far. We just finished seven (games) in 12 (days) and five in eight nights. That's a lot of hockey and it looked like it caught up to us.

I think our team play is more important than anything else. We're going to have a lot of younger players in our lineup for the remaining games ... let them learn the game at this level.

I don't think we're too far away. We've shown that we have a lot more depth as an organization than we originally thought we did. I think a few free agent signings will make a big difference.

If we could have won probably another 10 games, we would have been right in the mix. With our ownership the way it's gone, we had to cut back and that's also affected the organization.

We've used Keith before at center ... not this year but previously when he's been in St. Louis. I can't say it will stay pat or not ... we had a practice today, and I wanted to see how it would go in practice.

You don't want to aggravate (the hand). It's just a matter of letting it settle down. I think he'll be fine. He seems pretty confident (about playing Sunday). I can't say for sure because it's a day-to-day thing.

We couldn't give (Downey) the ice time that he thought he needed, so we had to make a move and take a look at some of these young players because we've got to make decisions on them coming up.

I thought we won it in overtime. I think he felt pretty bad about that. I thought for sure he was going to score.

They protect the lead so well and they've been doing that for years. We just got off to a slow start out of the gate. If we had started the first period like we'd played in the third, we'd have been much better off.

When you have that kind of depth that comes back from injuries, it makes you a stronger club.

He's got a great work ethic. He's tenacious on the puck, he doesn't give up, so we thought it would be a good fit.

It's about time we got a break. The team needed it the dressing room needed it.

One thing about our organization is we're finding out our depth is a little bit better than we thought it was. They've responded pretty well for being thrown into some tough times.

He'll probably start to feel a little more comfortable. He's been nervous out there ... kind of afraid to make a mistake.

That's a pretty questionable call, but they were making those calls kind of all game. Those kinds of calls are the things I think hurt the game. Not just that one, there were others, one that even Colorado took, too.

We're going to make it if it helps the team get better along the way. Otherwise, I don't think we'll make a trade for the sake of making a trade.

Our power play struggled. It didn't give us any momentum at all.

Vancouver is a good hockey team. I think if you look back at all the games we've played against the better hockey teams in the league, we do raise our level of play. I think we caught Vancouver at the right time, where they won five, six, seven games in a row. They came in and we put up a real good effort. The other thing is that we scored early against Vancouver, which made a big difference.

We've got to finish strong. It's all about work ethic and team play and that's what we expect down the stretch.

It looked like they had a few days off. That's why we had the type of practice we had today ... just to get them back into the swing of things. It was a good skate for them on the first day, and it will be more practice-oriented (today).

I've been wrestling with this. I can't say it will stay pat or not. We wanted to see how it would go in practice. Usually with forwards they interchange all the time anyway.

Our effort was real solid and our team play was great. Everyone had a part in it. I thought we deserved a better fate in regulation.