NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAPLE LEAFS v HURRICANES

May 16, 2002

Paul Maurice

COACH MAURICE: Well, I guess in a nutshell it comes down to we were not able to produce on our power plays as we have in the past, we ran with 20 percent coming in, and hitting quite a bit more than that obviously tonight. I don't think over the course of the time that had much bearing at all, but that's the test for us in the series is how much we're going to be able to generate through the end of the drill, the difficulty getting the zone and convert when we get those chances. I think it was a very difficult game for us to get what's been good for us, which is the flow of the game going, and get the lines rolling, just by the number of them on the power plays and penalty kill, but certainly, what worked for our power plays, just didn't get a chance to finish off them. Probably have to do things a little bit quicker there and get the puck to the net a little more often.

COACH MAURICE: What they did is they really focused their energy level appropriately. They did not spend a lot of time trying a lot of offense. They really focused on the defensive part of the game, and they back-pressured real well and back-checked real well and made it difficult to get into that neutral zone with the speed that we like to create. But at the same time, in that game, we had the puck where we wanted it, but we need to generate more often. We had the zone time and it just certainly was not easy to get it to them and they did a good job on their end.

COACH MAURICE: Even with the zone time we had on the power play, we spent quite a bit of that power play trying to work it off the boards, and that was a problem for us, that original possession. Not so much that we were getting it in and they were hammering it down. We were getting it in, but we were just taking a long time to control it. That's something that obviously we will talk about and we've got to find a better way to move it, move it quickly around the box to try to get a little more motion on their part.

COACH MAURICE: I think with the majority of our best chances we never got to the net. We missed the net and were around the net quite a bit. I think it's almost in some ways that mental attitude you had with New Jersey. We will probably work hard to get away from making a play from the neutral zone, and try to get to the net and simplify that offense a little bit. I think the majority of our very best chances never actually got to the net; they went wide.

COACH MAURICE: No more than New Jersey did. That's obviously part of the game plan. I thought they were trying to be as physical as they could and so were we. To be quite honest with you, it wasn't really a physical game; there's so much special teams that neither team could really get in a good flow of the game. The first five minutes of the game were the most physical part of the game and penalties came and everybody settled right down, and probably a little more clutching and grabbing in this game than we've seen in the first two series.

COACH MAURICE: Most of them are not all that obvious. It's generating speed from places and moving the puck a little more simply and a little quicker. That will not be easy at any point in this series. That's going to be very similar to New Jersey. You're going to have to work as hard you can to get things going.

COACH MAURICE: I looked at him. It's so close; it's a tough call. I don't know what else, we can look at it a thousand different ways, but it was right on the line. We would have been disappointed if that goal had been called against us.

COACH MAURICE: That's the sense that you're left with. That's the dangerous sense; what you've got to be careful of combatting because they are playing very hard defensively right now and there's not going to be the easy goals.

COACH MAURICE: He played very well. Again, not any different than what we with expect from him. Again, like I said, I really think our best chance is going to be up to the net.

COACH MAURICE: It's not. It's a hockey series. There's teams deflating teams every game in the playoffs and you're not happy about it. But if you had a tough first game and wanted to call the series, you wouldn't be around very long.