NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

June 4, 2001

Bob Hartley

COACH HARTLEY: Certainly in the first period we made some bad decisions that turned out on outnumbered situations. Obviously that kind of cost us. I thought that we were skating well. Our legs were moving very well. We had good speed. We were generating some good speed and we had support from defensemen and either like they were getting caught or we were not backing them off, but that first period was real tough. We got caught on some odd man rushes. There is no reason for this.

COACH HARTLEY: Like I said before, there is absolutely no way that Peter Forsberg can be in the lineup.

COACH HARTLEY: With Elias and Sykora, like we feel very comfortable of going toe to toe. I think that like I said in the past games, I think that the credit has to go to both teams with their defensemen. I think that like you look at the 12 defensemen in this round, they are doing an outstanding job and obviously there's not too much room out there. I felt that we generated some good scoring chances and like that's the matchup that we wanted.

COACH HARTLEY: Hey like we are going on the road and you guys just have to look at our road record. We are in a situation where we have to win two games in a row. One game on the road. One game at home. I think that we proved in the past that we can do this. Tomorrow there will be a good day off for everybody, a chance to refuel refocus, we are going to have a good short practice and we are going to be flying with to New Jersey on a mission. Everything is according to plan, obviously it is a big loss tonight. It's a very disappointing loss, but now there's no sense looking back. We have to look up front and we know what we have to do in Jersey.

COACH HARTLEY: Like I said for a reason that I can't explain like we got caught in way too many odd man rushes. I believe that we gave more odd man rushes in the first period than we did since the start of this series. So sometimes like you are too anxious. You are getting caught up and with the talent that the Devils have, like they make you pay. Then like you are getting down by two goals, you know that they are going to clog up the middle and it is going to be real tough to generate anything.

COACH HARTLEY: I can't speak like for what it's going to do to Jersey. On our side like obviously I think it gives us a chance to regroup. We really have to take advantage of tomorrow and then like have a good practice and hey like we win in Jersey. There's Game 7 and it can go either side. I think that we worked all year to be here and now it's certainly not the time to start like second guessing or questioning some people. We have to go and put our trust in our players and that's exactly our plan.

COACH HARTLEY: Tried to balance our offense we felt like I said we were skating fairly well. I liked our energy. I liked our intensity. Like unfortunately our decision making kind of cost us on a couple of goals. But hockey is a game of mistakes and you are playing a team like the New Jersey Devils, they will make you pay for those mistakes.

COACH HARTLEY: Well he gave them the big saves. I looked at the way that Patrick Roy has played for us since the start of the Playoffs. Like you want to win in the Playoffs, you need like those big saves and I felt that Brodeur in key situations made some big saves for the Devils and I have said this in the past at the start of this round like we are dealing with two great goalies.