April 16, 2002
On how much his one playoff game at Colorado last season will help him in these playoffs: "To get in there, it felt great. But at the end of that, I wanted to play more, you know? This is my chance now and I have to go out and play. I know I have to do this for the guys. They've played excellent in front of me all year and it's something I want to do for the team and for everyone."
On his ability not to get too rattled: "There are some things that rattle me, obviously, out on the ice, but I'm pretty low-key. I'm pumped up for this. It's not a burden, anything like that. It's all excitement."
On all the criticism and trade rumors he heard this season: "It was tough to handle. I tried to block out as much as I could. Hearing so many things . . . it happens every year to different players, from the forwards to the goaltending. I didn't expect to get that much heat this year, but it was circulating a lot because we weren't winning all the games we should have. We still had one of the best goals-against in the league . . . I don't know, maybe it wasn't good enough the whole year. Down the stretch, it was very big for me to step up my game."
On goaltenders having to take the blame when the team loses: "Whoever thinks that, that's fine. It's my job right now to put other thoughts in their head that the goaltender here is good and hopefully I can stay here for a while. It's a personal goal to show that I can be a goalie in this league and help get some playoff wins in St. Louis."
On his ability to step up in big games in his career: "Especially these last games we played, they've been huge. For us to get a good positioning in the playoffs is great, but now it's another level and everybody picks up their game a ton. It's going to be fun. I'm really excited."
On whether he gets upset when people say the Blues need a playoff-tested goaltender: "Nobody can say anything yet, you know what I mean? If I was to go out there and stink it up, then they can say that. This is my first chance to start in the playoffs and I just want to do my job out there and hopefully we can win."
On whether he's happy with where his game is at: "Definitely. There are still things to work on and there will be for a long while, but right it comes down to the little things, movements in the net, just trying to stay nice and large."
On the value of the Blues' late-season victory over Chicago, after losing each previous meeting this season: "It's huge. That game was huge for us. They seemed to stop our momentum a lot this year and you win that game, it felt really good. It showed we can play St. Louis Blues hockey if we really want to."
On the Blackhawks' firepower: "(Eric) Daze, (Tony) Amonte, (Steve) Sullivan, they're all speedy and good shooters. It's tough, but we have the No. 1 defense in the league and I think we've proven time and time again that we can withstand the firepower from other teams."
On the value of his 2-1 overtime victory at Dallas, which came on the heels of a tough loss at Phoenix: "That sticks out in my mind. That was huge. That's great. That's what it's about. You can go out there and stink the joint up and then come back and get a big win or play really well the next night. That's huge. That brings out a lot in the goaltenders, especially if there are any doubts in anybody's head. Everyone has a bad game. The best goalies in the league have a bad game. It's bound to happen."
"Then, against Detroit here at home, they controlled us all year and then beat them twice in a row, home and home. That was huge for us. The Dallas and Detroit games stick out in my head. Down the stretch, when we needed them, those were huge games."
On the team's late turnaround: "I guess it came down to we needed to win, pure desperation. We wore our hearts on our sleeves. Just out there giving 110 percent every shift."
Back to the Main Page
