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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLYERS v BLACKHAWKSJune 8, 2010Simon GagneScott HartnellPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day JAMEY HORAN: Questions for Scott and Simon. Q. Fair to say tomorrow has to be the most physical game you guys are going to play this season, you're going to keep playing? SCOTT HARTNELL: That's been our motto from Game 1 to wear them down physically on the forecheck, defensive zone. Pinning bodies and stuff. Game 6 at home is going to be a lot of emotion in the crowd, in our dressing room. It's going to be a big day on the body by everyone in the dressing room. Q. If you can both touch on this, just watching Chris Pronger and the way he's handled himself in the media through this process. He's obviously been here before. He's a veteran presence. How much does Chris' demeanor and what seems to be calm impact the way the rest of you guys are handling this pressure situation? SIMON GAGNE: You know, he's been here before. He's a veteran. He won Cups. Been there with Edmonton. So it's not the first time for him. For guys like even myself, be there for the first time in the Stanley Cup Final. You learn a lot from a guy like that. We lost last game. Now it's over. Now it's time to focus on the next one. We all know tomorrow is going to be a big game. Having Prongs in the lineup for us, it's a plus. He's a leader. He's a guy that's going to play big minutes for us. He's going to be physical. We all know that. No, doesn't matter what happened last game. We know he's going to bounce back from it. Q. Scott, you are banged up a little bit in Game 5. How are you feeling and how much better do you feel today than you did on Sunday? SCOTT HARTNELL: Good. I think as the series go on, you get kind of banged up a little bit. Some bruises here and there. Just had a little trouble with my skate there too. I was just trying to get that figured out. Guys are banged up. It's been a long season. But this time of year, you fight through a lot of nicks and tweaks and all that kind of stuff to come out flying. Q. If both of you guys can answer this, how much does it help that you guys have been in elimination games before so much down the stretch here from the end of the regular season to the Boston series. How much does it help you guys now going forward in Game 6 and possibly Game 7? SIMON GAGNE: I think it's helped a lot. It's not the first time that we're going to face elimination or even game 82 of the last game of the season. We had to win this one to be where we are today. Now we're a confident group here. We know that coming back for Game 6 at home in front of our fans, we're a tough team to beat. We've been there before. It's not like it's the first time, and I think it's a plus. I'm sure guys are going to be ready to play a big game. We know what to expect those type of situations. And we're going to be ready for the biggest game of the season. Q. Can I get Scott to answer that? SCOTT HARTNELL: Yeah, Game 4 against Boston was pretty incredible. We won that one in overtime. Just gave us a lot of confidence to kind of keep going through that series. I think we got better and better as that series wore on. I think maybe last game, Game 5, we took a step back with our team play, our physical play, our skating ability and stuff, watching the clips this morning and what not, seeing it on the video is more real than just kind of talking about it. Been in this position before. I don't expect any less than us to come out flying, banging, shooting, scoring, everything we need to be on tomorrow. Q. This question is for both players. Obviously, the Blackhawks and the Flyers both have a lot of offensive weapons. But in the Stanley Cup Final, even when it involves good offensive teams, it's usually difficult to score a lot of goals. Yet both teams have piled up the goals. Can you explain why that's happening? SCOTT HARTNELL: Good things happen when you throw pucks at the net and you have some sharp shooters on both teams. Look at Sharp's goals -- the goals he's gotten in this series off a couple of bars and in the net. It's tough for any goalie to stop those shots. When you are getting tap-in goals, when the goalie is kind of out of the play. All the kind of havoc in front that both teams are trying to do to make their team successful and score goals. It's good things are going to happen. We have to tighten up obviously defensively. We know they can score goals. We have to protect the net, block shots and sink in the slot, all that kind of stuff. Q. Simon, Chicago benefited from breaking up their top line. It seemed to work out for them. I wonder if you thought it might benefit you guys with that as well? SIMON GAGNE: I don't think we're going to see any change on their lines. It worked for them last game. I don't know if they got some energy from it or whatever. Looked like their top guys got a lot of goals from them. For us, I think we like the lines that we have right now. It's just like we have to find -- especially my line with Cartsie and Richie, we need to, I think, create a little bit more offensively. Try to maybe get a lucky goal or something. I don't know. We just have to keep working a little bit harder, I think, and we know that we could be the difference tomorrow in the game. So our line has to be very big for our team tomorrow. We're going to try to do that. Q. Right on top of that, we made so much of you finally getting to the promised land here after all your season. Happy, frustrated, how would you describe personally how you feel about your play right now? SIMON GAGNE: You know what, we were talking, we're in the Stanley Cup Final, Game 6. You have to feel good about yourself. But at the same time tomorrow is going to be the biggest game that personally I'm going to have to play. I'm going to be ready for that. It doesn't matter what happened in that Stanley Cup Final, if our line didn't produce like we wanted to. We have a chance to make that all behind us tomorrow if we have a big game. I'm sure our line is going to be ready. Me, Richie and Cartsie, going to be ready to play the biggest game of our life. And not only us, but I think the whole team is going to be ready to play the biggest game of the season. JAMEY HORAN: Thank you, gentlemen. End of FastScripts |
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