NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SABRES v STARS

June 8, 1999

Lindy Ruff

LINDY RUFF: I think there has been a looseness about our team throughout the Playoffs. I think we are young. I think it is important for our team to have fun this time of the year. The less uptight we are the better we are going to play.

LINDY RUFF: I think it is only natural to be a little nervous before the big game. If you are not nervous you are not ready. We are going to be a little bit nervous. I know I will be a little bit nervous but once the puck drops, I think after the first five or ten minutes everything will kind of settle down.

LINDY RUFF: Well, I think it is going to be really a series that is going to be dictated by the amount of turnovers through the neutral zone and how well we can forecheck. I have said it all along that probably Dallas is the best team through the neutral zone. They have proved they are the stingiest team defensively and then they are good on transition if we turn it over. So we are going to have to find some way to get through them and create some opportunities for checking.

LINDY RUFF: I think that is the one benefit of nine days off. We gave some players extra days off and obviously Miro came back in the Toronto series, wasn't quite 100% but feels a lot better now. And, for Dominik, I think we gave him three days completely off. He had a couple of days where he didn't take any shots, just went through his routine and I think it should be better for him.

LINDY RUFF: I don't ask him how he feels.

LINDY RUFF: He has been cleared to play, so he is ready to play.

LINDY RUFF: I think it is great for our team because we don't have a choice. We have started on the road in every series so far and we have played well on the road. I think our record on the record is 5 and 3 through the Playoffs. I think with all the buzz around home and all the expected relatives and family members to be around I think it is good. I think we would be more nervous at home and we have an opportunity here to come and steal the game then go back to our building.

LINDY RUFF: After last year I don't know if you all realized it, the last Playoff game of the year we scratched Miro; just a healthy scratch. In conversations with Miro, before training camp and before he was signed, he felt that if he was more involved in the game and didn't have to sit there for eight or nine minutes at a time, that he'd be a better player. He felt he could kill penalties. He said he could kill penalties before coming to the NHL. In return I wanted somebody that would compete harder in all situations defensively, No. 1, and then offensively after that. I think he gave me the competitiveness on the defensive side of the game and I gave him the responsibility of killing penalties in more important situations and even playing in the last minutes of hockey games. Both sides have been rewarded.

LINDY RUFF: Well, I think this focus for our hockey team, let's not kid anybody, Modano is a great player. We are going to try to get Peca against Modano. I know that Ken Hitchcock is going to do his best to try and keep him away or double-shift him. Somebody else is going to have to play against him part of the time. We have got Primeau who played against Yashen in the Ottawa series and did a great job. We may use him some of the time. But you can't get or hope to get more than one matchup. We are playing on the road. We are going to try to dictate play. That doesn't mean changing on the fly and pulling plays off the ice. So if we get the match-up, great. If it looks like it is hurting us in some ways we will start changing on the fly.

LINDY RUFF: It is going to affect our speed. I don't think there is any doubt there. By the same time it is going to affect their speed a little bit. I think they have tailored their game a little bit to the fact that the ice breaks down. We have to tailor ours to it and adapt in a hurry. I mentioned turnovers through the neutral zone, I think you have got to make the high percentage play. You can't make the hope-you-put-it-through-two-people-,-chip-it-up-the-wall and win the one-on-ones.

LINDY RUFF: I think I looked at the penalty situation as both teams can be very disciplined and both teams can play very mean and physical. That leads to a lot of penalties at times. Tonight at the end of the night the powerplays are 5-5 or 3-3, whatever it is I am going to be happy because seems like we have got the bulk of the penalties going into this Final series and they are pretty physical team on the back end and we are going to try to be physical on our back end. What ends up getting called you hope it ends up even.

LINDY RUFF: I think maybe after 10 or 12 games (laughs) then maybe after 20 games. But I think the one thing that was important to Stu was just to keep working. He had kind of endeared himself to the fans in how hard he worked and the effort he put into the game and the chances were there. Helping create chances. The puck wasn't going into the net so, there were games his ice time got lessened, the fact he wasn't scoring led to that, but any game where he was creating and was a big plus the ice time went up again. You have got to give him credit. He kept at it and he has been a big factor in the Playoffs for us.