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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SABRES v HURRICANESMay 27, 2006Lindy RuffRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Practice Day Q. Any update on Teppo or on his status? COACH LINDY RUFF: He's going to try skating again tomorrow. We'll have further information then, but still a possibility. Q. Too much being made of the defensive injuries? COACH LINDY RUFF: I think it is. I think that we weren't hemmed in our own end last night. We weren't severely outchanced, we weren't outshot, I think more should be made of the lack of offense than the defense. Got a couple of good goals, got a couple of lucky ones at the same time. I thought Janik played very well. I thought Jillson had a couple of times he struggled with the puck but other than that, I thought both those guys they had a pretty good game for us. Q. What do you need to do to generate more offense? COACH LINDY RUFF: We need to finish some of those opportunities. We had some really goods ones. You look at Dumont's two chances in the first period, you look at Drury's chance, you need to finish those. Chances were we had enough chances to score three or four goals. We didn't capitalize. We had good zone time with our power play but didn't generate enough shots. They did pretty good job of killing penalties on us. Q. When you look maybe at the game right up to where it goes 1-0, you had to be happy with the way the chances were breaking down, the possession you had in their end, the sort of if not odd-man rushes you were getting two-on-twos and a couple of one-on-ones, anything you can take away from that to apply to the first ten minutes of Game 5? COACH LINDY RUFF: I think you look at it, we came out the way we wanted to come out, generated the opportunities we needed to generate. We had one two-on-one, I think we shot high, a heck of an opportunity. We had the better quality of the opportunities. They got shots from the point that went off -- it was tipped and found a way of finding a way in. That's part of hockey, too. But no, I think you look at it, we had good zone time offensively. They are a good team in their own end, and just we got to do a little bit better job of more traffic, more people, more confusion. Q. Can't blame Miller for the goals last night, but Carolina made a change in goal. Do you entertain maybe making a move? COACH LINDY RUFF: Not right now, no. Q. Were you surprised at all that they went with Gerber looking back at it? COACH LINDY RUFF: No, not at all. I wasn't surprised. There was speculation he was playing, our guess was that he would be playing. Q. All of Laviolette trying to keep it secret didn't matter to you? COACH LINDY RUFF: No, we had him pegged for playing. I think you looked at the way he stepped in and played, he can throw up as much smoke as he wants. Didn't seem like he was happy with Ward. Q. Seems that in this series the team that cannot afford to lose finds a way to win. Seems that you are now in that situation, that's a game you can't lose, I guess, tomorrow? COACH LINDY RUFF: I think you look at it that you are down to four teams, there's four good teams left. They had to fight hard to get to where they are at. We played a lot of close hockey games to get through the Ottawa series, and you can't really at this point in time can't afford to lose any games. I think the games have gone different ways, breaks have been involved. There's been periods of time where both teams have dominated. So yeah, it's desperation time. They won't want to lose tomorrow either, go back to our building, I don't think. It's still tied 2-2 though. Q. Eight one-goal games in a row, finally a point where there is separation. Is that just a statistical thing or a sought after change in the dynamic? COACH LINDY RUFF: I just think you had one -- the goaltender, I thought he played fantastic. Q. What adjustments do you need to make in Game 5? COACH LINDY RUFF: I'd like to see ourselves finish better. If you look at the three or four good opportunities that we had in the first period to probably turn the tide that way, we didn't finish, we have got to get to Gerber. We have been able to get to almost every goalie in this league so far. That's our next challenge. Q. Danny said there was a bit of tentativeness maybe on part of the team knowing that you were down -- maybe overcompensated, how do you get that out of their minds? COACH LINDY RUFF: You'd have to explain the tentativeness. Q. They were overcompensating maybe knowing that they had three -- COACH LINDY RUFF: No, that's a bunch of crap. I am sorry they feel that way, we haven't felt that way all year. Our defense didn't play that bad. I have watched it again and it had nothing to do with how poorly our defense played. It had to do with finishing. And if in their mind they overcompensated, then it's my job to get their mindset in the right place. That falls on my shoulders. Q. That's what Danny was saying. COACH LINDY RUFF: Then it's my fault. It's my job to get them ready mentally and physically. If that is where they were at, they won't be there tomorrow. Q. Danny said the meeting this morning basically you told them where they were at, two wins away from the Stanley Cup Finals. Put things into perspective basically? COACH LINDY RUFF: Yeah, it really is nothing to get down about. We're staring at a series that's 2-2. That if you look at it in the first period, where I thought we outplayed them, they got a couple of breaks, found a couple of holes to put them through. We didn't take advantages of our opportunities. I think you have seen pockets of energy in all the games, where momentum has shifted from one team to the other. I think you are going to continue to see that. They are a very good team. I think that if you can get the lead, you can frustrate teams. I think they got us a little bit frustrated. There's nothing to be down about. We're going to go out and create the chances we need to create. We just have to finish. Q. They seemed to play at times last night just (inaudible), reactions to the first goal that goes in, it was like overtime in Game 7, where did that swagger go? COACH LINDY RUFF: There was frustration. There was disappointment. We went from probably playing one of our better games here the game before to not having things go your way. You are going to be frustrated. When goals go in, guys hang their heads. They don't run around and stick their sticks up in the air like they scored. Guys were disappointed. We're all disappointed. I think that has been the character of this team that we don't like losing, we don't like getting scored against, and that's all part of playoffs right now. You know that every goal is a big goal and you are just disappointed. I think you pick yourselves up and you get ready to play the next shift. Q. A lot of talk has been on Martin Gerber. What was the difference last night from the regular season? COACH LINDY RUFF: I think initially he made some very good saves. I think that if we had hung on a little bit longer in a couple of cases, I think we could have opened it up. I think we missed on a couple of great opportunities. I think if you asked our players that had those chances, they'd like to have them back. I have said it before, we have had lots of hot goaltenders roll into this building and we have gone into towns where the goaltender has been unbeatable and we have been able to solve it. There is our next task. He played a great game, we have got to get to him. Q. Recchi was saying last night (inaudible) late punch, you punch back -- (inaudible). COACH LINDY RUFF: I think everybody anticipated it. We said it was two very good teams going at it. I think you have seen where breaks have gone both ways and teams have taken advantage of them. I talked about this pocket of energy through games where teams have gained momentum, no team has been able to sustain any type of momentum and everybody anticipated this being a long series, and I don't think they are going to be disappointed. Q. (Inaudible). COACH LINDY RUFF: I am not as hopeful now. He isn't progressing as planned. I really thought that I would see him and just being honest with you, I don't predict that now. Q. (Inaudible). COACH LINDY RUFF: He had had some symptoms, but he's feeling a lot better, but not to the point where he's going to skate in this series. Q. (Inaudible). COACH LINDY RUFF: We may use Adam tomorrow. I think that he's the type of guy that can supply a lot of energy and we're going to put a lot of thought into a couple of changes for the game.
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