from ESPN,

What does the word "playoffs" mean to you?

Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks: "Everything's just turned up. Everything's magnified. The physicality goes up. Turnovers are magnified that much more. Your special teams are magnified. Everything's just so much more important. As soon as that first game starts, everything is just geared up. The buildings are more into it. Everything is just jacked up so much more. ... Even going into opposing buildings, it's so exciting. You can just feel the buzz. You can hear, no matter if you're at home or on the road, fans are there in warmup just getting ready. Just the excitement, it makes you excited and makes you eager to go."

Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals: "It's [a] totally different mentally. ... You can say it's a totally different world. You ... don't know how it's going to be. ... [M]entally, it's totally different. Sometimes you just don't know what to expect. Yeah, I love it. I love to be part of it. Obviously, we didn't have success as a team [in] past years, but you play 82 games to be in this position."

many more players respond...