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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANES

June 19, 2006

Peter Laviolette

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Game Seven

Q. Your team came out much more emotionally charged obviously in the first period scoring a quick goal. Was that part of the whole change that you dictated this team between 6 and 7?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Well, you know, we said that we were lousy in Game 6. Our team hasn't been lousy too many times this year. I think because we didn't play a very good game everybody counted us out. We lost a tough game, a Game 5 in overtime.
And you know, it's not that we didn't play great or horrible that night. But you throw it on the backside of the 4-0 loss in Game 6, and I think people had us down and out. But our team has fought way too many times for that to happen and they have responded way too many times and they responded tonight with what I would probably consider the best effort of the year.

Q. Can you talk about the lift that the crowd gave you right off the bat? Was there an energy surge? When you stepped out on the ice the first time and saw that energy, what were you thinking and what do you think the players got from that?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: There's no question that we got an emotional charge from it, and conversely we were fighting that up in Edmonton. Their crowd was real loud. But our crowd has been like this since the first game of the year against the Penguins when we won it in a shootout. They have been relentless all year. It's certainly charged us up. Kept us going.
I don't think they sat down the whole game. I don't think they stopped yelling the whole game. And they are Caniacs.

Q. Who gets the last relentless battle?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: I haven't even checked -- it's been so busy so many messages I am sure I will have it for you tomorrow but there was awful lot of relentless guys out tomorrow. I should buy a couple of cases give one to everybody.

Q. Offensive defensemen have been a theme all year. What does that do for your team to have two defensive score tonight?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: We had a separate meeting with the defense. We were too much on our heels and needed to get more involved on the offense. Because we were on our heels it was stretch. Change out the gap between our forwards and our D, but our D played a real solid game tonight.
They were on their toes. They were looking for offense. And, you know, it's a credit to both Frank and Aaron for jumping in there and scoring big goals.

Q. Talk about the goaltending tonight.
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Well, it wasn't a real busy night for him. He had to make a tough save here and tough save there, and he certainly had to make a tough save, you know, with seven minutes to go in the third period. That leg that got held on the ice there, and somehow he kept it -- the puck under him without a rebound.
You know, more than just tonight, he's come in there and he's played extremely well for a young kid. And in his first Playoffs, to handle it and respond the way he did and never crack under the pressure, says a lot about Cam. You need goaltending in order to win hockey games. We got it tonight. We have gotten it through the Playoffs.

Q. The Oilers barely made the Playoffs. Had a tough run through the Playoffs to get to this point. Were they even tougher for you than you could even imagine as they were going through their whole run in the west?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: I thought that they played exactly the way they did to get through those teams -- you think about what they went through to get here then to go to Game 7. I know it's tough, but they deserve congratulations, Craig MacT and his staff and the players, because to get to this point and play as hard as they did says a lot about their organization. The leadership of it.
And it was not you know, you guys saw it, especially in Game 6. It's not an easy game, they played hard tonight and, you know, it went our way.

Q. Did you assume you at least got a penalty shot out of the last play in the first period there? And were you at all worried that might be deflating heading into the break?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: It was a little bit deflating to be honest with you from not getting the goal to not getting the penalty shot. I haven't had time to look into the ruling or I talked to the referees between periods and got their explanation. And, you know, that's the way it stood.

Q. Brind'Amour was very emotional afterwards, Wesley too. What were you thinking when you watched one hand the Cup to the other?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Probably the greatest feeling of my live. I think for me, long after, you know, I hold the Cup tonight and have my time with it in the summer I will remember where this team came from, how hard they fought for each other.
And as a coach it's probably the most rewarding and fulfilling thing that could happen. To watch those guys hold the Cup over their head tonight was -- it is what I will remember.

Q. How much of an impact did your young guys from the minors in '04/'05 and '05/'06 have on your squad?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Tom Rowd did an excellent job developing these guys. Even this year Andrew Ladd, then, certainly Staal and Commodore, Cam Ward. They all had great years down there, and Tom Rowd deserve a ton of credit. He's an excellent coach. They came up here. Not only did they come in here. They were contributing pieces in the season as well as the Stanley Cup run.
The young players are as much a part of this team as the veteran players. It was never about the veterans, never about the young players, never about one individual. It was always about the team. And the team had a lot of young pieces to it and those pieces contributed whenever we asked.

End of FastScripts...

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