We're not going to sit there and brood over it by any means. We made a substantial offer and did tie up a considerable amount of money. We had another plan should that not work out and we feel extremely comfortable with our defense right now.

Vladimir told me he was going to retire and then his representative asked that he be allowed to have some time off to go home. I told him it was not in the best interest of the club for him to do that.

I think we had been as focused as you can get from any group for a substantial period of time. The schedule is demanding, but you can't ever use these things as an excuse. We got a little bit away from the basics and when you play a little tired, whether it's mentally or physically, you can't get away from what makes your game go. When you do that, you make mistakes.

First of all, they needed two days off. Whether it be physically or mentally, I don't know which was more beneficial. Even though it was tough to take two days off, sometimes you do that.

That's something that we believe in our organization. We want every player who ends up with us to be part of us, no matter who it is.

We talked about a lot of things over a period of time. It was just he and I.