NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: MIGHTY DUCKS v DEVILS

June 9, 2003

Scott Stevens

SCOTT STEVENS: No, nothing at all, just congratulating them, playing great. I give them a lot of credit. They never quit and they made it very difficult for us.

SCOTT STEVENS: Well, he's an old-style coach. He demands a lot from us and kept us on an even keel here. At the start of the year we were not sure what we had after we lost some players. Pat came in and made sure we were ready for every game. We never got too high or too low and we never had any bad losing streaks. He deserves a lot of credit. He kept us going. He pushed us. He hates to lose, loves to win, and you know what, that's what you need these days. He's been a great coach.

SCOTT STEVENS: This is so hard to win, and I never would have thought this would have happened again, but we started at the year and we built and worked hard as a team and we've got a lot of character and guys worked hard together. All year we found a way to win. It was never easy for us to win all the games we won; we had 108 points, but all of those were close games and hard-fought games. Once again, we found a way to win and we found a way to win this last game of the year.

SCOTT STEVENS: There's so many guys I would have liked to have given it to first. During the game it was just about Scott, the ice time he logged and I thought he was key in this win and he's played well in the whole series. I wanted him to have the Cup. I wanted Kenny to have it but he got it third. I really wanted Scott Niedermayer to have that Cup next.

SCOTT STEVENS: Well, he's a big guy. He's got great hands in front of the net. That's where he gets a lot of his goals with his reach and his strength and his size. It was not easy for him to come in here and do what he had to do. He had not played for a long time but he gave us a good boost when we needed it, especially with Joe Nieuwendyk out.

SCOTT STEVENS: I think it lingered more for the guys that had never won a Cup. Not that it's easy to lose a game like that, but I guess I had won a Cup, but I felt for guys like Turner Stevenson, that wanted the Cup bad. It was tough for everybody but even tougher for them. This really puts that in the past now, obviously.

SCOTT STEVENS: Yeah, he's great offense. He can play any position, he can probably play powerplay for half the teams in this league and kill penalties. He's a smart player, tenacious player, comes to work and really developed into a big leader for this hockey club. When he came at the start, he came in; he was a bit cocky and this and that, but he came into this club and he's been a big leader for us.

SCOTT STEVENS: You know it's a learning process for Jeff, but he's come in here and played very well for us all year. He's played the system and bought into the system. I think he came from a wide-open conference and he came in here and it's a little different in the East. He might have sacrificed some points, but you get championships and win games and he scored a lot of goals for us in the playoffs.

SCOTT STEVENS: That's it, his poise, and nothing bothers him. If we have a bad game as a team or things don't go well for him, you know as a team that he'll be back in the next game. It's not something to worry about as a team. People were saying in the last two games that he has to be better and I knew Marty was going to be better tonight. He's a guy that you know will bounce back from anything that goes bad. He can get his mind back on focus and get the job done. But a lot of goalies, it will be difficult for them to get out of that funk if they have a bad stretch or whatnot. He's been a big part for us, in the playoffs and all of the Cups we've won.

SCOTT STEVENS: He's a character. He's an old-style coach. He hates to lose and I'm much the same way, so I like his style. He has his ideas and his beliefs and we basically -- everything was routine. We just did the same -- everything was the same thing. We never changed our style, just tried to get people to buy into the system and throughout the season and get better at it and that's all it is. It's great to see him finally get a win, win the Stanley Cup because he's done a great job for this hockey club.