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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SABRES v HURRICANES

May 20, 2006

Lindy Ruff

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Game One

Q. Can you put in your words how important it is to win that first game.
COACH LINDY RUFF: I think it helps set the tone for the series, especially when you are on the road, you don't want to get down in the first two games.
I thought it was a pretty tightly contested game where first period was pretty even. I thought we had a great second period. We held them off in the third.
Q. What was the problem in the first period?
COACH LINDY RUFF: I think that they came out pretty hard. They were pretty jacked up and we took about eight minutes to get going. I thought when we did we created the opportunities we wanted to create. We didn't give up a lot of opportunities.
Q. From the layoff, you chalk it up to anything in particular? Nerves?
COACH LINDY RUFF: You can chalk it up to getting back into the grind. But I think that each line the first couple of shifts it's almost like a feeling out and they got the better part of us. Later half of that period we really got going.
Q. What is Teppo's condition?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Can you guess?
Q. You know I have to ask it.
COACH LINDY RUFF: Can you guess?
Q. I can probably.
COACH LINDY RUFF: Day to day.
Q. Lower body.
COACH LINDY RUFF: Lower body, yeah. Mid to lower.
Q. Can you comment on how your team played without him, to be down a defenseman, and one of your better guys in general, how you were able to overcome that.
COACH LINDY RUFF: I thought we played great. I mentioned the second period we played for the most part without him. It was a great period. I thought that those five defensemen, we had two defensemen score goals. We had to kill off a penalty where we only had four defensemen. So that group of five guys did a great job.
I thought our forwards did a real good job in the second, take some of the heat off our defense by playing most of that period in the other end.
Q. This is a loud building but could you hear a lot of fans from Buffalo?
COACH LINDY RUFF: When you are on the bench you don't -- I mean, it's loud but you don't really pick it out unless they are yelling at you particularly. But overall, when we're walking on the ice you can hear some Buffalo fans cheering, so felt like we had some here.
Q. How would you describe Daniel's backhand on his goal, I mean, it was quite a play?
COACH LINDY RUFF: I will steal Rick (inaudible) line, It was the top shelf where mama hides the cookies. Just probably the only spot he could have scored on that play.
Q. And he found it.
COACH LINDY RUFF: Yeah, he's gifted player. I think that there's a lot of players maybe don't hit that spot, but Daniel has got a way of finding those spots.
Q. Penalty killing was pretty big tonight. They came in with, I guess, the best power play in the playoffs.
COACH LINDY RUFF: We tried to stay real aggressive. I think the same was said for theirs. They have been real aggressive with their penalty kill. You get down to the last two teams in the East, seldom are you going to be at this point without strong penalty kills.
Q. Did you make any adjustments after the first period to get that great second period?
COACH LINDY RUFF: We just talked about certain areas that we weren't aggressive enough in. We didn't have our five-man attack going. We weren't real fluid in the offensive zone from our three forwards, two defensemen. We talked about keeping that pack tighter together and going after it. If we're going to work, let us work in the offensive zone and not get trapped in our own end and do the work there.
Q. Bonus to get a goal from Jay McKee?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Especially with the way that defensive core played. Jay has done a tremendous job, for our club in the penalty killing category and blocked a ton of shots. It's fun. You really like to see a player like that get a big goal like that because it doesn't happen a lot, but I had visions of the overtime game in Philadelphia where he scored a big one like that. That's a treat for anyone of our D to get up and score a goal like that, so it was well deserved.
Q. Heroes all the time have a tendency to gear toward the big goal or the winning goal, but Ryan Miller has played well throughout the playoffs particularly today. Sum up with he's been able to do so far.
COACH LINDY RUFF: He's just been, I mean, sum it up, he's been real strong, he's been -- there hasn't been a lot of pucks going through him. He's made some tremendously big saves when we have needed him.
You reach back to even early in the year, the Ottawa series, the save on Spezza on the breakaway, those are the types of saves that sway a series one way or the other. He made a couple late in the third period there that allow you to win a hockey game when you are probably not playing your best. That's what your goalie is there for. He relishes that, and I think our team feeds off of that at the same time.
Q. Does he not get rattled?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Well, I think that you look, he's starting to mature as a goaltender. He has a calmness about him now that maybe he didn't have a year ago, maybe even six months ago, but I think that he's comfortable with the way he's playing. He's well prepared. He has got a routine, I think that you stick to that, you believe in your skills. You know that you are going to get beat the odd time, but I think that he has got the confidence in the way he's playing.
Q. You were still a lot in the third period but it seemed to be by design in a lot of ways, does that carry over from the Ottawa series what you were able to do from a defensive standpoint?
COACH LINDY RUFF: I would have liked to have seen us play a little stronger in the third period from really a transition standpoint where we -- we were on our heels, we didn't make a lot of plays, we chased pucks out of the zone and then tried to defend. I thought as the period went on, we started to play a little bit better, from about the 12 minute mark to the 6 minute mark. And then I think they got a lot of momentum off the goal they got when we were on the power play, and I think you just try to protect, you try to end up giving them the worst chance possible and we needed a few saves. But I thought -- we had bodies flying everywhere.
Q. Talk about all three of your goals kind of came in transition breaks out of your own zone. Talk about how that's a strength of your team.
COACH LINDY RUFF: Well, with the speed of our hockey club, we are just trying to get pucks in behind them at times. If they are going to stand us up, that led to some real good opportunities. We don't want the guy that chips it off to go get it, we need the support away from the puck to help create those opportunities. We have been good in the playoffs so far of taking advantage of odd-numbered situations, two-on-ones, even in the third Jochen Hecht hit the post on the same type of play when we got it in behind him and created some offense.
It has been a strength of our club throughout the playoffs.
Q. (Inaudible) you two teams are the best skating teams in the conference.
COACH LINDY RUFF: I think so. Two teams that are very creative and can really skate, I think -- I don't know, I mean Ottawa is a real good skating hockey club. You can't discount them. They are up there with the top teams in the East at the same time.
Q. Feel lucky to get out of the first tied even though you scored the first goal?
COACH LINDY RUFF: No. Because I didn't think we gave up that great of opportunities. I didn't think we played that well, but I felt we were going to see their best, which typically you do on the road. I thought we weathered a little bit of storm. I was okay with the way that period went after a certain amount of time.
They are a good hockey club. I have to give them that. They are going to generate some opportunities and we're going to have to withstand some pressure at times. As you can see, I think they are going to have to withstand some off our pressure at times, which are those pockets of momentum in a game swayed back and forth.
Q. Any win in a series like this is significant but to get the first one on the road like this?
COACH LINDY RUFF: It's always big. We have stressed that I think you prepare -- we had a week to prepare to try to get this win under our belt, you know, you are happy. It really allows you to really go after it in Game 2. You can take a few more chances. You can let it all hang out.
Q. Explanation for the success you always had in Game 1?
COACH LINDY RUFF: I have been lucky. Thanks.

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