NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

May 26, 2001

Joe Sakic

JOE SAKIC: I don't know. I think obviously they weren't at their best and we came out ready to play. We had our legs, the line was moving and moving the puck and I think the key is real effective in the neutral zone, when you try and make things too cute, and we tried to use their speed wide and we had some opportunities.

JOE SAKIC: We were excited before the game. We really prepared ourselves pretty well this week and I mean, you have to take the play to them. They have got a great hockey team, if you let them come to you, then they are going to do some damage. Everybody had their legs, it was total team effort, everybody made the smart plays, Patty made some huge saves, it was a total team effort tonight and obviously next game is a huge game. We know we saw them probably play one of their worse games in the Playoff, we expect that they are going to be a lot better next game.

CHRIS DRURY: That was a great pass. It was an all-around pretty good play, Klemm made a great dump, Nieminen was in there, a little cycle, gives it to Hinote, he makes a great pass. I caught a break. I think it hit someone's knee, it went in. But those two guys really made the play.

JOE SAKIC: It is always good to have a couple of days off this time of year. A lot of guys have bumps and bruises and the more time the better.

CHRIS DRURY: Yeah, before the series, Game 5, I thought it was our lines' best night in that series. The more we play together, I think the better we feel together. I think we will keep getting better and, keep doing little things good, keep it simple, we are not too flashy and just keep things simple.

JOE SAKIC: Hopefully not. I mean, we know they are going to be better and we have to keep doing the same things. I think the key for our team like I mentioned is neutral zone play against that team. Like I said, they are so good at their transition, they have a lot of speed and a lot of scorers up front that can capitalize. We watched the tapes of Pittsburgh and I mean ,Pittsburgh turned the puck over a lot and let them skate and if we can keep doing the simple plays and get it behind their "D" and not let them use their transition, hopefully we will be well off.

JOE SAKIC: Not really. Maybe they will now try and get him out against our line, but obviously they are on the road. I think as any team when you are on the road you don't want to be mixing or trying to change your lines all the time. It disrupts your flow. The other lines that they have, I mean, all their lines can play well defensively.

JOE SAKIC: First one I had some good speed going down on the right side. Milan stepped up, Blakey made a great pass to him. He just got it over to me where I was able to just keep my speed. I just went wide. I tried to go far side and kind of missed it, but fortunately went 5 hole and the other one I was really looking to see Alex and look for the pass and he just went to the net and I really don't know what happened, I was going to shoot, and I saw him go down, Stevens, I just went to the middle and just waited it out and obviously Brodeur, he didn't see that shot.

JOE SAKIC: When you play with the guys for a couple of years you tend to know where one another is going to be. Don't worry I was yelling for that puck, so he knew I was there.

JOE SAKIC: It was important I mean for everybody to have a good game, try and get off to a big win. We have home-ice advantage, the one thing you want to do is get off to a good start and try and set the tone and try and get that first win, especially at home. We did that, hopefully we can do the same thing in Game 2.

JOE SAKIC: I mean, we watched the other series and we saw what Toronto did and what they tried to do. It was totally different from Pittsburgh. Toronto used their speed and just tried to get in -- get a good forecheck and crash the net. That's something you didn't see with Pittsburgh, so yeah, we definitely wanted to try and play the same way Toronto did. I mean, it's only one game, we know they are going to be a lot better. It is not going to get any easier, but we just want to keep trying and play the same way.

End of FastScripts….