Randy Carlyle Quotations

Obviously, we had planned to have Sergei as part of our hockey club. Things happen behind the scenes, and you have to make adjustments. It's unfortunate that Sergei got hurt. He did everything right from the beginning of training camp, performed at a high level. I can't say a bad word about him.

Nothing changes. One game at a time. We're not in a position to do anything more than try to improve where we are in the standings and improve our position for the playoffs. We're going to continue to push in that direction.

Obviously, their game plan was to go after our skill players, and that's posturing for the playoffs. That's the way the playoffs are. You earn every inch of space on the ice. I think the officials are going to have to take control of some of the situations. I thought they did a heck of a job tonight in that respect.

We made a decision probably three weeks ago that we were going to go with some of these guys. We made a list of six or seven, and those players were on it. We thought we'd change it up a bit.

I don't understand how they called that many power plays against us. I don't understand how we're that bad. I guess the Detroit Red Wings get those calls in their building.

He's a friend of mine. You never like to see an individual lose his job. It's a difficult time for him and his family. I wish him all the best, and I know he'll bounce back. He will coach again - I'd almost be willing to bet.

He was a force out there at all times. He's a dominant young player. He's the real deal.

He was going along at a fairly good pace and making great strides. Then he suffered the concussion and really struggled after that.

He was pushed back in the crease four or five times.

He did everything he had to do to dominate the game. He was a force out there. I think at times we stood around and were in awe of him.

He has a workmanlike attitude as every member of their hockey club does. You have to credit them with their work ethic.

He had been scoring a lot in practice and we talked to him about it three weeks ago. He delivered.

Historically, I've always been the type of coach that made a decision to give the individual a chance to redeem himself. I've always done that. I believe in that. That's part of the relationship you build with players. Nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes.

He responded well; that's what you expect of a veteran player who drew a lot of attention to himself in an incident like that. He turned a negative into a positive. He used it as a motivational tool.

He's a skilled player; as with any skilled player, if you give him time and space, he's going to make plays.

He's a stay-at-home guy, he does everything at 100 percent all the time and keeps it simple.

He's a superstar. He plays every situation, night in, night out, has the ability to elevate his game, and does all the things that are necessary to provide you with leadership.

He came in in great physical shape, ... It's always a positive for a coach when you see your veteran guys leading in that direction.

He had a large hand in our ability to win. Some nights he's required to make more stops. This was one of those nights.

He is not in a danger situation at all. No concussion, more along the lines of an upper-body bruise.

We try to make sure we take care of recovery, do lots of stretching, and focus on the core part of the body, specifically.

He fit into the group. We weren't good enough.

He fits into the same category as the rest of our hockey club. We weren't good enough, and he was part of it. He wasn't as sharp as he needs to be, and the team wasn't as sharp as it needs to be.

We took a different approach, doing some off-ice stuff. The players would rather do that than come to the rink and get skated. We had a little laugh, a little team bonding and it really showed tonight. We had lots of energy early.

We took far too many penalties, and we got worn down. The fatigue started to set in. The second period, things started to get a little crazy, and we got out of sync. Fortunately, we were able to get it back.

We took some inopportune penalties at critical points. We gave them too many opportunities and too many quality chances.

We took some penalties at crucial points. We just didn't defend well. We had our opportunities, we just didn't manage to get the puck past Nabokov.

Our relationship goes back a long way. Our kids played minor hockey together in Winnipeg. There are roots there.

Our players worked extremely hard. It was a fast-paced game, and it wasn't no-hit hockey. It was a physical game and those are tough ones to play.

I thought it was a masterpiece. It was a game where we were able to get things going in a positive direction after the first shift. We had a few miscues and we took a penalty right off the bat, but we were able to regroup and get enough pucks past their goaltenders.

Robby said that he felt that he didn't even touch it. He thought it was there and it went off their player. That's why he was confident, when he came to the bench, that they were going to allow the goal.

Other teams are enjoying more power plays than we are, ... I don't understand how they can call the number of power plays called against us for simple infractions. It's beyond my belief we're as bad as taking ... was it nine?

Our players deserve the credit. They took the responsibility. We got down 3-1, we battled back. We found a way.

Our work ethic was there. We got the opportunity on the power play and took advantage of them.

It does stretch the road trip out because then we go to Ottawa and sit there for two days before we play again, but we felt it was one of those things we should do.

I think he fit in with our hockey club. Tonight we weren't good enough.

I think in these situations, the player tells you what's going on. We understand that it's not ideal. He says his pain tolerance is bearable, and we'll continue to go on. Obviously, it's something he's willing to put aside at this point. You have to support the decision that he makes.

I thought we deserved a better fate, but we didn't get it. There is no use worrying about it. We can't change it.

I thought we did a lot of good things. We're not down but we understand this is the type of game we have to play.

I thought we were in control. Then all of a sudden, we got into a few penalty problems in the third. They had life, but I give our guys credit. We were resilient and stuck with our game plan.

I thought we didn't play 60 minutes, we played about 50 minutes.

We were frustrated by our lack of offensive punch. We had our chances, but didn't finish.

Those are the type of wins that really make you feel good about yourself. We went out there and we earned it.

We have to make sure our players are disciplined to the point, where they can't put themselves or their team in a situation that's going to cost their hockey club goals, momentum, whatever you want to call it.

We have to step up as a group. There are no ifs, ands or buts. We didn't play anywhere near the level required (Tuesday). They won more one-on-one battles than we did. They started with the puck more often. They got inside and they were more physical than we were. We have to match that.

We put a little too much pressure on him by taking too many penalties.

We had lots of energy early. Lots of things went our way.

We had more structure, but our penalty parade took us out of the hockey game. You can't continually give teams the quality of Dallas power plays. They made us pay.

We got beat by a very special player. He did everything he had to do to dominate the game in the goal-scoring department. He's a dominant young player. He's the real deal.

We got down early but found a way to claw back. The one thing that this group has demonstrated all year is resiliency.

We really stayed with our work ethic. Our players seem to enjoy that.

We deserved a better fate, but we didn't get it. My message was that we worked extremely hard and did a lot of good things. We're not going to let this get us down.

We did not compete at our best level. I thought that they wanted it more than we did and they went out and played that way. The bottom line is we have to prepare ourselves for more of a team effort than we got from our group tonight.

We've talked about it. You cannot, cannot - stress cannot - use your stick. It's experience. This is a new area of the game, the way it's being called.

We're doing something other than going out on the ice. We just felt that with our travel schedule and the games that it was getting monotonous, redundant. What we're trying to do is just bring everybody down, regroup and focus. The mental preparation is as big as the physical preparation when you're stepping into this Game 7 scenario.

We played a lot harder tonight than we have in a lot of our games, particularly on the road.

The penalty parade took us out of the game. We can't continue to give a team the quality of Dallas that many power plays. They made us pay for it. ... We took too many. They got momentum from it.

We are playing for positioning. Tonight one shot beat us.

We didn't have a very good start. You get down 2-0, it was one of those games that they were better than we were early, by far.

We didn't have much going other than the fact we scored a couple power play goals. We did not compete at our best level. I thought they wanted it more than we did and they went out and played that way.

We were able to ride it all the way in. Not picture perfect, but effective.

We battled hard - there's too many positives out of this game to get down.

We put ourselves in a position to win. We just have to find ways to close those ones out.

We have to get points out of it. We're playing teams that are all in our conference.

Ultimately, the player makes the decision. The one thing we were adamant about was we didn't want 20 minutes. If it took 100 minutes, we wanted him to commit to 100.

When you lose a shootout, you feel like you've lost the hockey game. We didn't lose the hockey game. We lost a point and they gained a point.

When you lose the shootout, you feel like you lost the hockey game. But we didn't lose the hockey game. We lost a point and they gained a point. That's the reality of it.

The transition for him hasn't been smooth. He's one of those kids who's trying to find his way right now.

Training camp's not fun, especially the first day. It's not supposed to be fun. It's about work. We understand that the players are getting a first opportunity to be put through their paces, and our work ethic and our commitment to conditioning will be very, very hard.

Is it the end of the world? No, they're up 2-1 in the series. The bottom line is we have to prepare ourselves for more of a team effort than we got from our group.

We've got to find ways to win rather than finding ways to lose.

We've got to get more people involved and play four lines. We had our chances, but we didn't get the job done.

You guys have heard it so many times I'm sure you're sick of it.

We've had to battle back. Points are too important now and we've got to find a way to shake ourselves out of those doldrums early.

We are going to have to be first on the puck in a lot of different situations, and this group has not backed away from doing that all year.

We did a lot of good things. I can't be disappointed with our effort, that's for sure.

The officials have set the standard. We cannot be in the penalty box as much as we were (in Game 2).

After the first 10 minutes, we got through a nervous time and we started to do more of things we're able to do as a group. Are you happy that your group competed and got their feet wet. Yeah, you're happy in that sense, but you're not happy with the outcome because we lost the hockey game.

They provide us with the Olympic break and we have to take advantage of it. Our expectation will be for our players to come back fresh and ready.

Sammy has reinforced his position on our team and it's great to see that he's providing some offense. Does he want to be a five-goal scorer? Or a 10-goal scorer? Or a 15- to 20-goal scorer? He's proving he wants to be the latter.

Our execution level was nowhere near where it needed to be,

Our expectations are that we're going to try to play an uptempo game, and our players seem to have responded positively to that.

The result is the biggest negative. Our effort was good, we had chances, but we just didn't bury the puck.

I guess you guys have to show up for the warm-up . . . to see if he's first out. It'll force some of you guys to get up from the press meal.

Anytime you can get points in this building it's a positive. They have a great home record and are undoubtedly one of the best teams in the league.

Their game plan obviously was to go after some of our so-called skill players. The officials have to take control in a situation like this, and they did a very good job.

As a coach, you always ask to make sure you're going into every situation with your best effort, because in the playoffs, it's not a situation where you can just turn it on and off. You want to play well right into them, and continue to keep the ball rolling.

It seems for whatever reason, if we take our free hand off our stick, no matter what happens we got a penalty for it.

It's disturbing. Columbus played yesterday in L.A., and they had more life and jump than we did in the first, probably 25 minutes. We have to find a way to take responsibility for that.

I guess I won't have to wear my down-filled coat and ski mitts, or shovel the driveway.

In playoffs and critical games, specialty teams are usually the difference-maker.

I just felt on a whim that this would be a situation when he would get in there and give us an opportunity to win. It was just a gut feeling of a coach.

By no way, shape or form was I pointing the finger at our goaltender, ... He made the stops, but on the rebounds, our coverage wasn't there.

By no way, shape or form was I pointing the finger at our goaltender. He made the stops, but on the rebounds, our coverage wasn't there.

I didn't think we played very well. For whatever reason, we seemed to struggle with the puck. We didn't react. We were frustrated by our lack of offensive punch. We had some chances, but we didn't have any finish.

He's our guy. He plays major minutes, he's our captain. He plays on all situations on the defensive side and the offensive side of the puck. He makes it look so easy night in and night out. He's very efficient in how he goes about his business.

He's a pro. That's what he's here for...(he's) capable of doing those things.

He's the last guy in the world you want to let shoot the puck from there.

It was just a decision that we felt he was going to give us the best chance for success tonight. We were fortunate to get it done.

It was more of a complete game for our hockey club, and a 'character builder' because of the number of bodies we have out of our lineup,