Bob Gainey Players Quotations

My story for the players has been getting away from eighth and focusing on seventh. We are not worried about the Bruins because they have other teams to jump ahead of before they get to us.

I think at some point, we're going to make a decision of who's going to start the first game of the playoffs. But let's get in the playoffs, we still don't have that nailed down. In the meantime, we're using all of our players to get us there.

We have to recognize and appreciate the experience he's had with a very good team in Detroit over a long period of time, playing with great players in some of the best playoff competition, ... We have three young defencemen in Montreal (Mike Komisarek, Ron Hainsey and Andrei Markov) and his experience and knowledge will be an asset.

We have a large group of players who are coming to an age of maturity.

The other night we had lots of great scoring chances and we didn't complete them, but tonight the scoring chances were minimized so we'll be looking for ways to penetrate the defenses of Carolina and to get some of our players participating and getting some results on the Carolina side of center ice.

We want an exciting team, a quick team, a fast team, a puck-moving, skating, attacking team, and to do that you need to put players in place who have those skills.

Both teams had their moments where they had to fight from behind, and it was decided by a good, clean goal in overtime. It's very easy to recognize the will of the players on both teams to play with everything in the tank.

It's difficult to replace a player on your first line. ... We have other players with the same style of depth and experience as Alex and it's up to those younger players to take his place.

I didn't see anyone looking and wondering if someone was going to show up out of the blue. It's part of their lives. Players are in and players are out all through the season. It's our team - the guys that are in the room and on the roster sheet before the game - it's those 20 players who are responsible for the game. It's not the guys who aren't there.

It was a great game. For us, the fact that we won makes the result great, but it was a great hockey game. Both teams had their moments where they had to fight from behind and it was decided by a good, clean goal in overtime. It's very easy to recognize the will of the players on both teams to play with everything in the tank.

It's terrific. It's good for the fans in both cities. It's good for the players on both teams. It's a traditional and natural rivalry that has a lot at stake.