|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANESJune 6, 2006Craig MacTavishRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Practice Day COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: Good afternoon, everybody. I'd just like to start by saying, no questions on goaltending. (Laughter). Go ahead, shoot. Q. How do you walk out of the tunnel tomorrow night and just reverse 180 degrees the tough situation going out there without Roloson, the mental part of it and the preparation part of it and bounce right back? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: I think the job's already been done. We've got a resilient group. You know, there's a lot of banter you can use now after the fact. But the fact of the matter is that it's all in the way that we play tomorrow. I think I can come in here and tell you that we've got a resilient team and we've got lots of confidence and I firmly believe all that stuff, but it's all going to be dependent on how we play tomorrow. I fully expect us to play a terrific game tomorrow and get back to even and get it back to Edmonton. You never win a Stanley Cup without overcoming some adversity along the way, and so far to this point, we haven't had to overcome a lot. We haven't faced an elimination game so far, and normally that's not the case. When you get to the Finals you've to overcome some of that. This is our test right now. Carolina passed theirs when they lost the first two games in the first round against Montreal and they had to bounce back. Otherwise, they wouldn't be here. So no team wins the Stanley Cup without a certain amount of resiliency, and we have to show some right now. Q. Your organization traded Jussi to New York, you waived Conklin, the goaltending was at a state where you had to go out and get a new goalie, how do you erase all of that history in your dressing room? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: Well, I don't think you erase it. The facts are what they are. The thing that you look to is that both those guys at times have played very well. We had a lot of confidence in them coming into the season by the way that they had played a couple of years ago. Jussi got into a stretch where he played very well. He played a good, long stretch when Ty got hurt, and that always helps a goaltender, to know that he's going to get the next start. Ty is coming off three wins in a row during the end of the regular season. I think his record's good the last four or five games, so he's capable of it. There might be an overtime loss in there, there is an overtime loss. I had Morrison in at the time, so you can't really blame him for that. They are NHL goaltenders. They have done it on a big stage before. Jussi was a good goalie and the best goalie in the Russian league last year in the lockout. Ty did a terrific job at the World Championships with the U.S. team. So they have done it before. They have that to fall back on, and that's important. I mean, the future will be what it is, and it's up to us to play well around them, which we're going to do and feel like we'll get the saves that we need. Q. At points during the season, both Jussi and Ty were fairly heavily criticized whether it's in the media or whatever the case may be, how do you think they handled the situation when the pressure was on so intensely and how will they handle this? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: We know what that type of scrutiny does to performance. It's not something that's productive and it's very difficult for anybody to handle that type of scrutiny. It's a very difficult position to play in, you're doubting yourself or if somebody is doubting you and you feel like you're not afforded a mistake. It's very difficult. Well, that situation no longer occurs and they are coming in with a clean slate, whoever it is. Q. Will a goalie go to bed tonight knowing they are going to start that game? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: I'm not going to get into what I'm telling, what I've told, what the situation is, what the goaltending will be. We'll just leave it at that. Q. Will you play more defensive now with these guys than you would have if Roli was not going to get hurt, or were you going to drop into a 1-2-2 at times anyway? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: No our game plan is going to stay the same. The last thing you want to do is start standing up in front of the goaltender trying to do his job. We don't need two goaltenders -- you want to make sure that we reinforce the things that we were reinforcing when Roli was playing and that the goaltender gets the good sight lines on the puck, there's not a lot of second and third shot opportunities or you take care of deflections and to make sure the goalie sees it, again, is important. Then you let the goaltender's natural ability take the game and you just have to make sure that they are seeing the pucks and there's not a lot of rebounds. Q. With an 8th seed knocking off the President's Trophy winner, you're being viewed from the outside as being a Hollywood story, how much can you use it to determine what kind of a story you would be if you won this thing now? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: Well, I think you can use it extensively. I think you know, there's been a pretty big platform and stage built for this team to answer the bell and play very well and win the Stanley Cup. I don't know in my experience that I've been a part of something like this. I feel like this team is resilient enough to do it. But it would be a nice story in hindsight, and I think that's very, very aware. It would be a pretty good testament to a good group of guys with a lot of character to get to a situation that we're at and overcome it and win the Stanley Cup. Q. Can you tell us the nature of Dwayne's injury, specifics, cartilage, ligaments, do you know it? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: ACL, MCL, patella, those are the only things I know about the knee. (Laughter). I deal in weeks and days and series. But I leave that to the medical staff. They can speak to that. But all I can tell you is once they say he's unavailable for the rest of the series, then the medical jargon is irrelevant to me. Q. God forbid another goalie gets hurt, but under the rules what can you do in that situation and is someone allowed to come up and join the team as a practice goalie? Floyd? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: Yeah, Floyd. (Laughter) Ray would go from 2 to 6; two goals in a game to six goals in a game. And that's with Floyd trying. (Laughter). Q. Considering how long it took Roloson to get on to this stage, how badly do you feel for him personally? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: Well, I'll feel a lot worse if we don't win a Stanley Cup for him. He's done a tremendous job to this point, and the responsibility is off his shoulders now. He's carried the torch very well and put us in a situation that we can win a Stanley Cup for him and everybody else. As long as we win this series, I won't have a lot of empathy for Roli, but right now, I know how hard he's taking it because obviously it's a situation you dream of as a player, in particular, a goaltender that's 36 years old, that's a great situation, a great story. So you have to feel for him. But as long as we can deliver the goods and take the ball from here, then I think he'll be fine with it.
End of FastScripts... |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|