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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HURRICANES v PENGUINS

May 20, 2009

Paul Maurice

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day

SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Questions for Coach.

Q. The most pressing question would be the medical updates, and if Erik and Tuomo can't play, who would be their replacements?
COACH MAURICE: They're day to day, we'll make an assessment tomorrow morning. They may skate, they may not. We'll let our trainer make that decision for them. Then they'll be both game time decisions for the game tomorrow. So, it could have been worse, I guess. So, we'll move forward positively.

Q. This team seems to be resilient in bouncing back in Game 2. What is the equation there?
COACH MAURICE: I thought that, well, one, it's not like we've played 15 games, lost them all, and come back and won the next one. This is a small sample that we're talking about. We didn't play well in our first game in New Jersey. It was kind of finding that identity.
I think that what we have done well over our first two series is we've learned as we went. We took from the first game and learned from it and made enough -- I wouldn't even say adjustments. Just found smarter and better ways to play the game based on what we had learned in Game 1.
I thought our Game 1 in Boston, back, I think we gave up 25 shots. It wasn't as extreme as the score made it look. We've played maybe a poor game in Game 2, but Cam Ward was spectacular in the 3-0 shutout. But I do think that over-the-air course of our first 14 games we've done a pretty good job of learning where we could get better at getting better.

Q. Can you talk about your goalie and how big he comes up in these pressure games where you don't want to go down 2-0 against the Pens?
COACH MAURICE: He's been that kind of player for us for so long. And I think going back, keep in mind he's still a young man. But his -- even in that game, he made a number of very, very good saves. Goaltending wasn't an issue for either team. And his strength has always been consistency. So, we will expect the same kind of effort and do our best to play better in front of him, because it gives him an opportunity to be more of a factor.
At the end, if you look back at our last three months, that's really been our strength. We've played hard enough and well enough to give one of our two best players an opportunity to be the difference.
I think Eric Staal gets a lot of the attention because of some of the dramatic goals that he's scored. But clearly Cam Ward is a special player for our team.

Q. You had touched yesterday on the job you thought Crosby did defensively in Game 1. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? What kinds of things was he doing that were effective, and how good a defensive player do you think he is?
COACH MAURICE: It's mostly just work, which is really, I think, the -- I wouldn't say it's an underrated strength. People in the game understand that's what separates them for most players. I think that's really what separates most truly great players is their ability and -- not ability, their willingness to work.
You know, another player, and I know he's not considered the same class as Sidney Crosby, but we saw a player like Zach Parise do that. What makes him great as a young player is he takes the intelligence that he has for the game, and applies it to both sides of the puck. It's not just points and goals.
I think we saw really huge strides in Eric Staal this year. And part of that is with our team early in the year, he felt he was almost the sole offensive driving force that he had to be. Because of that there were times defensively he -- maybe I wouldn't say cheated, but he felt like if he didn't get it done, the team didn't have a chance to score. He's really rounded out his game.
I think that as great players mature and go back through some teams that ended up winning the Stanley Cup, and they talked about really with that with Mike Modano when Dallas won, that he was to change. The name that you would all recognize would be Steve Yzerman going from whatever his point total was, 100-whatever, to drop down to now being that player for that team. And of course that's when that team took off.
So it's just a maturity. And the intensity has always been very good. You know, great players learn, too. As they get older they learn the defensive parts of the game. I thought he was just really solid in that area.

Q. Where do you want to see the biggest improvement Game 1 to Game 2?
COACH MAURICE: Our puck control. I mean, the first goal, there's not much coaching involved now. Just being aware of guys coming out of the penalty box. So we handled that over five seconds. I thought we forced some things that we didn't have to force. I think you've seen us do that in all our early games or in games that we didn't prepare our player. Just a little different management of the puck.

Q. Based on what you were referring to on the kind of level of officiating or where they're drawing the line in this series, can you be as aggressive as you'd like to be against the Penguins?
COACH MAURICE: Yeah, I think we have to be. I don't think we can come off that. Of I think as always series go, they get more physical. I just, you know, it wasn't a matter of -- we have to play hard. We can't go into our locker room and say we've got to come off anything we do well, because you have to be afraid of call.
The play where Erik rolled almost to the net with Hal, Hal Gill, he went to the net with Chara, and it was something that was a really big battle that was set up.
So maybe it's slightly different styles in teams, but I don't think we come off the way we play.

Q. Can you talk a little about Ray Whitney? The Penguins have found when you have a good, youngster, it's not always that easy to find the wingers to play with him. He's a fixture there. Can you talk about what he brings and his experience over the years?
COACH MAURICE: And Ray's played with different centers over the course of our time here. He and Matt Cullen and Chad LaRose were at times our best line. I don't mean during games, I mean for week periods there. Right up until the time that Matt Cullen got injured.
Ray is kind of Rodney Francis like. And if you want to go talk to a hockey player in your locker room about what happened during the game, he's the guy that you go and talk to.
You sit down, and the first time I sat and talked with Ronnie Francis after we signed him, they had just lost to Montreal in the playoff series, and we started talking about that series. You know, we were watching those games closely because we were hoping to sign Ron.
He sat down and took you through the entire game, and all the adjustments that were made just like you were talking to a Coach that watched all the video. And Ray has that ability, too. They view the game differently and pick up everything on the ice. So he's a great resource for us. And to get a feel for where the team is at.
But I think the thing that I've enjoyed most about Ray is if you go back to the last two months of the season and take a look at the score sheets about when his points come, and they're always late and they're always big. It's almost like we played a game in Tampa, and they had a real rough night, Tampa did. And we scored nine on them. Or was that the Islanders? But we had two big goal games against those teams, and the last play ray wanted to be was in that game. It's not that he wasn't trying, it's just there was nothing on the line. He's always excelled. He's a little older. Got a Stanley Cup ring, so for him, it's all about the game now. It's all about the excitement. And he plays his best hockey when it's on the line.

Q. In order to dictate the tempo of this game, do you have to slow it down? Is it a matter of slowing down the tempo of the game to, you know, kind of have the Penguins play your style?
COACH MAURICE: No, I don't think we look at it like that. First, I would view it as both teams will, over the course of the game, tick date the tempo on of the game. And your job then is in those blocks of time when the other team has control and has momentum. So I would say from their first goal last game to the end of that first period, we didn't do a very good job of dictating the tempo of the game.
In terms of slowing it down, that would just mean when they have the puck, doing a better job of taking away their time and space. But in terms of our transition and our offense, and how we want to move the puck, we do not want to slow that down.
Our strength isn't, in my opinion, based on speed, it's based on quickness, and those are different things. We have to play a quick game to be successful.

End of FastScripts

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