LaBarbera quotes

I asked Jason LaBarbera about Marc Crawford's quote yesterday, in which Crawford indicated that LaBarbera fares better with regular work. LaBarbera said he agreed...

``Yeah, absolutely,'' LaBarbera said. ``My whole life, I've always been like that. I've always been kind of a creature of habit. Once I get comfortable and in a routine, that's when I'm at my best. I've been a No. 1 goalie my whole entire life, so I'm used to playing and I like playing. The more you sit out, the more you have to sit on the bench and think about it. The more you play, the less you think, and that makes it a lot easier.''

LaBarbera was asked about playing Dallas, a team that has had the Kings' number for more than a year now...

``They're obviously well coached,'' LaBarbera said. ``A lot of them have played together for the last few years and know each other pretty well. We just need to worry about ourselves. That's the biggest thing. We just have to feel good about what we've done in the last week and go from there. You can't really look at the past. Dallas has had our number a bit, but the past is the past. We're playing a lot better than we did earlier in the year, so that's all we can focus on.''

Then...the subject of LaBarbera sweating. Yes, sweating. It came up as part of a discussion about his gloves. LaBarbera said he needs to change his gloves after every period, because he sweats a lot and squirts a lot of water on himself, and the new jerseys cause the water to run down into his gloves. It's a fault with the new jerseys that several players league-wide have pointed out.

``I can feel it dripping into my gloves and it makes my hands all wrinkly,'' LaBarbera said. ``I think (the new jerseys) are lighter, but for me, because I soak up so much water and I spray so much water on my face, I sweat a lot. I have to really prepare for that, as far as cramping and stuff. The water drips into my gloves so much that it gets slippery and I have to change my gloves after every period. The hardest part is playing pucks, I think, because your hands slip around on your stick. I probably don't shoot the puck toward the end of the period as I would at the beginning.''