Ken Hitchcock Puck Quotations

When I look at Simon, I see the same player I've seen for two years. But now he plays with a center man who is a playmaker. I see a guy who gets to the puck who never got to it when he was here previously. He gets a lot of goals off the rush, which he never used to get before.

Over all, this was the best game they've played in the series. They were very tenacious and they caused us to make soft plays with the puck at inopportune times.

Those are usually a reward for hard work. Good players score those goals. Guys like you and me, the puck would end up in the seats.

We got beat by a much better team tonight, a team that was much more composed with the puck than we were. We didn't have near the composure they did.

We didn't protect the puck when the game was on the line, and that's disappointing.

We want him to want the puck, to skate with the puck and find people open with the puck. Hopefully, he can do it. He's shown flashes where he takes off and goes, and sometimes he backs off and becomes conservative.

It was a heck of a lesson. It's the best team we've played all year. You make puck errors down in the zone like we did, you're going to get schooled.

That's a dangerous play in hockey when you're checking the player with the puck and he checks you. The checking player doesn't suspect that and he's not ready for it. I think you see a lot of injuries when that type of play happens.

The puck was in their zone a lot. We were one chance and out. We didn't have any second or third opportunities.

They?re similar players. Simon probably shoots the puck off the rush a little bit better, but they?re both determined players. It?s a great feeling when you go out for a game and you never have to worry about whether a player is going to be a committed player. I never worried about that once.

And if they get the puck on the right one, they clear it out of there. If they get it on the wrong one, it kind of dribbles. But that's what we've got.