Colin Campbell Game Quotations

Mr. Avery's comments showed a complete lack of respect for all those associated with our game, most importantly, his fellow players, ... Mr. Avery has besmirched the reputation of all NHL players, coaches, general managers and owners who, collectively, have been successful in providing a more entertaining game for our fans.

Our game reports are not for public dissemination and particularly not for politicians who may be using this whole disjointed affair to seemingly garner votes.

We're just trying to make the game better. Our thought process is that we want to reward the offensive part of the game.

(The referees) have been calling (penalties) and sticking to them. They've been calling them when it's 5-on-4 and they've been calling it late in game and in overtime. It's made for a better game.

We'll be focusing on rules changes that have been brought forth over the last year and a half. We understand certain changes have to be made, but we don't want knee-jerk solutions. We don't think the game is as bad on the ice as some people make it out to be. That's a side effect of our problems off the ice. But we do understand some changes have to be made.

Fans needed to be entertained and our game wasn't that entertaining because coaches were good. Coaches knew how to instill left-wing locks, traps, and combined with holding and hooking and pushing the envelope as far as you could . . . coaches knew what you could get away with.

This time, coaches, managers and players can't cut us up and beat us up in front of the fans we're trying to sell the game to.

The general managers understand where the game is at and they don't want to be dinosaurs. They're willing to look at things because we all understand we have to bring some interest back.