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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLYERS v LIGHTNINGMay 18, 2004Brad RichardsTim TaylorTAMPA, FLORIDA: Game Five Q. Brad you talk about something special needing to be done tonight. You obviously took that bull by the horns? BRAD RICHARDS: The whole team really came out exceptionally hard. Relentless in the first period and played with a lot more desperation and passion. That got everybody going. It so happens I scored two goals but it was a big effort by everybody. Q. Brad, do you feel like you are in a zone right now? Last couple of games you have really been sharp? BRAD RICHARDS: It's been a good Playoff. I think anybody on the team when you get this far, it feels like they are playing well and things have gone right, there's been big plays made by other people to help me in that situation also. It's something that I was challenged and I challenged myself that I had to play a lot better than I did last year in the Playoffs. It's something I concentrated on. I am not approaching anything different, it's not that I am in a zone or visible or anything; sometimes it just happens like that. Q. The powerplay has been very effective. What has been the key to it? BRAD RICHARDS: Look at tonight, I think the 4-on-3 was something we worked on and executed well, that play. In Philly we scored some big goals, my second goal was kind of a little bit of a lucky bounce off the faceoff. It comes right to me, I am standing right in the perfect spot and you can chalk that up to a little bit more luck than executing a powerplay, but still powerplay goals, it's two of them. I think eight percent going into the game. That's a lot better than that we needed it. Q. At this moment, are you kind of surprised to find yourself scrambling the way you were in the third period? TIM TAYLOR: We built our lead up by being aggressive through the neutral zone and getting the puck in deep and obviously when Brad scored two goals there, start the second period to go up 3-nothing, I think that our next three or four shifts were shaky in the aspect that we were still pinching defensively but our forward was caught too low and we gave them too many odd-man rushes there. And Khabi came up with a big save and then they scored two goals in a couple of minutes, we were caught flat footed. I think it's the immaturity of our team not realizing the situation. We always say as this team matured and doing the right things at times, sometimes we have and tonight was a little bit of a case where we have to take a step back and realize that we have a 3-goal lead. We have to play the same way and we didn't do that. Q. Brad, there's a glaring statistic out there right now that pertains to you in the Playoffs when you score, the Lightning are 8-and-0 and for the season 30 -0 and 2; are you aware of that? BRAD RICHARDS: You guys seem to tell me every time when I score and win a game -- besides that, no, you don't think of that. Obviously the only thing I can say is hopefully I score next game, that's just a stat that, I don't know, I can't explain that. But we all know the offensive guys need to score and obviously that helps. I think if you looked at our record with our big guys scoring, it's going to be a pretty good record no matter who. Q. Your second goal was inside post. Did you see anything there or was that just a quick reaction? BRAD RICHARDS: Shot back against the grain just because the puck was coming towards me and I knew Esche might be moving. But no, that was about it. I just put my head down and shot in that direction and thank God it went in. Q. Tim, that third period seemed to be a real nail-biter. Talk about the empty net goal; how did that all come about? TIM TAYLOR: It was a great draw. I think there was like 27 seconds left by Andy on the right side, he made a great play down low too. They were -- even one draws, they were getting two guys in on our one defensemen. They were creating havoc. Andy made a great play. Obviously Marty thought the guy was cheating and flipped the goal in. I will go even further, last couple of days a lot of you guys have been asking about one player stepping up for our team and we always said collectively we need as a whole as a team, we did that in the first period, we lacked a little in the second and third but obviously Brad had two goals tonight. That is a guy that stepped us for us and really took control of the hockey game not just because he's here, but we were looking for that and I don't think yesterday we kept saying it's got to be a team thing but you always look for one guy, there's -- when you win there's always one guy that steps above and beyond the rest that displays the kind of leadership that he needs, and he's becoming one of our leaders of our hockey team not just off the ice but on the ice he's showing a lot of people what he is capable of doing and that was a huge part of our game tonight. Q. You were mentioning one guy like Brad stepping up. How about Nik making the two good saves, before each goal and then not allowing one after that. Normally you would -- a 3-2 lead would be shaky, it's not this year. Nik has been a "silent leader" would that be a fair assessment of him? TIM TAYLOR: Nik has been tremendous absolutely. It hasn't been just one game with Nik. It has been consistently and to get this level at this time of the year you need your goalie to play well and Philadelphia is talking about Esche and you look at Calgary they are talking about Kiprusoff. The four teams the reason they are here is because they have goaltenders that are making big saves at big times and Nik is one of those guys that really stepped up to the forefront as a goalie. Q. In the first period you guys were flying to the puck, came out, 18 shots on goal. Obviously you had two goals in the game. Did you know when you hit the ice this was going to be your night; did you feel like you were in a zone? BRAD RICHARDS: No, I don't feel -- you don't feel you are in a zone. You feel up for the game. Biggest game of my life, you know, not saying this after but going into it, I said it had to be a big game. Whether you score two goals, that's not what you think of going into the game, but I felt really good. The way the whole team came out in the first period, it just kind of brought everybody along. Seemed like we had two or three shifts in a row to start the first and it was like, you know, I got a shot. I think Mo had a good opportunity and just things started happening like that. You feel good and you feel better, it's the totally opposite when they come running at you and you are running around in your own zone, it doesn't feel like you are going to have a good night. But the whole team you could just see on the bench everybody was excited and it was like we had another step tonight.
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