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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SABRES v HURRICANES

June 1, 2006

Peter Laviolette

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Game Seven

Q. What were you thinking down 2-1 going into the third?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: That we have been here so many times and so many successful stories come out of it. I don't think being down is something that scares this team, and there's actually a confidence, you know, that we can pull it together in the third period.
The third period has been our period all year and I think tonight was just another example of that.
Q. You said once earlier that you felt the longer the game goes, the better off you guys ends up being. There was a point I thought Buffalo was kind of fading but then they kind of got those goals to give them a little bit of life.
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: I felt like we were pressuring pretty good and we couldn't get that second goal and at times through your head you start to wonder, are they going to come down score one and tie it up? Not only do they score one but two. The second one with less than five seconds to go on the clock, and it was tough to swallow. You feel like you are doing your thing and they still played pretty tough defense as a team. They blocked a lot of shots and yet we couldn't find that second goal.
But again we just came in and regrouped from the third and let it go.
Q. Unopened bottle of champagne signifies?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: This is actually -- this was in Buffalo and this is a bottle of wine. I started at the beginning of the playoffs, I started for blood disorders, blood diseases for children's leukemia. There's a little girl in my neighborhood named Julia Rowe. It might be tough for me to get through this. I could barely get through it with the players. But when I first moved here to Raleigh two and a half years ago, I became very friendly with her family. She made it through all of her chemo and went into remission and about three months ago or two months ago, she went back and she found out that she had leukemia again. Her dad came over and gave me a bottle of wine. Well, first at the beginning of the playoffs I got together with the Leukemia Society and we were selling wristbands up there and trying to raise some money and some awareness. That's why I brought this bottle with me tonight. Because her dad brought over the bottle of wine. And the wristband that I have been wearing through the entire playoffs says "relentless," and the bottle of wine that he brought up says "relentless," and it went to the player tonight who best exemplified a relentless attitude and what makes it special is a little girl signed it.
So anyway, Rod Brind'Amour will get this award tonight.
Q. Rod said that Doug's goal took the pressure off because it came so early, you guys could just play, did you feel that way?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: Yeah, I mean, I thought I knew we were going to play. This team has showed so much character all year long and I just we didn't have a good first period the other night. It caught us a little bit. We tried to fight back, when you are down goals, you can't always come back and win. It's nice to know that we can do it and that we're capable of doing it, but it was nice get the lead after the first period. Then again we still had to fight back after that.
Q. Pre-season predictions had this team not making the playoffs. Obviously the Olympics were a bit of a disappointment. This has to be very much a high point?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: There's no question. There's been a lot of commitment from the players and they deserve this because they have worked extremely hard from training camp, I think there's been a belief that we can get to this point and compete for the Stanley Cup and that has been our goal all along. We didn't work our way into that goal. We talked about it right from day 1 and we got a tremendous group of guys in there, classy guys.
Q. How old is this young lady?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: She's six years old. Her name is Julia Rowe. I would love for the News and Observer, I saw my ugly face above the fold on the front page, I'd love for them to do a story on blood disorders and Julia Rowe. That would be great. Front page, R-o-w-e.
Q. You were in a seven-game series a couple years ago with the Islanders, obviously a different --
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: That was a war (laughs).
Q. Where does this rank? This was tough.
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: Similar maybe to Lindy's side of it and the Buffalo Sabres side of it. We got hit with some pretty hard injuries. We lost Michael Peca and Kenny Jonsson, a couple key components of our team and went up into a Game 7 in Toronto, which is, any time you go on the road it's a little bit more difficult.
Our fans by the way, they were relentless tonight and I think that, you know, the fact that we were home and healthy and able to play our game was an advantage for us.
Q. Any thoughts on Edmonton?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: I will be honest, we never looked one minute past Buffalo. I think that -- their forwards were good, goaltending was excellent, their defense started out good and started taking some injuries, but they still played good team defense and you know. Edmonton is playing really well right now, obviously, based on who they went through to get to this point, but you know, we'll start looking at that tomorrow.
Q. Three days off after the way this series went, will that be a good thing?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: You know, that question comes up all the time, you know, when we have had rest or haven't had rest. I don't know if there's an answer. Some teams don't -- maybe it's just hockey games themselves and not so much the rest. But I think it factors in less as the playoffs move on. The emotions will be high for both teams. It should be great. Can't wait.
Q. Is it fitting that Brind'Amour gets the goal that ends up being the winner?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: It's got to be, right? I mean, he's been the heart and soul of this team and I don't really like to talk about one individual player because it goes against what we believe in in the locker room. There's a lot of big performances tonight, but that typifies Rod Brind'Amour.
Q. As well as Rod played Williams seemed to have --
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: That's why I hate bringing up one person because I mean, that would leave out others that played so well. Honestly that's what our team has been about. It's not about one line or one person. It's about a group of guys that have come together with one common goal, and, you know, whatever it takes.
Q. Did you know that they were going to bring everybody out for the picture?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: No, but I think it's only fitting. That's what we are.
Q. Going to war with another old friend, Mike Peca, thoughts on that?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: He's a great player. Great person, great player, and you know, this is exciting stuff, and he's playing really well right now, so I am happy to see that for him.
He scored some big goals for them and made some big plays. I hope he used them all up.
Thank you very much.

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