NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAPLE LEAFS v HURRICANES

May 21, 2002

Ron Francis

RON FRANCIS: I thought he made a great play in the winning goal in moving the puck up real quick. I have to look at the tape, but it looked like they were trying to change and he did a great job of moving it up and sort of generated everything from there. Like I said, it was very tight. There was not much room up there. With three games now, they have all been 2-1. You just hope that you get the break that gives you the victory.

RON FRANCIS: I looked up and I think we caught them in the change with them standing still and I thought, well, let me try something. Quite honestly, I lost it and kicked it back up to my skates, and I saw Sami and I went to pass it to him; and I hit the guys stick and it came back to my feet and I tried kicking it to him. Fortunately, O'Neill was there to get the shot. It wasn't exactly picture perfect, but you talk about breaks and needing them at this time of year and this was one for us.

RON FRANCIS: Well, let's hope things don't change.

RON FRANCIS: We have a great relationship. We are both from the same hometown. Really didn't know each other until I got to Carolina. He's the kind of guy that likes to deflect praise to a lot of different guys in our locker room, but certainly, sooner or later, people are going to notice the kind of job he's doing. He's done an excellent job for us all season long and is going to continue to do that in the playoffs.

RON FRANCIS: Well, for me, it's easy. I've got a lot of great guys around me, like Rod Brind'Amour, Sean Hill, just to name a few quick guys, and all of the young guys are extremely young, good-character guys. There is not a guy that doesn't work hard. They understand what it takes and they come and work hard every night. That's all you can ask.

RON FRANCIS: I think we have prepared ourselves well all season long. We've talked right from day one about being able to handle adversity and being able to handle success and maintain that even keel. I think our guys have done an excellent job to this point and I really don't see that changing.