What the players talk about. (Straight Shooter).

Before every game, we talk about our assignments, our responsibilities and positionally where we need to be. On every team I've played on, our strategies on special teams--power play and penalty killing--have always been addressed before games. Basically, we talk about what needs to be done and the tendencies of the other team.

Between periods, what we say can vary. After the second period of the Blues game (trailing 3-1, on February 13, before winning 4-3 in OT), we didn't necessarily say, "We're going to come back from three goals down." The biggest thing we said was in the previous two games against the Wild, which were both losses, we had gotten away from playing the way we play. We were still in those games, but because we didn't stay with our system and our philosophy, we ended up losing--and not scoring a goal.

We said we were going to make the Blues work 60 minutes to earn their win. Because of that, we allowed ourselves a chance. That's the way our team is built--we stay in the fight and grit out wins. Sometimes it's not pretty, but we get it done.

Between games, we talk about wins or losses. And if we've won, it's a great feeling, and the game is fun. Everyone comes to the rink with a smile. When we lose, it seems like a lot ...