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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SENATORS v DUCKSMay 31, 2007Bryan MurrayOTTAWA, ONTARIO: Practice Day Q. Bryan, you and your players have talked a lot the last couple of days about how you feel the Ducks are holding you up and making it difficult to create a forecheck. According to the rules, it shouldn't be happening that way. I wonder if, big picture, do you see this as a problem for the NHL? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: No, actually, I said after the game last night to the coaching staff, I thought the way they played and the way we played was better and different. I didn't think there was much holdup last night. I thought both referees did a real good job, and I really did. I felt that the players decided the game last night. Anaheim over the course of the game played better than we did. Q. Bryan, why is it that good players, in this instance your big line, because you've seen this before, just sort of stubbornly insist on doing the same thing over and over again, trying to skate through all those big guys along the blueline. They pay lip service to it but they just won't do it? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: You can ask them that question. But we talk about it all the time. And we thought we'd made that transition from - there are times in a game you can do it. There are times that by creating a situation where you put the puck behind the D for four times in a row, maybe the fifth time they give up the blueline a little earlier than normal and then you attack them. But we haven't to this point shown that kind of patience in this series. We've been trying to do things and the turnovers speak for themselves. We're trying to make plays that aren't available. And good defensive teams compete every night, because they're very happy to play a certain way and they get ice time because of it. In this case, there are two or three or four defensemen that really do a job, and the Pahlsson line of course is real good at it. That's where they're getting their time. And we'll talk about it again tomorrow. We'll show the clips tomorrow. We'll do the things that we have to do to prepare for the home game. And hopefully we'll convince them that now that we're in our building, we don't have to do anything other than play the right way. Q. Bryan, obviously there's some players right now on the ice. There's some players in the gym. Can you explain why you decide that tonight they'll have to be here? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I just thought that after the long plane ride - we talked about this before the series started. That after the long plane ride that it would be good to do something for 15, 20, 25 minutes. Basically nothing too strenuous, but just get a little workout in, get the kinks out. Let them have a shower and go home. And basically that's all. Q. Does having the last change make you more reluctant to break up that top line and maybe ride them out and see how it goes at home before you do anything? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Well, at least it gives us an opportunity for ten seconds in a shift to get away. They automatically change, like a lot of teams do. So you know you're not likely going to get the whole shift where they're not going to be matched up. But I'll have to make that decision at game time if we're going to fool around with the lines a little bit or not. Q. You have the exact same experience losing the first two games four years ago with Anaheim. Are you, first of all, experiencing some bad flash backs? And, second, being four years wiser, are you going to approach the situation any different? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: No, if we can win the two at home, we'd be very happy. I'd like to approach them the same way. We won both in overtime when we were down 2-0. But as we know full well, they're a different team and we're a different team. We've got to approach it in a way that we think will benefit our players. And that is get them ready tomorrow, spend as much time as we have to giving them the information, and not only the talk, but the opportunity to watch how Anaheim are satisfied to sit back and wait for us to make mistakes. And we have fallen into the trap and we have to now find a way to do things a little differently to give ourselves a better chance to get plays to the net. Q. You've made line changes. What advantages do you see of playing at home and how will you be able to turn the advantage back onto your side by being at home? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I think, number one, there's a comfort level at home. There's supposed to be. And I've always felt that the players in most cases played better in their own building, the fans, the support they get, the family, whoever it may be, that they know that there's emotion in the building. Secondly, you do have a chance to start at least a line against a particular line on the opposition team for, as I said - if you can get a face-off in offensive zone, for example, win the draw and keep the puck in, you might get a full shift out of it. If it goes up and down the ice, more than likely if the other coach wants to make a quick change, he gets the opportunity at that point. So there are times in the game when you have the matchup that you want. Q. This is new territory for your team. Do you wonder how they're going to respond or do you have a pretty good idea? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I have a pretty good idea. We've had a lot of adversity this year. Maybe that was good. I hope it was good now in hindsight. Early in the year we weren't very good. We had lots of struggles. We got it going. Found a way to get everybody on the same page, play right. We had a couple of games late in the year where we were dreadful. We found a way to respond. We've played one game in Pittsburgh there against Pittsburgh that we thought we played well and we lost the game. I was kind of worried about the next day, the guys found a way. So we know this is a big, strong hockey team. We think getting into our own building, we have a chance to regroup and get the mindset we need for the balance of the series. Q. One aspect of Game 2 that your team seemed to struggle on was the face-offs, Spezza in particular. Is that a one-game glitch or what do you do about that? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I hope it is. We've actually been pretty good overall in the face-offs. And I mentioned this before. I thought penalties would be a factor in this series. I thought turnovers would be and I definitely felt face-offs would be. Puck time is really important. And last night for some reason we didn't either do it right, focus, or they made some adjustment and Jason had a tough night. And he's a guy that I believe will be the big turnaround in the home ice. I think he'll win face-offs and I think he'll play considerably better. Q. You mentioned adversity earlier in the season. It's been a while since this team has faced adversity, and throughout the playoffs you guys have done well. How do you think this team will respond to its first bout of playoff adversity? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I think we'll battle. I think we'll work real hard. We'll be ready to play. I think there's a real conviction in this group that we can play with this hockey team and have a real chance every night to win the game. And last night, even though we didn't, I didn't think, play very well with the puck, the game sat there until the last five minutes again. And we couldn't find a way to get one into the net. I think in this building we'll have more opportunity to score goals. That will be the priority here. We've got to create a little more offensive chance and hopefully play a little stronger without the puck. Q. There's been so much talk about with the big three and what they maybe haven't done so far in the series. Are you getting enough production out of the secondary lines, the second, third, fourth? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Nobody is really scoring. And that's obviously the issue. We've got two power play goals in the series in two games. I mean, that's everything right there. We had a few scoring chances only in the two games, not many by other people. I thought Mike Fisher, on his own, has tried to do an awful lot within the game. But other than him, really, up front, we haven't had many scoring chances, let alone goals. So we expect that whatever I do with the lines or whatever we stick with, that we'll get better effort with the puck, and that has to do with battling a little stronger, compete in front of the net a little more often. Looking for rebounds once in a while. We've let Giggy have a pretty good ride so far. Q. You said Spezza is going to be better on face-offs and elsewhere. What else do you mean, other aspects of his game? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Hopefully not turning the puck over. That's the biggest thing with Jason. When he's skating and moving, he moves the puck to the open man real well, and if it's not there, he's been putting the puck in, giving us a chance to at least get a forecheck at times and make a play down deep in the offensive zone. I didn't think that that line, not only him, that line is willing to do that consistently in the two games. Q. Aside from that line not scoring, is there an extra concern that they've been on the ice for the two winning goals in the first two games? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: The one again was a play at the offensive blueline. It was a turnover and came back. And Alfy was trying to join the play. When the turnover took place, he made the turn to come back. He was on the hip of Pahlsson, who is a good skater, and he could have put the stick on him, taken the penalty. Obviously at that stage of the game he didn't want to. It became a rush against the defensemen and Pahlsson made a good play and scored. But it all started with a turnover. So, yeah, I'm concerned about that. That's the whole message to the line. Q. I know that any coach, any player that you don't want to say - any excuse, but the more you win, the more you want to play. And after the Eastern Final Conference, you had that ground break, what can you say about that break? Was it bad or - COACH BRYAN MURRAY: In hindsight it looks like we haven't come back and played the same way. Again, that's what happens in hockey. You just have to be prepared. You have to play. You have to show up every night. We have to give Anaheim a little credit. They had five days off. They came back, played real well in their own building. Now we have to - I think Chris Pronger said they won their court; now we've gotta win in our court and that's the whole key. Whether it be a layoff or anything else we can't dwell on that. It's over and we just have to play now. Q. Last night when Chris Neil was really asserting himself you guys were able to establish a little tempo. How much value is that guy at home where emotion seems to be right there? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Their strong people played well at home and brought emotion to their building. And Chris Neil is obviously one of those people for us. Schubert is another one who gets big hits and maybe I'll get the matchup on occasion. We never talk about those players. But those are the guys if I can get them against the right people for a few shifts, it might have an impact in the game as well. Q. Is there a certain amount of frustration after such a close game in Game 2 for the players seeing that they could have had the split in Anaheim and how does that frustration translate into the post game? COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I think it's disappointing that we didn't - we wanted to go there and at least get a split. Both games sat there for the duration for the most part. Three minutes or less than three minutes in one game, and five minutes and a mistake in both cases turned the game around and allowed us to lose it. So that's a little disappointing. I don't know whether it's frustration or not. It's disappointing. But we have to find a way to play better. We knew that. Watching the game last night like you did, I'm watching and watching, why can't we make just a little more happen with the puck. We had a tough time. We didn't get any scoring chances to speak of. We didn't put much pressure on their goaltender. Saturday night we have to do a better job of that. So whether we're frustrated or disappointed, it doesn't matter. We just have to show up and play better. That's the bottom line. End of FastScripts |
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