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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLYERS v LIGHTNINGMay 15, 2004John TortorellaPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Game Four Q. Can you talk about Keith Primeau, and is there a way that you guys -- JOHN TORTORELLA: No. Q. -- can contain him? JOHN TORTORELLA: No. I'm not talking about Keith Primeau. If you have a question about my team I'll be more than happy to talk to you about that. Q. Do you have a plan for your team to contain what Primeau is doing in the series? JOHN TORTORELLA: If you want to talk about my team I'd be more than happy... Q. That is a question about your team? JOHN TORTORELLA: I'm taking the next question. We have ideas, but I'll take the next question. Q. This, of course is the first road loss in the playoffs, but can you talk a little about the success that your team has had on the road and how this is not a setback for your club? JOHN TORTORELLA: No. It's a loss, every loss is, I guess, a loss. But I felt the most important part of the game was where I think we beat ourselves a little bit at the end of that first period, after a five-on-three, I felt we were really tentative on Kapanen before they scored the goal in the neutral zone. Did a lot of poke checking and they ended up scoring a bill goal there. Those minutes at the end of the first period I thought were very important. But, again, it's a series. Philadelphia is a very good hockey team and they found a way tonight. We found a way the other night. Now it's 2-2 and we have a hell of a series going on here. Q. You mentioned a letdown the last few minutes and that came right after power plays, you've scored on the first one, but a couple of extended minutes there, do you feel a letdown after that power play that maybe led to that? JOHN TORTORELLA: Well, I don't think it was a letdown. I thought we had a great opportunity on five-on-three where Kubi shot it wide. I thought that was a very important part of the game. It was unlike us in the neutral zone, where Danny Boyle allows him to skate through the neutral zone, gain our zone, we are poke checking away, we don't come up with the puck where it should have been us coming across the neutral zone stopping them there. We allowed them to enter and I thought we watched. That really hurt us, and that goal gave them some juice, then the second goal they scored, we win the faceoff and we turn it over. Couldn't get the puck out and they score a big goal. That's the greatest thing about these series and games are the surges and the give and take there. We didn't get it done. We didn't get it done in that area where they surged on us and I thought that was a very important part of Philly's game. Q. When you say tentative, why does that come up in that situation, you have a lead, does it come because of the way that Philly was coming at you physically? JOHN TORTORELLA: No, no, no, you misunderstand me. I'm talking about that certain play, where I don't know, it's after a power play and I think they probably thought Kapanen was going to dump it in and they allowed him to skate the zone where we should have forced him to dump the puck in and problem solved. I think he was looking to dump the puck in, too, but he saw us back, he poke checked and went through. We can't play that way, no team can play that way and be successful. It's not a mental thing going through the whole game. As far as being tentative that certain play at the end of a power play, I thought we gave him too much ice to play on. Q. Is it then just a quick brain cramp? JOHN TORTORELLA: Yeah, I think it's a mental lapse, yeah. We don't play that way. We try to force things in the neutral zone, and we allowed him and I really think he wanted to dump it in. I felt he was going to get pushed to dump it in, but we gave him the ice. Q. You always talk about team toughness, clearly they would love to impose their will on you physically. How do you think you did in that the battle today and with three games to go; is that what it's going to be about? JOHN TORTORELLA: Oh, I think we'll be okay. Again, I thought we did some really good things today in spurts in the game, and that's the most important thing here, as we've gone through the first four games for both teams. There's a fine line of winning and losing, and all of these games, other than that Game 2, there are those little moments that you have to seize and control when you have them, and you have to stop them when they are coming against you. Tonight in that first period, we didn't, and that was a huge, huge part of this hockey game. But as far as with Philly and the physical play, that's part of playoff hockey. We don't even talk about it. We're going to just play our game, they are going to play their game and that's all part of playoff hockey. Q. Just as a follow, you mentioned Kubi shooting it wide when you have the five-on-three, there's a broken stick on their side, did you think you got a little too fine on that power play with a chance to take control? JOHN TORTORELLA: As far as Kubi shooting wide? Q. Just in general, too many passes? JOHN TORTORELLA: No, I thought some players, I think a couple of guys, I think a couple didn't even see there was a broken stick because we threw it a way couple of times where we really could have kept control of it. I don't think Vinny realized the stick was broken. But we set up a good play on the five-on-three and we thought we had a really good opportunity, but it shot wide and then, you know, those few minutes there, that's where I felt the game was really turned. Q. Do you feel that overall, you played a pretty good game, it was just the mistakes that hurt you, and what's the mood of your players now as it's dead even? JOHN TORTORELLA: We're fine. I'm very happy the way we played our third period. I thought we did some really good things there and I thought the first period was probably our best period of the series, up until that point, where we let it get away from us. For all of us, it's easy when you lose a game: What went wrong; what happened; you end up starting to think that way. As a team going through a seven-games series, as is Philly, you can't get caught too much up in that. You want to win every game, obviously, as quickly as you can to try to get to four, but because you lose, you just don't go into a panic and say, what happened. Because I think we did quite a few things better today than we've done throughout the series. So we'll look at the tape, we'll get them away from the game tomorrow and we'll start again Monday. It's turning into a hell of a series. I think it's great.
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