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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLAMES v SHARKSMay 8, 2004Ron WilsonDoug WilsonSAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day Q. Ron, a lot of people talking about beating Miikka Kiprusoff. Have you talked to Warrener, about what his shot thoughts or than the subject? RON WILSON: Actually not. We have a scouting report we put together. I've left all the talking actually between Wayne Thomas and Warren. Then we present some information. But our guys know Miikka. They've seen him for the last couple of years, a lot of our people every day in practice. He knows some of our shooters. But we know him. But, you know, the way teams play now, you don't even have time to think about weaknesses. You just got to find a way to get shots on goal and create enough traffic that creates a distraction on the other team's goalie. Q. Are there any weaknesses you can see on him? RON WILSON: None really, any more than Nabokov has weaknesses. Kiprusoff is a great goalie. His numbers speak for themselves. He's played great in the playoffs. I expect him to play well in the series. Q. Talking about the play of Patrick Marleau's line, they played well toward the end of the season, but have taken it to the next level in the playoffs. RON WILSON: They've taken advantage of their opportunities on the ice. I think for Pat and Niko Dimitrakos, having someone who has been -- who has won a Stanley Cup, has a lot of success in the playoffs, like Vinny Damphousse has been a real benefit to those guys. Vinny has a real sense of urgency to his game right now in the sense of he believes we really have a good chance of winning the Stanley Cup. He wants to make sure his linemates are ready every single night. They're really gathering some momentum. But we're not a one-line team. That's just the way it worked out in the last series. Patty got hot in a couple of the games. Vinny was solid throughout. Niko seems to me is one of those players who as the stakes get higher, his level of play raises. Q. Can you talk about Damphousse, where he's at in his career, what an opportunity like the one he has now maybe would mean to a guy like that? RON WILSON: Well, I mean, somewhere you're on the downside of your career. In a way, it's not a dramatic decline on Vinny's part. But we try to as much as possible, from my own past experiences, give him some time off without missing games. Vinny really is motivated to play in every single game. That's a great motivator for everybody else on our team, to have a professional like Vinny who will play with little bumps or bruises, play when he's sick. I had to find a way, without affecting how we practice as a team, take away some ice time in games. We found a way about two months ago, we put Vinny down on the fourth line for a little bit. He was struggling. Some other people were playing better. In the end, it was probably the best thing that could have happened for Vinny in terms of the right kind of rest. He's obviously very motivated. Vinny has a sense, I don't know, from his time in Montreal, he knows we're a good team. He openly says that. A player like that showing the kind of belief that he's shown in the rest of the guys, saying it every day in the dressing room, saying it in the media, I think's had a profound affect on our team playing with the confidence that you need to to get this far and to go farther. Q. Doug, can you talk, Scott Hannan really started developing, coming into his own nicely. He's been playing well for a long time, but starting to get more recognition. Talk about developments. DOUG WILSON: Scott Hannan is actually part of our defensive core that I think obviously his profile has gone up because of his performance against Forsberg. But even that I think is a little bit of a perception instead of a reality. I grew up watching the Montreal Canadiens playing the big four defensemen, playing any style. When you start taking a look at what Ron does with our team, not only at home, but on the road, where match-ups aren't a concern, you have McLaren, Rathje, Hannan, Stuart. They can play in any situation against anybody. They're big, strong, great hockey sense. Scotty has certainly picked up his game. When we saw the hockey sense that he had a couple years ago, this does not surprise us to the level he's got to. The same with the other guys, and I think -- we talked about this summer, Ron has done a brilliant job, as has the coaching staff with out goals-against, penalty killing and our road record. We're near the top of our league in those category, not just because of our goal tending, but because of our defense and the commitment of our team forwards, the overall team play. Q. You mentioned this yesterday. In your plan, you design specific, you play your own team. RON WILSON: I think any one of our six, seven or eight defensemen that we have who are ready to play can play against Jarome Iginla, Peter Forsberg or anybody. That's been our approach all year. You might see, you know, your TSN or ESPN highlights where Scotty Hannan is in a death lock or lock of horns with Peter Forsberg and think it was like that every single shift. If you watch the games, actually you'll know that Mike Rathje is in his face, Kyle McLaren, Jason Marshall, Brad Stuart, anybody who has been playing is in anybody's face. Obviously, there's going to be a little more isolation on Peter Forsberg. In this series I would expect people at ESPN and Hockey Night in Canada will have isolation cameras on a Jarome Iginla, Patty Marleau. You might get carried away thinking about what the match-ups are. Q. There's a lot put on Jarome's line. They do have other players on that team that can score. RON WILSON: Yeah, just like our team. I'd rather talk about our team than Calgary. Let's leave it right there. You want to ask me questions about the Sharks, I'll answer them. I'll let Darryl answer his questions about Calgary. You're right, they wouldn't be here if they were just relying on one guy. We wouldn't be here if, as some people want to portray us, Nabokov got us to this point. We don't believe that. We believe we're one of the best teams in the league.
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