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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLAMES v LIGHTNING

May 28, 2004

Darryl Sutter

CALGARY, ALBERTA: Practice Day

Q. How surprised were you that both rinks were sold out for last night's game or does anything surprise you what is happening here?
DARRYL SUTTER: You mean our building here, too?
Q. Yes.
DARRYL SUTTER: I think that's pretty fabulous. I think that you know, it tells you how our city and how Alberta is excited about it and wants to watch it and get out and have a good time with it. Heck, my wife was on 17th last night. Serious.
(LAUGHTER) Lucky I beat her home, eh? Experience, a lot of these people think they may never have it again to be able to do that. I am sure they just want to be -- pretty neat.
Q. You talked about Vincent Lecavalier last night. When you look at him play, and I just wonder as a coach, do you try to focus on a player or on a line or you say to your guys, "let them go"?
DARRYL SUTTER: Well, they have two, I mean they are more than Vincent Lecavalier. He had a big game last night, but they have two very high-octane lines. I think that's where he was so good last night. What was overlooked, and after you watch it was he dominated us in the faceoffs and the night before especially wasn't as effective. When you have the puck, it's a lot easier to play the game.
Q. Were you surprised by, first of all, how tight the officials called the game last night and how much do you think discipline will be a factor the rest of the series considering that?
DARRYL SUTTER: I didn't think they called it that tight. I thought they missed some obvious calls in Game 1 and I think last night there was some strange calls.
Q. Can you talk about the tempers flaring in the third, and is that a good thing for both teams? Good thing for your team?
DARRYL SUTTER: It's a series. What do you think you are supposed to do, pat each other on the back when you beat each other or what? It's like what Jarome said after the game, two games in, it's about time some guys decided they are upset about who they are playing against.
Q. The Lightning has been a very good road team in the playoffs. What does your team need to do to make sure that you take advantage of the home ice?
DARRYL SUTTER: We haven't played them at home yet in the playoffs and, you know, I don't really dwell on it or put too much into past series or anything like that. I think that we have played them twice and now we get to play them at home. I don't put a whole -- quite honest, I have been asked a lot about this home-ice deal and all that. The only area that it was big, or if it has any impact, is if a team is trying to get matchups. They use a really short bench with their forward and they use all their D. You know, I don't know how important that matchup is going to be.
Q. Can you talk about the role of Andrew Ference, how much ice he's getting now, the role he took last night?
DARRYL SUTTER: Well, he's playing a lot of minutes and give him credit, he's a small man with a big heart, and he's playing a lot of minutes because we need Jordan Leopold to play better for us to have a chance to win this series. So I don't know if Jordan hit 20 minutes in either game. We certainly need more than that. With the injuries to Gauthier and Lydman, we can't afford to have anybody not maxing out their game. I think Andrew's given us all he can.
Q. Coach, can you talk about the fact that Tampa Bay chose to use power on power last night when it was five-on-five and their forecheck, were they effective in jumping on top of your team instead of usually Calgary forechecking?
DARRYL SUTTER: I don't know. 1-nothing going into the third period. I don't know how much 5-on-5's there were going into the third. I think there's a lot of a spin on special teams going to the third, so I don't think that -- I didn't think that it was a big impact or made a big difference in the game.
Q. Skilled players for, say, Vancouver for Detroit, I don't think they met the Flames with physical play. Their skill guys, the way the skill guys from Tampa maybe met you with some physical play last night, skill guys fighting back playing your game, is that a key for them?
DARRYL SUTTER: Sure it is. Hey, they are young guys they play hard that's how they got to this point. You don't win the Eastern Conference by accident. There's some big strong teams over there that they stared down and shot down. You get into those stereotypes where everybody thinks, well, this team is just a fast team or skilled team or skating team, whatever, but what gets overlooked, and the same thing with ours, everybody thinks that you are not a fast team; you are just a physical team and you know, I think once you see them play consistently, you know that you are able to play any way the other team wants. Tampa is certainly capable of that.
Q. Is that part of the reason you guys have made it where you are because you have eliminated a lot of those skilled guys? The Sedins never found their game against you. A lot of Detroit's shooters never found their game --
DARRYL SUTTER: I thought the Sedins, as the series went on, the Sedins and Morris were their best players. The key is still is what you allow and that's how we got to this point is shutting those top guys down, those elite players. We have to do a better job of that. At the same time, shutting them down is not-on-your-heels, neutral-zone game for us. It's top guys playing against top guys and outplaying top guys and then trying to play as much time as you can in their zone.
Q. Feature question for you, that's the impact that the fans and just the craziness of the city, is it a distraction or does it help?
DARRYL SUTTER: No, I think -- I don't think it's a distraction anymore at all. I think it's great for everybody. I think that -- I said that in the first series that we played, you know, being able to go to Vancouver and seeing how great their fans were, you know, I think that kind of got ours going too, that matchup Vancouver-Calgary, our fans have been great it's not just the Calgary fans it's a hockey fan now.
Q. Is there a difference in terms of the fever that's going on in Calgary? It seems much different than the fever in other cities. What is special about Calgary and the fans?
DARRYL SUTTER: Well, you got to remember Calgary is in Canada. It's our game. They are going to get excited. If it was -- hey, if Edmonton was in the Stanley Cup Final, I'd be excited -- I'd be one of the Albertans that was pulling for them and excited about it. So it's part of the deal, I think. It's great for them to be able to experience this in late May, early June.
Q. Will you tell something special to Prime Minister Martin later this afternoon to have this team going on?
DARRYL SUTTER: No.
(LAUGHTER).
Q. Did everything last night at the end indicate to you sort of the feeling-out period is over. These teams are --
DARRYL SUTTER: I think they are starting to be carryovers. I think there was incidents in Game 1 that were overlooked by everybody outside, that doesn't get overlooked in the locker rooms. I think that there were incidents in the game last night that once it got to be a 3-goal game, that they became more highlighted for both teams. I think that both teams were smart enough to recognize the importance of the games and what the scores are, but that's what a series is about. I don't think -- I am sure there will be more of it.
Q. At this point in this marathon there's often there's not too much difference between the two teams. They can come out one fired up one night, one fired up the next night. They talk about, you know, winning the game in the early parts, like the first-goal-wins sort of thing. Can you tell me what you do as a coach to try to ensure that that intensity level is up as high as it be can be?
DARRYL SUTTER: I think once you get to this point -- not I think, I know once you get to this point that, you know, there's a huge -- there's a real balance of composure and intensity, and when you see somebody that plays really well, he's handling that really well. It's not that he's really emotional or anything like that. He's just got a good balance of being able to handle the pressure in sort of the eye of the storm. When guys don't play well -- bottom line is, when guys don't play well in big games, and these are obviously all big games, is that they don't handle pressure very well. They either have to have somebody pull them along or they need reinforcement or they need to be surrounded by two or three other players, you know. It's funny because you heard some of the Tampa guys saying after Game 1, then you heard our guys talking about it after Game 2. Quite honest till they go through these experiences, they are not really even know themselves how they are going to handle it. So they are learning about it. You kind of just deal with it. I think quite honest, most of our young players have handled it pretty well. I think some of our older players can handle it a hell of a lot better.
Q. Kiprusoff has played very well after losses. What about him enables him to that?
DARRYL SUTTER: I thought he played really well last night, too, you know. I think the breakaway goal, or breakaway save that he made was a key point of the game. I think that he, you know, when it's 1-nothing going into third, he's probably kept it a one-goal game, you know, made some big ones. So he rolls with it. I think that you know, I thought about it, too when it was 4-nothing last night, about taking him out and giving him the ten minutes or so extra, but he recovers. He regroups. He watches a lot. He works with his goaltending coach a lot, and he just stays focused kind of on the moment; not on -- you know, you learn from the past, but he really deals with what is going on really well.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports.
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Coach Sutter - 5.28.04
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...when all is said, we're done(
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