NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: RED WINGS v FLYERS

June 1, 1997

Terry Murray

Q. Was there one thing you guys emphasized in practice as coaching staff to the players today about Game 2?

TERRY MURRAY: I think there is two things that we emphasized. One was starting to make better decisions with and without the puck and the second thing was to get our feet going. Get some skating going again. We have we are a team that relies a lot on our fore-check on our size and on our speed and I didn't think that we really had a time in the game and especially there the first two periods to get that going. Just through our own decisions. Our turnovers, our lack of recognizing where we were on the ice with the puck, not getting it in and allowing ourselves to start skating and pressuring the defensemen to get something something was just didn't happen. It was unfortunate.

TERRY MURRAY: I haven't decided that right now. I thought Hexy played well. We gave up several odd man rushes, 2 on 0s. The three goals that were scored were, you know, I think the we made the mistake in front of them. The fourth goal was a big goal, yes, we really talked about that between periods, coming out with a lot of energy now to get the goal -- the score to 3 to 2 and that we should be able to continue to build on that and the fourth goalie think took a lot away from our hockey club. We got to get a stop on it. That is all there is to it. That is not knocking any Hexy or anything it is just the way in the business. You need some spectacular stops in the Playoffs, but certainly you need the routine stops.

TERRY MURRAY: Well, I think the, you know, in the first period first of all, I really thought that we just were in awe of what was going on, the time and the place Stanley Cup Finals already said not skating not thinking making the right decisions. We did get things sorted out a little bit in the offensive part of it to, you know, to make better quality passes to maybe sometimes not have to make a quality play at all just get the puck out of the neutral zone and get some pressure with some speed on the puck. That started the turn a little bit as we got in the last part of the second period. And, LeClair comes down and scores a big goal and we really wanted to build on that to be able to cover it over to the third period. And, it didn't happen. So, we reviewed some tapes. We talked this morning at a team meeting. And, just to maybe highlight against stuff that we already talked about hopefully, you know, the practice today reinforced some of it and I know we will be a better team in the game Tuesday night.

TERRY MURRAY: No, that is not the way it was before the Ranger's series either. It was never a practice session responsibility of the goaltender to, you know, go grab it. Hexy played well last night. He made some big stops. There is no other way of looking at it. I think that again our play in front of him was disappointing. We just didn't do the job defensively that we know we have to do and the way we have played throughout the Playoffs. Maybe I am trying to hide a little bit here from the media, but tomorrow I will make a decision.

TERRY MURPHY: I will. I will go more to three lines. The reason for it last night was I just didn't think we were playing well. That is as a team, as lines individual lines we were not able to get the flow going that we were hoping to and talked about before the series started. With that, you do different things. You mix up your lines, change your lines, you play your fourth line more. They are a line that in particular, Kordic and Lacroix throughout the year got some things going through some big hits got some energy into the team I was looking for that to happen last night.

TERRY MURRAY: I didn't get caught up in the matchups at all last night. You never know what Scotty is going to throw at you for line combinations, so it is sometimes difficult to anticipate what it might be, but, no that was not anything that was an area that I was looking at. I just wanted to try and do some things that was going to get our team and get some flow to our game, get some good positives stuff happening. And, when you are making changes just for some changes sometimes in order to try and turn things around.

TERRY MURRAY: I think pressure you bring on yourself. We went into the game last night, not letting our the flow. We pressured ourselves into making the perfect play all the time. In the game of hockey you don't have to. And, the other hockey club, the Red Wings, are real good example of what you what you maybe have to do sometimes as far as keeping the game simple just flip it out in the neutral zone get it off of the glass, the least amount of time that you spend in you're own "D" zone the better off your going to be. We tried last night to make the perfect play a lot of the time we really tried to force the puck up on our right wing side and that plays right into their defensive game with the left wing lock. And, really didn't sort that out until the third period.

TERRY MURRAY: Well, Kjell played okay. I mean, in all fairness to the amount of time that he has been out, the surgery and the hard work that he has gone through to get back into the game, his injury itself is fine. He is strong. He is healthy. He is in great condition. But, the one thing that you can never recreate in practice is the speed of the game, the flow of the game. And I think there was a few shifts that you get caught off balance where you are trying to move the puck in a certain way and a player that is on top of it on the defensive part of it, would turn we turned the puck over several times. So I will probably stick with. The defensemen Petr Svoboda got a shot in the foot last night, had some swelling. Again, we have another day off tomorrow we will practice. Hopefully he will be can on the ice, but I will wait and see what is going on with that before any firm decision on the goal line.

TERRY MURRAY: I will see how things are tomorrow before I make any decision on the lineup, how we are doing back there and same thing on the forwards.

TERRY MURRAY: As important as the first five minutes were last night. That was very important. We talked about that and, you know, that when you are starting at home you have been off for seven or eight days, the opposition is whoever it is going to be, is going to come out and really come at you with a lot of hard play a lot of pressure on the puck to try and make things happen for them to create turnovers and it worked. And because of our play not being where we wanted to be, there is an urgency now to get the job done Tuesday night. We have to make sure that we are going to come out and not only in the first five minutes, but we have got to play real smart and real hard in the first period, get our game established, get some confidence in our game start passing the puck harder and with firmer. I thought there was a lot of easy passes, as lot of you know, trying to make the nifty little play where the puck is coming so slow that when the player got it, there was someone on top of him right away anyway so he couldn't have done anything with it, pass the puck hard, let us get ourselves snapped to attention and get ourselves back on track here with some defense.

TERRY MURRAY: One day. Usually the day before the practice or the morning of the practice rather, the day before the game I always tell the goaltender. So I haven't ruled out or made a firm decision on anything. But again Hextall played very well. There was we need to be better as a team. That is all there is to it.