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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HURRICANES v PENGUINS

May 22, 2009

Paul Maurice

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Practice Day

SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Questions for Coach Maurice.

Q. Have you seen Crosby-Malkin through the first two games, and it's 8 points through the first two games. Is there a plan to contain them? What do you do about them?
COACH MAURICE: It's not a matter of we've got to be better only when they're on the ice. The problems that we've had, I think we've done a reasonable job getting them off the rush and out of the penalty box. Beyond that rushes, you saw them in the series prior.
But clearly our ability to contain them on our end of the ice and find them on our end of the ice has been lacking in the first two games.
Fortunately it's an area where we can make adjustments to during the course of the year and be better at. But, as they say, they get paid too. And they're going to find some holes.
Some of the plays they've converted on happened in the last two series, they just didn't get converted on. And part of that is to their credit.

Q. The first two games have kind of been up-and-down. You have gotten a lot of chances, too. Are you comfortable with that type of game, or would you like to see it change a little bit on your end?
COACH MAURICE: Mostly just I think both teams are going to look at their end zones and say there are places where we have to be better. I would agree, we scored four goals on the road and we're tied in the third period. That's our Wheelhouse. That's usually where we're at our best. The game-winning goal, we were positional on that goal. It wasn't somebody we had people where they were supposed to be. You know, the sixth goal is highly unusual. But it's in the back of your net, so we have to find a way to get some of those pucks not coming off the sticks the same way.
But I don't feel -- I don't feel I've let off.

Q. Where does the power play need to get better?
COACH MAURICE: Well, I think it was 1 for 2 in Game 1. So we'll take that. But we didn't shoot enough pucks. Geez, that's boring as hell. But that's where you get to win your power play when you're not snapping it around the way you want. Just the four-on-three is the one especially that we were real comfortable with.
But like the rest of our game, what we've done well is we've put pucks on the net.

Q. Is Cam Ward average for you in that game? He's taken a lot of heat because there are six goals that went in. But is it him or the guys in front that need to get a lot better?
COACH MAURICE: I think both. I think because of the quality shooters that Cam's going against, both of them. He's going to have to be able to do that. He's done it once before, maybe twice a game for us. And he's probably going to have to do a little bit more.
But we're in the conference finals now, not in round one. That's what happens. He's a huge, huge part of on our team, so we've got a lot of very good players. But we talked about Crosby and Malkin, and our hockey team we talk about Staal and Ward.
I think the world of Cam. I think this guy's extra special. So I never really had a problem putting pressure on him to be that or worried about taking the pressure off him saying hey, we've just got to do better. Granted, we do, but we also have very high expectations. He's just fantastic.
The only problem was he wasn't feeling his best. As much as we enjoyed our time in Pittsburgh, the extra day wasn't as much fun as you guys probably had. Yeah, I think he can do better.

Q. He started 28 games down the stretch. And now is fatigue an issue, or is it just an excuse?
COACH MAURICE: I think he's in that room. Why don't you guys talk to him. No, no, not for him. He's probably been on the ice less than most goaltenders over the last three months. When you take a look at the other teams, they use different guys, he hasn't seen as many shots, we just haven't practiced them.

Q. Eric Staal, you talk about the big guys, Pittsburgh performing. No goals in the last five games, two assists. What do you see out of him. And what do you hope to see starting tomorrow? Something different? Is?
COACH MAURICE: I can't imagine I know we look at points but we've lost our last two games, but he plays perfectly for me. That doesn't matter.
He is the one player, we talk about we have very high expectations with Eric Staal. But it's our forward. You don't play that position alone. Goaltending you playa loan. But yeah, the puck comes to I think as a group, I'd like to say create a little bit more. But four goal that's row is enough to win a hockey game. 6:

Q. You said you didn't feel that far off. Was that your message after the game? What did you say to them?
COACH MAURICE: I said you know what, you make that team and you can sit in the locker room and hear a word. But if you can't make it to training camp, you can't.

Q. But were you positive with them? You're saying we're not that far off?
COACH MAURICE: There are things we have to get better at and things we have to fix. But that's true of every game. Even the games that we've won.
But like I said, we're tied in the third, and we like that place on the road especially. Coming home to our building, we could use a shot in the arm. There's no question about it we need the juice from the fans. But they've certainly delivered that over the last four months. We need that energy for this team.

Q. Are you positive?
COACH MAURICE: I'm in a good mood. Take it as I'm in a good mood.

Q. You're saying you were positive?
COACH MAURICE: I'm not even guaranteeing you I talked to the team. I'm giving you nothing (laughing).

Q. Your first game was against Pittsburgh when you took over. Now you're in this situation for the first time in the playoffs where you're 0-2, and you have to win the hockey game?
COACH MAURICE: Well, actually they'll let us play another one if we don't. The differences between -- yeah, we've been pretty good against the odds so far. The difference between the first game against Pittsburgh here, and I have no idea what we were doing in the first game against Pittsburgh, at least this one we knew where we made on our mistakes and where we have to get better. The foundation is still there.

Q. Can you update us on Ruutu, and how Eric Cole felt after his outing last night?
COACH MAURICE: I thought his performance was good. I'm sure he ate a lot of pain to get to it. But by the time the game started, he didn't show any -- he was not feeling his best, but we're very pleased with where he's at.
Ruutu, we won't know a whole lot more than he's feeling better. He's not today, but tomorrow morning we'll put him on the ice and see how he feels.

Q. You get the last chance here and there's a lot of talk in the series about that. Are you trying to get anybody matched up against anybody or trying to get anybody away from anybody specifically?
COACH MAURICE: Yes.

Q. I figured that was the answer. A lot of match-ups?
COACH MAURICE: I think Pittsburgh and Carolina have similar philosophies with their offensive unit in terms of flow and coming off the bench being almost as important as the match-up when you have Malkin and Crosby, it's a little different monster there. You have to attend to. But, you know, we leave one of our top three lines on the bench for the match-up. It's critical.

Q. Can you talk about the aftermath of a 7-4 game? Carolina came up and tied three times in that one.
COACH MAURICE: Yeah, that's what we're trying to control today, and that's exactly what we're doing today.
We'll deal with two things. One, the fact that we gave up uncertain goals, and did that three games at 4-4. So there's a lot of good on the road in the conference final.
At the time time, we need to tighten those games up. So we'll relate that back to you, J.B., you can take that as your answer.

Q. Do you perceive any changes there?
COACH MAURICE: We'll talk about that today. I like the way Kaberle played. So I'm not sure we'll break that up.

Q. Have you thought about putting (indiscernible) on Malkin at all? Is that one of your thoughts?
COACH MAURICE: We're talking about that stuff. Did you want like, this is the map? You get that after, and really what you do is you get back to decide on the outcome whether we're right or wrong or not and go with that.

Q. Chad LaRose is having a breakthrough season, what has changed for him?
COACH MAURICE: That's a really good question. The third player has a certain group of skill sets and qualities. When you get to the NHL, everybody in the room whether they play five minutes a night or 20 minutes a night. They do things very, very well. I think what Chad did really has defined where his starts are. And spent his time focusing solely on that. And confidence is a big part of that.

End of FastScripts

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