NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAPLE LEAFS v HURRICANES

May 23, 2002

Rick Ley

COACH LEY: He was fine. Obviously, disappointed, but he was fine. He was in pretty good voice tonight. (Laughs). But he seemed to weather the storm very well.

COACH LEY: I thought we moved the puck a lot better tonight than we did the other night. I thought, actually, we moved it very well for a team that is playing extremely well and disciplined without the puck. I thought we did a good job of moving it. I thought we had a lot more offense. We outchanced them by a great deal tonight and I thought we moved the puck very well.

COACH LEY: Our power play was a perimeter power play. We certainly had our opportunities. But we stayed in the perimeter and didn't get people moving with the puck and passing the puck and moving their feet and getting to the net, getting the puck there. There's no secret to the game. If you don't get the puck to the net, you're not going to score.

COACH LEY: Well, I found out for sure about half an hour before we went to the bench.

COACH LEY: I was pleasantly surprised that he was back. I thought he looked much better than he has in quite a few days.

COACH LEY: One win at a time. That's all you can do. They have won three games in a row; we have to do it now. We've done it many times this year. But, you can't be worried about the second game. It's the next game that we have to, obviously throw everything at them, no holds barred, and we have to make sure that we bring our A-game, and we bring a personality with us that's in control.

COACH LEY: I have no idea.

COACH LEY: As I say, I was surprised. But he looked really well. He looked much better than what he has. It's amazing what a couple of days of sleep will do for you. He had gone so long without sleep. He looked very well and he was very much in control and seemed pretty much like the regular Pat Quinn.

COACH LEY: They were fine. That had nothing to do with the outcome of the game, absolutely nothing. I thought that we played much better tonight than we did the other night. I thought we executed. We worked on some things yesterday, and the guys, they had it pretty much down pat, and it worked. Our puck moving was a lot better tonight. I just think that when we had our opportunities, we squandered them, and they certainly made the best of theirs.

COACH LEY: All I can say is I hope what you're going to see is a lot of determined people that are going to bring everything they have to the hockey game, and at the same time, you have to be in control. But they are going to bring everything, as a team -- you win as a team, you lose as a team, but we have to come with an attitude that we can do it. But it's one game at a time. There's nothing we can do about the second or third game. It's the next one we have to take care of, and then we'll worry about the one after that.

COACH LEY: No.

COACH LEY: No, he had walked in earlier, but he had some people with him that brought him in. He was more or less, I think, resting in his office and preparing himself. We didn't really talk until probably, it was right around warm-up time.

COACH LEY: That was already prepared, yeah.

COACH LEY: They are doing a very good job of blocking passes to the net and they have some good size. But what happens is their forwards are in such good position, they are getting timely hold-ups and anybody that does get through, their defenseman are doing a good job of blocking them off and their other defenseman is doing the puck retrieval.