NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: AVALANCHE v RED WINGS

May 19, 2002

Bob Hartley

COACH HARTLEY: Like I said yesterday after the game, I feel after two periods, we were playing very well, and we simply didn't get the job done in the third period. They were better than us, but once again, it comes down to our locker room, our experience, our leadership. Our guys have proven in the past that they can face adversity with lots of pride. Like we always find a way to bounce back after a bad effort. That's our plan for tomorrow. We're facing a great hockey club, but we feel we can match very well with them.

COACH HARTLEY: It speaks a lot of their depth. Darren McCarty had a great game for them last night. That's the reason why they're up one-zip. Playoffs is all about making the great plays and McCarty did that for them yesterday.

COACH HARTLEY: We're in the third round, and we feel that we're here because obviously, you know, Forsberg, Sakic and those guys have been great, but, we had great team efforts, and it won't change now. We need everyone, and hopefully we're going to get offensive contribution from everyone on our hockey club.

COACH HARTLEY: He's a great world-class athlete. He's in great shape, and, he -- obviously, I think that like Joe is a great competitor. Certainly in my book he's the best two-way hockey player in the league, great faceoff guy, and yesterday because of a couple of penalties where I had many of my killers in the box, I was forced to use Joe, but that's a situation that he loves. He doesn't mind going out there in shorthanded situations, and that's the reason why his minutes went up all the way to 25.

COACH HARTLEY: Execution is definitely a big part of our game and a big part of their game, and they have injuries, and we have injuries, so, like, it's a matter of, you know, it's going to come down to bearing down on our chances. I felt that that's one of the parts of the game that yesterday they did better than us. They had chances at the right time of the game, and they buried them. On our side, we had chances to go up and give us a little cushion, and unfortunately Hasek came up with a couple good saves. I feel that's where the story was yesterday, but for the upcoming games, you know, it's two great teams, two teams that, once again, we feel that we're very evenly matched and it's going to come down to execution.

COACH HARTLEY: After the first goal, we could have been much better than this. We made three mistake leading to the perfect shot of McCarty. They got their legs. You could feel that swing of momentum that went the Wing's way, and we had to open up, and they took advantage of a 2-on-1 to put the game away.

COACH HARTLEY: He always bounces back very well. That's the way that Patrick has played since he entered the NHL many years ago, but both goalies, I feel they played their game. They're great scorers, there was some great passing plays around the nets. Net plays are very tough to defend for a goalies and both team have excellent skill guys. They found a way to come up with some big saves and that's what everyone is expecting.

COACH HARTLEY: Definitely playing the Wings compared to the Sharks and Kings, there is more room. It seems both teams are taking advantage of their skills and speed, and they're creating some space for each other. That's why, like, I was just talking about some great net plays, some great passing plays, and I think we're going to see lots of great goals scored on both sides. Both teams have, like, good depth and great hockey players.

COACH HARTLEY: Like his numbers are unbelievable, but just his comeback, you know, it's even more than unbelievable what this guy has been able to do like after basically sitting out the full year is simply amazing. The credit has to go to him. Before he played his first game, like, we were saying how hard he had worked in the gym, like, for three or four hours a day. We were expecting a big comeback, but the big question was at that time, like, how good would he be, and I think that, you know, he has proven that he's a world-class player. He's unbelievable, and the plays he has made, like, were simply great.