Tomas Vokoun Quotes (71 Quotes)

We are not playing good. But it is a long season and there are always ups and downs.

My play, I obviously can't be happy with. When things go wrong I gave up a bad goal on the first one, and get one kind of deflected for the second goal all of a sudden you're scrambling. ... But I think the team played really well. We showed we can play and know how to play our system really well.

I didn't do very good. But our guys came through and scored a bunch of goals and that's why we won.

Such a good couple nights for us. We did it again, we give them chances on the power play. They had like three posts it could have been different. It was our night. We had a great goal in overtime and we got four points on the road against the Red Wings. I mean, if you look at the history, that's never been the case.

Brendan Witt is playing great. He blocks shots. He is also a leader. With him in the lineup the whole defense has the pressure taken off of them. We have a lot of young guys and a veteran like Brendan helps them play better.

You do it all the time. People get traded and you play against your ex-teammates all the time, so you're used to it.

I wasn't too busy (last night), ... They were missing a few of their guys but I thought I did pretty well.

Obviously you don't want to play the game from behind, but we basically had the knife to our throat.

It's comfortable to know you did it, but the work doesn't stop, ... We have the whole season in front of us. Now I'll worry about the next game.

We played a little better, but we still have critical defensive breakdowns. You can't give a good team as many chances as we did.

A goalkeeper has to be ready all the time. You take your rest because you just never know.

A player like (Parker) shouldn't be in the NHL anyway. The penalty cost us more than them. We got an impact player thrown out. They lost a marginal player.

I'll try to do what I can to help the team. Mace has certainly helped me the past few years, so this is his chance to show everyone in the NHL he can play.

A couple of times it was by my own players. But I've got to learn to deal with traffic. Maybe that's something I need to address in practice, just fighting through screens.

They say the worst lead in hockey is a two-goal lead going into the third period. You can't sit back and let them keep coming at you. I thought we did a good job of skating and continuing to play in that third period.

People seem to care about points how many points we have and how we finish. I don't play hockey to watch the standings. I play hockey to win.

It could have been a lot worse. If they didn't detect it, the blood clot could have got loose, and then I would have been in big trouble.

Everybody has to be accountable in the dressing room and you've got to do the job. You can only control what you can do. I don't know the reason why, but definitely some people just weren't ready or didn't play hard enough, that's just how it was. I don't know the reason.

I would have liked to have had it, but it wasn't the one play that decided the game.

On Wednesday, every play, every minute, every shift counts, ... That's what we're trying to get ready for.

I think we have as good of a chance for gold as we did before today. This doesn't put you out of the tournament.

I grew up watching Dominik Hasek. Back home he played several years in the Czech Elite League and was the No. 1 guy on our national team. He was really the first Czech goalie to come over to the NHL and do well. He set the standard so high for everybody else, it's unbelievable. I have a lot of respect for him because he's been one of the best if not the best goalie to ever play the game.

We had been scoring a lot of goals and maybe we felt like we just couldn't lose. We started playing loose, but now we're not scoring four or five goals a game per night. And in this NHL, you're not going to win many goals scoring two goals a night.

It's a win and they're not always going to be perfect games. They were better than us but we found a way to win.

I play to win and that is about it. My job is to stop the puck. I can't control anything else.

I think statements are made in the playoffs and we're far away from that. We still want to improve and get ready for the playoffs. We didn't win anything the last two nights. Our work is far from over.

We were able to get four points in two games against the Red Wings on the road, and historically that's never been the case. We definitely want some respect and I think we've achieved that. If you want to be respected as a good team, then you have to beat the good teams.

You got to have dreams and obviously that the Vezina Trophy is one of them, ... I want to be the best goalie in the league, not because I think I will be one day just because you have to set your goals as high as you can. I want to win it one day. I'll do everything I can, and I'll know that if I don't win it, that at least I did everything I could. And that's more important to me than actually winning it.

I've watched him play since I was 7-years-old. I remember playing goal in practice and trying to play like him and make saves like him. Then you grow up and realize that everybody is different. Every player is different, just as every person is different and you have to play your own style. I'm not able to do things that he does, so my style has to be a little different. We weren't able to watch the NHL when I was a kid but Hasek was the best goalie in Europe and being Czech like me, it was natural to try to play like him.

For European goalies coming over here the toughest thing is learning how to play the puck and deal with the traffic. You often have to fight through the traffic to see the puck. Those things you have to learn. Every European is usually good on breakaways

You've got to protect the middle of the ice. The guys on the boards are not a concern. It's hard to win when you're making mistakes like that.

It's nice to be a part of some history. Our team is a young team and we don't have a lot of records set. That's a lot of wins to put together in this league. It's a great momentum builder.

It's a big play. Tie game, third period, you score short-handed, definitely it's a big momentum shift to your side.

It was just a bad game. On the first goal, I just made a mistake and got scored on and it just snowballed from there. It happens sometimes. You don't want it, but it's the reality. I just have to refocus.

We have to be hungrier around their net, and the last few games, we just haven't done that. Sometimes shots are only statistics. You can take 100 shots, but if they're all from the outside, it really doesn't matter.

I don't know if it's the Red Wings. We've been giving up that many shots about the last three weeks. We're not playing well defensively. If you want to win, you have to start in your own zone. You can't give up 40, 45 shots every night. Especially in this league where you can't hold guys, you can't give up these kind of chances.

We didn't cover the slot. A lot of goals were off of rebounds or passes in front of the net. We have been on the fortunate side a few times this season, but you can't think any game is going to be an easy game.

It's all about trying to outwait the player. I haven't had much time to practice really hard lately and it showed on breakaways and stuff like that. But I'm not worried about it.

I don't know what the reason is, but we've been getting dominated here lately. This is the NHL, and we're foolish if we thought we were going to start picking up easy wins. It's going to be a grind all the way until the end of the season.

We've been getting some two-on-one chances or breakaways, but we're not taking the shots. We're shooting too much from the sides. Any goalie in the NHL is good enough to stop those.

But there are other teams that should be better, too, because of all the changes that have taken place. You look at the league right now and to be honest, I couldn't tell you who's going to be over 100 points or who would be below 80 points.

It's a big win against a team that's right behind us. With the losing streak we've been on, it's great for our confidence to get a win like that. Everybody has to step up.

You can't stop 40 or 45 shots a night and expect to win. Detroit has five Hall of Fame players on the team. You can't give them 45 shots.

You've got to play with urgency and we aren't playing with urgency right now. That's why we're a step late everywhere. That's why teams are scoring on us. It's a long season and there are always ups and downs. We just have to get back somehow on the horse and whatever we need to do we need to do it.

We played a good all-around game and it showed on the scoreboard. We skated well. We had a strong power play. We hit. We did all the right things to win.

It's a confidence-booster for everybody to win at their rink.

We gave them too many chances. Power play, 5-on-3, 4-on-3, you name it. Playing back-to-back, we were tired in the third period. They took advantage.

In a 2-2 game, there's no way their guy should be walking down the middle of the ice with 10 seconds to shoot, deke or do whatever. Breakdowns like that kill you.

It is not every night you are going to have a 40-shot shutout, ... It is fun to play and I am really enjoying playing right now. It's an unbelievable feeling.

It was an embarrassing effort. We got outplayed and outscored. If you expect to play like that and win against Detroit that's impossible.