NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SABRES v STARS

June 7, 1999

Brett Hull

Mike Keane

Jere Lehtinen

Joe Nieuwendyk

Pat Verbeek

BRETT HULL: They are going to take from their experiences, from the teams they have played. We are going to take the experiences that we have had and try to use them. Players are bigger now than when I was earlier in my career. I was above average. Now I am well below average in size. Totally offensive; now it is totally defensive. Maybe it will just run another cycle and it will change in a couple years. I think you see other opportunities, Edmonton, whatnot, Colorado; there are teams out there that play like that. You can play defense, still give some freedom. I think teams are trying that. I guess it is like every sport, you get down to this level - you are listening to the NBA, all they talk about is defense wins. I think that is what will always be the case. I don't know. It is not up to us as players. I am openly against it, but I am also -- it is a situation where you go out and you play. Hockey has been a lot of fun for me this year. But I think it is a little different for me because I really took it upon myself to challenge, to prove that I was very capable of playing. To be honest, I don't watch the other games at all. Buffalo or anybody else. It is just something I have never done, never really enjoyed watching it on TV. Knowing and talking and listening. You got to remember that we have been checking a lot on our team, so how about -- maybe he will go a different way. But it is just butting heads there.

BRETT HULL: I think that's why both teams are in this Finals is because of the depth of the teams, concept of the teams that they don't rely on a certain group of guys. They rely on everyone to go and do the job.

JERE LEHTINEN: Yeah, there is a little bit of difference in style. He plays offensive and defensive and I play a lot of different situations. So that way we do play alike.

(On Buffalo being a good defensive team).

JERE LEHTINEN: We have a pretty good defensive team too and can do our things well. We have played the whole season the same style, so we are not going to change that.

(On Buffalo's speed).

JERE LEHTINEN: They have three or four lines that have good speed, but we saw that in the last series against Colorado. They had good speed and we played well.

(On being in your first Stanley Cup).

JERE LEHTINEN: It is different. When I came to Dallas four years ago, hockey wasn't so big. But it is growing all the time. The people know that the Stanley Cup is here and are really into it.

MIKE KEANE: This team has been together now for three or four years and we want to win for the older players.

(On Dallas's style)

MIKE KEANE: We are going to hopefully use the experience with the group of players we have. That experience will come in handy if we get down a game, or get down a goal. They also have a lot of players who have been in the League a while and know how to react. Juneau and Washington, Barnes in Florida. It is something that we are going to work on as a positive, but hopefully not something we have to do. We are very similar teams. We have great goaltending. We have four lines that can play. And good powerplays. We can be ready for a solid tight checking game. I don't think you are going to see 40 or 50 shots from a team.

(On Buffalo's layoff)

MIKE KEANE: They might be a little bit rusty, but after ten minutes they will get their game back. It didn't matter how much time they have off. Hasek got his rest and then I am sure he will be sharp. We are just going to be concentrating on the first period.

(On the atmosphere in the city).

MIKE KEANE: It is a great atmosphere. Everyone is happy that we got to the Final. People were probably maybe a little surprised we came back against Colorado. They have supported us throughout the year. And that is what we need.

JOE NIEUWENDYK: It all happens so fast that you don't really have a chance to enjoy it. Now I appreciate coming back to everything a little bit more because you realize the effort that it takes to get back into this situation. When you're 22 years old and you have a young team like we did in Calgary you think it is going to be easy, you think this is the way it is going to be in the NHL. This is the first time I have been back in the Finals in a decade and I think after you go through some of the wars and the pain and agony of an NHL season you realize how tough it is to get back to the situation. It makes you appreciate it more and work harder for it. I think we went through a pressured situation with Colorado being down 3-2. It was a great accomplishment by our team to get where we are and I don't think any of us are going to rest on our laurels. We know we are facing a real power team. They have earned the right to be the best in the east. We know we have to be at the top of our game once again to beat these guys. We have had three or four days off to rest and recuperate. Maybe a day or two to come down off of the series and to get ready. We have seen what they have done in the first game of every series that they have played so far. So we certainly know what they are capable of. Hopefully we can ride out some of the emotion that we had left in Game 7 against Colorado. I think our approach is much like our approach was for Patrick Roy. I think most of the time they are going to stop the first shot, but I thought in the Colorado series we were real good at getting second and third opportunities. If we can do that against Hasek, I think we will be successful.

PAT VERBEEK: For me it has taken a long time to get here. The closest I have gotten so far was a long time ago when I was playing -- was a game a long time ago when I was playing with New Jersey. This is very exciting. It has taken me many years to get here. And I am really looking forward to it and I am really excited about it. I can't say that I have lost the butterflies at all - every game, especially in Colorado. You think back -- if you think back to when you were a kid and you won championships, you had you all those feelings, as you get older the feelings don't change, never leave. I really enjoyed playing Game 7. It is one of those feelings where you can sit back and really try to look as far as you can to see exactly where you are. I think for us it is really just sticking to what we have done normally. We had a pre-game skate in the morning and we just kind of worked on a few things real quickly and then got off and worked on our sticks and you just try to keep things you do normally and keep it on an even keel and don't try to think too much about it because you can wear yourself out mentally.