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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SABRES v HURRICANES

May 29, 2006

Lindy Ruff

BUFFALO, NEW YORK: Practice Day

Q. The sun came up today?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Yeah. Like I said last night, there was nothing to be disappointed in the effort we put in. We had a couple of breakdowns that hurt us, but we had our opportunities to win the game.
Q. You have seen it done before, you coached in this situation when the Penguins came back, so do you tell your team, well, it's been done before, why can't we do it?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Well, we've discussed that. Anaheim got past Calgary in the same fashion. We have got a lot of players that this will be a new experience to try playing in this type of game.
Q. Chris Drury did it in Colorado down 3-2 against the Devils I think.
COACH LINDY RUFF: For me the pressure falls on them and for us we build off the way we played last game. Our team should have a lot of confidence with the way we've played and the number of chances we've created and really how we stymied them for the most part.
Q. Knowing how they responded all year, how excited are you to see how they will respond to this first elimination game?
COACH LINDY RUFF: As I said last night, I was excited about the game. I was excited about going into that game because we've had opportunities come up on the big stage. I thought last night's game was an opportunity to put that 4-0 game behind us, shuffle a few things up and change a few things and see how they responded. We had them on the ropes, we just didn't finish them.
Q. Teppo will be ready to play?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Aren't you getting tired of that question? I don't know what the answer is. Doubtful.
Q. In a situation where you're facing elimination, your backs up against the wall, in a sense, how valuable is that kind of experience, a guy like Teppo, how much do you miss that kind of leadership?
COACH LINDY RUFF: I think you miss key players. We've got plenty of those players that aren't in the lineup for us. You miss that experience. You miss his special teams work that he's done such a good job on. But at the same time, you look at the play of some of our guys that took the added ice time and ran with it and played so well. Those players have to relish the added opportunity and I thought a lot of guys rose to the occasion.
If we get him back, great, if we don't I think we've got some young guys that have built a little confidence from the last game and put some clouds over the doubt about their games.
Q. How do you lift the shadow of frustration, Max missing a breakaway, Jochen almost scoring, the penalty on J.P., how do you get guys to forget that, erase that memory?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Talk to them, put it behind them. We've been a good team in overtime this year and we had our opportunities. We probably played our best -- most solid 30 minutes of the game, the last 30 and didn't get rewarded for it. Jochen would love to have his opportunity back. I'm sure that Sami Kapanen would love to have his opportunity back in the Flyers series where he hit the post and we come back and score.
So I think you have missed opportunities or you have great opportunities to win the game. We didn't take advantage of our great opportunities. They got their one opportunity and made sure it went in.
Q. Coach, why do you say it happens at some point. I think back to overtimes, I think you scored on your first opportunity every time. You actually had two, Daniel had a good one, do you think it's bound to happen, it's not going to go in at some point (inaudible)?
COACH LINDY RUFF: I think all you can do is work to get those opportunities. If you get those opportunities, take advantage of them. That was no different. We were down killing a penalty and Jason Pominville creates an opportunity, his own opportunity, and buries it. We're hoping to kill that one off and move on. But in the sense you love the desperation of a game, you go into their building thinking they are going to try and build some momentum off the previous game. I thought our guys really stepped up and made a big statement.
Q. So why do you say the pressure is on them?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Oh, you'd hate to lose Game 6 and play Game 7. You never want to get in that situation because anything can happen. For us we have nothing to lose. We are really building off our performance and really going to go after it and take the same approach we did last night; try to feed some comfort and confidence to some of the younger players who were getting that added responsibility, who I think stepped up to the plate for us.
Q. Why were you able to able to limit them to one scoring opportunity in the last 30 minutes? What did you guys do so well that allows you to accomplish that?
COACH LINDY RUFF: I think our forwards, we were very responsible and I'll credit all the backcheck pressure that they supply, which we didn't have for parts of Game 4.
It really came down, I say it's a battle of will. It's your will to defend and your will to score. I thought our will to defend was excellent. I really feel that our will to score was close to that, too, but we just didn't get that one more to put them away.
Q. What do you make of Laviolette switching his goalies up and seeming to give their team a little bit of a lift in making that move?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Well, it's worked. You don't see it that often with a lot of teams but it's worked for them. You know, we could have put the crux on them. I don't necessarily think he made a tremendous save on Jochen to where Jochen shot the puck but he made it.
I don't make a lot of it other than as a coach, you get a hunch, you hook him or you keep him in, and every coach is different in that type of situation.
Q. How do you prepare for that, knowing that --
COACH LINDY RUFF: Just the same way we were asked if we could get to Gerber. We got to Gerber. We are prepared. We have had enough footage on both goaltenders. We talk about the tendencies, we talk about where we want to put the puck. If the other guy goes in, we can easily switch. After seeing them both, the players know their tendencies. I think we got a feel for Gerber. He must not have felt he liked where he was at.
Q. The way things were last night and the players not skating this morning, is today more of a physical break or a mental break?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Well, when you look at a guy like Brian Campbell, who played 33 minutes, it's a physical break. I thought he played a tremendous game and threw himself face first in front of a slapshot late in the game. As a coach it puts a smile on your face but you cringe because you know that he'll be risking injury at the same time. But it's that time of year where a day like today -- we didn't skate in between Game 4 and Game 5. If you're not in shape now, you're never going to be in shape. We'll get a game day skate in. And going into overtime and the amount of minutes we've played and the effort that we bring to the game, we just felt that skating today wasn't a good thing to do.
Q. (Inaudible) Penalty killing, you got a big chance to do it last night, how do you feel he did?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Who is that?
Q. Brian Campbell.
COACH LINDY RUFF: Like I said, we had two kills in the third period and we didn't allow a shot. At times we were using Brian, at times Doug Janik did some killing.
You know, I said that some players really stepped up. Brian's energy level at the end of the game was just as good as it was at the start of the game where, you know, maybe as a coach you worry where it's going to be at tomorrow, but he logged a lot of time and did a helluva job at it.
Q. What have you seen from Janic from the first little experience he got from the last couple games?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Building confidence, a little calmer, a little bit better essentially. A young player that was thrown in a real tough situation that I think has been steady, has not made many mistakes and just looks and feels more comfortable. There's places where we would like to get him to be little bit more comfortable on certain plays. Tough situations that he's handled well he seems to be handling better the more he plays.
Q. Ryan says that he's not worried about his game right now, are you worried about his game?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Well, it's the time of year where if you analyze every goal and every goal, you are going to like it or not like it. So, you know, you look at the what's happening on the other side, are you going to yank a goalie after a breakaway goal or two point blank shots? I tend to believe that on every goal somebody could have made a difference. You don't like pucks to go through but at the same time he made a couple of tremendous saves where he gave up a three-on-one and a two-on-one in the second period, where if we turn around, the score is in a different direction.
So we need him to be better but at the same time he's handled the situation pretty good.
Q. Wasn't it the same situation after Games 3 and 4 in Philly where everybody was talking about that and he came back and pitched the shutout?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Yeah. I said this before the playoffs started, I'm curious to see the way how guys would handle situations.
As we go through the playoffs now we are facing an elimination game that a lot of our players have never been in. In my mind as a coach, I'm curious -- you note how some players are going to handle it. You note their mentality, you note are they going after that, are they aggressive, are they fearless, are they on their toes, are they on their heels. My job is to get them on their toes. Fall face first on the floor, don't fall over backwards.
Q. (Inaudible) What would you tell him?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Don't be afraid. This team hasn't been afraid of anything. As a fan, don't be afraid. You are going to get everything they got. Last night pretty well summed it up. If there was a time that you would think team's beat up, they've lost enough guys, their defense is beat up, how can they do it? They showed you how they could do it.
Don't be afraid. There is nothing to be afraid of. We are only one of three teams left. There were four teams left, now there's only three.
Q. Do you sense your players believe that, "don't be afraid," did you sense that morning?
COACH LINDY RUFF: I sensed that last night.
Q. What about today?
COACH LINDY RUFF: Oh, yeah. At first you sense the disappointment after the game, kind of an emptiness, but the belief in how you played and how well you played, that was enough for me to say we're ready for Game 6. We're in our building and our fans have been special for us throughout these playoffs. They can be the seventh defenseman. They can make the difference
Q. You were obviously happy with (inaudible)?
COACH LINDY RUFF: That line makes it tough on the other team. That amount of minutes that that line plays is just as important as any other line because the other team has got to keep their head up. They know that they got three guys that are coming. You look at the play that Pyatt made on the Drury goal, just a great outlet pass. Gaustad and Mair, the number of checks they finished, just played a very solid game for us at the same time. Teams don't want to play against those lines. He make it even tougher.

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