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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SENATORS v SABRES

May 10, 2007

Bryan Murray

BUFFALO, NEW YORK: Game One

Q. Anything further on the status of Mike Comrie?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Mike Comrie? Nothing more than he's ready to play and will play.

Q. How about Eaves, Coach, have you made a decision if he's going to play?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: He's not playing tonight. He'll skate again today. We think we could use him for sure, but definitely by Saturday, he'll be able to go into the lineup if we decide to do that.

Q. Coach, during the regular season there's thought that you couldn't keep the Spezza-Heatley line together because you wanted to spread out scoring. Now in the playoffs keep them together. Is it -- yes, they're successful but a lot of it has to do with the fact that a lot of guys have stepped up and played.
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Obviously they played well together. They've gotten points, and therefore you continue to keep them as a group, and they appear to be a factor, but very definitely has to do with other people playing well, and we have line combinations now that match up pretty well against most other teams and therefore, I just continue to play as we have and I won't mess around with the line combinations until I have to.

Q. Coach, with Phillips, he always plays against the best players the other team, you've got a 42 goal scorer on one line, you've got both Briere and Connolly on another. Are you going to roll it or try to match up a little bit?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Well, you're going to have to watch and see. We understand that they have a variety of people on a variety of lines that are very effective.
We'll try as we go through the series evaluating on a given game who should play against who, and I'm sure Lindy will want to do likewise, make changes as necessary, but we know the challenge here for us and we know that other people, other than Volchenkov and Phillips are going to have to play well defensively and they're going to have to get help as well.
So, game to game we'll make those decisions.

Q. Getting offense from your defense or part of the offense of this team?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I think it is for every team. They've got Campbell from the back, people in that regard that join the rush, kind of four-man attack. We think we have a combination of people that do a pretty good job in that area as well, and I think the teams that keep going -- I read U.S.A. Today -- I shouldn't say that, but I did -- and they have -- the whole point and each one of them is they have defensemen that are big players in their game plan and likewise, we may not have the Norris Trophy candidate, but we have people that can add to it and certainly contribute either assists or points and very effective at doing it.

Q. How do you feel your team has changed from roughly a year ago at this time?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I think it's a very different feel. I think people like Spezza and Heatley and people that score goals and were big players on our team last year have improved their game to the point that they can be used as checkers as well as offense players.
I think our back end is a little more mobile and obviously our goaltending is different than it was last year. Ray has been the guy for a big part of the year, and I think our confidence in him is as high as it could be.
So, in spite of everything that we think we are, it still comes down to good goaltending, hard work, and somebody on your team scoring goals, and I think we've improved in those areas.

Q. How different is it this way for Ray knowing last year he was holding the fort down, Dom may be back.
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: For him and the team they go hand-in-hand. The fact that the players know Ray is the guy, we're not waiting on anybody else to come back and save the day, we are just hoping that he'll play and do well, and we know he has all year for us, and in particular in the second half when we start to become a team, he was a big part of that.
I think the mental strength of our team is much different than it was at that time.

Q. It's a credit to your team you've almost breezed your way through to this point, as least by appearance, whereas Buffalo seemed to have a real challenge in this last series. Might that come into play in terms of preparedness?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I don't know. Just winning. Doesn't matter how you win at this time of year and who gets the points for you. It's just a matter of winning, and fortunately for us we got going early in the Pittsburgh series. We kind of blew the Game 2 and then really put it to the pedal, to the floor, rather, and I thought we played well.
But I watch watched Buffalo play. I thought they were very, very effective for the most part through their series, and you have to give a little bit of credit to the other teams we played against. Rangers' goaltending early in the series was outstanding, and that was part of Buffalo's problem but they figured it out.

Q. Coach, do you have any worry early since you haven't played since Saturday?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Well, they haven't played since Sunday, so they'll be no excuse in that regard.

Q. Does it feel at all funny coaching against somebody that you helped get into this position?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: No, not at all. I think we all in our business earn by what we do and, you know, I was in Florida when Lindy was there, and I thought we had a real good relationship and you could see that he was going to be a head coach. He had personality and a relationship that he could build with the players on a regular basis, and, you know, he's been here a long time.
It's hard to keep a job if you don't do a good job, and he's obviously done a real good job here. It's not hard. I mean, we're competitive people. He's going to do everything he can for his team, and hopefully I can help our team a little bit, and at the end of the series, whoever wins will shake hands and have respect for each other because we both done a good job. But it's not hard. That's what we're in the business for.
Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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