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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LIGHTNING v RANGERSMay 26, 2015Jon CooperTAMPA, FLORIDA: Game Six Q. Cedric Paquette, any sort of status update on him? COACH COOPER: Lineup questions are pointless at this juncture. We're way too deep. Optional skate. Q. He came off early? COACH COOPER: I didn't even see it. I didn't watch. So you're asking questions I didn't even see. I don't know. Q. So you're saying you have no idea? COACH COOPER: Zero. You have to ask the head coach that. You know, he's questionable in your terms, very questionable. Q. Would you talk about the value of having a guy like Rick Bowness on the bench with you for these games as you get deeper into the playoffs? COACH COOPER: Well, I think I answered this question a couple times already in the playoffs, so there's got to be a transcript of me saying how valuable he is to me. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH COOPER: Okay, we'll be good. Q. Can you talk about what you're seeing in terms of Steven Stamkos and his will? It seems when he steps on the ice, he just has that burning desire to want to win this whole thing, and he's doing all those little things. Obviously he's getting the goals now, but can you talk about the little things that maybe guys that are experiencing this for the first time can feed off? COACH COOPER: I think the one thing you have to look at Stammer is how he merged and kind of did a little struggle and emerged. Early on in the playoffs where he wasn't‑‑ I think the pucks weren't going in the net for him, and he didn't have his, I guess, mojo or offensively he found a way. And I think there wasn't tail between the legs, there wasn't head down. Frustration, yes, but you want that probably in a player that he wants to succeed, but he struggled and fought his way through it to where he is now. We may have got through the Detroit series without him having to go produce much offensively, but for us to keep advancing, we need Stammer to produce, and he just keeps finding a way as this series goes on. So somebody young coming up looking at that, there is a perfect example of sometimes things aren't going to go your way, so what are you going to do about it? Like how are you going to come through this, and he's found a way. Q. When we come to the rink one win away from the Stanley Cup Final this morning, what is on your mind? COACH COOPER: It's, I don't know‑‑ really not thinking about beyond tonight. As the series goes on, you have to plan for a seven‑game series, so this part of you that is just planning because it's not a given you're going to win tonight, and you have to plan this all the way through. So you kind of have to step out and say what are our travel plans? Well, we had to do that in all our series. It's weird how it's our third series and we've advanced to this Game 6 in different ways, one with our back against the wall having to win this game at home and going to a Game 7. The next one being up three, giving up two, and now having to come back on your heels a little bit; and in this one, tied series, we get the fifth one, and now we have a chance to knock them out. So we've kind of approached these, we've kind of lived these different battles. I think one thing I know, I don't take anything for granted. Every game becomes our most important game of the year, and that's how we have to treat this. We can't just sit here and say we played a pretty good game in Game 5, that'll just carry us into a win tonight. If we don't play better than we did in Game 5, we won't win tonight. That's kind of my message. And my feeling for me is it's excitement, nervousness, fear, anticipation, like I can whip through a bunch of things. It's really an exciting time. But as we go through this, you just can't get ‑‑ you can't let yourself get too high and you can't let yourself get too low at this point. You have to go out and prepare your guys as much as possible, and I think our coaching staff has done a good job with that. Q. Having Brenden Morrow in the lineup in the regular season is obviously important, but come playoff time and these kind of games, does he sort of earn his pay, so to speak? COACH COOPER: Well, I think if we look back, and I think we signed him July 5th or something like that, and it was for this reason. Mo's been one of those guys that he had a different role in his career playing for Dallas and how he's moved. He was playing a couple teams lately, probably those teams pulling him in for the same reason we did. We know he can still be an effective player on the ice. What he brings in the room, his experience both in the regular season and the playoffs, his leadership, and everything that we wanted him for, he's delivered and he's delivering at the biggest time. And it may not show up on the score sheet, but people even ask questions about who your unsung hero is, and he would be one of them for us. He's probably not going to find his face on the front page of the paper, but he has done so many things for us that have helped us get here, hence why he's still playing the minutes and being effective for us, and I think a big part of why we're winning. Maybe those lines aren't scoring, but they're being effective for us in other ways. I tell you, when Morrow's on the ice, the defensive pair that's on the ice with him definitely knows he's on the ice, and that's a good thing. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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