Curtis Joseph

Well, there's two ways this conversation could have went.

It could have been...

The next guy stepping in, who's it going to be?

Or it could have been he played flawless.

He really played great, which, you know, for the season that he's had, I know the team isn't very good, but Benner's a gamer, it looks like.

You know, he's been there.

He played great today.

One thing that stood out to me is how he handled the puck and how confident he was with the puck, which really helps minimize your end zone time.

Well, you want to play.

You want to be the guy.

And he's come in limping, so to speak, which is tough.

But it seems like if you tell Benner he can't do it or he's not the guy, then he rises to the occasion, which is...

We had a little talk, I was in St.

Louis not too long ago, we had a little talk about mental strategy, and he obviously came through in the clutch.

Of course, you want to play, and Noodles, you know this, you're the guy beside you, the other goalie wants to play, and when you're in this situation, everybody's good.

You know, I had Patrick Waugh, I had Marty Berder, and Eddie Belfort, some

great competitors there's no chinks in the armor with those guys so um yeah you got to be at your best and you got to be ready to go and um i think you replace the um uh the pressure with excitement you know you can feel the pressure or you can be excited that you're in that position

Well, he just showed that it's possible.

The one thing that I was looking for was whether the bad habits creeped into his game.

And Noodles, you'll know this being a goalie is when you play in a not so great team, you tend to cheat in areas and then get beat short side.