NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: STARS v DEVILS

June 1, 2000

Brett Hull

Mike Modano

MIKE MODANO: Well, I think what we talked about mainly was our quickness and our position as far as defensively in our own zone. Being quicker than they are back to our front of our net, protecting the front; of Eddie not allowing second, third chances. I think we rushed a lot of our plays throughout Game 1, coming out of our zone and that really didn't allow us too much movement to the neutral zone with the puck. More or less chasing it down quite a bit. But tonight the "D" played great. They had a little more composure; moved the puck well; came up the ice, you know, offensively and defensively a lot better.

BRETT HULL: There is no question, I think there is -- after Game 1 there was always that little bit of doubt, a little bit of fear in everybody. But you take a look at the people in the room and I said after the game, you look to a select few, you have got Guy Carbonneau and Mike Keane and you have got our GM in Bob Gainey and guys who aren't playing as Brian Skrudland you look at those people the way they handled the last couple of days and the way they talked to people and the way we talked about what we had to do in the confidence they showed in everybody, it just made you feel like we were going to come out and play a much better game although I don't think we had much of a chance to play worse than in Game 1.

BRETT HULL: I don't know. I am not -- we have got too many guys to speak. Like I said, the people I mentioned and, you know, their leadership and years of experience far exceeds mine in these situations so, yeah, I let them do all the talking, I usually just get myself in trouble anyway.

BRETT HULL: No, I don't think so. We talked and we talked. Everyone watched the tape and you have half the guys are saying just melt it, throw it out. I said, well, I think you have to watch it; you have to learn from your mistakes and, you know, sure, you can forget about it, but only if what happened today happened today. If you forget about it and the same things happen, then it does matter. Mike and I talked and we -- things had to change and everybody pulled up their pants and went at it.

MIKE MODANO: Yeah, a little bit. Plus the weather has been nice and hot in Dallas so I think that is something that we have gotten used to over the years and I think some teams may have trouble with that. But there -- it was awfully hot out there tonight and we felt we still were stronger as the game was going on. But definitely finally nice going west with our travel. We usually come from the west and go east and don't get home 'til five, six in the morning and we have to play 48 hours later so it is kind of nice finally gaining an hour going home and get home at a somewhat reasonable hour.

BRETT HULL: Well, I think the first goal was just a lot of hard work by Jere and Mike as usual. I was just trying to stay in a good position as the third man. Mike got it to me and I just hurled it and shot it as quick and hard as I could. I didn't even know that one went in like the second one, I don't even know how the puck got turned over on the second one. I saw Jere going wide, went to the net and kind of saw him flip it to the front of the net and just threw my stick out there and I didn't know that went either until I saw Mike raise his arms.

BRETT HULL: I don't know. Like I said, I didn't -- all I saw was Jere going wide, so I went to the net.

MIKE MODANO: Matvichuk made a good play just knocking it down. I was able to get it -- get the blue line and I knew Arnott was on me, but I was able to hold on tight a little bit longer; let Jere come through the middle; get it through Rafalski. He got a shot off and Brett tipped it. But I was more concerned of being a little more patient with it, letting Brett and Jere get some legs going to the middle and get to the net. We did it a couple of times in the second - tried to throw it to the middle, tried to get someone freed up to get a shot off, but I can't say if I knew Jere was off sides or not.

BRETT HULL: Well, yeah, I would say, especially after Game 1 to come out even and I think it just gives everybody in our room a big boost in the arm and it is one thing to lose, but really a loss is -- you only get credit for one no matter how bad it is. They are a great team no question about it. We knew that we had to play a great game to come out with a split and I thought the Devils played just as well as us and we were fortunate to come out tonight and, you know, I think the rest of the games of the series are going to be very similar to tonight.

BRETT HULL: Well, I don't know. I thought they played the same, same way. I thought just, as a whole, our team moved the puck with more composure and crispness and to better areas. I still think we can cut down on the number of turnovers from our side of the red line and back. But I think that was the key. I think -- I think you make defenses look a little bit different if you are moving the puck better. I think that is what happened tonight.

MIKE MODANO: That was our plan too. We talked about it yesterday. We made the decision that if our line is going to play against Jason's the rest of the series, and so that was his plan. It kind of fit into our plan. We will definitely be able to get that matchup better in Dallas. But he didn't really seem too interested in getting away from that tonight with the last change we were able to make those changes, but we were a little more responsible with that matchup. It is something that we didn't have in Game 1, but I think that will be the way it is the rest of the series.

BRETT HULL: What medical school did he go to? I don't know anything about any abdominal pull. I really don't.

MIKE MODANO: Well, we obviously were all pretty embarrassed and felt set back a bit. Obviously the magnitude and you are going into the Finals and you have a performance like that, I am sure it opened up a lot of peoples' eyes to the fact maybe that if we don't have what it takes to be in this series and play against these guys, we have had those lapses before in the Playoffs and we have always been able to bounce back and play a great game. We felt embarrassed and outplayed in all areas of the game and we knew that. We all take it personally. I don't think we really point fingers at each other and blame one another, we went home and had our dinner and thought about our game personally what we had to do to change it. We really don't get into much X and O's - coming to play with a little more emotion, a little more urgency, and you know, when we were skate and we are checking, we seem to have better luck offensively.

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