"Robbie told me not to think anymore. Thinking doesn't really accomplish anything, it just gets in the way."
- Bruins' goaltender Steve Shields explains the advice from his coach.
"I don't like it and I'm ticked off. If the team wasn't winning or I wasn't doing my job, I would have no problem with this. I've done nothing but work my butt off for this team. They said I wasn't being punished, but it sure does feel like punishment to me. I'm not the type of player who is happy just to be here and collect a paycheck."
- New Jersey Devils' rookie Mike Danton, after being scratched for a game in October. A few weeks later Danton was suspended for refusing a minor league assignment.
"They don't play hockey because I don't believe in helmets. I think helmets are extremely dangerous. They have never designed one specifically for a child. They are too big and too cumbersome. Kids perceive they are protected and they are not. Everyone thinks it is common sense that they're good, but they're not."
- Retired NHL player Derek Sanderson won't let his kids near the rink.
"It was always the No. 1 question whenever we talked to people. They'd ask, 'When are you going to do a sequel?' I was sure that someday, it would come to fruition."
"Come to where?"
"Fruition."
- Steve Carlson and his on-screen brother Dave Hanson discuss the release of the film "Slap Shot 2: Breaking The Ice."
"We know how much fans enjoy a good brawl, so we are going to guarantee a fight. If there is not a single five-minute fighting major given to a player, every fan in attendance will receive a free ticket to the following home game."
- The Houston Aeros website, promoting two "Guaranteed Fight Nights." The promotion was cancelled when the American hockey League threatened the team with a "hefty fine."
"There is a process to explain. But this building allows us to create an environment where the business person knows that from 6 in the evening until he says goodbye to his client, it's a good atmosphere to conduct business. We can't control wins and losses, but we can create a great atmosphere. That is the challenge - to get our sales in business up to the usual level (of other NHL clubs), to 60-40 or even 75-25. Right now, we're not even above 50 per cent in business-based attendance."
- Nashville Predators' president Jack Diller reaches out to the passionate hockey fan.
"It's kind of hard to accept. My goodness, I guess my turn is coming very shortly, too. That's the only way I can look at it."
"He used to kid me a lot that I couldn't see out of my left eye because, of course, Woody was on the left side. That was all said jokingly. Then Bobby would say, 'I thought it was the right side you couldn't see out of.' But, for a guy that couldn't see, we did all right. When I join them, Woody's going to say, 'Milt you still can't see out of your left side.'"
- Milt Schmidt remembers Woody Dumart, who died in october. In the 1930s and '40s, Schmidt, Dumart and Bob Bauer were the Boston Bruins' "Kraut Line." Schmidt, 83, is the last survivor of the trio.
"I've smelled enough sweat. After 61 years, I'm going to give it up. I don't want to stay here till I'm 100. That's too long."
- 91-year-old Wally Crossman, on his retirement day. Crossman joined the Red Wings as a locker room assistant in 1940.
I love Canada, with the hockey games and the f***in' spirit -- everybody gets so f***in' into it.
- Neil Young, quoted in the newly published biography, "Shakey," by Jimmy McDonough.
"I think the world is hockey mad. There is more to life than hockey."
- Letter to the Editor, Toronto Sun.
