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He's one of the worst practice players I've played with. He rests and when the game comes, he flips the switch on. He plays a dominant physical style, so I think he just relaxes in practice and as a veteran player, I admire that.
--
Jeff Friesen, interview in Canadian Press (November 1, 2006) "The great debate rages on - Ovechkin vs. Phaneuf: Which one has greater impact for their team?", The Record (Kitchner, Ontario, Canada), p. E1.

 

Alexander Ovechkin

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"People say he is a great player, but you have to define what a great player is. For me, it is a player who has a bottom level that means his worst performance is not noticed. If he is having a bad game, a teammate might feel Paul Scholes is not quite on his game, but a spectator wouldn't notice. Scholes, of all the players I have played with, has the highest bottom level. He has an eye for a pass, for what the play or the game needs at that precise moment, that I have never seen anyone else have. These days he doesn't get into the box too many times, which is where you can see his age, but he has developed tactically. He controls and distributes the play and the game better than anyone I have ever seen."

 

Paul Scholes

 

The life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated — without haste, but without remorse.

 

Thomas Henry Huxley

 

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Frank Lampard

 

Practice, practice, practice. Practice until you get a guitar welt on your chest...if it makes you feel good, don't stop until you see the blood from your fingers. Then you'll know you're on to something!

 

Ted Nugent

 

Once I step on the field, by the things I do in practice and the way I practice, you can't tell that I don't love the game. But I just know it deep down.

 

Terrell Owens