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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: OILERS v MIGHTY DUCKSMay 24, 2006Kevin LoweCraig MacTavishEDMONTON, ALBERTA: Practice Day JAMEY HORAN: Thank you, gentlemen. We have Kevin Lowe. Q. Kevin, can you talk about kind of the atmosphere in the building last night when Paul Lorieau gave it a rest with the anthem and let the fans take it over. It seemed like it was a neat moment at the time. KEVIN LOWE: I think, as all of us being Canadians, great sense of pride. I'm sure even the players on the Ducks team and management or Canadians felt a real sense of nationality there. And, you know, it's very similar to in 2002 at the Olympics in Salt Lake, when we could hear the fans the last minute in Salt Lake singing, Oh, Canada, it was one of those great moments in sports, certainly in my personal experience for me. Q. When the Flames were making their run a couple years ago, I think it got increasingly more difficult for you. It was great, nice Alberta team story and this sort of things. As they went deeper and deeper, people started saying, why can't this be Edmonton. Now it is. Can you contrast your feelings now with how you felt then? KEVIN LOWE: It wasn't difficult for us. We were cheering for the Flames like the rest of the country. No, I mean I think I credit the Flames, and I say this with all due respect, with reenergizing us and certainly it did put pressure on our organization and players, but it also gave us a sense that it is attainable, a little old-fashioned elbow grease. We still have a long way to go, but it's been a fun year and it's certainly great for the province, if not just for the city. Q. When you talk about the atmosphere in the building and how great the fans have been, do you at all think back to time when it wasn't so sure that this franchise was going to be able to stay here, the financial problems were such that the Oilers might have to leave? KEVIN LOWE: Yeah. I guess we all do. I was in New York at the time in the mid '90s there when the team was going through what it was, the issues, and I remember, you know, I'd get a call from guys like Jonesy or Barnsy or Matty, and they'd ask my opinion on it. It was really difficult for me. Even though I was in New York was playing on a different team, it tugged on the my heart strings because of the possibility of the Oilers not being in Edmonton. And I was thinking at the time that I'm never going to have the opportunity perhaps to bring my kids, because they were young at the time, to Edmonton to see where I played and where we won some cups. So I think that's well behind us now, and I know my kids, who are a little older now, are enjoying this run like the next generation Oiler fans. Q. All the big moves you made are definitely paying off with Peca, Pronger and Roloson, and all those guys. What about the lesser lights, I guess? It seems like no matter who it is, they're making a contribution to the team. Does that make it even more gratifying? KEVIN LOWE: Well, it takes more than twenty players to win a Stanley Cup and to get this deep in the playoffs. I know that from experience, and I guess that's one of the reasons why we had extra players here. We had in our minds eight healthy defensemen, veteran defensemen, and we got a couple young guys here, and an abundance of forwards, and the Ducks and other teams have used players, brought them in out of the line up, you need it for a couple reasons. Maybe you just want to change the look, maybe adjust to another team, what their strengths or weaknesses are, or in this case, sickness or injury. And you have to be prepared for that. So we're fortunate, and it's a credit to the organization to have the depth, the work that Kevin Pendergast (phonetic) and Scott Housen (phonetic), the scouting staff have done to be able to stockpile the team the way it is right now. Q. Kevin, when you acquired Dwayne Roloson, why did you see him as more than just a 35-year-old backup with Minnesota, and a guy that's now quite possibly Conn Smythe material? KEVIN LOWE: You know, Mac T said it a couple days ago, it's a lot to do with the numbers and how he plays with us. Some of it was his personality. A lot of people said a lot of good things about him, about how competitive he was and good team buy. So you factor in all those variables, his style of play. You know, we really felt that over the course of the season, and I think if I'm not mistaken, we gave up the fewest shots in the league on a per-game average, that in some nights we just needed one more save, and Rollie's, you know, had the average and had the save percentage over the last number of years and had a little bit of experience. So it was just -- you know, we were just looking for an improvement. We weren't looking for necessarily the guy we have right now, as you say, certainly a Conn Smythe candidate, and I say that in all due respect, because, as I mentioned, we still have a long way to go. But we just saw him as a guy that could step in and maybe improve the goaltending that we had to that point in the season. Q. Could you have made that trade for Samsonov in the old NHL without the cap or do you think that a richer team, you know, would have swooped it, bought it out, so to speak? KEVIN LOWE: I think we could have in the old -- for Sergei I think we could have made the deal in the old system because the dollar value wasn't that much. We had the assets to trade. I don't know if there would have been other teams. I didn't look at everyone's -- analyze everyone's cap problems or issues to see whether or not they could have made the deal for him, but I suspect in the old NHL, we still could have made that deal. Q. What about Pronger? KEVIN LOWE: I need a little more time to think about that one. Q. If I can ask a follow-up on the Roloson question, there were other goalies out there that could have been available, you know, the market being what it was. Can you talk about the process that you finally ended up with Dwayne and were there others that sort of popped in and out? KEVIN LOWE: Yeah. I don't want to get too much into that because that effects other people's lives, but I will say that there wasn't as many as people think, and a lot of it was just speculation. Q. From a general manager's standpoint, you're watching the third period last night, and unlike a player, there's not much you can do about it. How stressful was it and did you have any miracle on Manchester flashback? KEVIN LOWE: Yeah, all that flashes, no question. I've seen it happen personally, as Mac T himself alluded to. And when that ice gets tilted, it's a tough thing. And credit the Ducks with an incredible push. And we're probably at fault a little bit, some due to fatigue and some due to some mistakes and getting on our heels a bit. But that is the beauty of pro sports. We certainly didn't script it that way, but it was exciting. Q. Kevin, can you talk about recommend Rem Murray and what your process was in getting Rem when most people thought his career was over, and Toby Peterson had a great year last year for the Roadrunners, but kind of got lost in the shuffle this year, and yet he's playing and some of your younger kids aren't. How does that happen? KEVIN LOWE: Well, the first part is Rem was a very good player for us and might have been one of those players that might have been effected by economics at the time. You know, his salary was starting to creep up. Not unlike Todd Marchant, Mike Grier, they were all great players, good warriors, good people, good players, and you hate to see them go. Certainly followed Rem's career, looked like it was over with -- in fact, he was actually a tough guy for me personally to look at because his condition was unbelievable. The fact that his head was twisted to the side, and it was quite sad. But he kept a real positive outlook, and fortunately, medicine or science or whatever helped out. And then we followed him this year, knew that he had a pretty good camp in Detroit and that he was playing well in the American League. So we knew we needed to add some depth at center because of maybe injury or whatever or in the event we needed to make a deal. So we were fortunate to be able to grab him. I guess there again scouting and keeping an eye on guys and knowing what guys are good people. Toby's a bit of a different store. Statistically he didn't have a good year, but he did a lot of little things right last season playing for the Roadrunners. I know Jeff Ward liked him a lot and played him all over the place. Pretty reliable guy with some good upside. Unfortunately, there's a lot of players like that in the world, and guys just, you know, need a chance. Maybe this is going to open up the eyes to a lot of people and he'll get a chance to move on. But he's a skilled and competitive guy with good hockey sense and good skills. He was having -- he played in Iowa this year on Dallas' farm team where we had some of our prospects. And I know that Doug Armstrong had said that they were really happy with the year that he had. He was a great leader, and I personally saw him play a couple times, and he was certainly one of the better players on that team Q. Is he like Mark Lamb? KEVIN LOWE: Is he like Mark Lamb? I think Mark was a little more aggressive. But -- and Toby's probably a little better skater, but good hockey sense, both of them. Q. Kevin, can you talk just a little bit about I guess the character and the willingness to battle that this club has shown. And thinking down the stretch through the playoffs, you've added some key pieces obviously, but it just seems like this is a club with a lot of fight in it. KEVIN LOWE: Yeah, you know, -- yes. There is a lot of fight in this club. I don't think we have the blueprint that's unique to us, everyone that gets to the Stanley Cup semi finals, you have to be able to battle. But over the last six or eight years that I've been around with this team, it's sort of been a bit of a trademark of ours. You don't get much or as much recognition for that. I will say that this flu, in our minds, is an epidemic. I've never seen anything like it, has showed a lot of courage, no question. And just keep are fingers crossed that guys can rebound. You know, at this time of year, the adrenaline is pretty high that you can overcome a lot, injury and illness, and whatnot. But the players, the guys that have played and battled through, this I'm impressed. Q. Kevin, majority of people seemed to have already written your ticket to the Stanley Cup finals. The Ducks don't seem to be carrying themselves, down 3-0. What do you say to your team to make sure they don't get overconfident or make sure they're not overconfident? KEVIN LOWE: Well, you're right. We are not there yet. And you know, I watched with my own eyes the Islanders come back and beat Pittsburgh, and that left a mark on me forever in my pro life. We don't want to indicate to the players that this sky is falling, but I guess the best thing we could say to our players is that we still haven't played our best game yet for various reasons. And we know it's there. And if we don't play our best game tomorrow night, we'll look to play it the next night. You have to win four games, and we saw what character and desire that the Ducks had last night and they're going to bring it again tomorrow night. It's great for hockey. Q. Kevin, the players who were out earlier and yourself talked about how they have matured during this run and the experience gain. What have you seen as far as maturity and experience of your head coach? KEVIN LOWE: Well, I said this a couple days ago, yeah, he's gaining experience like the players are, and I'm a little envious because he's got one up on me. He's head coach of a team that's in the semi finals. He's handling it the way he did is as player, keeping it all in speculative. And I think knowing that he has more weapons to work with than ever before, but also knowing that, you know, it's tough to win the Stanley Cup, you know, they're going to keep grinding it out. But good on him. A little bit of success so far and his coaching staff, but they won't be satisfied until we finish off or try to win this series and try to move on. Q. If this was a few years ago, do you think you would be sitting here right now happy in one sense and then dreading it in another sense saying, now these guys are going to want the moon moneywise, and these guys won't last long together because they're going to go to richer teams? KEVIN LOWE: No. We used to say we can only hope for that. That's a good problem. We'll deal with that problem when it comes. It hasn't even crossed my mind, other than the fact that, you know, there is some comfort in that there is a cap, so we know what the ceiling is. But we've got a good idea what the market is for players that we want to retain and we know we feel -- we know we can be in that market. That's a good thing for the city. But we always know that this league and the success in the league as witnessed by the teams that are the four teams that are in the semi finals right now, that's it's all about drafting and developing. So we're not going to lose site of that also. Q. Can you talk about Steve Staios, I mean, he's a guy who claimed on waivers, ninth pick. He seems to have found a comfort zone here, and talk about that. And maybe if your surprised at the level he's able it contribute? KEVIN LOWE: Well, I think what you're seeing in Stevie, besides the talent which he does have plenty of, is the kind of desire that every Canadian kid has when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Then again, it's not unique to us. I know it exists on the Ducks and on the other teams, but I can only speak to him because that's question. Those guys are living the dream like I and like anybody's whose ever played the game coming from Canada. You're passionate about trying to get your fingers on that cup. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. We've have Coach McTavish at the podium. Q. Craig, can you talk about a couple of moment: one, when Paul Lorieau stopped with the national anthem and let the fans take over last night, and back to the game in San Jose when the fans booed the national anthem. Can you talk about that. COACH MacTAVISH: I think I've said enough about the one in San Jose. Moving on in that regard. The one last night was pretty inspiring. We were back there watching it on the Internet and there is a great camera shot with Ryan Smythe and Joe Moss (phonetic) in the background, and Joe is just belting it out, like, you could feel it right to the tip of his toes. And it was pretty inspiring. I've never seen that before, and you know, credit to Paul Lorieau to have the sense to let it happen. So it was great. One of those unforgettable moment in Stanley Cup run. Q. Craig, looking at last night when it got to 4-0 and Georges is pumping the crowd up and the crowd is starting with let's win the cup or we want the cup, did you get any sense at all that maybe you know -- COACH MacTAVISH: Too much? Q. Yeah, jumping ahead of itself? COACH MacTAVISH: Yeah. Q. Does it make it a lesson learned going into tomorrow night? COACH MacTAVISH: I hope so. It was too much too soon I think. As coaches, we generally have the worse case scenario perspective at all times. And I was thinking it too much, too soon at that time. And, you know, if you're in it long enough, you know that the momentum in this game changes quickly, and last night is a prime example, number 604, of that momentum changes. You're dealing with a team that didn't have a lot of energy early and we didn't need that change of momentum or anything to inspire Anaheim. And it was -- the rodeo was on at that point and we knew it was going to be tough. Q. Mac, a two-parter for me. Can you talk about how this team having to battle like always down the stretch, how those challenges night after night may have helped prepare it for the pressure of each of those playoff series, and the second part would be the importance of wrapping it up, getting some downtime and some rest -- COACH MacTAVISH: Yeah. Q. -- should you advance to the next round. COACH MacTAVISH: Well, it seems like there have been a lot of those scenarios so far in the playoffs where we're going after the game. That is a game we probably wouldn't have won a month or so ago, or definitely wouldn't have won that game two years ago. We're more opportunistic this year. We didn't have a lot of chances, but on our quality chances we hit pay dirt. So you know, that speaks to a certain amount of resiliency. We still feel like we need to play better, obviously. Second part, I just want to win the series. I don't particularly care when it is. It would be nice to win it in four, and if we don't win it tomorrow, it would be great to win it in five, and if we can't, then six would be great, and if not in six, then we have another opportunity. The bottom line is we've given ourselves four chances. It's been my experience in the past that normally your best -- not your best chance -- but the first opportunity presented to you is normally the one that you want it take advantage of and it generally gets tougher after that. So, yeah, I'd like it wrap it up on Thursday. Q. Craig, you won 11 games in the post-season in a variety of ways. Overtime, come-back victories, et cetera, but what has been the most constant during all those variances that would exemplify this team? COACH MacTAVISH: I don't know that you can point to one thing. I think maybe it's just in our belief to win games in a variety of ways, and it's nice that they've been reinforced through the successes that we've had so far in the playoffs. But, you know, we haven't yet come out and played an absolute dominate game in this series, and I mean, I think a lot of that is attributable to playing with a lead that your mind-set changes to a certain degree. And we've been able to protect those leads that we've played with through the three games, obviously pretty tenuously yesterday, but we have been able to protect those leads. And I think it's just the case that the tide has turned, and I think everybody believes that, that we've had a lot of those things go wrong for this hockey club over the years and maybe it's our turn to have a good stretch of real good fortune and some good breaks. Q. Craig, is the rodeo still on? Considering what happened in the late stages of that game, it seems like Anaheim still has some belief out of that and you're guys don't sound as giddy as maybe you would suspect a 3-0 team to be? COACH MacTAVISH: No. Because we're very respectful of the danger that lies ahead for sure. Anaheim played a desperate game, and I don't -- no, I don't think the rodeo is still on. I think we're going to come out tomorrow with more energy and I don't foresee it being an extension of the third period. And certainly for us and our ability to close this series out, it can't be an extension of the third period. And, you know, we did what we had to do and won the game which was impressive given the circumstances. And we've got to -- we know and that we've got to regroup and play a better, more energetic game and apply some pressure instead of having to defend all the time. We can apply some of that pressure in the other end. We haven't been able to do that on a consistent basis. At times we've done it in Anaheim, but we haven't done it on a consistent basis and we need to do that and apply that to our game plan tomorrow night. Q. You have seen goaltenders' performances fluctuate from series to series and game to game. Is that the toughest thing a coach has to do is to coach goaltending and to anticipate where it's going to go? COACH MacTAVISH: Not really. Our goaltending is well-documented, has been exceptional. So it's been a very easy job for the coaching staff with this type of goaltending. You know, the damage is that you rely on it so much that eventually bad things can and do often happen. And we've got to play a better game in front of Rollie's tomorrow. And a game in which he doesn't have to be the first star of the game for us to win. We'd feel a lot better about that as a team collectively, and that's our mind-set going into tomorrow's game. Q. Craig, can you talk a bit about Steve Staios, a guy sort of cast off by a bunch of different teams and to have found a space here and played well on both ends of the ice here all spring. COACH MacTAVISH: Yeah, I would be happy to. He's a great leader on our team and certainly a guy I have a great deal of respect for. I like those hard-nosed, hard-working, no-nonsense guys that bring a total sense of professionalism to the rink each and every day. Great role model. Intensity. He's not the most skilled guy in the world, but you don't have to be when you have that dogged determination and the work ethic that he has to be a really good NHL player. And he's very well respected around the league. When we were trying to get goaltenders, obviously they kept asking for him. And, you know, we're fortunate that we didn't have to give him up, because he's rewarding us in spades right now. Great team guy, great energy guy. Says good things in the locker room. And you know, I have a lot of respect for him. Q. Craig, just wanted to ask you if you could look back let's say six, seven weeks ago, early April where this team was and just the determination it was using to try to get into the playoffs and now where you were sitting a win away from being in the Stanley Cup final? COACH MacTAVISH: Pretty good evolution of good circumstance and good play. I guess the one thing that maybe that I underestimated, I always knew we had the determination, but maybe I underestimated the will that we had going into the playoffs once we got there. Because there's been a lot of games that through the games that we've willed ourselves into a position to win hockey games and done that. And you know, it hasn't always been the prettiest of play. Last night would be a picture of that, well-framed. But we found a way. And I think that's the thing that maybe I underestimated going into the playoffs is just how bad these guys want to win, and how much they believe in themselves and I think that's on display. It was even when we play poorly, we've done enough to win the games whether we need a big block. Or sometimes it's not the skill play that wins us games, so there are a lot of different ways that we've been winning games and that's been a big change. Q. Craig, you've added Toby Petersen, Brad Winchester, put Raffi Torres back in the line up. Gotten great production out of them. Good coaching? Good luck? What is it? COACH MacTAVISH: I think it's a product of depth, and we have some depth in the organization. It's a lesson for all players that come up from the American League or where ever they come up. If they come in here and practice well and tweak something from the coaching staff that we see, an element that they may be able it add on the sometime, they may get a chance. And Brad Winchester did that early. Toby looked good in practice when he was here to the point we thought that he had a chance of getting something done offensively. And it's just when you come up on an NHL run, you know, maybe it takes two or three guys getting sick for you to get that opportunity. But if you're practicing well and looking good, then you're going to get that opportunity and those guys are a testament to that. And the other thing is to have the good depth. Q. You talked to Rem Murray, seems like he's more into the game now. Are you able to play him more minutes than you were earlier in the playoffs? COACH MacTAVISH: Yeah. He's playing very well. I probably should have got had him more ice time last night because he was certainly one of our better players during the course of the game. It takes a while for me to build back confidence and Rem's been here for a while, and he's right on top of his game right now and he's starting to get more ice time and will continue to get more ice time. He's a very smart player. He's starting to get some minutes on the penalty kill. He does a terrific job there. He's got composure with the puck. He can make a play on in his own end rather than jamming it around the boards. But he's playing very well and has been a grade addition for us. Q. Craig, when a team goes on a run like this, the players and coaches talk about building something special. Whatever that is. Is it that some guys are overachieving while others are simply playing to a level, this something special the Flames talked about it when they went on their run. What is it that drives a team like yours and like Calgary's to go as far as you have? COACH MacTAVISH: Well, I think it's just the realization that the opportunities are few and far between, and the one thing that we've maintained throughout the playoffs is that we don't want to have any regrets. You don't want to leave any stone unturned in terms of your preparation to play the games. And as these playoffs go on, the opportunity grows and grows. And with that opportunity goes responsibility. And our players have handled that responsibility very well, and I mean it's been a long time since I've been in this situation. I used to take it for granted, but I don't anymore, and the product of playing and having a lot of success on a great team, and you can't take that for grant. And our players certainly haven't. It's not an expectation of ours that if it's not this year, it's going to be next year. There's no though of that. It's this year. We've got the chance this year. Let's capitalize and maybe it a three weeks that we'll remember for the rest of our lives. And you do that by paying attention to detail and controlling absolutely ever element of the game and how you're going to play and feel. And I think our guys have really grasped that. We're dealing with a little adversity right now, but we're getting through it. Q. Craig, maybe you've been on the other side of it and I know both teams have really tried it downplay the difficult history against you guys recently. But when one team has had as much success as it has over the other, does that begin to play on a team's psyche at all? COACH MacTAVISH: I think they're psyche going into tomorrow has nothing to do with the history of the wins and losses between the two teams. I think their psyche tomorrow is going to be we are going to put a tremendous amount of pressure on the Oilers, much like we did in the third period. We saw that we had some success. We scored some goals. And we've got to apply the same amount of pressure that we did in the third period and take one game at a time. That's going to be their mentality going in, and it has to be their mentality. And ours is we got to be better. And we got to be fresher, and we got to apply pressure ourselves. And I don't think either team is reading anything else into it, anything further than that. Q. Who should not have been playing on your roster last night, under regular season circumstances, if they hadn't had the flu run through the lineup, they wouldn't have played in circumstances like that. And what kind of an inspiration has been trickling through with efforts from guys like that. COACH MacTAVISH: I don't want to name names, but, I mean, the flu sometimes has a way of -- players a lot of times play very well with the flu for whatever reason. We always call it, talk about the hockey gods, and when you play with the flu, you will get rewarded with a goal or something good happens to you. So from that speculative -- but there are guys that handle it better than other guys, like the experienced guys are guys that normally can handle that because you start to play a more cerebral game because you don't have the energy obviously when you're not feeling well. So you have to think your way around the ice surface, and a lot of times your finding yourself in the right spot. But we feel like that's over. I think today, the day's rest is going to do us a world of good. We really feel like we've hopefully seen the last of it, and we can start to -- I think we'll be a much more energetic group tomorrow. JAMEY HORAN: Thank you, Coach.
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