NHL Power Rankings: What does the coach say?

“If you slide a little, you’re in trouble. The most important thing tomorrow is to win the hockey game.” —Michel Therrien

“We’re just waiting. He’s getting evaluated, and when we know more, we’ll let you know.” —Alain Vigneault, on Chris Kreider’s mysterious “upper body” injury

“He gives us a chance every single night.” —Joel Quenneville on Corey Crawford, chased by the Jets Tuesday, snapping an 11-game point streak

“He’s playing inspiring hockey right now.” —Mike Sullivan on Sidney Crosby, who has 13 points in 10 games

“It’s lower body, and we’ll have an update in a couple days.” —John Hynes on Taylor Hall’s hold-your-breath injury

“We need him to play like that if we’re going to be a good team.” —Claude Julien on Tuukka Rask (10-1-0, .945 save percentage)

“We left him on an island in Carolina and no teammate deserves that.” —Barry Trotz, defending backup goalie Philipp Grubauer after a 5-1 loss to the Hurricanes

“It’s unfortunate that he couldn’t come back, because he was helping us before he got hurt, but it is too early to speculate on anything right now.” —Jon Cooper on Steven Stamkos’s scary-looking knee injury

“I am trying to help the athletes be as fresh as they can to play the games.” —John Tortorella on eliminating the game-day morning skate

“Quite honestly, I never got a financial offer from Ottawa, so when I was getting a financial offer from Minnesota it was better than anything I’d ever seen before. It was the hardest decision I had to make in my life.” —Bruce Boudreau, who returned to Ottawa, the city that wanted him to coach

“The parity in the league is so close…. The pre-scouting and video doesn’t lie. People pick up on what teams are trying to do and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Teams come in more prepared.” —Randy Carlyle

“He’s hard on himself. I can only assume that — I don’t speak Finnish — but when he’s talking to himself after he misses a shot he’s very intense about it.” —Paul Maurice on Patrik Laine, the fastest rookie to 12 goals since Evgeni Malkin

“It’s unacceptable…. We gave a lot of free shots, for no reason. We were there defensively. We were in the right places. But we didn’t work hard enough to prevent those shots.” —Guy Boucher, blasting his team after Sunday’s 2-1 OT loss to the Wild

“Their compete level went up another notch and we didn’t go with them.” —Peter DeBoer, after the Cup finalists got shut out by Cam Ward

“It was a funny night…. Sometimes you get the lucky breaks and the lucky bounces. To get four by Carey is not easy to do.” —Gerard Gallant, whose Panthers ended Carey Price’s game-winning streak at 10

“These are hard lessons.” —Ken Hitchcock on scratching 2012 first-overall pick Nail Yakupov

“We need him to be a dominant, dominant centre for us. We think he’s going to be that by Christmastime.” —Mike Babcock on Auston Matthews

“There’s all the confidence in our room that we’re going to get that type of [solid] goaltending.” —Dave Hakstol, whose team has an NHL-low .870 save percentage

“For us to [start winning] there are four, five, six individuals who really have to pick up their game… Eberle, Pouliot, Draisaitl, I can go on and on.” —Todd McLellan

“There’s peaks and valleys to everything. We’ve got to get back to a simple mind set, no question.” —Peter Laviolette, whose club has been more valleys than peaks

“Frustration does nothing. We’ve got to look at the game and we’ve got to say, ‘This is how we’re going to be better.’” —Jeff Blashill

“You have to be realistic. It’s not just me. It’s you [reporters]. Players. Everybody. We’re not the same team. We’re in the middle of the pack, and we’re going to have to fight like hell.” —Darryl Sutter on his injury-depleted lineup

“I just don’t think he’s up to speed yet. He’s close, probably. We’re going to get some guys coming back in, and I think long-term it’s going to be a good thing for us.” —Lindy Ruff on Jason Spezza, who returned from injury Tuesday

“It’s starting to come together.” —Bill Peters, whose team has won consecutive games for the first time this season

“He was awesome. I know he sat the last couple of games and he wasn’t happy with it when his play started to dip.” —Jared Bednar, on defenceman Patrick Wiercioch’s two-point return to the lineup Tuesday

We’re strapped for goals… and it’s not for a lack of effort. Guys are throwing it out there and giving everything they got.” —Dan Bylsma, operating the NHL’s worst offence

“We don’t need talkers. We need doers. We’re looking for doers.” —Dave Tippett

“We have to find a way, and it falls on me.” —Jack Capuano

“It’s basically the fear of failure. It’s Schleprock, right? From The Flintstones. Like, something bad is going to happen every time you take a penalty or whatever, and we’ve gotta get rid of that mindset. We have to prop up. When adversity hits, you have to be at your best, you have to be at your strongest.” —Glen Gulutzan

“The thing that bothers me is losing. [Being fired], I don’t think about. That part I can’t control.” —Willie Desjardins