NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 10, 2002

Paul Maurice

COACH MAURICE: I would think start with how we finished because we liked our last two powerplays. We actually generated a chance or two and had better control. But I'm not afraid of going back. For me, it's just a confidence with the puck as Sami works it better and better, and we expect that he will. He may see more time. The other part it is minutes played. We have got to be careful with our "D" back there, and how hard you run them, especially if it's a tight game again, we are going to need those guys to play a reasonable amount of minutes. I don't think -- all our D play hard minutes. There's nobody that can play 52 in a game like that and feel fresh after it. We have to be more careful with that so we use our bench a little bit differently than -- it's not always necessary the guy going out - maybe makes the most logical sense -- sometimes it's freshest guy that's available goes out.

COACH MAURICE: I think Sean built his confidence here and really kind of flourished. He played with Coffey on the powerplay on the point, scored his 13 goals, really built a lot of confidence. And in some ways moved onto a place after that with the big contract and kind of to a team that was, you know, looking to build to the Stanley Cup. When he came back he brought all that confidence and some experience with him and he came back as a veteran. He left as an emerging player and came back as a veteran. So all the things that he had learned on both sides of the fence now he's using to his advantage. He came back that day and it was right at the time where things were real ugly; we had lost the four in a row and there were dark days at the Hurricanes camp. He came in in a great mood because he's back at home, his wife is at home. He was so happy to be here that it was a great injection of a positive attitude into the locker room at a time where everybody was a little grumbly. I think he sensed that. He sense his leadership was needed, important at the time, and he really -- he's never let go of that. He has been a great leader for us since then.

COACH MAURICE: I thought it was necessary in the second and third overtime periods. But really, when you look at the numbers, the Brind'Amour and Francis line were consistent with the Yzerman line, which is normal ice time for both those lines because they run a lot during the year. So neither of those were, I don't think, were overexposed. The extra ice time went to Vasicek's line and that was more because I thought they were playing very well. I didn't particularly like the fourth period. I was concerned with the flow and in that case -- I didn't think there were going to be a lot of powerplays or penalty killing, there were not -- six and a half minutes for each one of those top three lines was not too much. Once we got into the fifth, you knew that that fourth had to come out and we could even it out a little bit. I think probably both benches will run all their guys early in this game and get a sense and go from there. But the -- there's an increase in lines -- maybe an increase in the number of shifts, not necessarily ice time. We'll get them out there for shorter periods of time. But based on big Joe's line, the way they played it, I'd like to see those guys out there a little bit more often. Shorter shifts, but more often.

COACH MAURICE: We're trying to get their first, which is the key to the whole operation because he throws a pretty good pick after he's moved the puck and it eliminates one of your forecheckers so we talked about different angles that you want to take and how we want to put the puck in different, to either take advantage of it or at least eliminate his effectiveness in throwing that pick. But a lot of what happened there was just we couldn't get the puck to where we wanted to originally and that is where the problems started.

COACH MAURICE: Roddy is an about as low maintenance as you get. He's only said about 10 words since he's been here. I try to keep him on the ice so much that he's too tired to talk. Eric Cole is first-year player, so there are some things that you work with. But I had said this in the earlier series, we stopped treating Eric Cole like a rookie in December because he just doesn't handle himself like one. He's not a player that you have to worry about barking at or his sensibilities, you don't have to hold this kid's hand, you can get into him real good, he responds in the games. We have done this over the course of the Playoffs. He's responded every time. Bates is a pretty quiet, developed into a pretty consistent player. He learned that in his first three years so no, there's not a lot of hand-holding going on with those guys. Those are three solid performers in that they prepare very well and perform, but it's -- they have obviously got to generate some offense but they cannot change the way they are trying to do it. That's my biggest fear. They are playing hard. For me, when there's more success, the first thought is get it to the net and the second is everybody end up there and maybe we have gotten a little bit away from that with that line and you see some more curling up and then throwing back in to the higher slot which is just not as effective for that line so we have talked about a few things in that vein.

COACH MAURICE: Not yet. Not yet. I mean, so what do I say to you if I say it is? Where do I leave myself if we don't win this game? And where do you leave your hockey team because it's not and based on the closeness in terms of score of these games, you are always in it. And I just know from being around that locker room that I would -- just doesn't make any sense to ever count a team out after a loss; certainly not ours. But it is a very important game for the flow of this series. The idea of having to win three against Detroit is difficult, but on the upside we have never ever looked at a game or a series like that anyway. So even if it happens it going to be a one game proposition as it has been all season for our team.

COACH MAURICE: That's the grey question. How -- where is that fine line between the advantage of not knowing the situation you are in and at the same time not realizing the situation you are in. Some young guys are out there, Vasicek and Svoboda playing great and playing as hard as they possibly can. Is it because they don't fully appreciate how difficult it is to get to the Finals and Ron Francis says hey, it's my third time here, been in the League 21 years, and they have that looseness, that's great, you want to keep that. At the same time, how far do you fire those guys up and telling them how important this one individual game is. Leave that to our leaders. They know that room. As coach is very careful about what we introduce new or a new attitude or a new tact, at times in the Playoffs it has to happen so you can change the flow. I am not sure we're at that point with our team in this series that I want to go in and make three or four completely off-the-wall changes, even just in the way I approach the team, in the tone of my voice, and how I handle the speeches before the game. You have to be careful with that. I think the way the last game happened gives you an opportunity to present yourself in a certain way as a coach. I am going to stick within those guidelines of how I think our team is going to respond.