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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SENATORS v SABRES

May 16, 2007

Bryan Murray

OTTAWA, ONTARIO: Game Four

Q. Coach, first off, your thoughts on Game No. 4 as you fall 3-2 and Buffalo stays alive in the series?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Not many thoughts. Got behind. The first goal was a hard one. I thought we sort of got off our game at that point. We were pressing. We did this in the game tonight, I felt, that we were trying to stretch passes, we were trying plays individually that we haven't been doing all series. That's partly being behind and partly the way Buffalo were playing, as well.

Q. How tough is it to give up that early goal and play catchup throughout the night?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: That's the hard part. Then you give up a second goal. They get the five-on-three, and all of a sudden it's a real scramble to try to get back into it. We had a little flurry, but when you give up a 3-goal lead, it becomes very difficult.
I thought we had - it's as the game wore on, we got better, I thought we had some chances. We gambled a couple times, and they countered it off. But overall, you know, other than the terrible start, we got settled down and started to play and, you know, I thought Ryan did a real good job in their net, especially the third period.

Q. And still three more chances to finish this off, starting with Game 5 on Saturday. What do you have to improve upon?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Just go in there and play like we do on the road. Real, be real disciplined and smart with the puck. Show some poise at times as we've done a real good job on the road, and it's one game. That's all we're worried about right now.

Q. Coach, thanks a lot. Appreciate the time.
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Thank you.

Q. Bryan, heading into Game 5 how important do you feel that you didn't go with a whimper, it was a fight?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Our guys don't pack it in very often. Other than a couple real good saves and a couple of bounces, we couldn't get a man to around their net. It could have been a tie game and still could have been been playing. This team is going to play hard.
One game - we have to respect what they are, too. They've got lots of talent there. They found a way to rally tonight, and we just have to learn a lesson from them, play better in Buffalo.

Q. The 3rd period power play where you had time in their zone the entire two minutes and had another power play, if you were going to draw it up, other than the fact you would want a goal scored, is that as perfect a power play as you can have?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: That was a huge difference. Getting behind the first goal was big and then having the ability and opportunity to score on a power play and not doing it. I called a timeout only because that group had a lot of possession time. Looked like things were happening for them. Everything. But as you said, the puck didn't go in the net and that happened. That's hockey. That's the game. Some nights you think you do mostly good things and you don't win, and that's why we're playing best of seven.

Q. How disappointing was it not winning in front of the fans? There was so much hype in the city today, they were all ready for a big party. Is that disappointing?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: They missed out on the party. It's disappointing anytime you lose. It's really disappointing, in particular at home. There's no question that our fan base here is terrific. The people were very responsive when we got a little - we got the one goal, let alone the second goal, and we didn't give them an opportunity to really cheer in the third period because of a couple penalties we took and a couple situations that cropped up and the goaltender made a stop.
We have great, great respect and time for them. We're disappointed we didn't do it here. Hopefully next round or something if we ever get there, get this series finished.

Q. Bryan, how much of a problem was it for you, you know, the adjustment that Buffalo made with their lines and especially the Drury line?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: It's psychological the thing we do, we think we do as coaches, we change people around. That's what Lindy did last night when he was sitting there watching the other game, doodling. I do it all the time, changing lines and moving around with doodling.
It provides an opportunity for some player on their team to play with different guy he might like to play with, and in reverse maybe benched another guy on our team for a period, of time, if I looked at it correctly. That's what we do. We give little lifts to our team by doing things like that, and it worked tonight. Now we have to find a way to get a little lift from our guys.

Q. Coach, earlier before the game you said the game plan coming in was to stick to your plan. The way this game went, do you still feel your team did that despite the fact they lost?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: No. We did to a degree as the game wore on. But when we got the first goal on and then we get behind two, then we got away from things. The guys were moving the puck. They were able to sit back a little bit more.
We dumped the puck a little more often than we wanted to in wrong areas, but that's what happens when you're playing from behind. You have to try things, and players think they have by stretching further up the ice and treating it - there were more icings in this game than this probably were in other games.
We were trying things we really didn't have to try. When you're down a couple goals, you press, take chances, and usually backfires, and I didn't think we stuck to it very well tonight.

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