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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLAMES v LIGHTNING

June 5, 2004

John Tortorella

CALGARY, ALBERTA: Game Six

Q. Any comment on the change in the referee?
JOHN TORTORELLA: No.
Q. Do you feel that Coach Sutter has been rewarded at all for his complaining about Fraser?
JOHN TORTORELLA: I don't have any comment. Sorry, JP.
Q. First goal of the game of course is always important even during the regular season. Anything particular about these two teams where the first goal just seems insurmountable?
JOHN TORTORELLA: No, I don't think so. I think if you start thinking that way it's the wrong approach. You guys have all those stats and I am not sure what they are, what the percentages are, but it doesn't change our approach as far as what we're going to try to do. I think what happens is it's a mindset with players. You got a goal scored on and that's something you have to fight through to try to keep in your mind, at least as our situation is concerned is to keep attacking. Sometimes it plays with you there and you got to find it as quick as you can. So, again, that's part of it. You got to fight through and try to regain the lead, tie it up and regain the lead.
I asked one of our guys during the season when a team scores the first goal, I'd like to know what the differences are in percentages when you end up at the end of the first period down 1-nothing, versus tying that game up in the first period. I think it was Damian. It's a pretty interesting thing. You guys should do your homework on that as far as tying it up within the first period. I am not sure if that answers your question.
Q. Give us a sense of the mood of your team this morning? How would you characterize the mood?
JOHN TORTORELLA: We're fine.
Q. A couple of the Flames said that at this point in the Playoffs they are way beyond physical aches and pains in the sense that it's all upstairs at this point. Do you agree with that when you talk about battles and toughness?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Oh, I think it's even -- as the first round starts I think mental toughness is the most important element as far as Playoffs are concerned. Both teams are banged up. Both teams are hiding injuries. That's whereas I believe it's all about the players. I have a tremendous amount of respect for both teams getting this far and what these players have to do. You guys don't know. You think you do. But you don't know what these players have to go through. I am not just talking about the Tampa Bay Lightning; I am talking about the Calgary Flames. You don't know. To be with them and go through four rounds, I have nothing but respect for the athletes. That's why it's about the athletes.
Q. After the hard loss other night did your leaders and key people step up, right off the bat to redo the moral or did you have to do some of rebuilding yourself?
JOHN TORTORELLA: No, there wasn't -- it wasn't too complicated as far as resetting things. We know where we're at. But it's still a series and we're not dead yet. We feel we are a good club so it's a matter of a two-and-a-half hour segment here, a 60-minute hockey game, to find a way to win. Then you have a Game 7. So at this stage of the game, the getting down when you lose and worrying about being too high when you win, I think I will speak for our club, we have matured in that area. We know where we're at after each game. We just go about doing our things in our locker room and just getting prepared for the next day.
Q. I know winning the Stanley Cup obviously would mean a lot to any player but can you talk about what it might mean to a guy like Dave Andreychuk who has been in the League for so long?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Well, he's a player, and every player wants to win it. I don't think win or lose, anything changes in what this guy is to this game. He's a Hall-of-Famer. I think there's some of the young core that he's been with for the past few years I think there's a little bit of sentiment of trying to get it done to have him get that done. But it doesn't override our locker room. Dave Andreychuk will not allow it to override the locker room. He knows the reason why we're here at this stage is because you play as a team, you do everything as a team. So when it's all said and done and if you win it that's a nice story, but it's not a story within it right now. It's when it all over, I am sure, you are going to talk about it that way.
Q. You keep a simple philosophy, it has worked game by game. But going into this game tonight do you even break it down into faceoff to faceoff, 34-second shift by shift, line by line --
JOHN TORTORELLA: Whoa, whoa, whoa, you have got it way to complicated, Chip.
Q. That's not keeping it simple?
JOHN TORTORELLA: To me that's too complicated for me. This is about we know who the Flames are. They know who we are. Our mindset here is that again, and I am not trying to be cute about this, we don't have the same type of pressure that the Flames have tonight, for tonight's game, Game 6. We don't. As I said in the first question, we feel good, we're loose. What the hell, it's a hockey game that we're going to try to win. That's the only way you have to approach it is do the things that we do, don't get too convoluted in your thinking, and let's just go out and play, have a little bit of fun here. That's the approach you have to have. At least that's the approach we're going into it with. The meeting tonight, it's going to be pretty short and we have already discussed how we're handling our preparation coming into tonight's game. Not too much has to be said.
Q. Can you discuss the role of special teams that have played in this series so far and what you expect -- how key will it be in the remainder of the series?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Oh, again, you have the answer to that. Special teams are very important within a Playoffs series. At times Calgary have been good at both of theirs. At times we have. We score a goal the other night here to win the game and it stands 1-nothing. So it's important then. But when you talk about special teams, I think I have a funny feeling, I don't think there's going to be too much special teams tonight in tonight's game. I think as the series goes along further the teams play and I think the referees allow you to play. So how they come into effect tonight, we'll see. But that's just part of each team's team concept. You want to try to be better than the other team. That's the way we approach it.

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