NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SABRES v STARS

June 18, 1999

Lindy Ruff

LINDY RUFF: (laughs) Now would be a damn good time, obviously. We have got to have a couple of guys that got to come through for us. That is the bottom line. We have had some opportunities we didn't finish. We didn't have a lot of great opportunities. We had some. It is going to take a bunch of those players that create those chances and finish for us, that is going to give us the opportunity to win this.

LINDY RUFF: Rhett obviously is not going to be available. He broke his ankle. He is being operated on right now as a matter of fact. I don't have the details. But unless we get him a lot bigger skate, I don't think he will be able to play.

LINDY RUFF: Well, we have been a team that has been pretty resilient. When our key players haven't produced we have had other guys that have picked it up for us. They are key players for us obviously. It is easier for us to win a game when those players produce. If they don't, we have always found a way to have somebody else break through. It is important that we do it by committee. They are a part of that committee and obviously they give us a lot better chance of winning if they produce.

LINDY RUFF: Well, we just spent three hours watching the tape. There is just not a lot of X's and O's out there that are being done. Obviously special-teams-wise the X's and O's become big. We have got to get some shots on the powerplay. We have got to get ready to quarterback it and relax a little bit back there and generate that one or two chances on the powerplay. We haven't got the point. We haven't got the point shot through yet and they are good at being in the lanes. Penalty-killing-wise we made a mistake, but there is always that one or two mistakes in the game whether you get the big save or not, we made a mistake, it cost us. But 5-on-5, both teams are competing to the bitter end. It is tough to generate going both ways. It comes down to, you know, battle of the wills really; who is going to battle the hardest, pay the biggest price to score the goal down low and take the biggest beating.

LINDY RUFF: Very. We don't want that to happen in our building. We are going to do everything possible to force a Game 7 and I truly believe that you are going to see our best game of the series. You are going to see a game where we compete to the bitter end and it is going to be -- it is going to be a game at the end of the night I think that it is going to sum up our community. We are going to come, we are going to outwork them, outhit them. We will do everything possible to win that hockey game.

LINDY RUFF: You know, obviously both sides, the players, I think, are a little bit weary. Obviously we have cut the ice time back to keep him fresher. We are not asking him to take those minute shifts or go every other shift against teams' top lines. Last night we kind of balanced the lines. Tried to put a guy with size and grit on every line, to try to battle through Dallas down low. Michael has had one hell of a Playoff and he may be worn, but there is no quit in Michael. I think you are going to see his best game tomorrow night too. I don't think fatigue is going to be factor. We have got two games left to play. He is going to be a big player in both of them.

LINDY RUFF: Obviously it was a great moment to go and be a part of that hockey game in Dallas. I think he is typical as any other father. We have had a very close relationship, although we don't see each other a lot, you know, maybe once in the summer and once in the winter really is all it is. I thought it was an opportunity to spend a couple of days with him. You know, he was tickled pink that he was able to go and be part of it and see what it was all about. I think we have stressed from Day-1 this is a time of year where you want to enjoy it, you want to have fun. He saw something that a lot of fathers will never get to see. He got to see the media, he got to spend 15 minutes with them. He said they are only going to ask me two questions. I said, dad, why did you give them 40 answers then. But he is going to remember that for the rest of his life. As far as growing up, baseball, hockey, everything, he either coached us in baseball or coached us in hockey. There was four boys in the family so it kept him busy for a good 20 years in athletics, so it was -- it was a little bit of a repayment on my part.

LINDY RUFF: I think the team is responding well. Obviously throughout the Playoffs we haven't had a lot of injuries. Physical part of the game, you know, we have held up pretty good. You look at Dallas, they have got some guys banged up. Hull is banged up, Modano is, they are playing through it..... We have got guys banged up. It is vicious out there at times. If you look at during the game watching the tape you probably see between 5 and 10 really good two-handers baseball swings where guys are turning their sticks over, backchecking and, you know, it is not a friendly game. We have -- I still think the physical play is going to be something that is going to be very evident.

LINDY RUFF: No. There is no -- they are as good as any team in the League in defending in their own zone. They are not a typical team where it is just man-on-man. It is really a two-on-one situation where kind of play a box and their feed forward or their supporting forward is always there. If they beat a defenseman you have got to work through it. Only way you can do it is work through it. Guys have to beat players one-on-one to create chances and they have got some big men down low. If you beat somebody one-on-one you know you are going to have to face another guy immediately. Both teams are kind of like that; you don't get it down low, you just got to battle through.

LINDY RUFF: Well, I don't think our defense can really do much more than they did. They were involved last night, we want (inaudible) in the third period we had -- we just opened the gates and let them go. In the first period to start the game we had them involved. You could see Jason Woolley, left defensemen, he was in the right corner, big beginning, out a free puck and throwing it to the front of the net. Those type of things are the things you are going to see tomorrow night. I think -- we don't want to give up breakaways and two-on-ones, that type of reckless abandonment right off the bat. We want our defensemen pinching when they can pinch and be involved with cycles to help create chances.

LINDY RUFF: I think what happened is after Game 1 we tried to go with just a little mobility with James Patrick, Jay McKee who was playing for us; and Warrener and McKee was a very good pair. After winning the second game in Ottawa, we had played so well, that defense, we had played so well that the defense (inaudible) never got broken up again. It was a fact, just happened to be the odd man out. Really nothing against Darryl's play in the long run, but the group, as a whole, played so well and in the odd man, when they didn't get it done, it was pretty tough to make changes after one game or one bad effort, so always seemed to be responding - pretty resilient. That core group stayed together.

LINDY RUFF: There is a good chance I am not going to tell you who is playing, but either him or Grand-Pierre.

LINDY RUFF: Probably just a tad bit less than Shannon. Obviously Jean-Luc, the reason he has been here, he was a pretty good part of our hockey team, but as a rookie, pretty tough situation bring him into Game 6 and ask him to do the things that need to be done and be confident about it. Obviously Shanahan got the experience; he was a pretty good player for us on the powerplay which could help us; has a great one-time shot, you probably could figure out who is going to play from there.

LINDY RUFF: Personally, I don't know what it was all about. Hitch came off the bench screaming, I decided to scream back. He screamed back at me and I screamed back again. I asked him if he wanted some water; he said, no. That was it.

LINDY RUFF: It does bother me, but the fact of matter is we could have had somebody else hurt just -- previous to that Primeau got speared in the back of the legs; Zhitnik was getting cross checked in the back of the head. I kind of likened it to the situation at the end of the second period in Game 2 in Dallas where Hatcher grabbed Smehlik who was not a fighter and started suckering him and Nieuwendyk dropped his gloves and started suckering Holzinger. So I think in response to that, you got to put out players that are going to protect your teammates. Hatcher is by no means a clean player and Rhett had his back turned to him and was getting pushed from behind, cross checked from behind and he is not going to back down. I didn't -- I wanted to see (inaudible) going to be able -- in case something broke out or somebody took advantage to one of our players, he was going to be able to respond. He wasn't out there to fight, but he was out there to look after him. I think he was frustrated with the fact that Hatcher was getting away with all the stuff he was getting away with and took it in his own hands.

LINDY RUFF: I think that that kind of swings both ways because as vicious as that team is with their sticks, Mike Ramsey's quote was: On the offense they go with their soft sticks and defensive they swing by the bench and pick up their hatchets for the way back. Is it true you watch Pat Verbeek play; he turned his stick over all the time it is a two-handed swing. I could point out three or four in the video. He turns it over and his going swing is going in the mid-section or in the arm. It is vicious. Is that intent to hurt one of our guys? It is darn close. I think it goes both ways. We, as much as we -- we are not going to go away; our guys aren't going to lay down. Two-goal lead, whatever, there is nobody in that room that is going to lay down. I think the same way that they kept up the vicious intent to the bitter end too. I mentioned Hatcher in front of the net late, he spears Primeau in the back of the legs; flips him over backwards; then he is cross-checking Zhitnik in the back of the head. It is not a friendly game out there and for them to say it is kind of one-sided, I think is a bit of misunderstanding on Hatcher's part.

LINDY RUFF: I think our team takes as many risks as any of those other teams. We have got Wooley and Zhitnik who are leading our scoring and they are up in the play all the time. If you are talking Colorado, you have got some very gifted offensive players who took advantage of some scoring opportunities and got the Colorado team down at times -- the Dallas team down at times -- now where Dallas has to open it up. We haven't been in that situation where we have gotten them down by a couple of goals to get to open up. They are very comfortable with a one-goal game. Whether we are up one or they are down one, they are very patient. They believe they can win games in that third period; they can protect the one-goal lead and you don't get a lot of scoring chances -- only time -- the only time it is going to get opened up, obviously, is if you can get them down.

LINDY RUFF: I will be very honest with you, I wasn't really the guy that was responsible for that change. Don Lever does the changing. But the thinking was, on the part of our back end was, let's get somebody out there in case they try something; have a Warrener out there or a McKee, two guys that can physically protect themselves, and who are good fighters in case something happens. That was the thinking. The thinking wasn't -- let us be realistic; if we are going to go after somebody, are we going to go after Derian Hatcher? Come on, we will go after Carbonneau; we will go after Nieuwendyk; we will go after Modano. We are going to go after someone that we can do some damage to. We are not going to send David after Goliath for crying outloud.

LINDY RUFF: I think there is the odd faceoff where centermen sets up, say, listen, I am going to let him win it clean; I am going to forecheck off it; you take the rollaway. Our lines have the freedom to try to create whatever if certain centermen struggle against Dallas' top centermen, there are things you got to try to do. If you look at the Dallas team, Brian Skrudland was one of the best at it. He always set plays up, would lose on purpose; he would jump ahead. There was a couple in the game where he actually just pushed between our centerman's leg and jumped himself. We do set up different plays, but I don't think it was more than once or twice. I heard the comments too watching the tapes.