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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANES

June 9, 2006

Ryan Smyth

EDMONTON, ALBERTA: Practice Day

Q. You have set such a high standard for yourself over the years that if you are not quite as prominent in a game or two it really stands out. Is that a fair comment, do you feel you have to bring your own game up?
RYAN SMYTH: There's no question I have more room for improvement. From game to game it's a tough scenario, you got to find ways to exploit their weaknesses and obviously there's not a whole lot there that they have, but there are some that -- we obviously have gone back to the drawing Board and find a way through it.

Q. I know you talked a bit about it before at the beginning of the series but now that you have had a couple of games to play against them and now that Doug Weight is a visitor in this building playing for the Stanley Cup Final, how weird is it for you after all the time you spent with him?
RYAN SMYTH: It's really weird. I know every time that he's come back here it's been a tough situation for him. I know the fans get on him. Hopefully they can continue that. Nothing personal against Doug.
I have a great deal of respect for Doug, and the way he plays the game, great playmaker, sees the ice well, and obviously he has the upper hand right now, but this is our rink now and it's our turn.

Q. With home ice advantage maybe Craig can get you out there where you have a little more opportunity, how much does the match-up game, has it affected what you guys have been able to do, how much do you think it will improve with you having last change tonight as far as your line goes?
RYAN SMYTH: That goes in our favor obviously being at home, that line of Brind'Amour, they do an excellent job in defending. It's a matter of us trying to get more offense, and if this is the case getting away from them, Mac will decide that when the time comes.

Q. Regarding Cam Ward there's certainly been a lot of talk about him, what he's done at this point. How much do you look at him, how much do you look at your own club when it comes to goal-scoring, how can you try to get back to what you did in Game 1?
RYAN SMYTH: Cam Ward has sure stepped up for a young guy and played extremely well. I know that their D has blocked a lot of shots, or forwards for that matter. We got to find a way, obviously, to exploit more offensively. I think the thing is that a 5-0 game doesn't look very good. We got four against him in the first game and I thought we played well for 40 minutes of that game and we just got to get back to not running out of position, not getting frustrated and you know, when we get our opportunity, get the puck to the net, you know, put that puck in the net.

Q. Not only coming back home to Rexall Place with the way the fans have been here this year, do you take inspiration from the ghost of the greats, the tradition that's in this building from the success of prior teams?
RYAN SMYTH: Well, sure it helps, you want to feed off the history, no question. You look up there at the banners, that speaks for itself. Then you look at these other banners of pictures, when I am staring at them through the anthem it just runs chills down my spine because of those guys, how much they mean to this organization. Obviously it would be nice to do it again. We can feed off of those kind of things. That would be great.

Q. Talk about having the extra day off mentally, what that does for you.
RYAN SMYTH: I think it's huge. Physically your body just takes a toll no matter what. Mentally, it's hard to regroup after time. So I think this extra day really helps and obviously like I said, going back to the drawing board, I mean, might even help us a little bit more to find a little bit more weaknesses and, you know, mentally focus on what we can do better.

Q. Joe Moss, he's been there, we always call you the longest serving member but Joe would maybe be the one in the room. Talk about what he means to you, your team and what he's meant to this organization for so long.
RYAN SMYTH: You can see after a game you can just look at him, after a loss, and it explains everything, a guy that cares so much about the team; he's almost in tears, and I think he's the face of the Oilers in my mind, a guy that would do anything for the team and obviously he's one of the hardest working guys in the dressing room there, and he's a huge inspiration to us. If we can feed off a guy like that, great, because I know some of those old Oilers used to do that too.

Q. The anthem?
RYAN SMYTH: He can belt it out no question.

Q. I am not sure if you realize this or think about this, but 10% of the guys in the NHL are from Alberta. In this series it's like 17%; seven, eight guys that were born and raised in Alberta. How special is that to be an Albertan to be playing for the Stanley Cup? What is about this province that produces such good hockey players?
RYAN SMYTH: I think it's -- it's great to hear, I guess, the percentage-wise of it, but the guys that -- that speaks a lot for Alberta itself as far as how they have developed their players and how well they want to get to another level, I don't know exactly what the percentage is of making the NHL but it's very minimal and for players of Alberta, it speaks a lot for Alberta itself.

Q. You guys were in such control of the series first 35 minutes of Game 1. Were you surprised how quickly things went south and turned around on you?
RYAN SMYTH: I won't say I was surprised. Obviously we have known in the past that how well they were coming into third periods, they were excellent. So I don't want to say surprised, but we had a good 35, 40 minutes there and we let it slip away.
Now we are down 2-0 in the series, but by no means are we out of it. There's a long ways to go. We feel that we have more to give, like I said, and it's nice playing here at home.

Q. Maybe a bit of a follow-up: Seems like a very calm room. Didn't seem like a lot of panic in there today. Can you talk a bit about that, that you are not maybe on the outside, you don't seem rattled or nervous or scared going into this game.
RYAN SMYTH: Yeah, I think the big thing is you don't want to get too anxious and lose that focus of it all. But right from the get-go I know Mac has said, "Let's keep positive, whatever happens," and obviously our back's up against the wall and we were up against the wall in San Jose and we pulled through.
I believe a positive attitude goes a long ways. I think this sort of atmosphere that we have gotten going right now, the positiveness, the relaxation, I guess, so to speak, we want to rest up to and get ready because we know it's going to be an exciting ride.

End of FastScripts...

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