NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PENGUINS v DEVILS

May 14, 2001

Larry Robinson

LARRY ROBINSON: Nothing is definite. But he looked like he's ready to go.

LARRY ROBINSON: No, he says he's ready to go, but I'm not definite on what I'm going to do yet.

LARRY ROBINSON: We've been -- actually we talked about that, and we talked about that today, and I don't know, we might just leave Daneyko and Stevens together.

LARRY ROBINSON: What I like about him is he's not rushing with the puck as much. He's tried to move it more and stay back and play more of a defensive role, because we can't forward to have our defensemen can you tell out of position, especially with their firepower.

LARRY ROBINSON: Well, he's one of your top defensemen. You want to have the availability of your best players. So, I mean, it's great if he's ready to come back. You know, we'll welcome him back. I'm not that worried about how the other guys are performing.

LARRY ROBINSON: Yeah, I think he's done a terrific job. As I said, when he went in in the first game, I thought that Kenny over the last five games was one of our better defensemen. Him and Colin teamed together and they did a great job down the stretch when we were going for first place. He fit in extremely well. He gave Daneyko and Stevens some time off, and Kenny played extremely well. So, I wasn't worried about him going in.

LARRY ROBINSON: Well, you know, where it comes in and plays the most important part, I think somewhat maybe in the first game, but I think once you get to a seventh game, whether we like to admit it or not, it's always nice to play a seventh game on your home rink.

LARRY ROBINSON: As loose?

LARRY ROBINSON: I don't know if they are loose, but, you know, I think everybody -- when you get to this point in the season, there's nothing, really -- I think everybody kind of looks forward to this time. This is a great time of the year. Sometimes there's some looseness there through nervousness, and everybody shows their nerves in different ways. So, I would much prefer them this way than uptight, because I don't think you can perform when you are uptight and afraid to make mistakes.

LARRY ROBINSON: You know, they have played together, and when that line was going well, you know, Brylin was playing with him at times during the year. So, it's more I think -- more that I want to leave the Madden and Holik line together, because normally I would have put Brylin up there and Madden is usually between Stevens and Daneyko.

LARRY ROBINSON: I think he's got the go. I just have to talk to him and see how he feels and make a decision.

LARRY ROBINSON: To be honest with you, I think -- and I'm just going on what he told me -- I think he was saying that it was at night that he was having the big of the problems. With headaches, but I never -- I didn't delve into it that much. I have enough things to concentrate. That's Bill Murray's area. I let him worry about it.

LARRY ROBINSON: I'm just going by what I read and hear, and they say they want to be a little bit more aggressive and get on us a little more. But on the other hand than that, it was only a 3-1 game, so I don't think that there's a lot that they want to change. I mean, the game could have went either way early on. Fortunately for us, we got the bounces.

LARRY ROBINSON: Well, my observation is that they are not really playing for each other. You know, they are either trying to do too many things on their own -- I think that's the biggest thing. When they are going and going well, they were feeding off of each other, you know, much like the Arnott line. When they try to do it by themselves, you don't have success, and that's why you have to rely on each other and you have to feed off of each other, and be in position for each other because if you are depending on the other guy to do the work, that's not a fair way to have it handled.

LARRY ROBINSON: No. I think mostly because the way Randy plays, you know, he never complains about being injured or you never really see him in the trainer's room that much. So you just -- I think most of it we just attribute from the way that he plays and because he plays hard later on in the season; you know, he just gets tired and runs out of gas. We did give him some time off before, and I think that's helped him a lot. I mean, let's face it, as you get older, you don't have the same resilience as you do when you are a young kid, so you need that.

LARRY ROBINSON: No. I thought Marty for the most part was pretty good. I don't think he liked the first goal, as I didn't like it. But everybody is entitled to let something in once in awhile, especially in his case. He makes so many great saves for us. That one really didn't hurt us.

LARRY ROBINSON: No, I don't think so. I think Marty is the type of guy who plays better with the more of a challenge he gets; the better he plays. I think he welcomes the challenge of playing against the best players.

LARRY ROBINSON: (Shakes head.) And I wouldn't want to. Can't have the tail wagging the dog.

LARRY ROBINSON: No. Never. I'm a firm believer that players should play and coaches should coach and managers should manage. It's too tough of a job to try to do everything or try to do both.

LARRY ROBINSON: Like I said, if he wanted to do -- I would let him stand behind with the equipment and I'll go play myself.

LARRY ROBINSON: I mean, the only reason that Bobby angers people is that he's just so strong. I don't think he does anything any differently than anybody else. He's just very strong at what he does. He plays to win. I think they didn't play the same positions, but Bob Gainey and Bobby Holik are very similar in that Bobby played to win. When he hit you, it hurt, because he was so strong. Bobby is a little bit like that.

LARRY ROBINSON: I don't know, I think Bobby plays at his best when he is given a challenge. This is certainly a huge challenge for him.

LARRY ROBINSON: Well, I think he learned -- I think he learned a lot about the game when Lemaire was here because of the system that was played here, and I think he also learned a lot about himself. Sometimes, you know, individuals can get lost. They can get labelled, maybe even in the wrong way. But I think Bobby has come a long way. He's learned the game. He's also learned how to win, and he's very coachable. That's the good thing about him. He doesn't go in the tank when he is criticized, and he realizes that everything is done for a reason. I think that's what makes him the player that he is.

LARRY ROBINSON: As a goal-scorer?

LARRY ROBINSON: Well, you said when he came to Hartford he was labelled as a goal-scorer, and so now he's more of a defensive role. But Bobby, I mean, still plays the power play, and I think his size -- his size and his strength dictates that for him, his game is in and around the net.

LARRY ROBINSON: Well, I expect all of the guys to in some way provide leadership. I think your best leadership comes from within those four walls. But you can have that taken too far, too. You know, they can't be trying to coach the team. They can offer -- they can offer some criticism if a guy is not working hard or whatever. And usually when it comes from one of your teammates, it hits home a lot more than if it does coming from your coach. But again, they should worry about just playing hard and keeping everybody in line, as opposed to mentioning how somebody should play.

LARRY ROBINSON: Well, with players like that, when you are playing against players of that stature, you just -- you have to always be aware. I mean, because -- because they were shut down one game doesn't mean that automatically it's going to happen the next game. You have to think that they are going to find ways to get away from you, and when you have players of that stature, they don't need a lot of chances. So we have to -- as well as we played, there was still a lot of mistakes that were made, and we have to -- when you are playing against a team of talent like that, you have to cut down your mistakes.

LARRY ROBINSON: Neither. I don't think it really matters, to me, because the two guys that are switching are Kovalev and Jagr, and to me, I think those are two very dangerous players. So whether Kovalev is playing with Lemieux or Lemieux is playing with Jagr, I don't think it really matters. They are both big, strong, wingers, so it is not going to change any way that I -- how I coach.

LARRY ROBINSON: He's probably better than 80 percent of the League with one shoulder, so I don't think it makes much difference. You are always afraid of a wounded animal. He's a good hockey player.