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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANESJune 8, 2006Rod Brind'AmourAaron WardCam WardEDMONTON, ALBERTA: Practice Day Q. Pretty excited? CAM WARD: It is exciting. You can see that the weather is quite nice -- yeah, but it is exciting. I am happy to be here. Q. (Inaudible). CAM WARD: I capped it off at about around 20. I have been joking, I owe some money after the series is over. Q. You talked so much about always wanting to play on this ice and dreaming it as a kid, how hard will it be to contain your emotions when the crowd is going crazy? CAM WARD: It is going to be exciting and it is different walking in here knowing that you are going to be on the ice and not in the stands. But as tough as it may seem, you have got to treat it as any other game; we got a job here to finish and it's just going to be exciting to be a part of a hostile environment like it is here. Q. How do you maintain the nerves? CAM WARD: You just don't think about it too much. I find that it is a lot easier when you are just going out there and playing and not over-thinking or overanalyzing and trying to hype yourself up. Q. How is your confidence? CAM WARD: It's great. I feel comfortable and confident at the net. Once again, that's a reflection of the team; they played great in Game 2 in front of me. Q. Have you gotten into their heads at all with the way you have played the last game and a half? Do you think you have? CAM WARD: It's not for me to judge. I am just going out there to do the best I can to contribute to my hockey team. We know Edmonton is not going to lay down and give up. They are going to be ready for us in Game 3 and we have got to be able to match it. Q. Along that same line, up 2-0, teams haven't come back from that deficit often. But you know this is far from over? CAM WARD: That's right. You saw it with them against the Sharks. You saw it with us against Montreal we were down 0-2. So we all know that they play well in their building. This is very hostile environment. It's going to be exciting to be a part of and we know that we got to treat Game 3 like it's our Game 7. You can't afford to let a game slide by. Q. It's one thing to play against your hometown team, got to be quite another to play against the hometown team back in the hometown as well? CAM WARD: Well, yeah, I mean, I will keep repeating it. It is exciting, and with that being said, I try to do the best I can to treat it like any other road game, even though you are in your hometown. We have got a job here to finish. It's important that we keep our focus. Q. Are you like the boy in the bubble, everybody leaving you alone -- CAM WARD: I keep reminding them it's not baseball and it's not a problem if they come talk to me. I mean, I am surrounded by great people and great teammates and we are having a lot of fun with each other. Q. (Inaudible). ROD BRIND'AMOUR: Beating Buffalo last series, really loud buildings. I know this building has passionate fans. That's what you are dealing with, especially here now in the Finals in Canada. This is hockey. It's their life. We know how passionate they are and how loud the building is going to be. How do we overcome it? You have got to stick to your game and try not to get down early and not let the crowd really get influencing the other team. Q. Would it still be 2-0 if Roloson had gone the whole way? A lot of people are saying that it is a big break. ROD BRIND'AMOUR: I thought their goalie played pretty good game last game. I don't think you can fault him on any of the goals. A couple of funny bounces there, but none that you would say that were a goaltending issue. I didn't see it that way. Q. (Inaudible) Getting your chance here, does it feel any different? Two wins away, I know you never want to look ahead, do you all talk? ROD BRIND'AMOUR: We don't talk about it. You don't have to talk about it. We all know what is at stake. We all know where we are in our careers. We all know you may never -- whether you are a 21-year-old or 31, you may never get another chance like this. I think we all know the importance of that, and we respect that. Q. Do you all try to maybe impart something to the other guys, (inaudible) like you said there are no guarantees just because you get there early on -- ROD BRIND'AMOUR: We touched on it I think earlier, and like I said, everybody knows the importance of it and the main thing is just the fact that we respect this opportunity and, you know, you just don't know if you are going to get another crack at it. Our young guys respect that and they are playing their hearts just as the older guys. Q. Ward talked about coming into Rexall, (inaudible). What do you anticipate on Saturday night? Lots been made of how loud it gets here and how the fans are behind the team? ROD BRIND'AMOUR: We definitely had a taste of it already, playing first round in Montreal, and last round in Buffalo. When you go into hockey towns that are passionate about their team, you are going to have an environment like this. So we expect it to be that way. We have actually done pretty well in those environments. It's more embrace it and enjoy it because it's kind of fun to play when you are having that kind of emotion involved in the arena. Q. (Inaudible). AARON WARD: I think it was just disappointment. As a group if you would ask us how we felt about our game in Game 1, we let down not only our fans and our team, but just ourselves overall. Just we didn't come with a level of focus or effort that was worthy of being in the Stanley Cup. We got back to the basics, that was finding lanes, being in front of the net, creating pucks for Cam Ward, not leaving him alone, number of times he had to make saves, acrobatic and unbelievable, that shouldn't happen. As a group we're responsible to know what our responsibilities are out there and we left him alone so many times. Game 2 we really tightened up. Q. You played basically in the Eastern time zones since December 10th, this is the longest trip you have made, dealing with two time changes, any affect at all? AARON WARD: We got smart. We brought our own chiropractor. Five hours on the plane you got to get your kinks out. It obviously is going to help us out the fact that we got here two days in advance. Get some rest, get accustomed and get the feel of what Edmonton is all about before you get out on the ice and get surprised by the fact that there's 20,000 fans that are going to be down your throat. So it's good timing for us. Q. (Inaudible). AARON WARD: It's our system. That's the way we go about it. It's been the same way. Obviously they have had pretty good success entering the puck in the zone, with the skilled players that they have, but when we get in the zone we're maintaining a level of aggression that's working for us. As the series goes on, I am sure there is going to be some manipulation to their system and it's going to be a game of chess at this time now with special teams figuring out what we need to counteract what the other guy is doing. At this point we have been pretty successful, but game to game it can change pretty quickly. Q. As far as longevity with this franchise do you -- AARON WARD: I was spoiled in 2002 having the opportunity to go to the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately we came up dry against my old team, but then to endure two years of destitution it was ugly, it was not fun playing the game of hockey. To have a year off and really rid yourself of all those things going on with a losing team, you get that feeling, it kind of sinks into your bones sometimes and you can't shake it. This year we have a new face to our team both with coaching staff and the style we play, so it is really enjoyable to play this game again. Q. What are you doing differently versus Ryan Smyth and other teams have done when he tries to park himself in front? He says it's not a matter of getting traffic, it is a matter of getting them to engage with us -- AARON WARD: If had you asked me exactly what was said about Ryan Smyth, he's a great guy in front of the net. As a defensemen if you are going to stand there and let him get the positioning on you, then he's going to get two things on you because he's always got a stick -- a stick in the right spot. He has got such a big blade, he's so skilled with his hand-eye coordination, as the puck comes to the net, guaranteed he's going to get a stick on it. So you lose twice if he gets body position on you. So with him I think one of things you have to concentrate on is maybe fronting the shot before it gets to him, give him an opportunity for him to touch it, and it also helps -- it's a two-prong attack. Not sure how it's coming from the point, you have got your forwards in the lanes, so either the shot has to go wide or there's some level of, you know, urgency on that shot because you have to get it (inaudible). Q. After Game 2 one of the post-game comments of yours was coming here might be a bit of a christening for some of the younger guys, what did you mean by that? AARON WARD: You can only get so much watching it on TV, but what you do get from watching it on TV is these fans are definitely die-hard hockey fans and I say it with a smile. I don't want to give them too much credit. They are impressive but until you really walk out through that tunnel, stand in front of them all and listen to the bass and the screams and everything goes along with play at the Rexall Place. I know even the regular season games when I was in Detroit, it is a loud building, to add to the fact that you have emotion added to it, it's going to be impressive I am sure.
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