NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: BLUES v AVALANCHE

May 12, 2001

Ray Bourque

Bob Hartley

Joe Sakic

JOE SAKIC: Just went down, I was thinking shot on the way. Just came inside, looked for an opening, there was a little opening there. I tried to shoot short side, not necessarily off the post, but fortunately it went in off the post.

JOE SAKIC: For me, I feel more comfortable coming down a little bit on the side. Things seem to open up a little bit more. You force the goalie to decide, I think.

JOE SAKIC: A little nervous. I get nervous on a breakaway, as well. Just make the best of it.

JOE SAKIC: I really didn't know. I knew the net was open. I shot at it. Didn't know how he made the safe. After looking at the replay, threw his stick. Fortunately, they made the right call.

JOE SAKIC: Milan, Bob sent him to just take my time in case I was tired. Didn't know what he was talking about. Sounded like somebody was going to come and force me.

JOE SAKIC: Nothing really. I mean, you just want to make sure you try and score, not embarrass yourself out there (smiling). It's just you and the goalie. You don't want to fumble the puck, that's for sure.

RAYMOND BOURQUE: Patrick played awesome again tonight. Gave us an opportunity to win the hockey game. I thought we played, you know, really well in our end, did a good job, but especially in that power-play they had in the third period, I don't know how many point-blank shots he had. The game was 3-1 right there. He kept it 3-1. That was a huge period for us where he came up big with some big stops.

JOE SAKIC: I don't know, did a great job. We got some breaks on that second goal. It was going to be an ice, bounced off the linesman's leg, got a couple breaks out there, which was nice. Still a long ways to go in this series. We've just got to make sure we get ready for next game.

JOE SAKIC: Well, it was nice. I think it was an important game for us. I mean, anytime you open up at home, you want to try and get that first one.

RAYMOND BOURQUE: You know, we came out on the power-play in the second period, got a shorthanded goal. That kind of kills it right there. Then we got storming, then Joe's is given a penalty shot, capitalized on it. That was just huge for us, gave us a big shot. Really got us going again. You know, you want to play with the lead, if you can. It was real nice to add to it, as well. That's one thing that we've had a hard time, other than that seventh game, you know, against LA, to really try to add to our leads. I thought tonight the forwards came out fantastic. They were skating, they got a lot going, really created a lot. It was really a nice 60-minute effort on our part.

JOE SAKIC: Came out of it fine. This time of year, you're probably going to get hit a lot more than you will in regular season, with the circumstances. That's what I expected.

JOE SAKIC: He was a little bit too sore yesterday for visitors. We'll find out how he is today, the next couple days I'm sure. When he's up to it, guys are going to pay a visit to him.

JOE SAKIC: I have no idea.

JOE SAKIC: I have no idea why they would have an advantage. As a shooter, I guess some goalies are different than other goalies, depends how you feel. As a shooter, I mean, for me, just kind of want to wait it out and see what's open, try and take the shot.

RAYMOND BOURQUE: I think the last two games have been the best games that we played. That seventh game we came out really playing our game, handling the puck, creating some speed through neutral ice. I think we did that again. It was real important for us to come out that way in Game 1, take advantage of home ice. (Coach Hartley joins press conference.)

COACH HARTLEY: Well, our execution was real good. Scoring obviously on our first chance, certainly gave us lots of momentum. It was good to see like we got the crowd going, you know, like Joe's second goal, you know, was like definitely the turning point of this game. Penalty shots are so huge in playoffs that you don't score, then suddenly they did get the momentum. I thought, you know, we played a very strong game.

COACH HARTLEY: I didn't really have a chance to see what happened. The referee was right there. I guess he made the right call.

COACH HARTLEY: Well, we got a lot from Joe all year. I think he keeps on getting better. Joe Sakic is a big part of this hockey club. You know, like Alex, Milan played very well beside him. The fact that we're not using him to kill, I think it's giving him an extra jump on the offense.

COACH HARTLEY: No. I think that we're skating better. We're making smart decisions. This afternoon, we took some quality shots at the net, thought that our traffic at the net was great. Milan's goal, he gets the puck like basically right in the crease and managed to put it in, you know, great execution on the two-on-one on Joe's goal. We have lots of skills. When our skilled players are playing at the top of their game, you know, I think that they're tough to stop.

COACH HARTLEY: No, like I feel that, you know, maybe from like the fifth game in the LA series, you know, they were playing like real well. They're giving us a couple of scoring chances every game. Defensively, they're very solid. Plus they're three good skaters, three players that love to play together. They can be very physical. So on top of being very good defensively and shutting down like some good offensive line for St. Louis, I think they can take the body and wear down people.

COACH HARTLEY: I told you guys yesterday, you guys wrote what you saw at practice, but I saw you after and I told you guys. You just have to believe me (smiling).

COACH HARTLEY: Yeah. We have the No. 1 fans in hockey. You know, last two games they really, you know, like stepped on the ice as our seventh player. Like we can feel it on the bench. It's loud. You have to yell your line changes. You know, it's great. This is a great community, very positive community. We'll do our best to represent them.

COACH HARTLEY: This is playoff hockey. Everyone wants to be physical, everyone wants to be emotional. You know, like I thought that we controlled our emotion real well. We stood up for each other. I like the way that our players responded.

COACH HARTLEY: It's pretty tough to play without Forsberg. You know, let's face it, you can't call up anyone from the minors and ask him to replace Peter Forsberg. You know, I think there's only one Peter Forsberg. You know, I thought that we addressed this issue yesterday. We cannot win with Peter Forsberg, but we can turn around and trust like 23 athletes in that, in our dressing room. That's exactly where our focus is. We have to focus on what we have. What we don't have -- there's not absolutely anything we can do about this. We just have to get ready, do our best and follow the game plan. Today I thought that the players, you know, gave us textbook hockey.

COACH HARTLEY: I don't really know what happened. I thought that the referee pointed at Joe. Like you have Joe Sakic, Alex Tanguay, Milan Hejduk, it's three good picks. I think Joe has been so good for us. Joe has had lots of success against Turek in the past games. You know, he was a pretty clear-cut choice.

COACH HARTLEY: I'm not sure. I thought that it happened right away because some guys said that they had pushed like the puck with their glove, then somebody else said Turek threw his stick. It happened so quick. Just came in. Joe looked at me. I said, "Go for it." We did some scouting on Turek. You know, like every team does on any goalie. That was it. Have a good day, everyone.