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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLAMES v LIGHTNINGJune 2, 2004Vincent LecavalierBrad RichardsTAMPA, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. Your reaction to Nieminen's suspension? VINCENT LECAVALIER: I got no comment. It is out of my -- I didn't make the decisions, so I am fine. That's it. Q. You say you are fine, did you have any reaction that night to the hit? How long did it take you to kind of get your wits about yourself? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Obviously, it took a couple of minutes for sure. I mean, I was on the ice and of course I was a little dizzy, but half an hour after the game I felt fine. No headaches, nothing. I feel great. Q. Can you talk about Brad's maturity as a player since the two of you guys played together at Rimouski? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Actually we played in Notre Dame and Saskatchewan even before that at 14, so I have known him for a long time. Maturity, every year has gone -- he has gotten better, even when I got here in '98, when he came in 2000, I knew that he's always brought up his game whenever needed to. He won the Memorial Cup in juniors. He's a leader and he adapts to the game very good. So very quick and he did that right away and he got 60 points his first season, so you know, from there he took off. Q. Do you have any reaction to the suspension of Nieminen? BRAD RICHARDS: No. It's not really in my control and we're just worried about Game 5. Q. What about the physicality of the series, has it taken its toll? Obviously the Philly series was also a tough series physically for your team. That's basically 11 games in a row now where the other team is trying to pound the something out of you. Is that taking its toll on you guys? BRAD RICHARDS: No, we're 2-2 in the Finals. And we have had to bounce back after losses both times. So I don't -- if it's taken its toll, then you know, we're in the wrong spot. We have got three games, possible three games for the rest of our season, so I think it's pretty short-term, we're all going to be as healthy as you can be this time of year and adrenaline and all that stuff is going to there. We'll be fine. Q. Your being fine, does that translate into you playing Game^ 5? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Oh yeah, of course, yeah. Q. Most teams don't bother practicing the five on three very much, especially in the Playoffs. Have you guys been working on it? BRAD RICHARDS: Islanders and Montreal series we did because we had nine days in between series. We had to work on something, we haven't lately but we have worked on it enough during the year if we do get one we know what we're doing. No, it's nothing we focus on everyday. Q. Maybe both of you can comment on this: As players, do you discuss or is it an item of concern to you at all the incidents of number of blows to the head occurring in hockey now? Do you ever discuss it? Do you ever think it should be dealt within some fashion? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Well, the League is dealing with it so and we know, you know, they are doing an effort to do that. BRAD RICHARDS: You never want to see anybody have a blow to the head or anything dangerous. But that -- it happens in hockey a lot and the League tries to do as best they can every year it seems, there is some kind of incidents, but that's really -- we can't really control any of that. Q. We have seen a lot of different elements to your game in the last two weeks, last couple of games. Tortorella talked about how it was a maturation process. Can you discuss that and what these Playoffs have been to you? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Obviously I have never been in those situations before and I don't know, I mean, anytime I remember in the Playoffs in juniors, you know, I was with Brad and we all elevated our game. We all were playing physical and I knew that coming into the series and against the Islanders, which, you know, I didn't produce much and I knew that if I'd be even more physical then I would help the team in another way as much as I could and then things started to turnaround. I'm starting to produce a little bit more. And I just think that it's important. It is important that everybody, you know, does a little bit more than their role. And that's why we're here, where we're at right now. It's because Brad Richards is playing physical. It's because a couple of our D that don't score often, well they get a big goal. That's why where we're at right now. Q. Are you seeing things that you didn't know existed? Are you findings things in your game that you didn't know were there? VINCENT LECAVALIER: No, I think I have always been pretty physical. Obviously, like I said in the Playoffs, everything is being taken to another level. I think the intensity -- I am not talking about myself, talking about everybody's intensity levels is just a lot higher and both of our teams, if you watch a game from regular season to now, both teams are a lot more physical, you know. Q. Facing the Flames without Nieminen in the lineup, who is considered one of their top defensive forwards? BRAD RICHARDS: Well, it's the team you are facing, not one player, and we just got to prepare for Calgary. They are very good on the road. Just because we have home ice two out of three doesn't mean anything. We got to treat it like a Game 7 because they have shown they can come in and win Game 5s on the road. They have done it every series, so that's what we're worried about. Q. Obviously the Philly series was very physical. This series has been getting very physical. Is there a fine line where guys are trying to win at all costs and crossing that line, and have you seen this series getting that way overall? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Yeah, everybody wants to win. They want to do all they can, you know, I am not going to talk about the incidents, I think both teams are playing very hard to achieve their goals. That's it. Both teams are playing physical. Both teams are playing very well. We have to step up our game and try to win tomorrow and but, you know, both teams are working really hard. Q. Both of you comment on this please: In the last game you won it but the Flames had numerous scoring opportunities, wide open guys in the slot. Is that something that you have seen on tape and you want to change for tomorrow night? BRAD RICHARDS: Yeah, we're going to look at tape here in a little bit and sometimes it's ugly when you win games, you have to do that. We just had to find a way to win Game 4. We had different guys in the lineup and line combinations, everything was different, but we just tried to find a way to win and that's all that matters. We'll look at some tape and see what we can fix, but we just had to get through that game with a win. VINCENT LECAVALIER: Like Brad said, I mean, there's nothing really a lot more to say. It wasn't, you know, a pretty game for us, you know. I think we're going to look at tape today and see things that, you know, that we did wrong obviously, odd-man rushes, and a couple at the beginning of the game that could have hurt us. But we got the win. It was a huge game for us. We're going to look at the tape today and say, you know what, we can do a lot better and we can, if we correct these things, it's really going to help us for Game 5. Q. You talked about the team bouncing back. Definitely your goaltender Khabibulin has done that every time after a loss. Even after during the season they didn't know if he'd be the starter coming into the Playoffs. Talk about him and how he's bounced back and become your leader here. BRAD RICHARDS: Yeah, he's playing at the top of his game since probably a month and a half, two months, even coming down the last few games of the regular season, he was starting to really pick it up. He knew he had to raise his level. I think he had something, a chip on his shoulder and wanted to prove why he's here an why he's the No. 1 goalie. He's done a great job. He's consistent every game and I don't think he had a bad game in Game 3, but he made sure that we got the win with a shutout. Q. Back to the line combinations, since your days together at Notre Dame and Rimouski, you have played a lot together. It's not insignificant that you would start a Stanley Cup Final on the same line. If you could both talk about that and Brad, the adjustment that was necessary that you had to open on the left side and then how you both feel that it worked? BRAD RICHARDS: Well, obviously, ten years we have been together, playing together, so exciting in the Stanley Cup Final. I have played wing with him a lot over ten years. That's not a big deal. Obviously I'd rather play center. It is just more comfortable for me. But we knew that our lineup there might be some different things thrown at us, and it was exciting. To play with Vinny and Marty, no matter who you are, you know, you are going to get the puck and have some good chances. I think we played well on both sides of the puck. Didn't last too long but we did the job we had to do to start the game. VINCENT LECAVALIER: Like Richie said, I know he's more comfortable at center, but once we get in that zone, you know, doesn't matter if you are center, wing or we know where each other is and we feel real comfortable playing with each other, even though we haven't in the last couple of years because we have been on different lines. It seems that every time we go out there we just know where we're at and it's a lot of fun playing with him. Q. On the hit was your chin strap buckled, and if so, any way of putting it any tighter or do you feel there's any need of having it any tighter? VINCENT LECAVALIER: It was fine. It was buckled. Q. The way this series has gone, it doesn't seem that there's any such thing as a home-ice advantage and it's more a question of who scores the first goal. Is that how you guys are approaching this game, is to get that first goal? BRAD RICHARDS: You definitely want it. You don't score a goal, like last game, you don't score a goal, whatever it was three minutes in, and say, okay we got this. Game is over. You want the first goal. That trend is probably going to break sometime, and it's definitely a big lift. Still might not happen, you know, and you got to find a way to get it done. If it doesn't, you can't just -- it is there and put your head down.
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