More Quotes

Time to share more of the quotes I have, some of which you can read in context in my notebook from today's paper.

First off, the two from Todd Griffith I held because they are in that notebook:

On his play in the postseason: I'm just getting the bounces. My teammates are getting me the puck, and I’m just getting lucky. During the regular season, I struggled a little bit, but things are going my way right now and hopefully they keep going that way for the rest of the playoffs.

On tonight's game: (Today) is huge. Winning (today) gives us a 3-2 edge going back into their rink, and that means we just have to steal one and then it’s all over. (Today) is a big, big game, and I have confidence in our guys.

And now, a lot from Coach Ruskowski:

On Griffith's play in the postseason: He's hot right now. He's a streaky player, so if he gets hot, he gets hot. Right now, he’s hot, so I’m going to keep on playing him as much as I can. He has that knack for scoring goals.

On taking yesterday off: I was watching the guys (Thursday) night, and they looked like they were tired and a little bit slow. I’m just going to give them the day off. We’ll just relax, watch a little game tape and come back (today) for the (morning) skate.

On current injuries: Obviously, (Paul) Elliott, from (Thursday) night's hit, he didn't play the rest of the game. But he says he feels better. There are always going to be aches and pains. My feeling is, if there are 10 or 15 ice guys who have ice bags on, now I know they're playing hard. It's the time that they don't put ice bags on that I don't know if they're playing hard enough.

On Elliott's status: It's questionable. It's questionable if he can play or not. We'll find out later (Friday) or (Saturday) morning.

On the chances of a new player being in the lineup tonight: Maybe. And maybe not. We just have to feel it out. We'll find out how Elliott feels; there's no sense in bringing a kid in here who's not going to play, bringing him in here just to sit the bench. We may fly him into Allen to meet us there if he can play to give us a little more strength in that area up there. But it's pretty hard to fly and play the same day. It's really tough. Obviously, we had to do it this year because we were short players, but we have enough players right now. It's a luxury even having 19 players; I never had that this year. We'll just play it by ear.

On what improved in Game 4: The thing is what we did is that we lost some battles, we won some battles, but we were in better position to, if they did win, to compensate their powers. We were just in a better position that way, which was good. But I can't believe how many shots these guys block. It's absolutely incredible. I just don't see a puck gets to the net because there are like three, four guys blocking shots. They're incredible. I've never seen a team block as many shots as this team. They do a good job, a really good job.

On what still needs to improve: My feeling is we have to be a little more physical. Not dirty hits, but finishing our checks – we have to do that better. And, in their zone, we have to play a little better defense. That's my thinking on how we need to improve our game. And having patience with the puck, making positive, good plays.

On being in the team's current position: I am impressed, I really am. All the adversity that we went through with injuries, guys getting called up and staying up, guys going to Europe, guys actually quitting because they wanted to play closer to home; the adversity these guys played through, it was absolutely amazing. And how we got as far as we've gotten, it's really a show of character on their behalf. They willed it, they played hard enough to do what they had to do to make the playoffs, and here we are, tied 2-2 with a great hockey team in Allen. We're very fortunate and blessed to be in the situation we're in. I thank God for it, to tell you the truth.

On what it would mean to win the series: I would love to see us win, obviously, because I just want to win. But for all the adversity these guys went through, it would be a huge jolt of adrenaline rush for them to know that if you play hard through the adversity they went through, you still can come up to win. It would be a tremendous, tremendous boost for their morale knowing that they played hard and if you do good things and play hard, good things will happen for you. It's a long road to get to that place, though, against this team.

On who will start in goal tonight: Pelletier played so well (Thursday) there’s no way I can not play him.

On the keys to winning tonight: Again, power play and penalty killing are going to be a huge factor. Us being more physical, passing better - if we pass well, we play well, and that's something we had to do better (Thursday) night; we weren't a very good passing team again. I don't know if it just wasn't on, or if they weren't giving us a whole lot of alley ways to pass through.

On the importance of tonight's game: This is obviously the biggest game of the year. When I say big, I mean gigantic. It’s not the seventh game, but it’s like the seventh game because this is a huge game for us. If we can win this one, if the good Lord blesses us and we can win this fifth game, the pressure’s back on them. We'd have to go in there, and just win one out of two games there. I know it's not an easy task, but hopefully we can pull it off.

On what a 3-2 series lead would mean: It puts a whole lot more pressure and stress on them than on us. Obviously they have home-ice advantage, and they played the way they did all season long to get that advantage. But it’s a very different scenario to be up 3-2 than it is to be down 3-2. Either they have two chances to win at home, or we have two chances to beat them in their own building. It's a different feeling, a little more pressure and stress on them because it's a must-win every game. For us, obviously it's a must-win, too, but the second game is more of a must-win for us if we don't lose the fifth game. But, again, it's a long road home because this Allen team is good. Very, very good.