NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 6, 2002

Paul Maurice

COACH MAURICE: Yes, I do. They didn't do a great job keeping that rotation on the bench. I still tried to fix it, but it was one kind of double shift (inaudible) Ron Francis brought the line, I got in the position where I was running Roddy so hard because of all the penalty kills early, that those guys kind of got pushed back. I like them as a line, and had two wingers sitting, one centerman playing every second shift there, it seemed like, they are all on the same line and caused some problems. But I think that those guys played anywhere from 18 to 24 minutes on a fairly regular basis. Then they got caught in the trap there at the ten-minute mark in the second period. I knew they had been sitting a long time, tried to double shift them a little bit, but it's tough to do.

COACH MAURICE: We'll talk about Game 3 in New Jersey where we learned what to expect. And for me, it's somewhat emotional state right now too, and for the other team that we are going to expect from them tonight. I don't think that we were prepared. I don't think that I'd done a great job of preparing the team for what was going to happen that game. We talked about that game on a number of occasions through the Playoffs (inaudible) --

COACH MAURICE: Well, I am not a doctor, but I have said this before, he's just genetically superior than everybody else. First of all, he has got to be one of those closet workout guys: What did you do this summer? Nothing. We were three weeks into camp two years ago - Gary Roberts who is a very, very fit man, as you all know, and really well conditioned - and neither he or Gary are known for their speed, but three weeks into camp and at the end of a tough practice, we did our sprint routine up the middle of the ice; two of them were skating together. And, I mean, both very proud people. They would not let the other one get ahead. They skated harder than anybody else on the ice. They just got hooked up with the wrong guys and wouldn't budge. When we brought them back into the middle of the ice, Ronnie looked like he could have skated for two more hours. I am not sure if he was sweating all that hard, and he was standing straight up, and maybe that's part of the act. I don't know. But I am looking at Gary who is, you know, feeling it, to say the least, and Ronnie is standing beside him kind of smiling. His recovery time is incredible. Ronnie's probably never skated out of position more than four, five feet his entire his career, so he doesn't waste a lot of energy.

COACH MAURICE: I think in some ways there seems, from my point of view anyway, there actually seems to be less of it now because this is so much more structured. The Toronto series, Montreal series, we would have our press meeting and I'd do the original 10, 15 minutes and then stick around and you'd be there for an hour and a half, just in our market, we all need to do that. I need to do that. But here, you know, you guys all want to talk to everybody instead of just three, four people. So I am done here after this over. I don't see anybody. Almost in some ways, because it is more structured, seems to be less of it. And there seems to be less people in our hallway, less people in -- the security is so much tighter, it actually seems to be quieter right now than it has been in our first two series.

COACH MAURICE: I think as a strength of our team we never forget the day (inaudible) move to the next one. That's something we have become good at. It comes from over the last three or four years learning how to be very resilient, lose a game and come back and play the next day. We ran those stretch runs for our team and not so much this year but in year's past from January on, where every game is a must-win. We're in that dog fight. And we have learned how never to get ahead of ourselves and we lost a game in the stretch-run 7-nothing to Washington and then everybody said, that's it, they are done and we came .

COACH MAURICE: I can say with complete certainty that there's absolutely no consistency in that. I only go up in a morning skate because now it's a routine. I mean in year's past -- I hate morning skates, always have. I think we have had two this year that were mandatory; that was only because we took the entire team the day off. They are always optional. Just so happens that the majority of our team comes out and I have had two or three players over last couple of years say when you are not out there, it is a little different, so just come out there and stand and blow the whistle. I have got our morning skate down to about 9 minutes. Our morning skates now are so short. I can remember a morning skate when I first came in, New Jersey skated for 45 minutes harder than we practiced on our off days. Mind you, they were winning at the time. Not a big fan of them. I can clearly remember going into Pittsburgh watching the morning skate thinking man, these guys aren't ready to play us, we lost 9 -2. It was an excellent lesson. Half the guys didn't even have their equipment on. Some of them didn't have shin pads, no helmets, man, that was ugly.

COACH MAURICE: I'd like the way it happened. And I like the way when you are out the people approach you, and they are so genuinely happy for you, they have a complete understanding. I think this goes back to the Jersey series last year, there seems to be a connection where the fans understood exactly where our team was at; how much of an underdog we were maybe in that series, physically, what we were going to have to do to stay in that series when we won those two games, they truly appreciated it and knew what we had done to fight back without Francis without Willis, we had a number of injuries. Over the course of this year, certainly in the Playoffs, (inaudible) They have a great understanding what is going on with the team, they really do have a connection to the players. The key at this time all is that I think we're structured right for the area. We have got just a number of very, very classy veterans. Ron Francis, Brind'Amour, Wesley, very involved in the community. Good, real good role models. And then a lot of good young guys, and they -- that's what they are used to seeing down there with the college sports used to seeing young athletes performing, so I think there's a real good mix. Our team is structured right in a lot of ways for the market we are in, fans really connect to them.

COACH MAURICE: We play a team game. I think that has been talked about. There's not a lot of superstars in our room. He along with when you look at the veteran guys, they are all of a similar personality in some ways. Very, very hard working, very well conditioned guys, quiet, you know, they are not big talkers. And he just was the guy that absolutely fit personality-wise, came into our room probably went into the weight room first, and hopped right in there, and it was just the right fit. I think there was an adjustment period for him without question. It took a while. But the nice part about it was that when Roddy was struggling to put up some numbers early on that I think he's expected of himself, never once did he say, it's not me. Or you know, the team is not -- it's not like playing in Philly because I am not passing it to Recchi and to these other guys, never once ever gave anybody the impression in that room that he was not happy to be there. Whether he was or not, whether it was adjustment to it or not, he never gave any tell that he was struggling with it and that kind of composure that emotional composure is part of our team.

COACH MAURICE: It was funny at first. But then it's probably more embarrassing now for the people that are saying it. I mean, you just need to spend a little time in Raleigh. I mean, what a fabulous place to live, got a few other anecdotes that do not fit into this room so I will leave it at that. I feel free to invite all of you down -- you can't stay at my house but I invite all of you down spend sometime, be a little warm out there, bring your bathing suits and shorts, you will enjoy it. What a beautiful place to raise a family. And I enjoyed my time here, this is in a lot of ways -- this area is home for me. This area is my wife's home, so we love this area and developed me early on and all my hockey base came from here. We are very pleased to raise our family in Raleigh.