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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLYERS v LIGHTNINGMay 14, 2004John LeClairKeith PrimeauMark RecchiJeremy RoenickPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day Q. Keith, where do you go from here? KEITH PRIMEAU: Well, we quickly regroup. Today we'll address some stuff that the coaches will pick up on video, and we have to quickly refocus. It's an afternoon meeting tomorrow, so we understand the urgency, and the importance of tomorrow's game, and that's how we will prepare. Q. What about losing another key guy off the back end? KEITH PRIMEAU: Well, we just never seem to get any breaks as far as luck goes on the back end. But Joni is sitting there and Joni is healthy, we are comfortable with putting Joni in and we just have to continue to roll. Q. Can you imagine playing defense the way Sami Kapanen has had to do in these playoffs, just in the middle of the game being told you're in the back end? JEREMY ROENICK: It takes a special player to be able to do something like that, and Sami was definitely categorized as a special player. I think he has a tremendous amount of respect from everybody on our team, not only for his heart, but his ability for what he's shown and what he's done in the playoffs so far this year, with not only his effort but the way he's been able to transform from being a winger to a defenseman. There's not many players in the game that can make that transition from one day to the next. I think it says a lot for Sami, the way he's played and the way he's conducted himself, for sure. Q. Keith, you talked last night about the crowd was going for you guys to shoot the puck, shoot the puck; is that the first time that's occurred in the building and/or the first time it's affected you? KEITH PRIMEAU: It was overstated last night. It was more I was trying to be comical in a serious situation. All it was, it's all the team people want you to shoot the puck, they want you to score goals. We understand that. It's not just this time of year, it's every game, it's every situation. But you hear that, and so instead of us being patient and trying to find the right shot or the right lane or the right seam, we rush things. Especially when you're down two goals, there is a sense of urgency on our part, too, and so maybe you're not near as patient as you would be in a different situation. Q. Like a lot of folks, we were thinking most of you guys, you tune out the crowd and focus, but it's the first time we've heard you say you're kind of human on the ice, too. KEITH PRIMEAU: Well, I don't expect them to start hollering "pass, pass the puck." I'm sitting on the bench during the power play and I'm waiting for a shot, too, I'm like, is this the shot, is this the shot? Do we have to make another pass or make a step to one side or the other? They did a great job of getting in lanes again last night. Q. At the risk of embarrassing Keith, if the other guys could talk about what he's brought to the dressing room, into the ice, in terms of delivering in key moments and what you expect him to do in Game 4 in terms of his leadership? JOHN LeCLAIR: Well, I think as a team, it's been no secret that Primes has been our best player and has really led us. There's been several occasions where he's just taken charge and everybody has kind of jumped on and followed. Having played with Primes the last couple of years, I've really noticed that this playoffs, he's really emerged as not just a leader, but a great leader. I think everybody's responsibility right now is to, you know, cease what's going on and not just sit back and watch and be a part of it. Q. Along those lines, of Keith Primeau being a great leader, Mark, I'm sure there are younger guys who have approached you along the way, it's not just a one-man leadership thing here. What do you tell young guys when they come to you saying, are we in trouble, what do we do, how do I handle myself? MARK RECCHI: I think it's not so much what you say right now; it's how you act. You've got to have the ride attitude. You've got to come in, right focus, right demeanor, right body language. That goes a long ways with young guys. They see older guys come in with bad body language in the dressing room or just showing the wrong signs, and they are going to sense that and it's going to go the other way. But if they come in and see us with the right attitude, right body language, right focus, they just follow along. You know, it's just a thing where you're watching a lot of the young guys, as we all did when we were younger, you look to see, how did he react, how the older guys react to things, and you go from there. Q. Has there been a need or what would you do, anybody, in a situation where an older player needed to be called aside, hey, you're showing poor body language? Have you guys done that or would you do that? KEITH PRIMEAU: Well, that's the best thing about our locker room is that we have got lots of guys who are capable of grabbing a guy or if a guy steps out of line or somebody isn't pulling their weight or we don't feel that they are in tune with what's going on. And so we've got lots of guys who are more than capable, more than willing to address the needs or concerns. Q. You guys are all creatures of habit, you like to practice at a certain time, nap, etc., What does a 3:00 p.m. game do to you? KEITH PRIMEAU: I for one personally like afternoon games. I'm not one for morning skates. (Laughing). I like just preparing for an afternoon game. I find I have more energy and I think most guys feel the same way. Q. Mark, what do you see going on with the power play and what do you think it's going to take to get it going again? MARK RECCHI: We are going to look at some tape today. I know Hartsy has some things to look at today, some things that we can address and we can improve on here. They have done a good job, and we have maybe made some bad decisions, but talking to Hartsy this morning he said we had seven good scoring chances last night, but the bottom line is we didn't get the job done. We have to address it and we have to make it a focus today to look and see how we can improve, and we will. Q. Could you talk about following up on what Keith said, the effect the crowd can have on your actual play on the ice both for you and the other guys? MARK RECCHI: You're really pushing this, aren't you? (Laughter). Q. It's interesting? JEREMY ROENICK: I don't think the crowd really affects us one way or another. When we're out there playing, we're focused on what we're doing. Obviously you can hear everybody's opinions and shoot the puck, or you suck, or what are you doing out there or what's going on. You hear everything. But for us, we're all so keyed in, focused in on what we need to do, so that stuff doesn't affect us. We're the ones that are in the room and we are the ones that go through the game plan and we are the ones that have a system and that we know what we have to do. The people that are yelling, they don't even know what a system is. So for us, we just go along as we need to and as planned and we take the best of what we have out there. They can yell and scream all they want, but the fact of the matter is we are going to do what we are taught to do and what the coaches tell us we are going to do. Q. In the second period last night, you were all over them, you had the post once, scoring chances in front of Khabibulin every time; is it luck at the end that makes the difference? JEREMY ROENICK: I don't know if it's so much luck, it's how much that you create your own luck. I think Keith's line gave us a big push in the second period yesterday, the puck that hit the post with Somik was unfortunate. I think Nik rebounded really well after his performance in Game 2, which we knew he was going to do. The fact of the matter is we have to get more production from more people. We have to get more production from guys like myself and Alex, and I know Johnny wants to put the puck in more and he's working hard. It can't be from one line. It's got to come from more people. Like myself, I know I have to step up and be better. You can't rely on luck. For us, we have to go out and create our own opportunities and create our own luck, and if you don't go out there and play the way you're supposed to, it's not going to come. Q. Hitch has said that you need to play with more risk against these guys. The situation that you are in now, are you concerned that you might not want to approach it that way? KEITH PRIMEAU: And what he means is a controlled risk. He wants us to play (laughter) offensively reckless, but understand, our assignment defensively. As we've seen, they are very opportunistic. That's just the way they play. They will jump to the side of offense, even if there's not a 100% chance the puck is going to get there, and that's not atypical of the the way most teams play in the National Hockey League now. Perfect example was their third goal. If that puck gets turned over inside their blue line, that's a chance for us; it didn't, it goes back the other way and all of a sudden it's 3-1. We have got to play more risk on the offensive side of the red line, but defensively, we can't change because they just have too many quality forwards who can score goals. Q. Considering your situation with the defense, do you have to reconsider that and tighten it up a little bit? KEITH PRIMEAU: Again, we have to just be tight defensively. We can't -- we can't start trying to transition inside our blue line with a guy who is flying through the neutral zone. We have to still work the puck up the ice the same way we always have. But when we get it in the offensive zone, we have to try and do more things offensively, whether it's holding on to pucks, whether it's moving around for the right shot, whether it's crashing the nets, just doing more things offensively with a little bit less hesitation than maybe we have in the past. Q. You were saying before about leaving the crowd out of it, just being at home where you guys were 6-0 and had not been behind the whole post-season, were you maybe not relaxed but did you take being at home too much for granted and do you have to get away from that? KEITH PRIMEAU: I would hate for that to be the case. Even though we were 6-0 at home they were 4-0 on the road at this point in the playoffs so we knew something had to break. We were prepared and we were focused on what we had to do. Again, this is being overstated. We've talked about, for the first six games, we fed on the emotion of the people in the building and all of the sudden because it's a loss, now it's being suggested that that's a negative asset, but it's not. Again, my comment was, that people were hollering for us to shoot the puck and we needed to find the right shooting seam, and that was the extent of it. But we don't want the people to change how loud or how vocal they have been. Q. Do they play differently than other road teams do? KEITH PRIMEAU: They play the same way. They play high risk. They will fly guys in the neutral zone where most teams will continue to be more patient on the road where they are continuing to go for broke. Q. The four of you represent the experience on this team. Their leaders are considered enexperienced; does that experience translate into something positive for the rest of this series, and the second part is, can the physical play that you put on their defense take a toll on them as the series progresses? KEITH PRIMEAU: First, their leaders are not their young guys. Their leaders are Dave Andreychuk, Tim Taylor, Khabibulin, guys that have been around for a long time. Their best players are their young players. So in that sense, they do have guys who are there who are capable of keeping their ship headed in the right direction. We just have to come with a better charge and more energy and find a way to win a hockey game. Your second question? Q. Can the physical play of the series wear on them? KEITH PRIMEAU: That's our intent. We felt going in that it was going to be a long series, if we were going to win this series it was going to be six or seven games. So every time we have an opportunity to make contact on their defense, we need to do that, because we all know in a long series, this starts to wear on the body and then it goes to your head.
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