Ron Wilson Team Quotations

What I'm proud about, 5-on-5, when it mattered most, they couldn't get anything going. They did not score one even-strength goal in (their) building and they were the best home team in the league. That has to be a real confidence boost for our team, especially our defense.

We've got to make sure we're focused and on-board with our penalty kill because we're playing a team right now that takes a lot of penalties and manages to get a lot of power plays.

He's going to be a stud. You can just see it. He's excited to be at the rink every day. He does everything at the fastest tempo that he possibly can and God does he pound the puck. He's leading our team in shots in the preseason by a wide margin. It isn't like he's Bobby Orr leading the attack, he gets it at the point, he pounds it and he hits the net. Good things happen when you are doing that.

We need a complete team effort in order to beat a team like Detroit, especially here and we didn't get it. We'll just throw it away and move on to the next game. If you're going to have one of these games on the road trip, I'd sooner have it against Detroit than somebody else.

You just never know what a preseason means. Is it an illusion or reality? I truly believe we're a good team and I think if we've gotten anything out of the preseason, it's the process you go about, and winning will take care of itself. Our players understand that and they're focused on doing things right.

We're a team that's pretty resilient. We showed that this year, and now, I mean, I would've loved to have won both games in Nashville. We've got to try and get a split.

We thought they might be a little weary, especially this time of year, and psychologically they can go up or down. You want to jump a team like that as quickly as you can, and we had a lot of energy.

We're very aware, we've got a chart up. I try to make everyone on the team aware of where we stand and what we have to do to make the playoffs.

We've had now for us kind of turning points where we could have put the other team down two halfway through the game and we just missed. At some point something bad happens and we don't really seem to respond.

They scored first but I didn't see the team flinch. We were ready to play from the beginning of the game.

Darryl can say all he wants that it has no impact on him, but there will be some emotional ties. I know how I felt the year, two years after every time we played against Anaheim (a team that let Wilson go as coach). I wanted to beat them bad. You're always going to think about being let go.

They did not score one even-strength goal against us in this building, and they were the best home team in the league this year. That's a real confidence-booster for our whole team, and in particular our defense.

They were tight, and squeezing the sticks as they were, we were able to take advantage of it. When you get on a roll like this, you go storming into the playoffs. ... That team we played tonight is totally drained because they're surrounded by a negative atmosphere, and it's sliding all the way down the (roster).

They were tight and squeezing the sticks. That team is totally drained because they're surrounded by a negative atmosphere.

There's a buzz around our team in the locker room.

This was the opposite of the last game. They had five guys missing, and tonight it looked like we did, too. Five or six guys missing. You need a complete team effort to beat a team like Detroit, especially here, and we didn't get it. So we'll just throw it away and move on the next one.