We were just so happy for him. He's a true professional and somebody we all look up to in the room. To see him have that night for himself ... he's worked so hard. He's a guy who kind of goes under the radar because he's not the flashiest player, but he's so steady and such a big part of our team. To see him have the offensive gift was really nice, and to have his family around was pretty special for him.

Nick Foligno and his Senators teammates were thrilled to see the way Chris Phillips' 1,000th game played out (Claus Andersen/Getty Images).

The whole night gave us a big-time lift. Even before the game, we were so excited to see him play his 1,000th game. Sometimes you've got to draw on emotions like that to help you get momentum. I thought the guys responded real well. We scored the first goal, which was huge — it was something we wanted to do. We never looked back from there and Philly contributed in a huge way. We all tried to step up and I thought Auldy (Alex Auld) had a great game in net. It was nice to see him get a win; he's been working really hard as well. It was solid team effort by everybody and that's the kind of wins we want to get.

We were trying to hard to get Philly a hat trick. It would have been awesome to see that. It would have been so awesome. But I think he was still happy with two goals. It was pretty funny. When he came into (a timeout) and saw us drawing up a play, he said "you better be getting the puck to me." We all started laughing when he said that. I think it broke the nerves a little bit, because it was a close game and we were able to hold on and win it.

This week, we've had the chance to play against a couple of former teammates — Brian Elliott, who's now with St. Louis, and Mike Fisher, who's with Nashville, of course — and it's special when you get to do that. They're guys you wish were still on your team and great players. We were really happy to see both Els and Fish. They're both really good friends of mine and to see them doing well where they are now is nice to see. But when you get on the ice, all bets are off and they become the enemy pretty quick.

Hockey is such a close family and everyone gets to know each other. We met up with Els for dinner the night before we played the Blues and the same thing with Mike. It's just nice to see how they're doing and how their families are. You miss out on that opportunity to talk to them when they're not in the room every day and it's just nice to catch up, see how they're doing and how they're enjoying where they are now. You reminisce and tell old stories, and it's just nice to touch base with them again.