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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLAMES v SHARKSMay 14, 2004Vincent DamphousseNiko DimitrakosCALGARY, ALBERTA: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. How long have you practiced your backhand? Is it something you continually do? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: It goes way back to my Toronto days with Borje. He would make passes on the backhand all the time and practice it. I picked it up from him early in my career. Just practice after practice, always shooting 20, 30 pucks after the practice was over. Got better at it as the years went on. Q. Why do so many guys have that shot now? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: I don't know. I think you need to be comfortable with it and practice it. I think that's the key to getting better at anything. I certainly wasn't aware it can be a weapon. I think it's hard for a goalie to pick it up. On that play, it was just my only way that I could get open, was to go to my backhand. I'm comfortable with it. I use it when I can. Q. What has kept you going for nearly two decades? You talk about Toronto, drafted in '86. What sort of kept the drive alive? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: Well, I still think that I got some good years ahead of me. I still feel comfortable at 36. Although I've played 18 years, I think this time of year for me is the best time to be playing. It's very exciting. It's fun to be coming to the rink and to be in that atmosphere, to be in those situations. That's what I play for. I hope to give myself an opportunity at the end of the year to be in the playoff. To me, it's the most fun I've had all season. By far I think it's the best I've played all season. I've had some ups and downs this year. I think overall mentally and physically this is the best I've felt. Q. Did the Sharks say anything to you about next year? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: No, not yet. I think right now we're concentrating on hockey. All that stuff will take care of itself later on. Q. Can you talk about the difference in Alexander Korolyuk, left last year to play in Russia, back a better player. Has he matured? Why did he leave? What's the differences now? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: I don't know why he left. You'd have to ask him. But I know that he came back with a great attitude. He worked hard at training camp. I think he had an opportunity to have more minutes this year. There's a lot of guys that left. There were some holes that were open. He took the opportunity and got on a line that was hot all year for us, with McCauley. These guys were very solid throughout the year. They're all 20-plus and over. Alex was a big part of that. He really had a lot of confidence in his game. You could sense -- he learned he needed not to just be -- score and be flashy on offense, but he needed to take care of small details defensively. He was blocking shots, playing penalty killing, being very responsible in his own end. That's all stuff he wasn't doing a couple years ago. He wasn't on the penalty kill. He wasn't used as much defensively as he is now in our D. Q. Can both you guys maybe comment on the fire starting to burn in regards to the series? The first two games seemed to be fairly nice. The way it ended last night, the way it sort of seemed to build. VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: To go back to that play, I know what Alex was thinking. He was just trying to be unselfish, trying to give it to Patty to share the wealth, give him the goal. Just couldn't give it to him because he was covered. I told him after the game, "Alex, you got to put the game away. Don't worry about who scores the goals. All that is not important. I know what you were trying to do, but you just got to put the game away and win the game." Obviously, with him kind of waiting and stopping, then shooting, I think that's what started a little bit the altercation. It's something that needs to be expected. When the game is out of hand like that, everybody is trying to pass messages around. They're a proud team. You know, when the game's out of hand, stuff like that happens. I'm sure Sunday both teams will be very disciplined. Both teams will be ready to work and do whatever they can for their team. Q. It seemed like you guys weren't too pleased with what transpired at the end of the game with Simon and Rathje. Is that a part of the game that you guys mind at all, like the hatred part? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: What makes you think we weren't pleased? Q. Ron Wilson said it was a black eye to the game. VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: You obviously don't want stuff like that to happen at the end of the game, but we got to expect it. The game was 3-0. There's like 30 seconds left in the game. You got to watch your back, be there for each other. Rathje was there for the guys around the ice. We're all there grabbing men. Stuff's going to happen on the ice. You got to be ready to react. To me, it was not unexpected at all. Q. Does it make it more of a series now? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: No. Like I said, Sunday everybody will go back to being disciplined. You don't see any fights, you don't see any stuff like that when the game is on the line. You see stuff like that when the game is out of hand. At 0-0 the beginning of Sunday, I don't see anybody going nuts and taking 17 minutes of penalties. I think both teams will be very disciplined and try to do what needs to be done to win the game. If that means sacrificing your body, taking a shot, guys will do that. Q. What are your thoughts about all that, Niko? NIKO DIMITRAKOS: Pretty much the same thing. That stuff's going to be behind us right now. Going into the next game, we just have to worry about playing the game, not the stupid stuff. Can't get into penalties, take ourselves out of the game. Q. Vincent, for you, '93 you won a cup. You talked about playoffs. When you're getting a chance to winning the cup again, do you sort of think back to that time, which I assume was the best in your career? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: Well, I think you always go back to your past experience. To me, it was my best year, most enjoyable year. It was my first year in Montreal, going back home. It ended up with the cup. It was my only chance at it, and I was able to win it. Obviously, I fall back on my past experience. I know that playing 18 years, you don't have many opportunities to get to that point. You got to make the best of it. Q. In the Western and Eastern finals, only one home team has won a game. Do you have any theories as to why it's so hard? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: I think it's very different from the first two rounds. I think most of the teams in the beginning of the playoffs almost all won their games at home. I would say probably 80% of the games were won at home. I think both teams in our series are prepared to play wherever, what building, how loud it is, who is cheering for who. You see that in the East also. I was watching TV. That was the comments. It doesn't matter where you play anymore. Everybody is close to their goal. Doesn't matter where you play, how hostile the atmosphere is. You want to bring your best game. Q. Can it be harder to play at home? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: I don't think so. I think both teams have been successful at home. I think you fall back to your past experience. I'm sure they get pumped up for the games when their fans are so loud. They know they're behind them. Our goal is to play good early in the game, try to calm them down. That's what they did to our building, our fans. We're trying to do the same thing with theirs. Q. Are you a believer at all in momentum, Vinny? Do you think the team that wins Sunday afternoon might have a bit more of an edge in a sense there's no day between the two games? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: I believe in momentum in games. I don't know if it carries on to the next game. I think it's up to us to make it a good one on Sunday. I don't think you can expect that we have the momentum just by winning one game. I think that would be a huge mistake. We got to go back on Sunday and work hard again, do all the little things that made us successful in Game 3. We can't rely on that, expect we're going to have an advantage. I think we're still behind in the series and we still need to claw our way back and make it a 2-2 series, hopefully go back home and make it a best-of-three. Q. Vinny, in your bio, it talks about different things off the ice. One is that your favorite show is Survivor. VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: Where did you read all that stuff (laughter)? Q. I know it was a late game. Do you consider yourself one of those when you look back at everything you've done in all the years in the game? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: No, I don't consider myself a survivor. I think I'm there because I was able to perform and keep my spot. It is tough to stay in the league, to keep getting a spot. There's always young guys that are coming in and trying to fill a spot, kick somebody out of the lineup. I try to come every year at camp and do my best to keep my spot and to keep performing. Q. How did the feel about the line shake-up yesterday? How was it playing with a different line? NIKO DIMITRAKOS: It was fine. I adapted to it. Just did what they told me to do basically. As long as we win, I don't care how I play, how many minutes, anything like that. It's a lot better feeling last night than it was the last two games. Q. Do you feel like you're getting closer on the power play? You've been struggling a bit in this series. How do you feel that's coming along? NIKO DIMITRAKOS: I think we just got to simplify the power play a little bit more, settle it down. Kind of rushing a little bit at times. I think if we can just get the puck to the net, try to crash and create screens on Kipper, I think if we can try to have something fly like that, we can be successful. Q. About the line change with you last night, what did that do for you as a trio? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: I think Alex has been one of our best players so far in the playoffs. He's been very good on both sides of the rink. He deserved more minutes, power-play time. I think the guy beside me has played very good also in our line. I don't think it has anything to do with worse play, we just lost the first two games. Ron felt a shake-up in the lines might have helped us out. Two games, one assist, Alex played great. Seemed to spark a little bit our team. Like I said, he deserved more minutes. He's been playing great. Q. Seemed to spark both teams at the end of the game. Did you believe that he was actually trying to set up Marleau so everybody on the line could score? VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE: That's what I just talked about. That's what I just said. There's no question in my mind that's what he wanted to do, was to give him the puck at the end, try to make him score the goal. He had no other goal but to try to get him the puck.
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