NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WILD v MIGHTY DUCKS

May 16, 2003

Darby Hendrickson

DARBY HENDRICKSON: It was a great feeling. We got a goal, that was a great feeling for us. It was early, especially against their goalie, who has been hot. It was a great feeling on the bench to get that goal on them, but to their credit, they came back and did what they've done all series. We never believed we were out. We wanted to get home and see what happened. Unfortunately, it just didn't happen that way.

DARBY HENDRICKSON: Well, it was a thrill. I watched the first part of the year from the outside and watched this team work extremely hard. I was obviously thrilled and, you know, grateful to get a chance to get in the playoffs and get healthy and play with all these guys who played so hard all year. And as I mentioned, it's always tough to lose your last game, but a lot of players in here played extremely hard and should have their heads up.

DARBY HENDRICKSON: Well, I think, obviously, when you have the right mind-set and when guys have the character and work ethics, and both sides try to believe in the system, anything can happen. This team never quit all year, I mean, even if you take away the playoffs, you look at the times we lost two in a row, and the teams want to get back on track and not lose three in a row, we seemed to do that all year. This series was tough. They played well. I mean, Anaheim, they're very well-coached, it's obvious. They don't -- they just play hard. There is not a lot of talking on their side. They go about their business. They play honest. I think it's very similar to us. They found a way to obviously get it on from the beginning, but this group never quit, and all the examples throughout the year where we haven't quit and we have been, you know, just stuck together, and, you know, those are the things we can build on for the future.