NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SABRES v STARS

June 15, 1999

Lindy Ruff

LINDY RUFF: Well, you know, we don't really want to dwell on that last game anymore. We know as a team that we were successful by forechecking aggressively, taking a few chances, having the "D" involved and last game was an example of we didn't generate anything. A lot of it had to do with not being a very aggressive on the forecheck, for whatever reasons, but we put that game behind us already. He doesn't mind seeing the odd odd-numbered rush. We know that. If we are going to pinch and gamble, he is going to see some two-on-ones and some three-on-twos he might even see a breakaway, but we have kind of gone by that theory throughout and we are going to go and make sure that we do that again tonight.

LINDY RUFF: It is a possibility we will play and the reason why he would play, he has been Rochester's best player. He has been their hardest working guy. He is skated extremely well. He has been very reliable. I think we have had Grosek missing which is -- you know, he has been one of our top left wingers. That has been a hole that has been tough to fill on the left side; if we do play him, those would be the reasons why and when he did play with us before he played very well. He supplied some spunk and some character and those are all the reasons that go into this.

LINDY RUFF: I am looking for that out of every line. Not to dwell on the last game because out of the home games we have played, if we want to sit there and dwell on the last game there is not a lot of good things that come out of it, but we can go back to the other seven games and pick out a lot of great things, so it is one game; we have put it behind us; we expect to get back to the form we were at before that.

LINDY RUFF: In all likelihood, yes.

LINDY RUFF: Obviously we have talked about all the things that made us successful throughout the Playoffs and what got us there and we have already dealt with the aggressive nature of our forecheck which I thought our team got away from and we want to get back to that. We want to get our "D" involved. Our defense weren't involved at all last game. That was probably the thing that hurt us most. Another area was faceoffs. We lost a lot of important faceoffs on different places in the ice. We have got to try to get close to 50% against these guys. We know that is tough, but you lose a lot of faceoffs, we spent a lot time chasing.

LINDY RUFF: Well, you know, we got the first goal the other night. The first goal hasn't dictated a lot in this series so far. I think it would be great if we got the first goal. I think Dallas is a very patient team. I don't think one goal is the type of lead that causes them to start pinching and taking chances. I'd like to see us get a couple goal lead and probably open them up a little bit. One goal, they know they can creep back in. But, for us, I think it would be very important to get off to a good start if that means the first goal or not.

LINDY RUFF: It is tough. Last year was tough and this year is tough because we know that every guy in the locker room was an important part of getting us to where we were at right now. So it is a very touchy subject. I think every player wants to be protected, nobody really wants to leave, but it is something that within 48 hours that last game has got to be -- the list has got to be put to go, so something that we have talked about already. We have had to talk about it.

LINDY RUFF: You know, I think the thing that we want to be tonight is just be the hardest working team on the ice. I think it is plain and simple as that - outwork them shift in, shift out. I thought the other night they had to step on us and I am not going to dwell on the reasons for that, why they looked a little faster and a little more keen on the puck, but I think if we outwork them, we will win. At the end of night if we say, boy, Buffalo really worked hard tonight, that is going to lead to a win for us.