He brings a lot of respect to our team. I think other teams are going to have to back off a little bit more, and then the combination of him and Patty on our power play is going to be great.

It was a missed opportunity. We put a lot of pressure on him, there was a lot of commotion, but we couldn't get our sticks on rebounds and the puck seemed to bounce the other way.

It was an important game and we lost. We worked hard, but there were a couple of bounces on a few shots that I wouldn't say were strong goals -- they were weak goals -- but we can't let that get us down. We have to come back Tuesday night (against Anaheim in San Jose), and it's going to be even more important.

It's been a long time waiting for this. Obviously, last year's lockout was tough on everybody. You tend to get sick of the shinny hockey twice a week. It's nice to finally get through the exhibition season and get under way.

It seems to be the pattern out here in the West. A lot of teams play really the way we played a couple years ago. It should be a system we're familiar looking at so we just have to match the work ethic.

They have great fans who really get behind them. I'm sure they're more confident at home. But I'm not a big believer of that in the playoffs. I don't really care where we are or what's going on. When the puck drops you play. (Today) is obviously important for us to get back on track.

At times we worked hard, we had some individuals working hard, but we also had some passengers. We can't have that at this time of the year.

It was a little bit of a transition year for me learning how to play Ron Wilson-style hockey. It's different than anything I was ever used to. It's a lot of hard work, but I think I got a handle on it by the end of the year. This year I'm looking forward to a great start.

We had the heart and we knew that we could beat them. We showed that in the fourth quarter like that they had that 10-point lead to start the second half. We knew that if we just kept working at it that we could beat them and we almost did. It's just a really tough loss.

We miss him. But we all know he's got to get healthy, especially in his capacity and make sure he's really fresh when he gets back.