Dainius Zubrus
FameRank: 4

"Dainius Gintas Zubrus" is a Lithuanian professional ice hockey right Winger (ice hockey)/winger and Centre (ice hockey)/center currently playing for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is the first Lithuanian to have played List of NHL players with 1000 games played/1000 games in the National Hockey League.

More Dainius Zubrus on Wikipedia.

Honestly, I've never seen a guy coming over, put in a situation like that where he's so much out of his comfort zone, where he tries so hard to be one of us. He is one of us. He loves being over here. He loves coming to the dressing room, practicing, playing. He loves USA. He loves the country. He loves how things are run here.

I'm not saying we lost because of the referees. We had our chances -- 6-on-4 at the end, excellent chance to score a goal. It was in our hands to tie it up and hopefully win the game later on.

He's going to go home when the season ends and in a couple weeks it's suddenly going to dawn on him what he has accomplished. I told him before the season started that if he had 35, 40 goals, for a rookie that would be great. Look at him now, it's amazing.

We achieved a lot more than people thought we would. Nobody gave us any credit before the season, but if you look back, especially in the second half, I don't think we were a lot of fun to play against. We didn't make the playoffs, but the team's identity is back. We're back to what we used to be, and that's the main thing.

You stand there long enough, sometimes it's going to happen. It was luck more than anything else, for sure.

I went after him because [the rest of the team] had left, and I was just sitting in the parking lot with his dad for 30 minutes waiting for him. I just told him, 'Hey, it's time to go,' and that was that.

The pass was perfect. It was right on the tape and I didn't want to hold it up much.

Hard work, it's almost like our DNA now. We step on the ice, and one thing we're going to do is work hard. It starts from the older guys and works its way down.

We had our chance with a six-on-four at the end to score a goal. It was in our hands to tie it up.