We weren't in a good rhythm, not like we should have been, but Van Buren's a scrappy team and they played well. Shepard pitched her heart out.

The other team is always going to make a run. The key to being a heavyweight champion is to fight back and stand up against the punches.

Van-Far has a nice team and Smith is a really good player. We were down only five at the half, but we just didn't come back out of the dressing room the way we would have liked.

To me, it doesn't matter if I have a 'C' or not. If the team is going to do good, I'm going to get a bigger reward than other guys on the team. But if the team's going to do bad, I'm going to be blamed… Everyone leads differently. There's not going to be another Mark Messier. I had the 'C' in Pittsburgh for five years and I had no problem with that. But it's kind of different now.

Lance has really played well lately and continues to step up big. We are still a young team, but I feel like we will be able to surprise some people. Now we have to get ready to make the long trip to San Antonio and will have to be mentally tough to win on the road.

Believe it or not, yeah. They?re big and athletic and they?re very physical.