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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANESJune 17, 2006Craig MacTavishEDMONTON, ALBERTA: Game Six Q. I guess the first question I have is were you surprised to see Erik Cole in the lineup, Coach? COACH MacTAVISH: I guess. Once I heard that he was out for warmup I thought there was a pretty good chance that he would play, but we like a lot of -- we're like everybody else. We were under the understanding that he probably won't play. Didn't affect us in how we prepared for the game, so I am sure they were happy to have him back. Q. You are outshooting them 21 to 3 in the second period up 2-0 any concern at that time that if you give up a cheap one hard work -- was it just a night you were going to dominate? COACH MacTAVISH: I am a coach. There's always concern and you know, we have been down that path before where we know that a goal changes the momentum of the game, so it's -- it's always a concern for sure. I was -- we started to breath a little easier when Ryan scored the goal in the third to make it 3-0 and thought at that point based on the way that we were playing it wasn't like we would -- like we played against Anaheim. We were playing a pretty good four-line, complete game, so there was less a concern than there was that night. Q. Can you be better on Monday night? COACH MacTAVISH: Well, I think we have to be. And, you know, it's the game of hockey and you know, in the game of hockey you really have to dominate the opposition to ensure a win. And they are going to try and do the same to us, but we're going to try and get better and improve upon our game tonight. You don't want to -- neither team wants to let a bad break or bad bounce lose a game for them, so you have to have a dominant performance and both teams will be looking for that. We'll be looking for a similar performance. Q. I understand Jussi wasn't overworked tonight. Still, what he has done here is incredible. Talk about what he's given you since you put him in. COACH MacTAVISH: Well, he like all of us has one more job to do and those -- he's been very impressive in the way that he's played, obviously, and to get the shutout tonight, was -- he had to make some good saves tonight too. It wasn't -- it wasn't a gimme. They missed some opportunity, I thought, in the first period to get back in the game. Certainly in the second period they had a couple of good chances. Stoll walked in on the one, Cole, I think, had another one point blank. But Jussi has played great. Now we it's exciting to play well, but at the same time you have to make sure that we're ready to go for the game on Monday. That's our sole focus now. Normally we can enjoy the win for a few minutes, but tonight it was just starting to focus on the next game. Q. What do you think of victory of this kind of magnitude does to you, to them, and do you worry that they are going to feel embarrassed by that and respond? COACH MacTAVISH: All those things come into play, yeah. I know when we got beat 5-0 in Game 2 that it really, you know, it's an embarrassment at times, I guess, in losing that game, we shook it off fairly quickly and were able to respond in Game 3. They are not here for -- because they are wall flowers and you know that they are going to come out with their best effort of the Playoffs and it's going to be up to us to combat that. But there's -- I don't think there's a residual effect negatively for them going into the next game and maybe just the opposite as you alluded to there might be a positive motivator for them. Q. Power play had not been productive early in the season you get three goals tonight. What changed? COACH MacTAVISH: We were better last game, you know, once we got Laraque in front of the net, started to turnaround a little bit (Laughter). No we were better the last game and moved the puck and you know, just started to get -- make them force them into decisions on some of their pressure points and did a good job moving the puck, so -- and got a few breaks around the net tonight, so that was a nice sign for our power play. We know that power play is going to play a tremendous role in the next game and you know, if we can win the special team game in that next game, whoever wins the specialty team in that next game is going to have a huge advantage. Q. The Torres, Pisani, Peca line got things going again. Talk about them. COACH MacTAVISH: Michael Peca, is I mean, he played incredible again tonight. He's the straw that stirs the drink with the other two and you know, he's a great passer. He's a very skilled guy at the absolute top of his game and, I don't know he's -- he's at certainly been at this level for a while now, but I mean, he's even exceeded that and Fernando, you know, he's playing very well capitalizing on his chances. They are reminiscent of the Kid line back in 1990 where they were pretty dominant line and this line is proving to be just that. Q. Can you talk about what you guys do about guy coming back in the lineup who hasn't played in three months in Erik Cole? COACH MacTAVISH: You know what we didn't even mention it. We just made the lineup change on the Board and didn't mention anything other than that. He proved like he looked to me like he was -- he was a threat out there and he was not tentative by any stretch. He got a couple of big hits and he wasn't feeling his way into the game. So he's that type of player and I am sure they felt like he could give them a lift and now he has got a game under his belt. I guess we'll see how he survived that and they will go with him again. But that was a very dangerous line, I thought, with Stillman, Stoll, and Cole.
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