"You know what happens to guys? There's what I call the individual time of their career, and the team time of their career. This is the team time. You don't care about all the other stuff. You just want to live in one place, and watch your kids grow up and go to the same school. You say, 'Hey, maybe I'd better play well and be a good enough guy that they keep me.'"
"Surreal is an understatement."
"The standard in the league right now, in the worst scenario, is a goalie gives up three goals per game. So the difference is really only one save per game. Where do you find this one extra save? It's a lot of little, little things, but when you put a lot of little things together, it adds up to making the guy better."
"I got a lot of grief from my teammates about that. It might backfire on my mom. Hopefully, my brother will have another chance somewhere down the road."
"We as a society have ridiculously short attention spans. Why does football draw the top TV ratings among North American sports? Well, I'll tell you. They play for eight seconds and then take a rest. One play, eight seconds, and you can go the fridge and get another beer or flick the channel to the golf. In basketball, they drain 100 baskets, nobody has to watch until the last two minutes. There's no drama until right at the end. And yet you never hear much complaining about the product. Down the floor, basket. Instant gratification. Down the floor, basket. Instant gratification. So? That's gripping stuff? I tell you, there's no patience anymore. It's all attention span. It's this 'Please me, please me' mindset of sports fans in North America.
"I heard I have to earn ice time. I thought I earned it. I haven't talked to Bruce (Capitals’ coach Bruce Cassidy). He's in a higher place than me. I don't have a right to go to the coach and say, 'Can I talk to you?' He should go to the players and ask, but maybe he doesn't need us to know. Maybe he knows everything."
"I've been to the Boston Garden, Montreal Forum and the Spectrum in Philadelphia and this one is unreal. It's fascinating. I watched Boston Garden, old arenas and this is the best. It's outdoors, there's 60,000 people. It's nice to see hockey where it came from, outdoors. I've never experienced anything like this before. We're a little cold. Don't care. The adrenaline is just going on, this is better than Ski-Dooing or ice fishing."
"I'm not a psychologist. That's Mike's area. It's not under my control."
"I faked it a bit on that penalty before my goal. I did feel the stick of Dan Boyle on my neck. I touched my neck, I looked up. I saw the referee was watching me. The referee looked at me again and he went for it."
"I'm a person like everybody else. When it comes to decision making, I have to take the emotion out of it. But I don't want to see a great athlete and one of the best in the world not able to play. He's got four kids, I've got four kids. I see those sides the fans don't see. It's a tough business. Sometimes, it's a tough business."
"Sometimes when I make a good save, I yell out, 'Woo-Hooo!' I'm not sure why, but it just feels good. I don't think I scare anyone or freak anyone out when I do it. I just like to holler when I make a tough stop."
More 2003 Hockey Quotes:
Kariya vs. Chelios, Snow vs. Roenick
The Labor War Looms
