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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLYERS v LIGHTNING

May 10, 2004

Ken Hitchcock

TAMPA, FLORIDA: Game Two

Q. You talked yesterday about the need to play 60 minutes at a pace equal or better than Tampa. Do you think you got exactly that tonight?
KEN HITCHCOCK: We played 45 minutes, probably, good hockey. We got a little bit sloppy there in the third. We were just trading chances with them.
But, you know, it's a step in the right direction. They are such a good team that you have to maintain a really high level, and if you do that, then you have a chance to beat them.
Q. You also talked the other day about planting a seed of doubt in their mind after running off a string of eight straight victories and you did that tonight; is that what you are looking to bring back to Philadelphia?
KEN HITCHCOCK: What we are looking for is a road win. You know, we now have a chance to control our destiny, and if we can win our home games, then we've got a chance. But we are going to have to win on the road during these playoffs, regardless. This was a good feeling for us, because we deserve the win based on our performance, and our team should feel really good about itself. We should feel really good about the fact that we made some adjustments and we needed to make them, and we got the win because of it.
Q. You talked about changing the angles of your shots, was that what you wanted the first period?
KEN HITCHCOCK: I don't think you can go to school on that. You know, we had the same odd-man rushes in the first game, early in the game, for whatever reason, and we didn't score. And everybody was talking about what they were doing, but we really could have salted the game in the first period in Game 1 and we didn't finish those chances. For whatever reason, tonight, we did. We scored on a couple of break ends, two-on-one, three-on-two, we scored. You get those odd-man rushes, you've got to put them in, because you're not going to get many.
Q. Sami Kapanen seemed to pull double duty for you and played another solid effort.
KEN HITCHCOCK: Yeah, he was good. He's a solid rover.
Q. We heard what you said about LeClair today and didn't necessarily have to score goals, but how about him getting that goal tonight and what it meant to your team.
KEN HITCHCOCK: Well, our players are happy for him. But John means a lot more than just goals and assists.
I told you this before, when you get to be an older player, you need to reinvent yourself. Mark Recchi had to do it, J.R. has had to do it and John has had to do it. We are happy. He really took away people's space in a huge way today and it was nice to see him get a goal. The goal was for him. We didn't need it to win today but he really took people's space away today.
Q. Khabibulin in the past has a reputation for being a bit streaky; is this the kind of a game that can stay with a goaltender?
KEN HITCHCOCK: I don't think so. This is the playoffs. You learn to just drop it and move on. Look, we knew we had to win road games to win this series, and that was our goal, but we had to drop it and move on from a pretty disappointing Game 1 loss, and I think that's just what playoffs are about. You know, the problem with this series right now is there's too much time between Game 2 and 3, so, you know, what happened today is going to be forgotten for sure, and that's obviously disappointing for us. We would rather get after it tomorrow if we could, but we can't.
Q. At the end of the game there, it looked like you wanted to get Brashear on the ice and they weren't letting you. What transpired there?
KEN HITCHCOCK: We were just square dancing.
Can I say something here? I don't want to downcast anything here, but something happened on the video screen today that's very upsetting, and I think that's unfair. Unfair for the National Hockey League. I don't care if it's in Tampa Bay or Philadelphia, you can't insight the fans like that. That's unfair, and unfair to the players. It's a very dangerous situation, and it should not happen.
The replays are there to replay. They are not replayed to question referees calls or insight people and it's ridiculous, and it should not happen. Thanks.
Q. Can you be specific?
KEN HITCHCOCK: The stuff on Taylor. You know, over and over and over again, questioning the referees calls. The people were angry and the stuff coming behind our bench was ridiculous, and they were mad. And they were mad because of what they saw on the screen. It was part of the game. You just keep replaying it and it's ridiculous.
If that was in Philadelphia, Whew, it would be a mess, it would be a huge mess.

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