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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: DUCKS v RED WINGSMay 22, 2007Randy CarlyleJean-Sebastien GiguereScott NiedermayerANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA: Game Six JAMEY HORAN: Question for the guys. Q. This is for both Scott and Jean. What does this particular victory mean to each of you in comparison, Jean, with what happened in 2003 and, Scott, what you experienced in New Jersey. SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: Every year obviously you start from scratch, and we finished last year probably better than we expected and obviously got a taste of playoff hockey as a group. We were excited to try and get back here and give ourselves an opportunity to go further. And that's what we've done right now. We got an opportunity to obviously play in the Finals and that's what obviously was our goal. And it's great. We have a great group of guys. We're having a lot of fun and obviously a lot of tough hockey to be played and we're looking forward to it. JEAN-SEBASTIEN GIGUERE: Like Scotty said, it's another opportunity for us. I've been there once and we weren't able to win it all. So and these occasions don't come every year. You gotta try to take advantage of it. And I'm just looking forward to having fun, enjoy the moment. It's going to be a lot of fun. And hopefully as a team we'll be able to achieve our goal. Q. Scott, you are a bit more familiar with the team you're going to be facing than some of the players here having been in the other conference. Can you talk about Ottawa, what impresses you about the Senators, their strengths? SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: Well, obviously their top line is playing great hockey. But you don't get to the Finals without playing with 20, 20-plus guys, everybody doing their job. Obviously they're committed to that. Playing very well. Obviously beat some good teams along the way. A Buffalo team that had a great season, great hockey team. And it's - we've played three very good hockey teams. We need to go play another great hockey team. That's the way it is in the playoffs. And we're looking forward to the challenge. Q. Dominik just said he hates to admit that somebody played better than him. He thinks maybe you did. Wonder what your feelings are about the matchup and how it turned out against another great goaltender? JEAN-SEBASTIEN GIGUERE: I got a lot of respect for him. Doing what he does at his age. You know it's not easy. I won't be there when I'm at his age, for sure. But I really see it as the Ducks beat the Red Wings. It's not about the goalies. In fact there was a lot of goals scored in this series. In the playoffs you need 20 guys to win, even more than 20 guys. You need - we have almost 25 guys on our lineup. So you need all these guys to win. And it's always the better group that's going to get out of it, not the better goalie and I truly believe in that. Q. Guys, can you just take the time for a minute to enjoy the win? What does this mean for West Coast hockey? What does this mean for respect for the Ducks? SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: I don't know. (Laughing). We have fun playing together. We have fun competing together as a team. Whether we're in Anaheim or on the road, you know, our fans have been great. And we have a lot of fun when we hit ice at home. Have a good group of players that we enjoy playing with. As far as respect or whatever your question was there, we're playing for each other. We're playing to try to do as well as we can as a team and that's really our concern, all those other things really don't - we don't think about. JEAN-SEBASTIEN GIGUERE: Of course we're going to enjoy it. I think it's not something that happens every year. So we need to enjoy it until the end of the night tonight and then we need to move on, focus on Ottawa. And I think for hockey here it's going to be great. This organization is a solid one, from the ownership down to the management to the player. Everybody is a quality person. And I don't know but it seems like the fans are having a hell of a time coming to the Honda Center. So we sure have a lot of fun playing here and hopefully people will enjoy the moment as much as we do? Q. Gentlemen, what happened in the third period? How much did Detroit kick it up after the performance in the first two periods? And did you guys lose your poise at all or maybe get too excited? SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: Well, obviously when you're down three goals as a team you're going to do things a lot differently than you would at the start of a game. You're a lot more aggressive. You bring a lot more pressure, defensemen are pinching, joining the attack, obviously put a lot more pressure on us. Did we respond to it very well? Not as well as we probably wanted to at times. To give them a couple of power plays like that as well is not something that you want to do in that situation. So, yeah, we could have been better but at the same time they had nothing to lose. I mean, the series obviously - if they didn't come back to tie it, the series is over like it ended up happening. They're going to come with everything they have. That's what's going to happen when it's the situation. We could have been a little better, but we knew that was the case, they were going to come pretty hard. JEAN-SEBASTIEN GIGUERE: That's pretty good right there. Q. After being down two games to one, what was the turning point in the series? What was it that helped you guys to come back and win three straight games? JEAN-SEBASTIEN GIGUERE: Well, I mean, I think the last win we had in Detroit, Scotty scoring that goal in the last minutes and then going into overtime and getting the big goal was a pretty big game for us. I don't know if that was the turning point, but that was a pretty big game for us. And I think if we don't get that win, it would have been tough to get the series. SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: I think we just keep working, keep trying to play as well as we can. As far as turning points, I think this was a hard-fought, close series pretty much all the way through. I don't know if there was one point - maybe you can look at that game, going in there and winning that game as being important. But we try to keep our focus on the game we're playing and let everything else follow where it may. So we're obviously happy to finish it off here and get ready for the Finals. JAMEY HORAN: Thank you, gentlemen. Questions for Coach. Q. What did Chelios say to you after the game and does it bother you he didn't shake hands with the players? COACH RANDY CARLYLE: He didn't shake hands? That's news to me. As far as - he just came over and congratulated us. And I was unaware that he didn't go in the line. That's news to me. But it's his choice and his prerogative. Q. How would you describe what happened in the third period, in terms of what Detroit did to kick up its intensity and how your players responded? COACH RANDY CARLYLE: Well, I think what happened is they took the attitude that this was desperation and they started to control the puck. And what we did, our counteraction for it was we didn't skate. We stood still, making plays and we just kept feeding them the puck. And those are the things that - it's kind of like a paralysis that takes place over your team. And I thought we had got through it once the Pahlsson goal was scored. But then we took a couple of penalties and they scored early in the power play and it sure made it exciting, that's for sure. But, again, we look at the game as a whole. And we did enough to get it done against a very, very good hockey club, a first-class organization. They're not where they are in the status of the league because of smoke and mirrors. They're a very, very talented hockey club. They do a lot of things that are creative. They've got a tremendous amount of skill. And they're one baby-bounce away from beating us. And we were fortunate a lot of ways things went our way in some of the situations, but I think that we stayed with the game plan. We showed a tremendous amount of resiliency and our guys worked extremely hard. Q. Coach, I know that from day one pretty much your goal was obviously getting to the Finals, winning the Stanley Cup, but I know you still have a few wins to go here. But can you express what it means so far, you guys have made it, won the conference Finals, now you get the chance to play for the Stanley Cup? COACH RANDY CARLYLE: Well, again, when you start out in September - and this goes back to last year for our group, we made a statement when we broke up at the end of last year after losing to Edmonton, we took some huge strides as a group and as an organization and as our players. We would not accept mediocracy. And I think that's where the step was taken. And I think that the acquisition of Pronger and the group that we brought back were pretty familiar with what was going on in our hockey club and what was expected of them. And again it's the emergence of our young players and the leadership of our older group. And anybody that's got a position with us is expected to support. And I think those are the main things for your hockey club, to become an elite team. And we want to be a hockey club like the Detroit Red Wings and have that dynasty and have that combination of skill and the ability to play the game at a high level. Those are not things that are done easily over a short period of time. It takes time to develop your program. And we always talk about we're trying to create an environment for our players to have success in, and this is just one of the stepping stones. JAMEY HORAN: Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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