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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLYERS v LIGHTNINGMay 14, 2004John TortorellaPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day Q. What about Fedotenko, can you talk about how he has improved and what he brings to the team? JOHN TORTORELLA: I think he's a good compliment on that line with both Vinny and Marty. He goes unnoticed. He does a lot of board work for us, has scored some very big goals for us during the playoffs, and he's still a young man. Regular season, he scored 36 goals for us in the last two years, so that has helped solidify our offense with trying to bring in two lines offensively. Jay Feaster was criticized heavily on that deal that Draft year, and we have picked up a pretty good player, something this organization needed. We didn't need any more Draft picks at that point in time. So it's turned out to be a very good deal for us. Q. What's the difference between his play now compared to December when he was struggling? JOHN TORTORELLA: He was struggling. You said it. As a coaching staff, when you think a player is struggling, and some other people are ready to play, you put the other people in. It's as simple as that. Ruslan didn't think he was. I don't think many players do think they struggle at times when they are taken out of a lineup or a situation. Those are decisions that we have to make. I thought he handled himself very well, and has been a very good player for us. In the playoffs, he's scored some big goals for us. Q. You've talked about Modin's evolution over the regular season. Can you talk about his contributions in the playoffs, especially in this series against a very physical Philadelphia team and maybe whether you're surprised, maybe that he's been able to continue or elevate his play in the post-season? JOHN TORTORELLA: He's another man that's maturing. It doesn't surprise me, as I've said all along, with Freddie, when he was struggling at a point in time last year, scoring some goals, he worked on other parts of his game. I think when an offensive player fights it a bit and ends up concentrating on some of the other things, in the big picture and as he goes through his career, he becomes more of a complete player, and that's what Freddie has turned out to be here, one of our better penalty killers. I consider Freddie one of the better power forwards in this league right now and does not hurt you defensively; in fact, he excels defensively. When he's playing with Richy and whoever we have on that other wing, he brings us steady presence offensively, but helps that line control the puck, also, offensively. Q. I want to talk to you about Andre Roy; is it still a question of controlling his emotion? JOHN TORTORELLA: Always will be. Always will be. As a coach, you'd rather have a player that you need to try to control his emotion than have a player where you're trying to push him to play emotional. So this is a good problem to have with Andre. We feel he can play and has demonstrated that he can play. But you just need to tune him in a little bit just as far as the emotional part of the game. So, it's a good problem to have. And he's a personality. In the locker room, we wanted him to add a little personality to it. You don't want all of the people to always agree with you. I think situations with Andre, he keeps the room loose, and adds a whole different type of personality in the room. I like the kid. I think he has so much to offer, it's just a matter of channeling it and understanding composure within the game. I thought last night, when Primeau hit him in the head, I thought he controlled his emotions tremendously. And ends up later in the game, making a big play on that fourth goal. So this is a kid that can play and adds the other element. I look at Brashear, same thing. Brashear is a heck of a hockey player and adds another element as far as the willingness. So those are good people to have in your lineup as long as they stay within the team concept and within the discipline of the team concept. Q. Given the emotions that were around that game and the size of the game, where does that game rank for you as far as the way your team prepared and it's mental approach to that game? JOHN TORTORELLA: Well, in this series, ranking, it's at the top, because it's a game that we had to -- I think when you get in a situation after Game 2, we moved right by Game 2 and started concentrating on our response. In playoffs, it's not dissecting; it's responding. In this series here, that's a very important game for us. Having said that, we end up with a win, but now it's today and now we need to look on to Game 4. I think our team has been resilient all year long. I thought it was a good response we had last night. We got the job done. But now we have to move by that. Because as the series goes on, game to game, it's a whole different type of situation. We have to prepare for Game 4. Q. Sydor seems to be a perfect puzzle piece since he's gotten on to Tampa; why? JOHN TORTORELLA: First pass, out of your end zone, I think in a team, it depends quite a bit on transition. He's a very important man there. The intangible of winning a Stanley Cup, being on a championship team, the long haul of playoffs, especially this team, first time it's been in the third round of it, all of that adds up. And the deal to get him solidifies our top six, our top four more or less. It's a deal that I thought was, it was under the radar. I thought our people with Jay, Jay Feaster, did their homework, and the thing we wanted to check on most is character. This is a high-character guy. And it was done early enough to where we didn't have to lose a player off our roster. You know, it goes unnoticed, a lot of the big deals we made at the end of the deadline, and this deal here, we have no chance of getting Darryl Sydor if we wait towards the end. It also gives us a chance to have him play under our team concept as we go through the end of the year. Q. Now that you've got the edge in this series and it seems the complexion of each games has been different, how do you keep the edge? JOHN TORTORELLA: Well, I'm not sure if edge is the right word. We're up 2-1. As we start the next game, how that first period goes, decides who has the edge. It is a series or a game of momentum and surges. As I said last night, I thought the most important part of our game was that seven or eight minutes towards the end of that second period where Philly just turned it up. Nik was solid and we didn't get hurt. We didn't get scored upon. Edge is a dangerous word. We have two wins; they have one, but it's still in the middle of a series. We just want to try to keep the momentum on our side, and that's our goal tomorrow night. It will be a difficult one, because this is a very good hockey team and they are going to respond. Tomorrow night is a very important game. Q. You talked a lot yesterday about your top players need to be your best players, and you've got points from your top six forwards. What does that mean when you find all six of your top two line guys are on the score sheet? JOHN TORTORELLA: Every team, if they are going to continue to compete and find a way to stay in the playoffs, their best players have to be their best players. I think when you define a best player, it's making a big play at a crucial time. That's what I thought we got in the third period; Vinny scores a good goal, Marty makes a great pass, Stillman gets on the score board, it's not great one, but just putting the puck to the net and we get fortunate scoring our first goal. Again, in playoffs, it's making those big plays, your best players do need to be your best players. I think as we've gone through our series in the playoffs here, other guys have kicked in, also, the third and fourth line guys. That's important. That can't go without consideration. But with Marty and Vinny, the amount of checking they are trying to fight through, it was good for them to get there and hopefully that will continue. Q. In your view, why has Perrin been able to make such a smooth transition from first to fourth line duties in the NHL? JOHN TORTORELLA: I think he has quickness, he has speed that can play in this league with that. Obviously, he's not a real big guy, but even during camp when we had him at camp when we played some exhibition games, we could see his willingness. You know, the American League, I think is the greatest development league. It's just a terrific league where you have to fight through quite a bit as you play a schedule there. He went through it. He went through the process, coupled with what we saw during our camp, we wanted to give him an opportunity. We were not happy with our fourth line, and when he's played and he doesn't play a bunch, good things happen. And it's easy to put him back on the ice because he doesn't hurt you offensively. He has a defensive awareness, and as a coach that, allows you to give him more opportunity to do some of the things that he can do. Q. With an optional skate today and a physical game last night, what does it say to you where just about everybody shows up, some guys can use a day off and everybody was out here? JOHN TORTORELLA: They want to play. They enjoy the game. After a good hard tilt by both teams last night, I think the camaraderie becomes involved in it, being on the ice. And some guys, we won't have a pregame skate tomorrow because of a 3 o'clock start, and some guys just simply feel better. They need to move their blood and skate a little bit before they play the next game. But it was loose, just to have a little fun, to skate some of the soreness out, and they enjoyed it. They enjoy being around one another and the camaraderie of it. Q. You and Coach Hitchcock had an exchange of words and everything, and some of the players and writers said that maybe that took pressure off your players, by you coming out and doing that, that people would stop criticizing them for the Game 2 effort; is there anything to that? Did that help the team at all? JOHN TORTORELLA: No. We ended up winning last night's game because our team played with a little bit more jam than they did in Game 2. It's about the players. It's not about anything else. It's about the players. We found a way to win some important battles to create some chances for ourselves. We did a much better job defensively than we did in Game 2. So, that's why you win a hockey game. Winning the battles, making big plays at big times and competing and I thought we competed a lot harder in Game 3. Q. Going back to Vinny's goal last night, you made the comment that hopefully he would feel better about himself and start scoring more goals, I would have thought coming off of the last series, confidence would be pretty high; was he struggling again? JOHN TORTORELLA: No, and I don't want you to misconstrue those comments. I think everybody wants to continue scoring, especially a scorer. Vinny feels fine about himself, and he should. He's played very well for us. As a coach, I guess you're always trying to push for a little bit more, but Vinny, he scores a big goal, but I really like, in watching the tape, some of the things he did away from the puck. You know, people don't understand how important playing away from the puck is, especially for your offensive people. That's more important to me, and the coaching staff, to see that stuff and he's been very consistent that way. If he remains consistent that way, those offensive chances are going to come. You're always in a better offensive position when you're playing away from the puck defensively. Q. Following up on that question, we all watched Vinny's career, for those of us who were not around him all the time, what are the biggest things you've learned about him, and what has this odyssey been like for him with the scrutiny of being the first overall pick? JOHN TORTORELLA: Well, the first pick and how it was all talked about -- and again, the prior owner, as far as some of the things he said, and all of the baggage that comes with Vinny; such a young man with all of those things going on around him; and being with a team, and honestly, a team that was struggling in the league at times; was lacking a little bit of leadership in the room; and him stepping right into that, and the C being put on his shirt, where really, it isn't fair to him to have that type of pressure. So a lot of it is unfair, and I think stunts his development. I think he's going about it the right way now. We've asked him to take a sidewards step away from leadership as far as the letter, try to understand it a little bit more and develop in the proper way and the proper time. He's still a young man right now. I think it's been -- I have enjoyed watching it, because you can see each day, each month that goes by, that he is growing and is beginning to understand, and is going to reach a whole different level. And there's more there, there's more there with this kid, and he's going to get there by going through the right process.
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