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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANESJune 10, 2006Shawn HorcoffJussi MarkkanenRyan SmythEDMONTON, ALBERTA: Game Three Q. Jussi, did you get a piece of Williams' breakaway in the first period? JUSSI MARKKANEN: Yeah, I think it hit my arm a little bit. I didn't get -- didn't hit my glove but I think it hit my arm. Q. What was your overall view on the game tonight? I mean, you said after Carolina you felt quite comfortable, but here tonight, there weren't a lot of shots in the early part of the game for the first two periods it seemed, changed a little in the third. Would you give us an overview of all of that, please? JUSSI MARKKANEN: Obviously I felt fine in Carolina and just tried to carry on that feeling to this game, and I felt really good out there and obviously you can see that we came to play right away from the first minutes. It helps a lot for our goaltending, too, when we play good. Q. Smitty, you didn't want to wait until the third overtime like Hork did in this situation in San Jose? RYAN SMYTH: No, now we can rest up and hopefully get them in Game 2. Obviously it's a big break for us. I thought Game 1 was a little shifter there. We had two good solid periods and then we let them take over in the third. And then Game 2 was obviously a frustrating game for us. We have been pretty solid in Game 3 and we want to feed off of the fans and get some energy here, and I thought tonight they were a huge attack for us and Jussi holding the fort back there for us was great. Q. Shawn and Ryan, you scored the big goals tonight but could you both talk about the goaltender sitting between you there. He's been cast into a real tough spot, not having played. Talk about his performance? SHAWN HORCOFF: Let's be honest, I think it's really impressive. To come in and obviously not have a start in a long time and over a couple of months and to come in and expect to just all of a sudden get right back to top form in the Stanley Cup Finals is obviously a difficult situation, but I think it's a test to how hard Jussi's worked here for a good three, four months. I think, like I said before, we weren't kidding when we said we have confidence in him. We see this guy, we know he's a quality goaltender. He's played quality games for us during the year. We had confidence in him that he was going to get it done. As long as we can play better in front of him, like we did tonight, we're going to make his job easier. RYAN SMYTH: I thought he played excellent in practices. I know it's no game situation, but for the last couple of months he's been solid working with Pete, working on his angles and, like I said, it's a little different than getting thrown into a game situation, but he's handled the pressure really well, and I thought he played pretty good in Game 2, just we didn't play very good in front of him. Then tonight, obviously, self-explanatory. Q. Shawn and Ryan, can you respond to how your line played tonight in a crucial situation? RYAN SMYTH: I know Hork and I have talked the last couple of days, we had to get better we had room for improvement and we wanted to deliver tonight and I know Hemmer has been playing half decent, obviously, he chipped in a huge goal for us in Game 1 to tie it up, but we had to obviously dominate offensively, we have had some chances I know Hork had some chances in Game 1, I had some chances too, but we just couldn't put it in the net. Finally we got some breaks tonight and hopefully we can get some confidence off of that and feed off of it. SHAWN HORCOFF: I mean, well we talked about it, I mean that's yesterday obviously there was a lot pressure on our team to score goals. First and foremost we put pressure on ourselves to come out tonight and play a good game. We weren't looking for help from any other line, we wanted to come out and produce, and help our team. That's our job, and we have been able to do it thus far but obviously got off to a little bit of rough spot in Game 1 and 2. Got a few breaks tonight. That's a positive for us. Hopefully that's a sign of things to come. We did better. I thought, we crashed the net a lot harder as you can attest to Smitty's last goal. That's the kind of goals we need to get here. We need to get traffic to him, let his job be hard and let him know he better handle his rebounds because we're going to pounce on him. We're going to take some positives from this game tonight. Q. What did the puck go off there, Carolina has come back time and time again how do you keep from getting dejected as a team after they scored that goal? RYAN SMYTH: Obviously that was a goal that -- off of Gator. He made a great block there and then just landed back for Brind'Amour to shoot it. Actually it was a nice shot. After that we had to find some energy and obviously we fed off the fans there again and we were trying to chat up on the bench, keep the positive attitude going, and when I got across the line I dropped it to Hemmer on that play, he just fed it through, and it went off of Cam Ward and popped up and I guess it hit my shaft. I don't remember hitting my shaft, all I remember is it hit my chest and it crossed the line and obviously it was, you know, gritty goal but hey, it counts. Q. Were you ever concerned during the review that they might see it differently? RYAN SMYTH: I didn't intend on throwing my body into the net. I know I got hit from behind and, you know, there was no motion as far as me pushing the puck in the net the wrong way, so, no. Q. Coach Laviolette was in here saying that at this stage that crowds don't matter, buildings don't matter, do you agree with that? SHAWN HORCOFF: No. RYAN SMYTH: They fed off their fans in Game 1 and 2, and obviously we want to feed off our fans in 3 and 4 here and it's important that obviously we come to the test for Game 4. We know it's going to be a battle and it's not going to be easy. But hey, the fans can help us out. Q. Smitty, did it cross your mind at any point that in the old NHL you may not be in that position and even in the older NHL you would have been penalized for being in the crease on that play? RYAN SMYTH: Well, they wouldn't have the reviews that they do now. Like I said, I got a little bit hit from behind. I followed the puck, it came up off of Cam Ward's stick and just it happened so quick. Doesn't matter, it's in the net. Q. Jussi, were you aware of the crowd right from the get-go? As soon as you were announced the chant of your name started. And second, just critique your own performance tonight, coming back into this situation in a must-win situation. JUSSI MARKKANEN: Well, obviously I recognized the crowd was pretty loud, but didn't recognize anything specific names going on there, but I try to -- try to get my focus on the game and enjoy the great atmosphere in the building obviously. About my game, well, I felt fine and saw the puck really well and obviously the D blocked a lot of shots, especially in the end, and that helps. But I got to give a lot of credit for our forwards to coming back and help because obviously Carolina's forwards are really skillful and if they get lots of room they can capitalize on their chances. Q. As far as your game plan, the defense seemed like you guys did a great job collapsing down below and really protecting Jussi, as far as Carolina was pretty much unable to get any traffic in the first couple of periods. RYAN SMYTH: One big thing is that we were playing solid through the neutral zone. Neutral zone is a big part for us. We talked about it, obviously they got some speed up front and they got some very skilled forwards. Like Jussi said, minimize their space, you know, minimize their plays at the blue line, I thought our D did a good job standing up, creating a couple off sides. Those things are big. They go a long ways, and yes, it stems from the forwards, and being tighter in the gap area. We kept them on the outside. Like Jussi said, we blocked a few shots whether it be D or forwards, and it was critical. They played that in Game 1 and 2 and we I thought we were assertive more tonight in that area. SHAWN HORCOFF: Odd-man rushes too, we gave up way less tonight. We got into a little bit of a run-and-gun game with those guys. You don't want don't want to do that with them. It stems a lot from the neutral zone. Let's be honest, I think we gave up quite a few two-on-ones and three-on-twos and even some four-on-twos at times, which are uncommon of the way we play. So tonight I thought we tightened it up a bit better and made it more difficult and gave them less chances. Q. Could I get an assessment from Ryan and Hork on what is going on with the power play. Is it basically that teams are great at how they cover it or I mean, guys really are struggling on it, it would be nice to be able to get more? SHAWN HORCOFF: It would be, most definitely. We made some changes in practice, tried a few different things tonight. I thought that at times we snapped the puck around better and at least created some chances, so we got to take positives out of that. But at the same time, I mean they are doing a great job, they are real aggressive, their D are real aggressive on our board forwards, and we just have to support each other a bit more closer, and just start getting more pucks to the net. I think with Smitty, we have got to use him to our advantage in front there. Once we can start doing that, we are going to be more successful obviously.
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