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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SENATORS v DUCKS

June 5, 2007

Bryan Murray

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

PHIL LEGAULT: Questions for Coach?

Q. I guess just to start, Fisher, Schaefer and McAmmond, can we get updates on those guys?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Fisher we just gave the day off. He was the one guy that really, I thought, worked extremely hard and was hurting a little bit. And we just told him to stay off the ice. Schaefer got a shot in the foot, was sore. We told him to take the day and get some treatment.
And Dean McAmmond said his hands aren't as good as they used to be, but other than that, he's fine. So we'll see tomorrow if he can play. He's still a game-time decision.

Q. Can I ask you, does this appear to be a team that's trying to find itself, trying to find its game?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: We're trying to score goals when we should just be playing. And I think that's the biggest thing that's happened, watching the game over again, we're taking all kinds of chances. They're creating all their offense off our mistakes, because we're gambling to keep the puck in play where a third man is jumping in.
As I told them, it's just not the way we played in the first three rounds. We didn't take many chances. We played not conservative, but we certainly had good third man. We had our defense positioned properly.
Last night, the winning goal, the goal before that, back of the net play, Andy McDonald goal, each one of them were kind of plays that we ran up at people and we didn't have to.
And Anaheim, in reverse, are very, very patient when they don't have the puck. So finding ourselves, it's a little late in the year to be finding ourselves. Hopefully, we will play the way we are supposed to and have been playing up until we started here.

Q. Can you discuss the mood on the flight over here; where do you think your guys are at mentally right now?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I think when you lose games, you know, you're certainly down. I'm not feeling as good as I did after the Saturday win or after we beat Buffalo. But I think they're all professionals in the respect that when we got into the meeting, we talked to them about what we have to do to stay in this series.
They were pretty good. I think the mood around the room right now is okay. It's certainly not on a high, but I think come game time tomorrow, we'll give it the shot we have to give.

Q. You spent so much of this season trying to get your team ready to play those tight, low-scoring one-goal stop playoff games. How disappointing is it to you that not just you've lost three games in the series, but they've all been lost in the third period in games where you weren't trailing after 40 minutes?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: You're right. That was the thing that was really good for us in the second half of the year, in early rounds, if we were even or even down a goal going into the third period, we felt we were in pretty good shape. We found a way to give goals away, really.
Again, last night, as I said, it was kind of an unfortunate play for Wade in that Chris had to came off the way he did and Wade steps on the ice and is skating forward and Selanne is going by him at that time and kind of left us out to dry.
That's the biggest thing that we try - the hurdle we had in Ottawa, I thought anyway coming out of last year, was that we didn't play in a lot of tight games. We didn't play from behind very often in the third period, and we had built kind of a good feeling about ourselves because of doing that.
So I have to credit the other team to some extent, but I also have to wonder about some of the plays we've made.

Q. Should we read much into the lines with Spezza, Alfy and Heatley together knowing they've practiced that way all along, whether or not - you broke them up last night for a bit. That's a question of whether or not they're split up. Two, is there a sense there's offensively too many passengers/guys waiting for other people to do other stuff. Comrie, Vermette and Heatley?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: We had one game where a few of the guys kicked in a little bit. I don't know what to read into the lines. I wasn't going to do anything today for sure after getting off the airplane. Just left it as norm. We certainly have to be prepared to do other things tomorrow.
We have to get more play from a number of players. There's so many guys right now; this is the other comment we made was that we thought we were playing better as a group. We thought more people were a part of the package coming into this series. And it hasn't appeared. But, again, I recognize that they play good defense and sometimes we take too many chances to score goals.
I just wish we'd just play and let the chips fall where they may as the game goes on instead of trying to create something that's not really there.

Q. Do you have any idea why, like you said, you haven't played the same way you did in the first three rounds, any idea?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: No, again, losing the first game sets you back a little bit. Not playing well in the first game. I kind of understood that a little bit coming off of a lay-off, being on the road.
But it hasn't developed into much to this point.

Q. Alfredsson is the guy that you always take off the top line when you're juggling things, that's worked in spurts. Have you thought about splitting Spezza and Heatley?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: Yes, I have, a number of times I have during the series. You know, you keep waiting and hoping that they get back to moving their feet the way they were. Like Danny talked to me after the game last night; we put him in a stretch position at the odd time, gets kind of flat footed, doesn't get going, doesn't get part of the attack.
So he's very aware of how he's played. So I have thought about doing something. And maybe tomorrow that will have to be the case.

Q. Some of your guys were up here earlier, have a lot of trouble explaining what's gone on. The only thing I guess that's changed is the attention, the hype, and the pressure. You mentioned a year ago some of that got to your players. Is some of that getting to them this time?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I don't think it's a problem. I think our guys have been real good pressure wise. I think we're just not playing together in a more patient manner. Maybe that's because of the excitement to start a game, but that doesn't excuse getting into the second and third period.
Last night in the opening period we played great. We had lots of energy and enthusiasm. And then we stopped moving our feet and started to gamble. Jumping in with our third man several times, that led to odd-man rushes. We did things that I don't think it's pressure. I think they just want to - they want to get going and right now we're not allowed to get going.
As I say, they're a very, very patient hockey team.
They sit back with their two safeties and the third man all the time. Instead of playing accordingly, and playing the system that we've asked them to play, we try to do things and our D jump in when they shouldn't jump in.
So maybe a little anxious. Maybe a little anxious. But I don't think it's anything more than they've gone through the pressure part. They've handled that. I think beating out the teams on the east when you had to play well to kind of get a reputation, I think we've done that fine. It's just not handling this as well as we want to. We'll see if we can handle the pressure of being on the edge.

Q. The Cup is in the building. The players will be jacked up. Is it a situation where you can be more patient and play your game?
COACH BRYAN MURRAY: I hope. We know full well the crowd is going to be going here. And they'll have the parties arranged, I'm sure. And we'll just have to play and accept that responsibility of playing well and patient and smart. I think that's the other word that we can use.
PHIL LEGAULT: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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