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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLAMES v LIGHTNINGMay 30, 2004John TortorellaCALGARY, ALBERTA: Practice Day Q. The trend in this series is the team that scores first wins. Talking to the players, there's been a heavy emphasis on getting that first goal in order to set the tempo. Is it possible that in a series such as this, that there could be too much emphasis leading to too much pressure to score first, and if that doesn't happen, it takes away the inability to come from behind? COACH TORTORELLA: No, I don't think there has been emphasis -- as far as the Tampa Bay Lightning is concerned, we're going out trying to play our game. First goal comes, first goal comes. It's not like we're saying -- I mean, I know the stat's out there as far as the first goal. But we always go about preparing our team for each and every game the way we always do. If you are preparing that way, sure, you'd like to score the first goal. But as far as the emphasis and all the talk about it, no, it's not really in our meetings. Our meetings are about how we're going to play. Q. Throughout these playoffs Jarome Iginla really elevated his game after he gets involved in a fight. It seemed that the fight may have taken Vinny out of his game a little bit. Did you sense any change in his demeanor, body language on the bench after that? COACH TORTORELLA: No. No. I don't think our offensive players played as well as they should have. Vinny being one of them. As far as the fight was concerned, I thought that was good stuff by Vinny. As far as that affecting his play, no. You guys will write it that way because he didn't play that well, but none of our offensive players played that well last night. But the fight had nothing to do with it. If it happened again, I think it would be terrific. Q. Oftentimes in a series you hear about apparently a team is trying to send a message. Do you think payback comes into play, your team may do something they don't like and they respond and then vice versa? COACH TORTORELLA: Where is the payback? I am not sure where you are getting at. Q. I was referring to the Cory Stillman hit on Marcus Nilson. The Flames didn't seem too happy about that. It leads to some fights and the way things finished. I wonder, Fedotenko was one of your leading goal scorers, run into the boards by Robyn Regehr, whether payback comes into play? COACH TORTORELLA: That stuff is playoff hockey. Players trying to make plays. Players trying to finish checks. No. We're not looking to pay back. We're looking to play better and looking to win a hockey game. Whatever comes, whatever we have to do to win a hockey game we'll try to do. But to focus in on a Cory Stillman hit in a fight with Ference, that's a non-issue. That's all part of the game. So again we're not focused on just one thing. We're looking to play a better game Game 4, especially from our offensive people and try to win a hockey game. Q. Darryl said earlier this morning that he cannot get into one of these run-and-gun skill games with you guys. Is it fair to say based on what we saw last night that if Calgary can take this series down to the level of a street fight, it works in their favor? COACH TORTORELLA: No. No, I think Calgary is getting more and more defensive as each game has gone by in this series, but this hockey team here, meaning our club, has won games in many different ways this year. Below the hash marks as far as our forechecking, we have won quite a few hockey games this year, as far as our transition game, we have won some games that way. But however they play, they need to do what they do. We need to play our game. It's a matter of doing it better. I know some question along the line here is what adjustment you are going to make for Game 4. Our adjustment, I will answer it right now our adjustment is simply playing better underneath the hash marks. If that's where the game is going to be played, we will play it there. We simply have to do a better job offensively than they do defensively and last night we didn't. Q. You have mentioned three times doing a better job offensively. I am going to ask Mr. Martin St. Louis. Do you worry about he might be putting too much pressure on himself or that Calgary is putting too much physical pressure on him? Do you expect him to raise his game? COACH TORTORELLA: He has to. Along with not just Marty, Vinny, Richie, Modin, Stillman, they all have to raise their game. As each game goes by, and it's not a criticism, it's not calling them out, as each game goes by in a Finals in the fourth round of playoffs, you're damn right they better raise their level. It's not one particular guy. So it doesn't matter what they are doing. It's what we do. That's the most important thing. Each one of our offensive people, has to do a better job in raising their level. Q. You have talked about how you stress this before, we cannot lose our identity. In a playoff series, was it hard -- is there a fine line between playing to the other team or playing their game and playing your game? Is that the difference? I mean do you still -- do you think you lost any of your identity last night at any point in that game? COACH TORTORELLA: No. No, I don't think we have lost our identity. We know how we want to play. That's the most important thing, how's our approach, our preparation, how we want to play. We have to do a better job of it. Last night's game, to me, I thought we played a pretty good first period coming into in an away building. I don't think our power play worked and then as the second period went on, I thought we were playing pretty well in that second period until that six-minute mark. I think we make a stupid play on a one draw on an offensive faceoff, turn it over, cost us a penalty. Then we Sid falls flat on his ass, Kuby runs to the corner for no reason and it ends up in our net. There's 1-nothing. That's when Calgary surged a bit. And they get a few chances there and Donovan scores a goal. We're trying to create some offense. And it's 2-0, but for most of that game, I thought we did some good things but we're simply not creating enough offense. Whether it be -- and there's not going to be much off the rush, the way Calgary plays and the way they are playing as each game goes by, you are not going to get much off the rush. So it has to be created through your forechecking and through holding on to the puck. That's what we have to do a better job. We will try and we will try to do it the next game to win a hockey game. That's all we're looking to do, is a win a hockey game. Q. Can you talk about Fedotenko. Was he injured last night? What is the status for tomorrow on the hit itself? COACH TORTORELLA: He's day to day. Q. Talk about the hit itself. COACH TORTORELLA: No. Q. You guys have obviously responded to some challenge getting to this point. But now we're in the Stanley Cup Final. Now you are down 2-1. A, do you wonder how they are to go respond. And B, is it the ultimate test? COACH TORTORELLA: No, I don't wonder how they are going to respond. I know they will respond the right way. Any time you are in the Finals, it's the ultimate challenge. I think every game is the ultimate challenge. I am not sure if that answers your second question, but I know how our hockey team is going to respond. I have no question about that. Q. There's been a lot of talk so far about offense, but your goalie has been carrying you a lot this post-season. I wonder if you can talk about what he's meant to you since you took over in Tampa? You went out and got him, you knew him from Phoenix, how well he's playing this time of year. COACH TORTORELLA: Nik's played well. If you are going to be playing in the Stanley Cup Finals, your goaltender better be your best player or you won't have a chance. So Nik played very well for us. That's why we're here. And that's why Calgary is here, because Kiprusoff has played very well. That's just part and parcel as far as what you should be doing to get to the fourth round. Q. Do you have any idea why your team has alternated wins and losses for the last 10 games? COACH TORTORELLA: No. Q. Does it concern you at all? COACH TORTORELLA: No. Q. One of those things that happens? COACH TORTORELLA: No. (LAUGHTER). I don't know. You guys know, and all of us know there's such a fine line between winning and losing. I know you see it is a 3-0 game last night, Holy Christ, Tampa Bay got beat up again and they were outworked this, that and the other thing. I don't buy that. I think there's so many things that go into it and I thought the game was a closer game than a three-nothing score, but they simply got it done. And the whole key in the playoffs is to try to keep that momentum, and we have not been able to do that from game to game. And sometimes I think both teams have struggled within the game itself. That's the key to winning a seven-game series, is how long you can keep it on your side. If we're able to do it back-to-back games, you know, you'd be in a pretty good position here. But we just haven't been able to do it. But it's -- we'll be there. We'll be there tomorrow night. Q. When you say your top offensive players have to be better, is there something you do tactically to make them better or do you simply point the finger at them and say, you guys have got to work harder? COACH TORTORELLA: I am not pointing the finger at them. I am just stating that our offensive people, you know as well as I do that the way this team is, the way we play, your offensive people have to be your best players. Your best players have to be your best players for both teams. As far as tactics, there are some things we have talked about. We had our meeting today and looked at some tape. I think it's not so much adjustments. I think it's doing things better in certain areas. I will leave it at that. It's not major adjustments. You were not going to get this club into throwing up their hands and trying to do 10 different things and work some trickery. There's no trickery in this game. It's a matter of defining and evaluating. We had another meeting today with our tape and we're evaluating where we felt where our weakest part of our game was. We evaluated it and we have to correct that. That's the way we're going to go about it.
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