NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SABRES v STARS

June 13, 1999

Lindy Ruff

LINDY RUFF: I think our team will respond well. We didn't play a very good game and Dallas did play a very good game. I think that is why it is the best of seven. You are going to make some mistakes, you are going to lose some games. I said all along they are a very good team, a very good defensive team. They didn't make many mistakes defensively last night.

LINDY RUFF: I thought the added ice time; might get him going. Obviously we need him. If we are going to win this series we need our big players to do something for us and the added ice time didn't result in a big plus for us. Tried to get him away from a couple of their matchups; tried to get him away from a couple of their defensive pairs; we tried everything, but didn't get a lot out of it.

LINDY RUFF: Well, if you look at it, both goals could have been prevented just by our -- just better positioning in our zone, our off-side winger would have stayed in the slot, we would have prevented both goals. If you look at the matchups, Curtis Brown has been a very good player for us all year long and that matchup should be a very good one for us. But obviously Nieuwendyk is a guy that is scoring now. We might have to switch the matchup and put maybe the Peca line against him. But we have dealt with teams with two good lines. I personally think that Dallas has three good lines and you don't get this far in the Playoffs by just having two lines or one line. They have got three lines and a possible fourth even mix-and-match that works extremely hard for them.

LINDY RUFF: It is just -- they have got a couple of hard-working guys with Langenbrunner and Nieuwendyk and Reid. Physically if you get beat -- we got beat one-on-one down low. There is no secret there. We got beat off the wall on the first goal and we had guys running around on the second goal. If we would have just locked into position, it is not unlike playing against, you know, the teams best players. If you're playing against a Jagr or whatever, you better make sure that if you get beat you have got protection from the backside from another player. We didn't get the help we should have got and that hurt us.

LINDY RUFF: Always concerned when you don't score on the powerplay. It has really been the first game where we didn't generate a lot of chances, but I knew going in that Dallas was the best penalty killing squad there was. Yeah, we are concerned. They blocked a lot of shots. We knew they block a lot of shots, didn't get them through. If you don't get them through, you are not going to get chances. We didn't get our shots through.

LINDY RUFF: We are not going to lie to you. They were the better team last night. I am not going to sugar coat it. They played better. They played better in their end, in our end. They had more scoring chances. Their special teams were better. We have to be better. I know that. But our team has faced some adversity before. That game last night looked like the first two periods in Game 3 against Boston when we came back here and we had three shots in the first period and we had four in the second period against Boston. All of a sudden we snapped out of it and came to life in the third and had 18 shots and one won the hockey game. Last night we didn't snap out of it. What happened is we ended up having individual players overextend shifts and tried to do it by themselves. We are not a team that is going to have one guy win it for us. It is scoring by committee. It is defense by committee and we became a little unraveled, I thought. But we will bounce back.

LINDY RUFF: Well, I have said all along that they are the best club defensively in the League. I mean they have proved it. They don't give up a lot of opportunities. They don't give up a lot of odd-man situations. If you look at their defense, they have got a very good defense with Zubov and Sydor and Hatcher, it is tough to go through them. Their forwards last night backchecked as hard as any forwards in the League. There was a couple of opportunities where Satan looked like he might be to be able beat a defenseman one-on-one. He had a forward in his in his pocket, lifting his stick; that is the type of play that wins hockey games. So they were very desperate. They worked hard in both end of the rink. I think you know, it was a great example for us.

LINDY RUFF: Well, we just wanted to establish a little bit more of a hitting sequence every now and then. Obviously Eric is a good hitter. We were going to put him up against Hull a couple of times and see if we can get a few bumps in on Brett. Obviously Brett ended up getting injured, so we didn't get that. But a little more speed, little more size, just a little different look every now and then.

LINDY RUFF: Well, number one, if we get that many powerplay opportunities, we have got to try to generate a little offense there. The offensive zone, they are as good as any team in the League in collapsing and getting five guys in front of net and when they do get an opportunity usually block the shot. The key here is getting the shot through somehow, to get it on the net and look for rebounds. I thought we didn't have very many flurries where we got shots through. I think the first period they blocked nine of our shots. That eliminates a lot of offense.

LINDY RUFF: If it was the best of three I would be really scared right now. But it is not. It is the best of seven and Dallas had to fight back from adversity in their last series. They were down 3-2 going into Colorado, they had to win in Colorado's building, had to fight their way back in the series. If we are a team that deserves a Stanley Cup we should be able to win three out of four games. If we are good enough to win it we should be able to beat Dallas 3 out of 4 games. If not, we are not good enough to win it. Personally, I still think we are. This is a little bit of adversity. It is still a race to four wins. We win the game Tuesday night, that changes the whole complex again.

LINDY RUFF: Well, they have got -- every guy is willing to lay down the -- they have got a special breed there that they all are willing to risk injury to save a goal. Then there is some players that can do it, some don't, but they have got a lot of players that do.

LINDY RUFF: He is not hurt at all. That line, as a whole, hasn't got much done for us offensively which has hurt us with the amount they have been playing. That is why the odd time we tried to switch that line-up a little bit in putting Rasmussen on it. He has played a lot. Is he worn down? I think there is a lot of players that are a little bit worn down. We were hoping that youth and everything else was going to be on our side, but I think sometimes a cagey veteran knows how to conserve energy. They keep their shifts shorter. They are better at conserving a little bit of that energy than some of the younger guys. We are worn down, they are a little worn down, but there is no time for worn down right now.

LINDY RUFF: We have tried -- last night I think you could see we juggled lines. We put Satan in different places, put Sanderson in different places. We tried to open things up and Geoff obviously did skate pretty well so we put him in a couple of different places. Obviously Satan is a big issue. We need Miro, obviously we need him scoring, but we tried to free him up. I know that every time he comes on the ice you are looking at Hatcher and Matvichuk, so a lot of times slip on a different line. Hatcher is playing 30 minutes a game, so you know, it is tough to get him away from that defensive pair and as soon as you do put him out there, Hatcher comes right out. That is their best pair. He is going to have to fight his way through it and if that pair is up against him, then the other line has got to do a job for us.