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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HURRICANES v PENGUINSMay 17, 2009Paul MauricePITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day Q. You really could have picked an easier way to try to get to the Cup and get to the Finals. You've started every series on the road. Won't have home ice throughout the playoffs. Just talk about the road you've taken? COACH MAURICE: I think when you go back to January, it started there. There was a lot of pressure on this team. People wouldn't think that, but when you win the Cup and miss the playoffs for two years, there's a lot of just tension. It had to deal with that tension. You and I talked about the fact that the teams that make the playoffs are the ones that are going to deal with that pressure that we were all under. Everybody feels great now. But you remember what it was like after the Atlanta loss. That was a pretty serious time for us. So we learned how to deal with that adversity and that pressure. Now we get to the playoffs, and it wasn't a matter of just being happy to be in the playoffs. Certainly the road's not that big a deal. In relative terms to losing to Atlanta, and the dog fight and having to win so many games in a row just to make it. Starting on the road and some of the adversity that we face because we play good teams it just doesn't seem like it's that big a deal. Q. What do you think of your nickname, Cardiac? COACH MAURICE: As long as everybody gets through this game healthy, I think its fine. Hopefully there's no fore boding. But there's been a couple of minutes where we've all checked to make sure it was still working. Q. Talk about going into Game 1. I know you have a check list of things what to do and do well? COACH MAURICE: Well, there are certain adjustments we have to make based on how they play their offensive game. It's a little different than Boston, and their neutral zone and transition. So there are some things that we have to adjust to and continue the process. Clearly they're high-end talent and they're skilled. They're going to get some chances and score some goals. Our challenge, and it becomes more difficult when you play a team with this much speed, is to not try to get into that game. That being said, we're a quick team. I don't think we're as fast as they are, but we're at least as quick. So to try to impose our will on them as they will on us. We've had to work really, really hard to beat Jersey and beat Boston. Not just in terms of physically working hard, but mentally making adjustments and the players buying into it, and staying into it, and kind of falling off track and getting back on. We'll have to do the same thing here in this series, we'll have to make adjustments on a game-to-game basis as to how they're running their attack. But in the end, we've got to stay on the forefront. That must be one of the most important pieces of all of this. It's penalized teams in the regular season, but we're minus 7 in terms of opportunities here. And I think they're plus 16. So we won't win if that ratio stays the same. So we'll have to be very disciplined about how we play this game. Q. Found a couple of players that asked about the comfort level of playing on the road. And they say with six minutes to go, it's gotten to that point? COACH MAURICE: I would say absolutely. We've been in loud buildings. We have the advantage that ours seems to be the loudest. So when we got off the bench, yeah, Boston was rolling, but we never got to the point where we thought it was louder than Carolina. So we were comfortable with the noise, and the game has changed so much from 20 years ago when home ice advantage meant three or four of your guys were being beaten up that night. That's a different game. Q. Plus the pressure of Game 7, too? COACH MAURICE: Oh, for sure. Q. It doesn't seem all that intimidating? COACH MAURICE: It's a real challenge here. We've talked about our Game 1, and Game 1 performance. We know that Pittsburgh is going to be very, very aggressive early in this game as they were in the Philly games and the Washington series. They really pushed hard at the start of this game, it's going to be a critical start for us. Q. Talk about your goalie's dress in a different area? COACH MAURICE: Yeah, we don't get everybody in the same locker room. It's an older building, but all these guys have been this through this so many times, it's fine. Q. Talk about the determination? COACH MAURICE: He's been really good. And I think he's accepted the fact that he's cut back. But he's veteran enough to know he's still playing power point, and still killing power plays. And the way that Pittsburgh runs their bench at times they draw Crosby, Malkin, Staal to the fourth line, so he's going to be playing some of the best players in the world. He understands that. We got through practice today probably better than we all could have hoped. So he's ready to go. Q. So Brandon, we'll see how good he feels? COACH MAURICE: Yeah, he feels great. He's still walking. I just remember watching him on one side of the room his first year and playing on a broken foot for six weeks, just didn't bother telling anybody. It wasn't that bad, as he tried to say. So if he says he's good, we take him for his word. Q. With everything going on the past few days, is it almost good to get away a couple of days and focus on playing hockey? COACH MAURICE: You know what, it's been handled exceptionally well. And, you know, this is the first and only question I've gotten on it today. Everybody has seemed to have focused on the hockey. That's what Scott wants. That's what the players want. It was dealt with, and now we're back in the hockey game. Q. In the Boston series, there were only a couple of times you guys would be in Game 2, and in Game 7 what occurred in that game. Seems were there any chances where you had really good chances? COACH MAURICE: Yeah, good analogy. The chances are we're giving them a whole lot, and we couldn't blame them for the ones we didn't give up. So it wasn't on him after. We gave up eight goals in two games. We weren't in the locker room saying we need more out of Cam. He's going to see a little different kind of shooter here. And I also think that it may help because of his talent levels, too. You know, he's skilled enough and talented enough to rise to that occasion and play against those best shooters. Now they're going to score their goals. But given the last game here, he stopped two of the best in the world on breakaways because he has that kind of talent. Q. With the play Pittsburgh plays from the goaltender's perspective, which side would you pick? COACH MAURICE: They'll do both. And they will, I think, have more crossing and control on the puck. You've seen Malkin take it from the other side to the inside where the goaltenders got a move not on the pass, but the actual puck carrier, and stayed focused on that. So it's not as much of a timing pass on the cross, this guy drives back to the middle of the ice. Then Crosby's hands within a foot and a half of the goal crease, he can get it into those holes. So his ability to see a lot and control the puck well at the end of the day. When you look at their offensive numbers, they're going to get their chances. Q. How important is it for you to control that type of play, because Pittsburgh likes to open it up, you know. You can play that way, but you want to take precautions not to get too tired out? COACH MAURICE: It's far more important, believe it or not, that we control the type of play we play than think that we're going to go out and control how they play. We can't go into this game and say our entire job is to react to them. So much of what Pittsburgh will do to you is what you allow them to do in terms of where you put the puck, how you handle the puck, how easy you give the puck up. If we just said let's take 3 on 2's all night ask we'll trade them to see who wins, we're not going to win that game. So at the same time, if you sit back they're going to tear you apart. So we have to find a way to establish our game. End of FastScripts |
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