Bob Gainey Team Quotations

I am the one with NHL head coaching experience and no one has followed this team as closely as I have since training camp. As of this point, I will take full responsibility as the head coach.

But complications are good. It may not be good for the player who winds up not playing, but it's an advantage for the team as a whole.

He will be unavailable to our team for an undetermined period.

He skated again this morning and the next step is for him to join the team and be exposed to some rough-and-tumble play. I think that's sooner rather than later.

Jose was a victim of an unfortunate accident and we all feel for him. He will get on with his rehabilitation as soon as the condition of his heel allows him to do so. We hope to have him back in time to help the team down the final stretch.

I think our team has to concentrate on how to test (Carolina goalie Cam Ward.). Lets' raise the shot total, the scoring chance total and get rid of any lazy or soft play around him. Let's put more responsibility on the goalie to make more saves.

We'd seen a different team during the season. But they captured their level of play again (once) they got a goalie in there that gave them the saves they needed. They made it a lot more difficult for us to get scoring chances.

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're not a big team compared to other teams in the NHL, but we are a quick team and I think we can handle our own in the physical areas, in front of the net and in the corners, ... I don't see us being disadvantaged in size.

We're playing against a good team, and I don't think we ever dropped our understanding of that or respect for their team. We know that they're a good team and that we're going to have to play as well as we can for as many minutes as we can.

Once we got down a couple of goals I think we went into shock and at that point, really the game tonight was over. Our team stumbled hard early in the game, and really by the 5-minute mark of the first period the outcome of the game was established.

Our team was stumbling and bumbling and we didn't have a player really who was committed to doing what they needed to do.

I'm the one who's responsible and this gives time for Guy to get comfortable with the team and the players. It's more fair for myself to step in and take responsibility until the end of the season.

It's important for the confidence of this team to know what we can go 20, 40, 50 minutes without giving up a goal. We went through a stretch where we had trouble putting consecutive periods together.

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.

They kept us off balance through most of the game, through three or four power plays. We're certainly not tight in our team play.

The Flyers have a lot of injuries right now, that's for sure. But our team, if we move the puck well, can play with a lot of speed, whereas their team is big, but they're slower than us. So it's like we have opposite teams, but it makes for good games.

That power-play goal, the first goal we scored .... was a nice message for our team that we were in the game and skate with them.

It seems taking a lead is an important part of a recipe that works most often. Early in the series will be a place either team will be looking for an advantage. It's about getting into that rhythm where all cylinders are firing.