NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 13, 2002

Paul Maurice

COACH MAURICE: Well, that's how we got here, and seemed like that in every game and in every series. And we found a way in the first three, got that break around the net that we didn't -- but pushed hard. There's nothing left in that room. They don't have anymore to give anybody, and we just came up short against a real good team.

COACH MAURICE: That's where we wanted to get it to every night. And I think that there were probably more chances for them as the series went on because we were pushing a little bit. But even then, we did what we wanted and we needed to do. And I think the -- that's our game. And like Detroit, there's no other option, no other way to do this, so --

COACH MAURICE: I didn't have anything rehearsed. I think the thing that you have to understand with our team is kind of how we got here, and that already since the game has been over must have had 20 people saying, hey, you had a great season. We got here believing we would win, not that we could win or we might or that we would -- that we would win. It's something that develops in a group of men over a course a season. But really down the stretch, that we were that good, so that's when you lose, you feel it. I mean, you feel it just like you came in as the heavyweight contender that you expected to win and -- certainly didn't do anything to try to make them feel better. I think they should absolutely feel as they bad as they absolutely can when you expect to win and you believe -- that's something that we did, that only one other team did. We believed that we would win, we would get to this point and that we would win, and that makes it an awful painful night.

COACH MAURICE: There are very few, you know, really in any sport, even when you go back to that four-minute mile barrier that people said would never be broken. But there are very few people that while they are doing it you say no one is going to come close to that. And the change of the game, the 30-team League, all that other stuff, nobody is getting near this guy. I think I have to win 50 seasons until I am 60 years old to catch him. That ain't going to happen. I am not lasting that long, guarantee you that. But to really -- the thing that is the most amazing, that kind of gets lost because you get a little caught up in the names that are on the jerseys here, is how well they play as a team. Our goal this year was to play the best team game in the National Hockey League. I think we came pretty close. We came one team short. Because that group with those players, to still get them to play the team game as well as they do, that's a gift. I mean, he's an amazing man, I am happy for his retirement if it's true. I hope he enjoys it. He deserves it.

COACH MAURICE: Arturs did what he did all season for us, but especially in the Playoffs: He quietly stopped a lot of pucks that he probably shouldn't have. He made some great saves, and he will tell you he would like to have the ones that beat him back as he always does, but we had very good goaltending in the Playoffs with both Arturs and Kevin.

COACH MAURICE: Geez, I really hope for not a long, long time. I think the longer you feel it, the more you thought it could happen, the more you believed it would, and, oh, I think probably sometime around the 10th or 11th of September next year, when the puck drops, and you get all lathered up about all 30 teams are going to win the Stanley Cup, and away you go.

COACH MAURICE: I think so. I think that it's there, but the foundation is there for probably 20 teams in the National Hockey League getting -- now that it's over, you got 20 contenders, you know, five or six that have payrolls high enough that you guys believe will win and the 16 guys like us think we can win if we pull together and play a great game. That's the challenge now for us, isn't it, to come back. Because if you don't have the same kind of season that you had, somebody will say we're lucky, got a few breaks that we shouldn't have. But I don't want to get into that. I really believe in the direction that this team has taken for quite sometime, not just this year, I believe -- I believe we're moving in the proper direction, that we have got some really good players in our minor system. We have had a bunch of kids with us now for two months and really got a good feel for some of these young players and we're pretty excited about the future. Got 3 young defensemen that I think are going to play in the NHL and a couple of kids up front. One is going to be a real good scorer. We have got some real good young players there and some good young players on our team. Cole and Vasicek and these guys, and I know I played them a lot and played them in the key situations, but there has got to be a pay-off for that.

COACH MAURICE: Good news. I expected that, so it's no surprise to me based on the season that he had. At the end of it, Ron Francis easily was the best player in the season, his performance leadership and what he brings to our team. Geez, Ronnie can play as long as he wants, he's so smart that Detroit has got a few good examples of that on their team. I am glad. I am very pleased for Ron Francis, that he had the kind of year and the team around him, had the kind of year that Ron Francis deserves to have and be captain of a team, that he played that way, that -- we're all here in part due to his greatness, and I think that all of you probably got a pretty good glimpse of that, the ones of you -- the few of you that watched us all year, and most of you that watched us the last two months have a pretty good handle that Ron Francis is a special man.

COACH MAURICE: I guess a bit of both. I believed that we would win tonight. I think could have used -- I think the last two games that we have won here that I coached was the first game of the series in the OHL Championship about seven years ago. I really thought we were due for another big one. Been a long time. But, no, I don't -- I don't want to start feeling really good about our season for a while. I don't think that's going to happen.