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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLAMES v SHARKSMay 14, 2004Mike RathjeRon WilsonCALGARY, ALBERTA: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions for Ron. Q. Can you talk about Korolyuk, the way he's matured as a player. He went back home, played for a year last year. He's come back. What are the differences in him? Why has he worked well under you, better than perhaps other coaches? RON WILSON: I can't speak for Korky before this year. What I've seen this year in his kind of metamorphosis, at the beginning, he was basically a one-way player, just trying to score, had some trouble understanding what we were trying to teach. Once we got Korky committed to getting the job done defensively, and how you do that, by forcing defensive responsibilities upon him, we made him kill penalties. I threw him into the fire a few times after he failed, immediately after failure, and told him he couldn't let his teammates down. To his credit, he didn't. He actually embraced that kind of responsibility. So he's become the player that he is. He scored I think 19 goals in regular season. He's been a big part of just about every game that we won in the playoffs. Sometimes you're like on the boards statistically with goals and assists, and sometimes you're not. Personally, I think Patty Marleau right now is playing great hockey, and he's not getting any numbers on the board. But the fact of the matter is he's contributing in a big-time way. Eventually he'll break through because he's playing like that. Korky, the same thing. He played great in all the previous series. He didn't really get rewarded with goals and assists, but made a lot of big plays, and was a difference in a lot of games. Last night he ends up being a big hero on the score board. Q. When he came back from Russia, did you have to have any personal conversation with him, try to sell him on the program? RON WILSON: Well, you know, his biggest booster in our organization, I guess he's got a couple, but Doug Wilson above all, and John Ferguson. I mean, I wouldn't know Korky other than you see him once a year when you coach in the other conference. Knowing that he'd been -- every once in a while he'd get hot, be on the line with Teemu and Patty Marleau. Doug told me, "If you're patient with him and you show you want to help him, you'll have a really good hockey player. It may take some time." I think the time part is Korky had to learn to trust me as much as I had to learn to trust Korky. I or Doug Wilson or John Ferguson, we don't deserve any of the credit. It's Korky who understood finally what he had to do. Simply if he did it, he would be rewarded. I love having him on the team. He's a fun guy, a good family man, and obviously he's a great teammate for his teammates. He's a good man. Q. What was the reason for putting him on that line last night? What was your motivation for that? RON WILSON: Well, that line wasn't getting a lot of scoring chances. Korky, it's just one of those gut feelings. You've been watching him, you see he's right on the edge of breaking through and maybe he could get something going for that line because they've been kind of neutralized. It worked. How much more, you know, I could have him play on the line for three shifts, and you guys would say he played the whole night. Korky played a number of shifts with other people, and I thought he had an impact on every shift, it didn't matter who he was going to play with. The bottom line, it was just a better team. It ends up getting overblown a little bit. You make line changes, you insert a guy, take somebody out. The guys have to go on the ice and get the job done, and they did. Simple as that. Q. A lot of people think that when a series has an edge, they think that the Flames may have that advantage. An edge seemed to start last night. Do you feel that same way? Is your team just as comfortable playing with that nasty component as any other? RON WILSON: You mean the physicality part of it? Q. Yes. RON WILSON: Well, I mean, from my point of view, you kind of expect the Flames -- that's their style of play. You'd expect them to be true to themselves. All I can ask our players is to be true to our style. If things get pushed over the line, then it's the officials and the league's job to discipline. The referees, what you call during the game from a league point of view, I suppose it's what you call after a game, you know, the tone you set with the players, what you tell them they can and cannot do. I'm pleased with that, I mean, so far. I thought things got a little out of hand at the end of the game last night. But the referees did the best that they could in a very difficult environment. We were losing 4-1 the other night. We didn't try to send a message. The message was, "When we show up to play, we'll be ready to play on Thursday night." That's what our message was. Q. Do you think Korolyuk understands why the Flames were mad at him at the end of the game? RON WILSON: Well, I think you have to understand what Korky was trying to do. He intercepted the puck and looked over and saw Patty Marleau. Patty Marleau hasn't scored in a series, has gone five or six games without a point. So Korky was hoping that Patty could get himself into a position, was waiting to pass him the puck. Then their guy took Patty right into the net, so Korky shot it. I don't really see what the problem was on the play. Korky has shown no selfishness and actually wanted to pass the puck to Patty Marleau. That's where that lies. Q. Are you guys at the same level you were in the two previous series? RON WILSON: Same level? Q. Playing at the same level. RON WILSON: Oh, I think so. You're playing against a team that's very well-prepared, that is as determined as we are. I think -- you know, you're seeing two very young teams. Why, you would say, can't they win at home? We've got young teams that are dealing with -- like win this series, you're in the Stanley Cup finals. You win the first series, okay, you got to the second round. Second, you got to the third. Now all of a sudden the stakes are higher, the pressure's so much more intense, the lights are brighter, every word you say is scrutinized. Everyone has come out of the woodwork who never follows their team all year, is writing about everything. It's just a totally different environment that unless you've been there, you don't know. Like the best spokesman we have on our team is obviously Vinny Damphousse, because Vinny's been through this a number of times. You've got Robby Davison up here, and he's living a dream right now. He's pinching himself, "I'm in the Stanley Cup semifinals and the media wants to talk to me, and I was on Hockey Night in Canada." I remember when I was 21, 22 years old, geeze, if you could ever do that, you could quit tomorrow. Those are the feelings that you're dealing with when you have young, inexperienced teams. You're seeing a little bit of that in the Eastern Conference, too. Philadelphia has probably seen a little bit more of this than Tampa. But John Tortorella said it best, "We're in unchartered waters." So are we, and so is basically Calgary. So you're going to see things that you might say, "Well..." It's a little bit of inexperience, a little bit of tasting things for the first time. You're going to see more mistakes, what might appear to be lack of effort, which is embarrassing to accuse a team of that's playing in a Stanley Cup finals, that they're not giving an effort. We're not just happy to be here; we want to win the Stanley Cup. Trust me on that. Q. You talked about experience a few moments ago, the little edge it can give you sometimes. You have been to a cup final. Didn't work out the way you wanted. You know what it's like to get from this level to the ultimate level. RON WILSON: It certainly helps a little bit to allay some of the fears and try to help. But it's like your kids: if the stove is hot, don't touch the stove. Boom, they touch the stove. Now you believe me that the stove's hot? We kind of have to march along here, stick our toe in the pool to see if it's cold, "Can I dive in? What are we jumping into?" I can say, "Be careful, the water's really cold. It's going to be a shock when you jump in." The guys are learning, "Geeze, this water is cold. When we get in there, we got to paddle really fast to stay warm." Q. You were talking about Damphousse. Coached against him for years now. He's on your side. What sort of impressed you the most or surprised you about a guy that's been around as long as he has? RON WILSON: Well, you're never surprised when you're dealing with like high-end players. Vinny's preparation, he's a professional, he's passionate about what he does. He's a man who's tasted the Stanley Cup. You know, Vinny seems to play best in pressure situations. Obviously, winning the Stanley Cup in Montreal, I couldn't imagine there being any more pressure in one place. He's been able to deal with that. You don't sit there and listen to every word he's saying to Patty Marleau. I'm sure the reason Patty keeps getting better as each game goes is because of the influence of Vinny. "Hey, everybody's eyes are on you. This is where you're going to make your mark, Patty. You got to dig in every shift. You can't take a shift off." All those little coaching cliches you hear, Patty would be hearing that from Vinny, as well. Q. Tomorrow morning Canada is announcing the World Cup team. Depending on which hat you're wearing, do you want to see him get on? RON WILSON: No, I think it would be great, whether it's Patty, Scotty Hannan. I think we got two or three defensemen that could easily play on that team. In particular Scotty, the way he's been recognized in the playoffs, certainly boosted his chances of making that team. That would be a lot of fun if I could see some Sharks on the other side. THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Mike Rathje. Q. What you were talking about teams being in unchartered waters, does that have anything to do with the fact with teams winning at home? RON WILSON: You feel the most pressure. That's what you have to learn a little bit. The expectations, the only expectations you should be carrying are the ones you have in your own locker room because in the end you'll find out who's really on your side. You're the only ones dealing with the true feelings of what it's like to compete at this level. I think that's what's helped us getting on the road and just being by ourselves in the room, dealing with it. Kind of got mocked a little bit for saying that. We had a great team dinner, the look in everybody's eyes was right what you wanted, a lot of eye contact. That isn't worth it. When your team is ready for a game, and yesterday we were. Q. Can you talk about what transpired last night at the end of the game? MIKE RATHJE: I guess, you know, I just came in to get in the way of a few guys there and ended up on the other end of a little shot. But, you know, that's hockey. It happens. It's no big deal. Q. Were you surprised that you and Chris -- you're both big guys, but you're not generally a big fighter. Were you surprised at the end of a game with it out of hand that it would turn into a fight as it did with you and Chris? MIKE RATHJE: Yeah. You know, usually in the playoffs, you try to play like five-on-five and stuff. You know, they were pissed off, I guess, because they lost. It was kind of expected. Q. In the past two series the Flames have used tough losses to do the same thing, they've used it as a spark. Is that a concern at all or can you use that as a spark as well, along with the win? MIKE RATHJE: That stuff I don't think intimidates us at all. We play through that all year. I don't think that's going to have an effect on what we do at all. Q. Ron, did you coach Chris in Washington? RON WILSON: Yes. Q. Do you feel any differently about him today than you did back then? RON WILSON: Well, I'm a little disappointed in what he did. I'll leave it at that. I have a lot of respect for Chris Simon. We've been through a lot together. I've seen so many positives. But that's disappointing to see that. That's all I can say. Q. How is your eye? Did you take some stitches? Are you going to be wearing a visor? MIKE RATHJE: Just three stitches. Q. They always talk about that sends a message. Have you ever seen that work? Does it ever have an effect the next game? RON WILSON: Well, since they've abused us a number of times, maybe for them it's worked. It's who you're sending a message to. Like Mike just alluded to, it hasn't affected us all year. I don't think it will deter us in what we want. At this time of year, if you're going to get detailed by a punch, then you don't deserve to move on. Q. Mike, this is the first time those guys have been shut out in the post-season. What made the difference on defense yesterday? MIKE RATHJE: Well, I think, you know, having Kyle back helped us a lot. Robby Davison stepped up again for us. He came in and played real well. Of course, Nabby, you know, is back on his game pretty much. He was outstanding. That was a big part of it. Q. Does Korolyuk owe you one or is it part of the game there? MIKE RATHJE: I'll get him in practice someday (smiling). Q. You said you sort of figured it was coming. Did he say something to you before it happened? MIKE RATHJE: Usually when something like that happens at the end of the game, you never know what could happen. Somebody could get jumped or suckered or whatever. They just try to get in there and try to be together, the five guys on the ice. I was the one on the losing end of it, so... Q. This has been a season where they talked about changes being made in the better, making the game better, more popular. You have fans that maybe watch this time of the year that don't watch other times. You want to hold on to those fans. Do you have any suggestions to be able to keep those fans, make it more appealing to those fans? RON WILSON: Well, I would suggest, you know, late in games, in these message-sending situations, it doesn't necessarily have to be late in the game, you can be down 5-0 early in the second period and send a message, which we've seen, that at some point there are penalties, you get booted out of that game and the next game in certain situations. They're easily identifiable, like last night. I mean, just look at the game for what it is and realize how much better it could be without some of these incidents. It's not always what's best for my team, which is a lot of times what happens. It should be what's best for the game, you know. With what we're heading into, possibly in the fall, trying to sell the game on TV, actually why do we have so much trouble in admitting that some things have to change? I'm going to be held accountable for situations. Our players know how I feel about those kinds of incidents at the end of games. We don't get involved in that. But there comes a point where I'm also more accountable to our own players than I am to any other ideal. I have to protect our players. If I lose my integrity in that, then I can't coach a team anymore. Our players have to know that I'm willing to protect them. But it's pretty difficult to do that at times. You know, which line do you cross? That's kind of a moral thing, I think. I just abhor that kind of activity. Some people would say, "Well, that's because you're an American college guy." I was born and raised in Canada. I've spent my whole life in this, my whole life. I'm 49 years old in two weeks and my whole life has been hockey. I've seen this and lived it with my dad, my uncle, my own career, my own teams. That's how I feel about it.
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