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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SABRES v HURRICANESMay 29, 2006Daniel BriereRyan MillerBUFFALO, NEW YORK: Practice Day Q. Daniel, this team has been noted for responding to adversity over the year. I guess this is probably the biggest test you've faced? DANIEL BRIERE: Yes. Once again, now we've put ourselves in a tough position. We're not going to quit until somebody tells us it is over. We have had this same attitude all year, we're not going to change now. Obviously we put ourselves, like I said, in a tough position. Tomorrow we come back in front of our crowd. We'll try and feed off of that. The crowd will be loud and excited. You feed off of that. We just want to have another chance to play back in Carolina. Game 7, you never know. We're looking at tomorrow's game just for another chance to go back to Carolina. Q. I think everybody is spoiled, I think that's the first time in the whole playoffs you guys had a chance in overtime and didn't convert on it (inaudible. I can't think of another one you didn't convert on. DANIEL BRIERE: Yeah, it's a little different than usual. So far in this playoff we were so confident when we get to the overtime. Now we're going to stand strong. We just need one chance and we are gonna win it. Last night we had more than one chance and we just -- the puck didn't want to go in. So a little different than what we faced so far in these playoffs but, you know what, it's not the end here. I know a lot of people think we're done, but that's not the way we see it. We want another chance. We want a chance at Game 7, and from there anything can happen. Q. Ryan, you said this would be the better story to come back from this, after the way you guys done it all year, did it seem almost at some point (inaudible)? RYAN MILLER: I don't think you go in the playoffs expecting to walk through a series and not face adversity. We are in for a test. It's something that we have to do and it's something that we all feel good about our game yesterday. It could have gone either way. We could be sitting here talking about being up 3-2 and how we have to control the series. Even if we're up 3-2, it could go to a Game 7. You know, it's a series and I hope that everybody in the locker room feels the same way, that as long as we keep playing, anything can happen. Especially we have to bring that focus for one game. We only have to win one game to make it interesting. We don't have to win two tomorrow. It's not like we're playing back to back. We have to get into the seventh game and worry about the seventh game when it comes. Q. You guys have never been behind in a series until last night, has that affected your confidence at all in the dressing room? DANIEL BRIERE: I don't think so, not the way we played last night. We know that we had more chances last night and it could have easily been on our side. So all you can do now is give it everything you've got, not quitting. We haven't had any quit in our game all year, so we're not going to start now. I really believe that with a lucky bounce our way last night, we're talking about different things here today. So like Ryan said, we just want to make it interesting. If we can get to Game 7 we'll worry about that. Q. Facing elimination in this Game 6, how key would it be to have a guy like Teppo in the lineup and his experience back in the lineup, maybe help settle some of the guys out there? You're a young team obviously? DANIEL BRIERE: I think we made great strides last night. We realize that we can play. We are not going to have, you know, Henrik and Dmitri back. We don't know about Teppo, but we thought we were the better team last night on the ice and we didn't have Teppo. We can't worry about that. Now we have to put it in the back of our mind. The same lineup, the same game, the same effort we played last night, we can make it interesting and I really believe can win. Q. What was the difference between Game 4 and 5? DANIEL BRIERE: I don't know. Game 4 we came out flat. Early in the game we just didn't have it. They took that two-goal lead and then we started taking a little bit more chances. We gave them a little bit more odd-man chances because we had to take a more chances to come back in the game. When you start taking chances, it can go both ways; it either works for you or against you. And that night it didn't work for us and we were chasing the puck the whole night. One of those games where we came out flat and now we can't afford to do that. We realize that now. We can't afford to have another flat game. We're in front of our home crowd. I think that's what is going to get us going. Like I said, we just want a chance to go back to Carolina. Q. Ryan, we were just talking about the experience of a young team in the playoffs, how excited are you to see how this can be your first elimination game? RYAN MILLER: It's going to be interesting obviously. I thought we responded well last night, it just didn't work out. Our effort was there. Our attention to detail was better. We need to play better. I don't think -- they've seen great effort out of us but I don't think they've seen our most complete game. I think that they are capable of winning two in a row. I think they should be wary of us. We're capable of winning two games and we're focusing on this game here at home, and we'll go from here. Q. Danny, when you sit on the bench and the watch Gaustad, Mair and Pyatt line out there, do you derive anything from that? Do you get energy from watching them hit and bang away? DANIEL BRIERE: Definitely. Some of the big hits when they go out there, not just the hits but sometimes when they are able to get a good shift in the offensive zone, controlling play and working the boards, all three of them are so big and working the puck, it's tough to take it away from them. You know, we do a very good job usually of feeding off that line. One of the best -- they are one of the best examples of an energy line that you can have. I think they are doing their role perfectly. Q. Was there any sense today that you guys got a raw deal last night? You controlled the play in the third period, in the overtime, you were talking about a bad call, is there any sense of that? DANIEL BRIERE: Not really. We can't go back and look at it that way. We played a good game. We didn't come out the winner. There were some games in the playoffs where we weren't the best team and our defensive play and our goalie has saved us. So I mean, it's gonna happen once in a while. You can't sit here and, you know, pout about the outcome of the night before. You have to get your head up and get back at it. Myself last night, I don't think I played a very good game. I know I can do a much better job, but yesterday is over and I can't change anything about that. We've got to move forward and give it all we've got and get ready the best way we can for the next game. That's all we can do. Q. How can you play better Danny? When you say you didn't play a very good -- DANIEL BRIERE: Well our line, you know, sometimes there's nights where the puck is not going to go in. I look at Game 4, we had some great chances. I think Jochen had three chances by himself right in front of Gerber, J. P. had a couple. Looking at the other night, people from the outside will say, well, the Briere line didn't do their job, they didn't score, but inside we knew we created a lot, we had our chances, we just didn't finish. There is nothing you can do. The frustrating part about last night, we were on the ice for two goals against. We could have done a better job. Some nights the puck is not going to go in for you, but you have got to make sure you play well defensively. Our line had a couple of breakdowns to give them a couple of goals. That's why we're a little disappointed in our game. That's where we have got to be a little stronger. Some nights you are going to score, some nights it's not going to go in, but you just got to make sure you keep it out of your net. Q. If you're going to look at the glass as half full, do you look at how you limited them in shots in the third period and the overtime? DANIEL BRIERE: Yeah. Lindy told us they only had one chance in the second half of the game, which is a very good sign. They had more chances on the power play than we did. Overall our game was very good. Like I said, you can't sit back and worry about what happened last night anymore. It's over. Now we've got to move forward and build on the positive things from last night and move forward. Q. Can you draw from the fact that teams have overcome 3-2 deficits? Anaheim has done it this year, Tampa did it last year and Chris Drury did it with Colorado a couple years ago. DANIEL BRIERE: We already addressed that and yeah, it's something that we know we can do as well. It's not just saying that, we seen it this year already in the playoffs. We know that we have a lot of character. You know, that's where we have so much confidence that we can do that. We've bounced back all year from tough outcomes, tough breaks, bad injuries, so we really believe we have something special that we believe we can come back. Q. Did you talk to Chris about that, what they did in Colorado? DANIEL BRIERE: No, we haven't talked about Chris's situation. Q. Another team that did it in the Conference Finals down 3-2 was the '94 Rangers. You might recall that Mark Messier guaranteed a Game 6 victory, are you in the mood to -- DANIEL BRIERE: (Laughs.) I'll let that for somebody else. One thing I can tell you is, we'll give it everything we have. Q. Ryan, you said they haven't seen your best effort, do you include yourself in that -- RYAN MILLER: I'm going to say that they haven't seen our best effort. They have seen our great efforts, but I don't think they have seen our best game. Q. (Inaudible). RYAN MILLER: I thought I've played solid. I don't think I've been -- obviously I think I've been in the way when I need to be. It's 3-2, I'm not concerned about my game. It's going to be there when -- now, it's just the time to get focused and push forward. All is forgiven and that's the main thing. I know a lot of guys in the room are frustrated. I know when J. P. took that penalty, you know, whether it was a penalty or not, he feels bad about the situation and we forgive him immediately and he has got to forgive himself and move forward. A lot of s guys in the locker room have got to do that. The game is over, you can't do anything about it unless you prepare yourself to play for the next game, that's all you can do. That's our approach. It's 3-2 in the series. It's still a good situation for us. We have had the opportunity to come here and win the game and anything can happen. Seventh game, you know, I think it's going to be fun. I think we should rise to the challenge and enjoy it. We get to do it at home and try and get this series back to where it should be.
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