126 Quotes by Ken Holland

Even though they're older players, if they can play like they did two years ago, they're going to help us a lot.

Coming into the new cap world, it seemed like it was the right time to change, to bring in a coach who had new ideas, ... wasn't similar to Dave Lewis (in style). Players had to win this new coach over.

Cory is a real good person and he'll be good for our team chemistry. It's an opportunity for Cory. I can't tell you whether he'll be the sixth, or seventh or eighth defenseman, I can't tell you. That'll be decided over the next 20 games.

I stayed in touch for two reasons. If we didn't have Pavel, I wanted to make sure we had open communication for next year to get him back then. At the same time, I was also told by Gary that even though Pavel had signed a contract in Russia, his first desire was to be in Detroit. They were never saying it's a done deal.

I spoke to Pavel this morning. It's all confirmed. He's coming back. We certainly feel like we've won the lottery.

I've called his cell number, the hotel. ... I've not gotten a hold of him.

The rollback allowed us to keep more of our nucleus.

Ten days ago it was looking like we would have to go without Pavel. All of a sudden to hear he's going to be here, again, it's a great addition.

This is a big stretch for us. We saw what happened to San Jose last year when they got off to a slow start and what happened to Dallas two years ago. The Western Conference is so close that if you get too far behind the pack ...