NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 9, 2002

Erik Cole

Ron Francis

Sean Hill

RON FRANCIS: All three games were very close. All three games could have gone either way. I expect to see more of the same the rest of the series.

RON FRANCIS: We have to put pressure on ourselves to win. That's all. Find way to get that accomplished. As much as we would have loved to have won that game there's nothing we can do about it. There is something that we can do about tomorrow night's game. There's nothing we can do to change that. There is something we can do about tomorrow night's game. That's where our focus and attention has to be. Get ready and get the fluids in. You get ready do go tomorrow night.

RON FRANCIS: Never concede that, no. Never. I think time to look back is when the series is all done. Right now we're in the thick of the battle, and our focus and attention is on tomorrow night.

RON FRANCIS: I was in that one in Pittsburgh and Washington, that went forever. Obviously a lot more memorable if we had won, but it was obviously a good hockey game, exciting for a lot of people.

RON FRANCIS: Pretty much like this. When the game ends, you try and get as much fluids back into you and the proper rest and proper nutrition.

RON FRANCIS: My age, it wasn't tough at all. I went home and went to sleep. Obviously we didn't get the outcome we wanted. We are disappointed. But when the game is over, the game is over. Nothing we can do to change that at that point. All your focus and attention has to be moved to Monday night, the task at hand. That's where our focus is on now. It's not on Game 3 and what happened there. It's on Game 4 and what we have to do.

RON FRANCIS: Actually I feel pretty good.

RON FRANCIS: Guys have been told numerous times during the season through the Playoffs, world is close to ending. And they have been extremely resilient. They have a lot of character. I expect our guys to respond to the same manner tomorrow night.

SEAN HILL: Yeah. We had our time to talk about it, mourn a bit. Now we're thinking about tomorrow, we're excited. We know if we come out and play a real good tight game tomorrow night, get this thing back to two even and it will be in a good position to be in.

SEAN HILL: Some people thought we just kind of slipped into the Finals. But obviously, in this tournament, that doesn't happen in a 7-game series and all. We knew we could play with Detroit; others didn't think we could. I think, for us, it has been a great series. I don't think --don't see any reason for that to change.

SEAN HILL: We're positive about it because we felt we had a lot of chances to win. We kind of have a bit of a second wind and started to get some more chances. We had several chances of our own, so it's not like we're going to change a whole lot. We just have to put our chances away and you know, very easy could be 2-1 for us right now. Unfortunately, it's not. But we'll have the chance to do something about that tomorrow night.

SEAN HILL: I don't know if I overskated the puck a bit. The refs are part of the playing field action and you know, it was -- it was unfortunate, but it's a tough situation. That's part of the game.

ERIK COLE: If you look at it, it's 2-1 and it takes four wins to get sent home. So obviously would have been nice to win last night, but we are going to come back with a good focus tomorrow.

ERIK COLE: They are both very good defensemen and certainly very capable. It is a battle, and Fischer is a big strong guy and skates well, uses the stick well, makes smart safe plays and Chelios has been in the League forever. So he's always been solid.

ERIK COLE: Surprisingly not too bad. Like I said the training staff does a good job with us post game and the day after and so this morning could have been worse, and I feel okay. Obviously there's some soreness and tiredness that I will go home today and get some rest and come back to the rink ready to go tomorrow.

ERIK COLE: I don't know what happens with other clubs, but for us guys are very committed to keeping themselves in top shape and whatever that takes, whether we need to drive a bag of I.V. to get your water started and then you take care of yourself the rest of the day or guys coming in jumping on the bike to get the acid out of their legs, so guys are real good about it, and it has been the same way all year. I don't think we have been scoring. I don't think that anything special has been happening out there. I don't see them looking for certain matchups against us or anything like that. So I think it is just a matter of us being able to finish off a couple of our opportunities.

ERIK COLE: With Bates and Roddy?

ERIK COLE: Absolutely. We have played together for a long time, and throughout the entire Playoffs, and obviously just because you lose one game it isn't time to jump ship.

ERIK COLE: It comes along with it. Obviously at the time it was the New Jersey/Montreal series, and really in Montreal being in the media and were starting to take notice that we had a pretty good hockey club and just so happened that in that series we got a lot of bounces and a lot of things worked for us, and so we were kind of labeled and people have just been expecting performances like that.