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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANES

June 8, 2006

Peter Laviolette

EDMONTON, ALBERTA: Practice Day

Q. (Inaudible).
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: I thought we played better in all three zones. I thought we played a good hockey game last night, very hard fought game. It's going to have to be a hard fought game because Edmonton plays the game hard.
But I thought defensively we were strong. We played more, I guess, playoff brand hockey, which you have to do in order to be successful and we certainly talked about it. Showed some video and talked to the defense, the forwards, went through special teams, again like we always do, but just had a real honest meeting. One thing about our group is that we're pretty honest, they don't fool each other, they don't fool me, and they are an honest group. And to a man, I don't think you heard anything who liked Game 1, nobody came outside, well, we played great. What are you talking about, so there was only room to get better at that point.
Q. I know it's probably been talked about quite a bit on this playoff run but Cam Ward, have you coached a guy that's as young as he is that maybe has much composure or maturity, whether it be playing extremely well or getting pulled and coming back later on, doesn't ever seem to get upset about anything, have you ever coached someone that's as young as he is with that much composure?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: In different positions?
Q. Just in general.
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: Eric Staal is pretty composed. I think Andrew Ladd is pretty composed. Talk about three young players on our team, I think they are all real composed.
Q. Maybe as a goaltender have you ever seen --
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: I only coached in the Island for two years. It was a veteran goalie then.
To answer your question, obviously he is very composed. That has been his makeup from the start. I think we have said that all along that he's very cool and collected and I think it's been a strengths of his.
Q. Any residual effect, this is the first time I think since December 10th you have gone over one time zone in playing. I mean this is a four and a half hour trip, kind of in a new ballpark for you. Any challenge coaching at this time?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: Good thing is we're all here a couple days in advance, got another practice day tomorrow. We travel, get a practice day, we don't have a choice either -- we're going to have to deal and get it over with. Get time adjusted, get ready to play hockey. I think when the circumstances become so big those things become -- they are not looked at, for us anyway, as something that really is a hurdle that we need to overcome. It's still maybe, I haven't been here, so but I think the circumstances of being in the Finals, that our energy and emotion will be really high and I would think that we would come out and play a real strong game. We know we're going to have to.
Q. You just touched on it, you have never been here, some of your guys have but a lot haven't. In terms of your coaching style, now I mean, do you put your foot on the gas? Do you pull back, let things sort of slide? Going into Game 3 how do you approach it?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: In terms of what, the preparation for the team?
Q. Not so much in terms of your scheme but in terms of what you say to the guys, try and pump them up?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: We haven't changed anything. You can catch us on any practice day doing laps, doing nets at the end of practice. We practice hard, play hard, same video meetings. We have made it a point to stay exactly the same in the playoffs as we did in the regular season, whether it be little things, allowing the media into our locker room at 5 o'clock, 5:30 or whenever that time slot is, when we can bring players outside the locker room all year long, allow the media in.
We talked about it, just leave everything the same, whether it's kids in the locker room dads in the pre-game skate, travel times or meals that we had, preparation for power play, penalty kill, everything for us, has been the same. There has not been any -- for the most part, you know, with the exception of circumstances like this when players get pulled from everything that we have done or everything that we have tried to control, has been the same as the regular season.
Q. Your players echoed what you were just saying, the effort from game to game has been a little bit different. Do you have a sense as a coach what you are going to see before the game? Does that play out or are you always surprised to see as much as the fans or people watching are?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: No, I think for the most part in order to -- I mean, I don't know where we're at right now but it's an awful lot of wins this year. In order to get to that point I think you have to have consistent effort. I think when we do slip a little bit in our effort or our game -- I guess my point was that the group, I think the leadership inside the group are very honest. There is not a lot of kidding. You can't fool anybody. We know as a group when we're playing well and we know when we're not. We played a lot of good games. I don't think it's been -- I don't want to sit up here make it sound it has been inconsistent -- even the playoffs we have won a lot of hockey games we have had to play good hockey. When we do have a dip in our play, we usually realize it and realize what we have to do in order to be better.
Q. Can you break Game 2 down as simple as winning the special teams battle? 3 for 10 on the power play, they are 0 for 6, not just scoring the goals but controlling the game on the power play as you guys did?
COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think specialty teams can contribute to any win and usually the specialty teams battle can decide games. I don't think that there's any question about that. Breaking it down for us compared to Game 1, I thought that we skated much better. I thought we competed much better and then inside of that statement there's a lot of little areas, faceoffs, specialty teams, forecheck, defense, blocking shots, every aspect of the game I thought that we competed better and skated better than what we did in Game 1.

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