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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLAMES v LIGHTNINGJune 6, 2004Dave AndreychukDarryl SydorTAMPA, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. Dave, I think you answered already the question last night, but in 24 hours it's going to be quite special for you, your teammates, but can you talk about what is on your mind right now? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: Well, obviously we are trying to concentrate on one thing, of going into that Game 7 and playing the games of our live. For us, we have given ourselves a chance by winning in Calgary and by no means is it going to be easy just because we are at home. I think we have to realize that. That's what we're concentrating on now is that stopping this little streak of not winning two in a row. Q. Is it more the -- (inaudible)? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: For me, I can't speak for anybody but for me my family has been here with me right from the beginning so it's more nerve-wracking for them. It's not as if I have had any plans of trying to get them here or get some friends here. They have been here right from the start. I am ready for them to leave (LAUGHTER). But they are ready, so it's been easy for me. Q. This is your 11th Game 7 I believe of your career, something like 4 and 6. When it comes down to that last game how do you temper that emotion, stay focused, especially in your case, you have heard it over and over again about how many games you have played without Stanley Cup? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: Well, I think you know, for myself, you know, I believe the Game 7s are the games that you remember, those are the game s -- obviously this will be a game that you are going to remember for a long time because it's in the Finals but you know, the lesson that I tried to talk about before our Philly Game 7 was no matter whether you are at home or on the road, you know, it's one game, and anything can happen. I think that's the attitude we have to take into this game is that we have to have our best game for us just -- no matter -- just because we're at home. Q. Jarome Iginla just said he was very unhappy with the way he played last night. Seemed like you guys took a lot more time and space away from him or were much more aggressive with him. Was that true and do you think it was effective? DARRYL SYDOR: I don't think so. I don't think we have played him any other way. Myself, I had cracks too, I wasn't totally happy with my game. I wasn't totally happy with the third period but our team won. We haven't changed the way we are playing against him or any of the teammates. We just want to go out and play a good solid game and give ourselves a chance and we were able to. We weren't happy with giving two leads up but we knew we had to dig down deep and come out. But individually I think our team you know, we got it done. So that's what we are excited about. Q. Darryl, most of your teammates can only imagine what it's like to win the Final game and get the Stanley Cup. You know what it's like. What it's like and what sticks with you from an experience like that? DARRYL SYDOR: Well, you know, it's something that you can't really describe, but I think we have seen a lot of the same -- I have seen a lot of the same things with our team as we have made this journey to the Final game. It's like an old dream and everybody is starting to realize I think what it's going to take to win, but to win that Final game, the team really has to come out, both teams are desperate, it's winner-take-all, you know. I heard their players saying six months ago if they had an opportunity with one game to win the Stanley Cup, you know, the same with this team in January and December, so I kind of came in late and enjoyed this ride, but I think these guys it's really special for, and I think the thing is to control our emotion. I think that has been our downfall here is we want to do so well and get it done. I think sometimes less is more. I think that's what we really have to do. Q. Can you talk about the play of Brad Richards, how he had a pretty uncanny knack of being at the right place at the right time when you need a big goal? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: Well, I think that this all started last Playoffs. He waited a year to come back to prove to everybody and prove to himself that he could play. He was not happy with his playoff performance the year before. But obviously he stepped it up this year. I think he's talked about his game-winning goals and the record, sometimes you get a goal and it ends up being the game-winning goal. It's not always a go-ahead goal that wins it. But this is a guy that has a lot of past for the game and it's coming through right now in his playoff performance. The way that he -- his determination in trying to get the job done, the pressure that he puts on himself, to carry our team, and it's a sign of a great player. Q. Why do you think it's been so difficult to win consecutive games here in the last couple of rounds especially for your team? DARRYL SYDOR: Stanley Cup Playoffs, you know, anything can happen. If you want to pick apart the games, that's just the way it is. We have to put two together to win. We knew that. We gave ourself a chance last night and that's all it is. But we have to come and play a hard 60 minutes or whatever it's going to take. If it's going to take 120 minutes, who knows. But if you look at the other series really it's kind of been back and forth too. It was kind of back and forth with Philly with us. It's just -- there hasn't been highs and hasn't been lows with our team. I think that has been a strong thing is that we have been able to really focus on the next day, but that's what we're doing today is focusing on today because yesterday is old news and tomorrow is a new day. Q. Dave, Ray Bourque is a good friend of yours, you have known him for a lock time. Talk about what his message meant last night to the team and as a follow-up to that, if you won tomorrow night would you like to kind of ride off into the sunset like he did? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: (Laughs) I guess I will make that decision whether I am going to ride off tomorrow. I think with Ray, I am not the only one that he knows on this team. Obviously he knows Tim Taylor from playing with him. I talked about this last night, is that I can just picture him on the other end of the line still feeling that adrenaline, still trying to lead a team. Just the things that he said, it touched me a lot because of here's a guy that I respected a lot; not only as a player, but as a person. A lot of the guys in that room I am sure felt the same way, that this is a guy that took some time out of his day to call us to tell us that it was possible. That he was in the same situation. So hopefully I will talk to him tomorrow night.
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