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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANESJune 14, 2006Peter LavioletteRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Game Five Q. Up 3-1, how do you keep the guys kind of on an even keel and not get it too far away from them? COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: Well, I mean, the only thing that we can really focus on is the work we have to do tonight and there's going to be a lot of it. That's the best thing that you can try and do. Things are going to happen, the game is going to happen. We have to show up and make sure we play the game. That's all you can keep doing is remind them of that. Q. The Cup is physically in the building though, do you hope your players are thinking about that? Do you hope that they are trying to not think about it, just put that aside? COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: You know we have a lot of veteran players in the room that have played their whole careers and some of them have had long careers to get to a point where they have this opportunity. But I think it's real important not to be looking at the Cup, but to make sure we're looking at the game and the 60 minutes. Edmonton will fight like crazy tonight to extend this. We need to fight like crazy to make sure that it ends. And those veteran players will have to lead their way by their game and at the end of the game, then you can pick your head up and see what is there. But it's real important just to focus on the game. Q. Joe Vasicek came back in the lineup last game. Comment about his performance? COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: I thought that Joe came back and played hard. He was physical. He only played nine or ten minutes but he was physical when we needed him to be. He's a big, strong guy. There's a chance when Joe is on the ice he can score a goal. He was our leading scorer two years ago. He's a fairly young, although he's been in the league a few years now, gifted player that's got size and strength and the ability to score. When goals are at a premium, five-on-five, Joe's got a good chance of getting one. But I thought he played well. Q. Can you talk about a player like Cory Stillman. There's a lot of guys around who start out as a first round pick and take time and years to find themselves, maybe a couple of organizations and he's turned into a really good player. Just tell us about the process. COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: Well I can't really speak from the past much because I didn't know Cory a lot before this year. But I know that he's put together year after year now good seasons. It just for some reason it flies under the radar. It's even known under the radar year. Now he finds himself tied as the leading scorer in the playoffs. He's the type of guy who contributes consistently, and he scores big points and he helps other players score big points and ultimately that leads to the team's success. He had a tremendous year for us. It was a great signing by Jim Rutherford. I think he's found a home here in Carolina. We certainly appreciate what he's done for our organization and the leadership and the experience that he's brought along with his play on the ice. He's fit into our team chemistry and has been a big asset. Q. You mentioned those veteran guys, guys like Wesley, Weight, Hedican, they are all kind of lying very low today, don't want much to do with the media, do you see them focused even more, especially those guys that are going for their first Cup? COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think that -- I don't think they are all going for their first Cups, well, yeah, winning their first Cup, yes. I think that there needs to be the ultimate focus today because there's distractions, we have talked about that, you know, we'll continue to talk about it, the puck is going to drop tonight at eight o'clock or 8:15, whenever it drops, and ultimately that's going to decide the game. We need to make sure that we're ready for that because there's a lot of things that go on throughout the day, distractions that go on throughout the day. We have to eliminate those and just focus on the work. The work is the biggest thing tonight. Q. Line matchups in Edmonton, it was obviously a little different, how much does it affect things for you tonight? COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: You know, we have never been one to look to match lines. I think sometimes there's things that we try to stay away from, if we can, but not enough to make us pull people on and off the ice. I think any time you start pulling people on and off the ice, even if it's to get extra centermen out for the faceoff in your end, once you win the faceoff you are going to lose offense automatically because you have to have a line charge. Somebody is going to come out of the play and then it's four on five. So we just haven't done it a lot. We seem to get out of sync when we do. With the last change it makes it a little bit easier for us. Up in Edmonton we really scrambled up the lines as much as we could just to avoid matchups, but that's because we have scrambled the lines all year. So there's been a lot of combination and a lot of different a scenarios that we have used that have found success for us through the course of the season and the playoffs. Tonight with the last change, I guess, we get to look for certain things or stay away from certain things, but again, it's not a major concern of ours. Q. Talk about winning the battle in front of the net and the job your defensemen are doing to keep Ryan Smyth away from there, especially on the power play. COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: He's still seems to get there for some reason, but that's where he makes his living, and I thought that -- I thought that the game, Game 4, for me, the first period was about specialty teams, and I guess two parts specialty teams, their power play and our penalty kill. It seemed like in the first period. Second period I thought that we picked it up offensively and we had a lot of good scoring chances, Markkanen made some really big saves for them. Then in the third period, I thought it was more of a defensive effort where it was tougher for Edmonton to get chances, most definitely tougher to get second chances and second opportunities in front of our net. I know that they play defense similar to the way we do, which is take care of the front of the net first, then block everything out and Buffalo played it the same way, and that continues to be a battle that you need to try and win. Q. Just talking to Erik Cole he said there was maybe perhaps a slight window of optimism earlier this week about his situation and perhaps being able to come back, but he said he had a conversation with you or somebody on the plane that was kind of ruled out. I wondered what that conversation was like between you and him? COACH PETER LAVIOLETTE: Well, again, I have ruled it out from the start because in talking to the doctors, this is not a broken finger or a broken ankle, where, you know what, if it breaks again, we'll just have surgery and reset it. This is a broken neck. It was an unfortunate incident and nobody feels worse than me or the players or his teammates who see him out there and he looks so good and he looks like he could contribute -- he looks like he could come into the lineup tonight and contribute. The bottom line is his vertebrae in his neck is not 100% healed. If it's only a .01% of a fraction that he can reinjure it, that's enough for me. His life with his family and his future and his career is far too valuable for that. It's not worth the risk. Again, based on everything and all the information that I have today, Erik Cole will not play in the playoffs this year.
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