NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

June 1, 2001

Larry Robinson

COACH ROBINSON: Certainly. I guess last night's game is kind of indicative of that. We stopped getting the puck in deep. And turned the puck over. We had, you know, a chance to put the game more on our side when we had that 5-on-3, and we pressed with our chances, choices with the puck weren't very good. You are not going to win a lot of hockey games unless you have everybody going and everybody on the same page. As soon as we-- as soon as they kind of tied it up at the start of the second period we started -- we stopped skating; we started circling all over the place and gave them too many opportunities in our zone.

COACH ROBINSON: Well, I am thinking of you know, changing maybe a couple of guys around to try to get some lines going here. And maybe toying with the fact of you know, changing and trying to put maybe Bobby Holik against Sakic. That's about all.

COACH ROBINSON: Pretty tough. It is pretty tough to get them away from Arnott's line only because you know, the way that they start, the way they started the other night, I mean they put the two of them out there in the event that I tried coming out with Arnott as soon as the puck is dropped at least one of them changes, so it is going to be more difficult to keep a line away from a defensive pairing only from my own experience. I know we have tried it as well and it is pretty easy to get a defense pairing out. It is just up to the those individuals involved, to try to get free and we have been cycling the puck pretty well down low, but our shots haven't been getting through and we haven't been fighting to get open and get the second and third chances in front.

COACH ROBINSON: No, I don't have doubt about the team. But I am expecting a challenge. I think we have been down before and we have rose to the challenge. I am not the type of person to point fingers. I will make statements and generalities and the people that are involved that know that they are not playing well and know that they are not contributing can take it from there.

COACH ROBINSON: Well, I mean, both goaltenders have played extremely well, but I think when you are only scoring three goals in three games you are not going to be winning a lot of games.

COACH ROBINSON: I thought we were doing a much better job of wearing them down by getting the puck in deep and as soon as we stopped doing that then they were able to regain you know, a lot of their life. That's how you wear defense down or a team down and that's what they have been doing to us is getting the puck in deep and working us low. When we have had success, we have done that and when we haven't, we stopped skating and we are chasing all night. So, that's what we have to do. But their guys have played extremely well. Foote has done a good job and Bourque has done a good job against the Arnott line although they have still gotten some chances and Blake has played extremely well out there. They have had a couple of big hits and moved the puck well and we just have to bounce back from it.

COACH ROBINSON: No, I didn't speak to him about it today. But this is not the time where you could wait for a guy or for a player to get out of a slump or to start playing better. I mean, you have to make decisions right off the bat. Because you are running out of tomorrows, but Scotty has got a tremendous amount of talent and so does Alex. They have just got to get back to doing the things that they have to do. Scotty, I thought, in the Toronto series played the way that he is capable of playing in that he was a pest and going to the net. He was creating chances and drawing penalties, and checking. That's what he stopped doing right now. He is just playing on the perimeter and this is a quick team and they are not going to give you time to dip-see-do with the puck. You are going to have to make a lot more straight line decisions and make your decision as lot quicker.

COACH ROBINSON: Well, in this case I hope we don't run out of time to rely on that. But I think that even through all of this that it wasn't until late in the third period that they got their second goal. So I think at times we were very hard on ourselves because we demand perfection but that's how you get better and that's how you win championships is to always demand your best. I don't think we have given our best right now. So, I think we talked about that this morning that we just got to go back and you know, stop worrying about what a lot of the things that are happening; just go out and work hard and hustle and do all the little things because in Playoff series and with the two teams so closely matched you are not going to get a lot of time -- you are not going to get a lot of chances so all you can do and all you can worry about is working hard and hustling and doing your best. If in the end you have done your best and you still don't win, at least you have nothing to fall back on. But if it's all over and said and done, and you don't have success and you know that you could have given more, then you go home with disappointment. We don't want to go home with disappointment. We are just going to go out and play to our hardest. If we do then we should be successful.

COACH ROBINSON: No, I don't think so. I think it is just a case of they realize that those are the two guys that move the puck well and are offensive and I think they are just trying to finish their checks, the same as we are trying to do on their defensemen. I think that's how you wear people out and when you have guys that are tired they are more prone to making mistakes. So I don't think it is a question of head hunting.

COACH ROBINSON: Definitely. We wish you had more balance, balanced scoring, but I think the difference between the Pittsburgh series and this series here is that a lot of times in Pittsburgh series they didn't fight through the checks. These guys are fighting through the checks and they are not worrying about scoring. They are just worrying about working hard and getting on you and forcing you into mistakes. And when we have matched their work ethic and when we have battled back, you know, wove played well. But when we get frustrated and when we don't battle, that's when we give them chances and we give them time with the checks and time to do things. I think the second game there was just a mirror of last night's game where you know, we worked hard and then they changed their game a little bit to last night; the same thing happened to us, we just got away from our game plan. We have got to stick with it for 60 minutes.

COACH ROBINSON: Well, no, you know, I think -- I think the luxury that they have had that we haven't had is that in their series against L.A. and also against St. Louis, it prepared them better for us than our two series prepared us for them. We knew that they were a hard skating team, but that's one of our strength. One of our strengths is skating. At times we just haven't -- we have taken the easy way out where they have right now -- right now they want it more than we do right now and that's how we play at times. We are just not as hungry as they are.