NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAPLE LEAFS v HURRICANES

May 26, 2002

Paul Maurice

PAUL MAURICE: Just fine, thank you. How did I sleep last night? Just fine, thank you.

PAUL MAURICE: Yeah.

PAUL MAURICE: I don't know. I mean that's why your power play is not 70 percent. If you knew that we were a little slower with what we tried to do, I little bit more deliberate with what -- we thought we had more time than we did but you try to get that pace back up on your power play, get that quickness back and we had a little bit more of that in some of the other games than we did last night.

PAUL MAURICE: We did a pretty good job of taking those away. There's not a lot there. There's not a lot of time when we're rotating at the top where there's a clean shot to be taken.

PAUL MAURICE: Both, both. It takes you a while to work it around to get back up and you're not moving it real quick. Yeah, both.

PAUL MAURICE: You know what happens, it's revisionist hockey history. You take the final score and then you go back and decide how the game was played. The shots are 4-4 until the power play in the first period. You can't be the underdog and expect to dominate the other team at the same time. We've given up two goals in the first game 1, 1, 0 and 1. They're playing pretty hard too, you know. It's not much like that. It's not much -- you go back over that game with the exception of Game 4, and even then is wasn't quite as bad as maybe you feel like it is. We're not going to play any better defensively which is a big part of our game. We've got the highest scoring team in our conference. Haven't given up a whole lot to them. Now, how much do we generate then? With the exception of the last game-- with the exception of Game 4, I like their chances in comparison. I wouldn't trade the chances that we've had to score with theirs.

PAUL MAURICE: If that was true then the score would have been 5-0 or it would have been dominated by the other team; it wasn't. I don't know. Go through the game and write your chances for it and your chances against. And then decide how it was played. Maple Leafs win so everybody on the Maple Leafs side thinks they played great. The Hurricanes didn't play that well. Games 2, 3 and 4 it was fine hockey by the Hurricanes and what's going on with the Leafs. Very rarely is it that extreme.

PAUL MAURICE: You'll have hard time having anybody take that bet in Toronto at the start of the series.

PAUL MAURICE: I read that. I think maybe a fellow mentioned it. (Inaudible). We didn't dominate. We didn't play the first two periods like we played in the third and that's where that feeling is after the game. You can't play 60 minutes like that. They're not going to allow you to do it, no more than we would allow them to do it. What happens in the third period when you're protecting the goalie is you get your puck out into the neutral zone, you bang it out, everything's done safely so when it gets kicked out into the neutral zone we counteract and that's the same thing that happened in Game 4. I think it's important in the emotional ups and downs in a series that you don't get too wound up sometimes; the extremes of the game when they're not there. That's why video is such a good tool at this point where you can -- this is what happened. Make sure you see it again and understand exactly what happened.

PAUL MAURICE: I thought they skated well in the first. I didn't think we were real good with the puck. But we do things the hard way. That's our team. I'm not talking about winning or losing; I'm talking about getting the puck through the neutral zone, banging it in, rattling it around there. So many games that you can take the exact same game and have two breaks go in and you leave saying, "Boy, we played great." And have the exact same game happen like last night and say, "Jeez, we had them." We just didn't get it done.

PAUL MAURICE: I'm not worried about the physicality with Dave but it would be difficult in my mind taking a guy who hasn't played in the long term and take a guy out that has. I'm not sure that it's as cut and dried as everyone thinks. That he would be the obvious guy out because he's played very, very well for us, so, at least now, he's first in. He's at that point with his health. If something happens, he's the first guy that goes in.

PAUL MAURICE: Not in the finals. It's going to -- it's not much going to look like a third-period night game -- this all goes back to things that I'd said after the Montreal series. One of the biggest challenges for our team is what happens on the ice will not look like the Montreal series and that third period was you're down a goal and no different than maybe the third period in Game 4 when they were down a goal. The game is not played like that for 60 minutes. If we get by like that for 60 minutes it wouldn't be a series, would it?

PAUL MAURICE: I was born in 1967 so I'm really at a historical disadvantage to answer that.

PAUL MAURICE: I don't know. It seems to me you guys tell me the Jersey series had a lot more of that.

PAUL MAURICE: I think there are more style points awarded north of the border for how it's done. It's as it should be. You get to this point and everybody is a fan of the home team. Carolina too and no different than Toronto. Canes win, their the best and Toronto wins, their the greatest. That's just the way it works. Its a good thing. I'm not complaining about this. I understand it.

PAUL MAURICE: Doesn't every team play their best hockey when it's got no other option? I think as a team over the course of the year, the team that learns how to play desperate just has the best chance.

PAUL MAURICE: Interestingly enough, both teams can say that about themselves. That's probably why we're playing against each other.

PAUL MAURICE: We had started to in the last two games, in my mind, stop putting the puck at the net as frequently from bad angles. We're starting to kick it back into the middle, looking for a different play and that's taken away some of the traffic that we're able to get to the front of the net and its slowed us down. It hasn't happened a lot but it's happened enough that we've got to get back to putting that puck in the net. There were two or three times down by the hash marks where there was really nothing back in the middle of the ice. There never is this time of the year and we didn't put it at the net. Maybe we have to do a little better job of doing that.

PAUL MAURICE: I told any of those guys who want to come down and meet with the media, they could.

PAUL MAURICE: This has been intense times for a long time and for us there was pretty good tension for the last month of the regular season. The weather is great here; the guys get to spend it with their kids and their families and get away from it. Both teams will benefit by having a day's rest; not having to go to the rink, not having to put the equipment on.

PAUL MAURICE: We'll get a quick bead on that. There's a fine line between keeping your confidence and at the same time not raising your urgency level. You want to take a look at the game for exactly what it was and find areas that you can improve and not feel like you didn't want or didn't -- it wasn't -- you didn't want it because you didn't do all of the things well all the time. There's not going to be 60 minutes of great looking hockey at this point. At this point, I think it's physically very difficult to do that. And at this time of the year shouldn't both teams the have an edge in their game? Both teams should have an edge in the series and an edge in play or it wouldn't be much of a series.

PAUL MAURICE: You have no idea. It's not much even for me -- I spend a lot of time thinking -- well, not a lot -- where does superstition run into routine? So how much of what I do is an actually, "If I don't do this we're not going to win" and how much of it is "you do this every day"? What's this now? 105 games counting exhibition. If you've done the exact same thing every day, is that superstition or is that just routine?

PAUL MAURICE: You can't get affected if other people say is that a superstition or you're in trouble.

PAUL MAURICE: We have to put more pucks in the net. Got to go through and take a look at the zone time in the series and take a look at the goals scored for and against and we're not sitting back by any means. You kick the word "trap" around enough then everybody assumes that you're sitting back but take a look at the shot totals and there's a trend there.

PAUL MAURICE: It's not that intricate.

PAUL MAURICE: If we're trapping, we're not playing very well. If you see that happen very much then we're not very happy with our team. That's not the way we want to play. That's not when we're at our best.

PAUL MAURICE: We're going to take a look at Eric Cole's development over the course. Battaglia, Brind'Amour, as well but Eric Cole, especially because he's young man. He needs his -- personality, his style of game is one that he has to play against those guys. There may be an instance some nights and over the course of the season when you're looking for a different match-up just to break something loose but that's his game. That's his job and he is learning every day in this league how difficult it is but we've been so impressed with how he's found a way to handle it and found a way to come back on days that his body didn't want to do it. Over the course of the season, as a young player, there's a -- I'm sure in some players heads, it creeps in that you're a rookie and you've had a pretty good season, but he's never done that. He's never accepted "I've been good enough." I think he's always pushed himself. It hasn't always been easy for him. There haven't been great games every night but he is so competitive that he has the ability to be a leader. You can see that right from the start in the same way that Gary does. Gary and Eric are both good people off the ice as well so they make themselves available to their teammates in a way that will allow them to lead but I look at Eric Cole as a guy that will be very soon a leader on this team.

PAUL MAURICE: Just be quicker. We have to bring the pucks to the neutral zone particularly well; you don't see that very much unless you have a different team entering the zone than this team. We weren't quick. We didn't handle it real well. You can't let your power play on those nights affect your 5-on-5 game. I actually thought our 5-on-5 game in the second period was good. We just don't remember it because we were shaking our heads about our power play. I thought the first period was played even. I think. But the second period 5-on-5 we started to play very well. I'd have been just as happy now knowing how well our power play was going to be, playing that second period 5-on-5 but we need to be a little quicker.

PAUL MAURICE: You start to squeeze it a little bit. We used different people on it and rotated around and took Sami off the back end. I actually thought that last power play was our best in terms of generating some things. The 5-on-3 is really the crux of all this. That's the one that got away from you.

PAUL MAURICE: Sami -- they moved the puck very, very well 5-on-3: The 3-0 goal the other night. That's exactly right. Sometimes you get a bad break in a point. You want make sure it don't affect your 5-on-5 game and I don't think it did. We came out in that period and threw it out, played a heck of a period. It was a close game, fellas. It was a 1-0 game at the end of the 60 minutes and I don't know exactly what the shots were during the 3rd but --

PAUL MAURICE: 15-to-2. That tells you that you're giving yourself a chance to win the game. The first two periods were played even. In a lot of ways our power play came up short. There's the problem; that's the game.

PAUL MAURICE: Didn't have a feeling either way. For me this is a learning experience too. Probably more with you guys than anybody else. Just how this thing gets going on its own and now I get to read 20 different opinions about the game instead of two or three. That's a good thing, just to get a feel for how it happens. The thing that you learn is that there really are no indicators. You'd like to think there are. That's kind of what your guys' job is, isn't it? You tell what you thought you saw happened. And you gave an opinion on what you think is going to happen. Based on what you thought you saw happen so that's what you have to do. Indicate the flow of the series, the momentum of the series; what's going well, what's not going well. The problem with that is there are very, very few indicators of what's going to happen. I haven't found too many. There were so many twists and turns in each game. Going back to Game 5 in New Jersey and we left thinking, "Man, we played a great game." And Kevin grabbed that thing out of the air and that's why we played a great game. Rowdy went over the post and you're thinking, "man, we're what great to come back," but we didn't and tough game.

PAUL MAURICE: That's the first time I've been asked that question. I think this series has gone in and out with the coaches getting involved. There have been stretches where they haven't been involved, and that's a coaching decision. And then there's been line match-ups and changes and things of that nature for a while but the biggest part of the line changing last night wasn't getting great match-ups; it was getting the line changes. At one point there were three guys on the ice for both teams and at one point there were 14 guys on the ice for the both teams and it was actually getting them on and getting them off that was causing problems. They did it and we did it. Took it right up the pike right down from with one end to the other. And their guys did the exact same thing. If your team plays well -- I can remember playing in Washington a couple of years ago and we got beat and their fourth line played against our number one line and dominated it and there's your line match-up for you. On normal days would you take your number one line against the other teams fourth line? Absolutely; you take that every day.

PAUL MAURICE: I don't like the down time to be honest with you. I would prefer to be playing today actually. You get into a routine and you like to keep it doing but I'll do it. (Inaudible).

PAUL MAURICE: One of the news stations called the office and asked -- one of the newsmen was willing to go over and do that. Today the assistant coaches and the video guy will just pull that tape apart (inaudible) usually in the morning I feel sorry for myself and then drink enough coffee that I get back in the fight and (inaudible) where we want to get our team emotionally by tomorrow the about. By the next day we'll talk about those things in pretty specific detail, about the individual players that we want to talk to and by the time we leave here today what we won't have done is the individual clips. We go through this routine. It's good for us. The coaches come in the morning and complain for two hours.

PAUL MAURICE: Two hours at least. If we're playing that night, we won't have the time to do it but if we're not playing we can get at it pretty good. I do not have the sense of the games that I'm reading about. I'm not seeing them the same way. Their all so close and it's so tight. Today I came to the rink in a pretty good mood actually, without question. Would have liked to have won that game last night. There's some things that we can do better as a hockey team but it's a lot better mood today than it was after Game 4, without question. Always sleep better after a performance that you think was pretty good. Those ones that keep you up are those ones that you just don't like start to finish.