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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SENATORS v SABRES

May 10, 2007

Bryan Murray

BUFFALO, NEW YORK: Game One

Q. How important is it to get one here and can you also talk about having Saprykin on the ice at that point?
COACH MURRAY: Well, it's important to get a game. Anytime you can play one in the other guy's building and start the series like that, as we know we've been pretty good on the road this year, certainly the second half of the year, and I thought the guys worked hard.
Buffalo really took it to us early in the game. We got a couple of goals off strange plays, shorthand situation all the rest. We took advantage of it. The other part as I went into the 3rd period I said to the other coaches, "I have to get my fourth line on the ice a few shifts this period in the first ten minutes at least their energy, they're quick to the puck." I thought they were forechecking.
They got kind of confused in the one goal in coverage in their own zone. Their speed really showed up. Oleg jumped to the front of the net. He got a stick on it. People get to the net, be available, throw pucks in that area.

Q. Coach, the score was tied 2-2. The team once again showed the composure, stuck to the plan and worked your way through it.
COACH MURRAY: They had some - when you come from a 2-0 deficit, you tie the game up. It gives you energy. The fans are very supportive of them, but we've been a real good club in the 3rd period. Our play in the 3rd and latter part of the year and all through the playoffs have been outstanding. I know our guys believe they can keep it going at the same level night after night, period after period. Again it showed.

Q. I was wondering if you could talk about what are the reasons for the success of that fourth line. They seem to have had a really strong playoff.
COACH MURRAY: Just skating. They're all real good skaters. Dean McAmmond is probably as fast as anybody on our team. Schubert gets up and down. It's physical and Saprykin is quick. That's really all. If they get the puck in and get a forecheck going, they get to the puck real quick, and as long as we're not too long in our own end with them, we're in good shape.

Q. Your forecheck all night had their defense either confused or they just coughed it up repeatedly. Obviously you planned to attack their defense?
COACH MURRAY: I think it was both ways, really. Early in the game they did an excellent job of forechecking, I thought. We had trouble, they pinched through the defense and held the puck in for a different series of time, but we know that our strength, should be our strength anyway, being able to play four lines and get a forecheck going, and I thought we did a good job in that area.

Q. Bryan, could you talk about the feeling on the team when Buffalo came back to tie it 2-2, because that almost seemed like it could be a turning point.
COACH MURRAY: The guys were real good on the bench. We had a couple of shifts that weren't very good. I didn't think we played a great two periods and the game was tied. I felt we were quite a margin from the way we had been playing with the level of confidence. We got to the end of the 2nd. We addressed a couple things in the room. The guys came out and fortunately we got that goal and then we carried it from there.
I think it was a real feeling that we can play here and we can play anywhere against these guys and do a good job and we did.

Q. Losing Game 1 last year, winning this one, it's only one game but what does it do psychologically for the psyche of your team?
COACH MURRAY: As I've said this many, many times we're a different hockey club than last year. Our young players are better players. Spezza, Heatley, Vermette. Obviously Ray Emery is a better player, and there's a level of work now that we probably didn't have before, and I think getting the first game really sets a nice tone for our club as far as confidence and going forward. There's something to practice for tomorrow now that we know that, and we just have to continue to play at a good level as long as we can.

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