NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

June 9, 2001

Bob Hartley

COACH HARTLEY: It was so huge but thanks to the leadership and thanks to I don't know how many great meetings we had, like we managed to keep it in a way that it won't become a distraction. We couldn't lay it to the public that we were playing for Ray because like hey we just wanted to stay on our plan. In our heart in our mind, like we were playing for Ray. This entire community was pulling for Ray. I think that when you have a Ray Bourque on your team, like the only way that you can judge his value as a player, as a human being is if you have him in your dressing room. Thank God like Pierre made a great trade last year. He brought him in. I will remember coaching Ray Bourque until the day I close my little eyes.

COACH HARTLEY: We never thought like in our dressing room that it would end. We knew that to win the Stanley Cup would be a long and bumpy road. There would be some great times. There would be some tough times. Like you look at the Vancouver round, the L.A., the St. Louis, Jersey, like we played great at times. We played kind of very average at sometimes. Like we played hockey for two months and to be very good for a full two months is quite an accomplishment. You are going to going to have some tough times. Thanks to our guys in our dressing room. We were able to the next morning to sit down as a group, to put either a good or a bad performance behind us and build on the next one. Like those guys are outstanding. That is the best hockey team that I have ever coached. I thank them. They gave me my first Cup.

COACH HARTLEY: Bottom line is that I won the Cup. ( APPLAUSE) that's where it is and no one will be able to take it away from us.

COACH HARTLEY: Alex kind of hit the wall around like Game 4 and it is tough. He is still a young pup. The more he was trying the more he was getting away from our plan, from his plan, from list game and he is such a talented hockey player so sat down with him and you know, we refocused. It was not time to give him the hammer or to put him in the dog house. We needed him. He responded like Alex Tanguay can respond. Such a good fighter, good young man, such a talented young hockey player. You look at this guy he is going to have a brilliant career in the NHL because he is so skilled and he loves competing under pressure. I think that this Stanley Cup run was a great lesson for him because he learned that it's not always going your way and when it is not going your way you have to maybe change a couple of little things, adjust a little part of your game and you can turn it around and Alex did. Like tonight, he was probably our best player out there.

COACH HARTLEY: I don't know, but if you can guarantee me that I will win every one of them I don't mind playing them. It was a long day. It was a long day and certainly the longest third period that I have ever completed.

COACH HARTLEY: He put himself on a mission and in that L.A. series like the real Patrick Roy really stood up and I think that he knew that he had to be very instrumental in helping us win the Stanley Cup. Patrick like game after game kept coming, kept giving us a chance, kept giving us a reason to believe that we would win that Stanley Cup. Hey, like that Conn Smythe, he deserves it. Like he was in my mind he was the only one that could win it. But like 19 other players on the ice, like they did a great job for us. Gosh, I can't tell you how proud I am about my players.

COACH HARTLEY: I was really thinking like a quick rewound in my career and like all the great players, all the players that I coached like since Hawkesbury to the NHL, like my four bosses that gave me the courage to move on, gave me the opportunity to move on, gave me the players in order to give me a chance to win and like I had like a special thought also for my own town. In the past weeks I don't know how many emails, faxes, phone calls that I had and that city must be crazy right now. When I lifted it, I saw it somewhere like in Ontario on the Quebec border, I saw a little city that I am very proud of.

COACH HARTLEY: Joe Sakic is such a fun guy to coach because he always shows up at the rink even after a bad loss or we are on a bad streak, if there is one guy that is loose in the locker room it is Joe Sakic. That's called leadership, experience he is a fine athlete, fine man, he has a great family. Tonight once again, he stepped up his game and like was a big part of this win.

COACH HARTLEY: Like this round like out of this round like gosh I will probably need a full year to analyze this round. But throughout the Playoffs, I think that there's certain key points. I think that one big point like on the ice was certainly in Game 2 against L.A. when I believed Spolinski got a breakaway on our powerplay and Patrick gave as you big save and you remember that flying puck over Patrick that Ray batted off the air, it was right on the goal line. We turned around and Nieminen scored on the powerplay. If L.A. scores on that goal, like maybe we don't come back. Maybe we don't come back. The good part is that we never know and I don't really care. Like that was like I think a big part of our road to the Cup and certainly I think that the momentum swing was our Game 7 win against L.A. that is where I think that everyone developed the confidence that we felt that we needed in order to win that Cup.