NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

May 28, 2001

Bob Hartley

COACH HARTLEY: Patrick has given us a chance to win every game. He gave us like the belief that if we give him the necessary offensive support, he is going to take care of the rest. We play very well as a team defensively, I feel, but Patrick has been outstanding for us. He is such a great competitor like people that grew up around him say that it is no surprise to see Patrick that focused. I think that his approach to the game, his focus to the game makes him different from the others.

COACH HARTLEY: First, the addition of Rob Blake certainly helped tremendously our depth on the blue line. Whenever you can bring in a top defenseman in your organization, a guy that will give you 30 minutes of solid hockey, whether it is in the defensive zone or the offensive zone; whether it is to make a pass or to crush someone, like Rob Blake is the total package. He is a great skater. Very reliable in the defensive zone coverage; can generate offense from basically the three zones, his first pass, great creativity in our zone is always good. Great creativity and neutral zone regroups. We all know the power of his shots. Hey, Robbie is certainly a key element in this hockey club. We are very proud to have him on our side. What was the question again?

COACH HARTLEY: Again, that goes with the quality of the individuals that we have. We put ourselves on a mission early in the year. We didn't hide from anyone. We were very open that we wanted to have a great season and right at training camp, we knew like, in which kind of situation that we would be. There was no contract talks and hey, we just play hockey. When you count on great individuals, like they can deal with distractions, like distrations, adversity is part of being a pro athlete. It doesn't always go your way, but you have to find a way to find solutions and forget about excuses.

COACH HARTLEY: Well, first on the days off I think that that's different for both teams. Whenever you are talking about days off you are talking about the quality of the ice and all kinds of stuff like those are the same thing. It gets -- both teams have the same advantage. Same team has the disadvantages and it doesn't change a thing. I think it is basically mental preparation and certainly I feel that we had a very physical series against the Blues so maybe the extra day off can be beneficial for us, but on our side, I think that our focus, our approach has been the same since the start of the Playoffs. We don't want to change a thing. We don't let nothing bother us. We are a very tight group, like when we sit in the room like we, you know, we discuss about ways that we can get better; ways that we can find certain adjustments that would benefit this hockey club. But apart from this, if the bus is late or the zamboni is on the ice too quick, that don't bother us. We are on a mission and right now we are fearless.

COACH HARTLEY: I wanted to use his speed to our advantage. Danny Hinote can give some big body checks. He is not a very big man, but he plays big, and he has a big heart. This guy wants to keep -- he is never satisfied with his games. He has very high expectations of himself and that's why I wanted him to give him a chance and to really take advantage of those Playoffs as a good learning experience. I think that he deserved lots of credit. He really stood up tall for us. Right now he is a big part of this hockey club.

COACH HARTLEY: They have a different style and I think that their two styles, like really work really well together. They are great skaters. Defensively they are very strong. Ray is a little bit more offense than Footey, but Footey, all the time, keeps the other team on their toes. You can expect big body checks. I think that Adam Foote is very similar to Scott Stevens, whenever you have your head down he is going to make you pay and here's a guy that plays the game very intensive. They are tough to play against.

COACH HARTLEY: I can tell you it's a nice problem to have these three guys. We said it right at the trade when we acquired Robbie, is that we wanted to make sure that we were using like those three defensemen in a way where really their strengths would be like really used to the benefit of this hockey club and I think that so far like those three guys have given us like great hockey. We don't hesitate to mix and match them like, whether we put Blaker with Ray or we put Blaker with Footey. We feel very comfortable in putting them basically with anyone because like they are three No. 1 defensemen in this League. That makes our job much more easier, plus the way that Greg de Vries, Martin Skoula and Jon Klemm have been playing for us, that has given us some real nice options. Like the guys are solid. We are playing real solid. Patrick is giving us the first save and, you know, like that kind of play gives us a boost to our D men that they can jump in and attack and really support our offense pretty well.

COACH HARTLEY: I don't know how many times I have said this before, but the Colorado Avalanche organization is a very proud organization. We take lots of pride in developing our own players. I have worked for this organization five years in the minors and I can assure you that every year our prospects are monitored. We pay special attention to really develop them in the mold that this organization prides itself. It is fun to see guys grow and you give them a challenge. Whether it is Chris Drury or Alex Tanguay or a guy like Milan Hedjuk, Martin Skoula you look at those guys grow in this organization and I think credit has to go to our scouting staff. Those guys work in the shade, like they don't get much recognition, but they always come up with the right guys. It seems that they play with a puzzle. Like they always find like the missing piece to bring in our lineup. I think that when you are talking about like the New Jersey Devils and the Colorado Avalanche, rebuilding is not part of our dictionary.

COACH HARTLEY: Like I said rebuilding is not part of our dictionary, so we are preparing the future. (LAUGHTER) But on the other hand it is great, like this is a game and when you can have like a father and son relationship, like especially at the rink it makes it special, plus right now if I want to see my family there is no better place than being at the rink.

COACH HARTLEY: Well, I think looking at my past experiences like you know, that word can be used in junior hockey. Then when you get at the pro level like you are dealing with mature athletes. You are dealing with competitors, guys that went through the wars, and when you get, especially at the Stanley Cup Finals, I think that everyone is on a mission; everyone is enjoying every moment of it, plus everyone like is playing to win, like guys are playing injured. Guys are bleeding. Guys are sweating, so I think that like both teams, like have good toughness. Both teams are playing like real team-tough. Like you look at guys like sacrificing their bodies in front of shots, like you see guys like getting in the corners like we saw a good example in the third period when the play got out of hand a little bit, but still we didn't see any like vicious stuff, it was good hard body checks, a little bit of stick work, but hey, we are here playing for the big prize and there is only two teams left. So like it's not time to make any friends out there.

COACH HARTLEY: We are not going after anyone. We are a very clean hockey club.

COACH HARTLEY: Well, certainly you look at every draft right now, and it is pretty safe to say that Europeans have definitely a place in our League. They are all very skilled players. You just look in this Finals like here's two teams that count on numerous Europeans and they are all like key players in both organizations. So I think that, hey, like this game is now an international game and we have a product to sell. And I think that there is no other better way to sell a great product with their best salesmen.

COACH HARTLEY: I said this many times like in 14 years of coaching I went through only three organizations and I had four bosses and those four guys were very instrumental in getting me to the NHL. I was always very fortunate to count on great players, on great management that supplied me great players. That is the way, like you want to come up like basically out of nowhere you start in junior, then you move to major junior; then to the American League, you can't do this by yourself. You need the help from people, whether it is from management, whether it is from players, like it is very easy to rewind my little story and find out that there was like many people that like had confidence in me; that supported me. That's the reason why I am here today. I grew up in this organization for the past eight years and that's why, like I show up to work everyday with lots of pride because impart of a real proud family.