Pierre McGuire Quotations

There are people who might complain about the so-called old boys network. My advice is to become part of the network. Volunteer to help, get involved. Hockey people tend to take care of hockey people.

He hasn't played on the strongest teams, but he's always been one of the strongest goalies in the league. It comes down to his focus and consistency. And that's a hard thing to do when you know going into every game you're probably going to face more shots than the other team's goalie.

He's going to have a huge impact in Edmonton because the team has never had a stopper defenseman, ... Now he is the division's ultimate stopper.

People are discounting L.A. because of the players they've lost. But they've got a great coach and I think Pavol Demitra, with no red-line, is going to be huge. Same with Valeri Bure. And I'm looking forward to watching Mike Cammalleri play in the NHL. He had an awesome year in the AHL. And Mathieu Garon's going to be really solid in net.

I think they're a year away from taking another step forward. Their young players are good but they lost a real good scorer in Andrew Brunette. Once the younger guys develop, they'll be a team a lot like Nashville in terms of turning it up another notch.

I think being behind the glass gives you a real feel for the game at ice level.

Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux created a whole new genre of players.

Even though he's not on the ice, I think Brian Burke will make a big difference there. Scotty Niedermayer, if he's not the best player in the league, he's definitely the best defenceman. The powerplay should be real effective and without the red line, Peter Sykora and Sergei Federov are going to have big years. They'll also have an infusion of youth with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.

As coaches, you so badly want to be able to help your team, ... We used to put so much effort into our warmup drills. People used to tell us, 'guys, it doesn't matter how this team warms up. You've got the wrong Hull, (Jody instead of Brett) and the wrong Turgeon (Sylvain instead of Pierre).'

You stay in contact with the (former Rangers GM) Neil Smiths, ... because those guys could resurface. If someone decides to put a team in Honolulu, you want to be able to say 'Neil, remember me. I'm the perfect guy to get your pineapple drinks.'

Oh, my goodness yes. He's been even better than people thought he would be.

It's big and powerful and friendly, like a cartoon character.

The games were on Wednesday and I would drive to St. Catharines, and then drive home to fax Keenan a scouting report. Mike would use it for the practice on Thursday and the game on Friday.

That's a gigantic amount of shots against. That's probably the most telling statistic. Yeah, the shutouts are very important, obviously, but the amount of shots that he has faced in his career really separates him from a lot of the other goalies.