We've just gone through one of the most popular times of the season with the NHL's trade deadline, so with that in mind we're going to meander off the normal week in review path.
Each Friday there are normally two or three "quotables", but this time around we're going to dedicate 100% of the blog to looking at who said what following the trade action... along with a few others that were worth repeating.
LECLAIRE ON BEING OTTAWA'S TRUE #1
"I just want to come in and help," Pascal Leclaire said in a conference call Wednesday afternoon after being dealt from Columbus for Antoine Vermette, as relayed via the Ottawa Citizen. "I don't come in as the saviour or anything like that. Hockey is a 20-player thing. I'm just excited to be part of that group."
LECLAIRE ON STEVE MASON
"He is going to be a great goalie," Leclaire said. "He's got everything to succeed. He has skill, but he also has the mental makeup. He doesn't get rattled by anything. I see no reason why he won't be one of the good ones."
CARCILLO ON JOKINEN
"He deserves a good team," Daniel Carcillo said of former teammate Olli Jokinen in today's Calgary Herald after Jokinen was dealt to the Flames and Carcillo himself was traded to Philly. "He's a great player. A great guy. I've got nothing but good things to say about him."
Carcillo tried to put to rest the mounting gossip that Jokinen isn't a good team guy, that he's a cancer, that he's too hard on young players.
"He's tough on everyone," he said. "But he's not particularly tough on first-year guys or second-year guys or third-year guys. He's a good guy. I got along with him great --everybody did."
CARCILLO, ON GOING TO PHILLY
"Obviously, I'm happy to be a Flyer -- my favourite team," said Carcillo in that same Calgary Herald article on Jokinen. "It's kind of surreal. I always loved them growing up.
''Even while living in Toronto, it always attracted me, their style of play. How rough and tough they were, obviously. My dad liked how they played . . . and I never really took to the(Toronto Maple)Leafs. I just loved the way the Flyers were banging and fighting and scoring and winning."
Carcillo debuted on a line with Daniel Briere, although Briere has apparently tweaked his groin again. Seriously. No word on how serious it is or how much time he could miss.
AVERY ON AVERY
"How would I assess [my play]?" Sean Avery asked himself rhetorically in a media scrum last night after his return @NYI in a 4-2 win, as noted in today's New York Post. "I would assess it with two points."
COLE, ON BEING DEALT
"I'm a little surprised by it, for sure, given where we are in the standings and what kind of situation we were in," Erik Cole noted in the Edmonton Sun, adding he wishes he could have made himself a lot harder to trade. "I'm a little disappointed that things didn't work out here the way I'd envisioned or I'd hoped, but at the end of the day they needed to make sure they're looking after their assets."
TAMBELLINI, ON WHY HE MADE THE MOVES
"I wasn't going to move Erik unless I thought there was something for now and for the future and that's the way it turned out to be," said Oilers GM Steve Tambellini in the Edmonton Sun, who believes he hit both targets with his complicated 11th-hour deal.
"We have a young skilled player in his mid-20s (Patrick O'Sullivan), who fits in with the age group we have here, and a veteran player (Ales Kotalik) who's proven he can play and is strong. We're well-equipped for now and for later."
ERIC STAAL, ON BEING ONE HAPPY CAMPER "We developed a pretty good chemistry over the past couple of years," Carolina centre Staal relayed to the News & Observer on getting Cole back on his right side, while Tuomo Ruutu will round out the line. "It's a speed game with him and kind of opens up the ice. ... He brings that powerful stride where he can catch a [defenseman] and go wide and take it to the net.
"That speed element really backs off teams. We're going to bring that speed to the game, and that fire, and hopefully create a lot of offense and help our team win some games."
KOTALIK ON HEMSKY
"We have chemistry off the ice, that's for sure," Ales Kotalik said in the Edmonton Journal of former Czech Republic Olympic linemate and new Oilers teammate Ales Hemsky. "We've been friends for a long time. He's one of the best players in the league and I'm excited to get a chance to play with him."
HEMSKY ON KOTALIK
"I have known him for a little while," said Hemsky in the Journal. "We've been good buddies for a long time.
"He has a great shot, he's strong, a smart player. We can use him in a lot of areas -- five-on-five, power play. Hopefully, we will click. It's not like he will jump in and we will have magic (right away) but, hopefully, we can do something."
GERBER, ON THE ROLLER COASTER RIDE
"They were surprising and emotional," said Martin Gerber in an Associated Press article, describing the previous 24 hours. "We talk about it with my family -- it might be it for us over here. And then finding out that a team wants you to play. It's a great feeling."
SHERO ON BILLY GUERIN
"I think we have the players he can play with and support to give him, and, likewise, he's going to do the same for us and give us the veteran presence, the size and the shot to make our other players better," Penguins general manager Ray Shero told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
RECCHI, ON THE 2006 CANES' COMPARISONS
"Carolina was in first place, we're in first place," said Mark Recchi after being dealt to Boston from Tampa Bay this week, drawing comparisons with his deadline day arrival in Carolina several years ago before going on to win the Stanley Cup.
"Carolina was kind of hovering, the same type of thing that's going on right now here. Kind of like the dog days right now, but eventually we found a way to get out of it and that's what I look for in this team."
JORDAN STAAL, ON BEING ANXIOUS
"This is really my first year I was worried that I might get traded," Jordan Staal admitted to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette yesterday. GM Ray Shero made it clear right before the trade deadline though that despite interest from other teams, Staal was considered one of Pittsburgh's untouchables.
TALLON ON PAHLSSON
''A fruitful day,'' general manager Dale Tallon said in the Chicago Sun-Times after acquiring centre Samuel Pahlsson for defender James Wisniewski. ''We addressed a need for us to go deeper into the season.''
Pahlsson hasn't played since the end of January because of mono, which is apparently this year's version of what the high-ankle sprain was in last year's NHL, but he should be ready to go within a few weeks.
LUNDQVIST ON HIS NEW COACH
"The way he talks to us, you feel confidence because he gives confidence," Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist told the New York Post after last night's 4-2 win over the Isles, which featured a second intermission pep talk to the team from John Tortorella.
Lundqvist, from another Post article this week...
"It's such a different feeling. There is so much more jump out there and you can see the guys are having fun playing. I have a good feeling. If you go back two weeks, it was far from the way it should be."
The Swedish goalie has given up a total of six goals in four starts under Tortorella with a 2-1-1 record and a .940 SV%.
RED WINGS ON JONATHAN ERICSSON
"He's 6-5, he moves the puck, he skates good, he's brave,'' Detroit head coach Mike Babcock marvelled to Michigan Live after the team called up prized defensive prospect Jonathan Ericsson for his NHL debut. "Did I mention he's 6-5?''
Captain Nicklas Lidstrom (who has won the Norris Trophy in six of the past seven seasons and knows a thing or two about blueline duty) said of his fellow Swede: "Just his size and the way he can handle the puck and shoot the puck is going to help our team. He knows the system and that really helps.''
