Coming here, I knew quite a few guys who were on the team. When you've been around as long as I have, you get to know players or have played with them.

	Tugnutt has been the main man in net.

From what I saw, I knew the chemistry would be good. I knew we had good people and was very positive that we had people who cared, so we weren't going to, by any means, slack off. As the preseason went on, I realized that we had a lot of speed and toughness -- a good base to start with here.

The first home game was real neat, for lack of a better term. We came out guns blazing, and we were up something like 3-0 in the first period against the Blackhawks.

Then, all of a sudden, I realized early, we were a very fragile team. They scored to make it 3-1, and there was some major concern, and we ended up losing 5-3. These are things we've had to address as the year has gone on. Just because the opposition scores doesn't mean you change the way you play.

We really had to adjust from that standpoint -- that we weren't mentally tough -- and we had to work on that. The older guys in the room have really helped out with that.

I'm older, but I'm a goalie. How do I help out?

First of all, at any given time, I have to make some saves. That's a good place to start -- make some saves to give your team a boost, where they say, "We got away with one, Tug made the save."

Also, I've become a touch more vocal -- not as the game goes on or anything -- and will sit down and talk with people about something I've gained along the way, especially the younger guys, and let them know that certain things will help them and that we've all been there.

Dealing with playing for an expansion team, I don't look at the big picture and look too far down the road. My whole philosophy is that you have to enter every game feeling you can win the game, and there's no reason that anyone should feel they can't win.

I've always said that if the opponent comes in and takes us lightly, that's to our advantage. We have to outwork the opposition every single night. That's the only way we can be successful. For me, it's like, get into the game, say we can win no matter who the opposition is. And that's why we've beaten some good teams.

Going in against real good competition -- that brings out the best in a team like us. I go into those games, sometimes to ease my mind, saying we're going to play well. Sometimes, it doesn't go that well, and they create a lot of scoring chances against but that just means I have to do my job a little bit better.

Hockey in Columbus

Ohio is the Buckeye state, home of the OSU Buckeyes, and they have a football mentality. I like the way they bring that into the hockey rink with the cheers. A few games ago, they brought in the alumni band. I love that. To come into the rink and have them cheering and singing. It's fantastic. They enjoy the game; it's an event for them, not so much just showing up and watching guys play hockey. People come and have a good time, and anyone who has been to a game from outside of this city would agree that we have a great crowd here. -- Ron Tugnutt

We have to compete every night. The nights we don't compete, we get embarrassed. We get beat up on pretty bad. It's an awful feeling, and I want guys to know that every time we feel that, it should make you not want to have that feeling again. In other words, we have to work hard all the time. If we think we can take the short cut, we're going to get embarrassed, and no one likes that.

It can be exhausting, but I was in this situation in Ottawa. As soon as you get the day-in-day out basis of showing up for work, it gets easy. But if you get to a bad time and say "Oh my god, I'm so tired." And then slack off, that's where you take steps backward. If you battle through it and catch that second wind, that's when it becomes more of a routine where you put your skates on and automatically work hard and don't even notice it. That's exactly what we did in Ottawa, and that's why they turned things around.

I can honestly say the first three weeks was no picnic. I didn't expect it to be the way it was for the first three weeks. But I'd say for the last 10 games, I'm very happy with the way we've progressed, and that's the way I expected it to be.