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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SHARKS v CANUCKS

May 21, 2011

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Kevin Bieksa.
KEVIN BIEKSA: Definitely have to be more disciplined. I'm not saying we were undisciplined in the sense that we were punching guys in the face. But when you put your stick somewhere it doesn't belong, it's a 50/50 call. The referees want to call it tight, that's what going to happen. It's up to us that that doesn't happen.

Q. Are you convinced if it's a five-on-five series, you're the better team?
KEVIN BIEKSA: We're happy with our five-on-five play. We feel like we're a little bit deeper team. Playing four lines and six D's is our strength. We'd like to keep it there as much as possible.

Q. You're going to have two guys coming in a little bit cold.
KEVIN BIEKSA: Let's not kid ourselves, we've been in this situation a lot, especially this season. It's nothing new for us. Finishing a game with five or four defensemen is nothing new.
Everybody on the back end has done it at some point. Whoever is coming in, maybe two guys that played a lot of hockey for us this year, nothing's really going to change.

Q. How difficult is it to have to go through that much penalty kill time and find energy flow?
KEVIN BIEKSA: It just takes away momentum, takes away the rhythm. Guys are sitting on the bench for a little longer than they should be. You go out there, you're a little cold, another penalty, you're sitting on the bench. It affects our guys. That's why you want to stay out of the box.

Q. Surprise no suspension or fine for McGinn with the hit?
KEVIN BIEKSA: I don't know. Obviously my opinion doesn't matter a whole lot. You just look at the injury that happened from the play, and obviously Aaron was pretty banged up after that hit.
The league did what they felt they had to do, I guess. There's your boring answer.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Ryan Kesler.

Q. Do you think they did anything different on you to focus on you? Have they taken any space away in the neutral zone?
RYAN KESLER: No. They're a really good team. I don't think so.

Q. Talk about the power-play.
RYAN KESLER: Just got to be better. We were better as the game went on. We just have to be better.

Q. Anything in particular that these guys are doing?
RYAN KESLER: Have to do better, team-wise and me. We all have to be better. We're going to be tomorrow.

Q. You still did a good job against the center you're matched up against. Happy with that side of your game right now?
RYAN KESLER: Yeah. I was saying that five-on-five, penalty kill, power-play, you know, team-wise and myself, we all have to be better.

Q. You played six minutes of penalty kill time alone. How much does that wear you down?
RYAN KESLER: I'm used to it. Well-conditioned athlete (laughter).

Q. You've done a good job of having series leads. Talk about that.
RYAN KESLER: We're going to go one game at a time.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Roberto Luongo.
ROBERTO LUONGO: We played from the back end all year. That's why we have so much depth back there. The guys are going to be stepping in, they've played regularly for us all year. We're not worried about it. We know these guys can do a great job for us.

Q. 10 penalties going the other way. How difficult was it to go through?
ROBERTO LUONGO: Yeah, I mean, you don't want to put those guys on the power-play that often, for sure.
We found ways to kill off some penalties there. In this series we want to keep it five-on-five as much as we can, and we like our chances if we do.

Q. What does a noon start do to your preparation?
ROBERTO LUONGO: You know what, I don't mind them at all anymore. I think it's a different preparation. But, you know, it's kind of nice. Doesn't give you time to think. You go out there and play.
It's going to be nice to get an early start tomorrow.

Q. The start wasn't great, but you finished well.
ROBERTO LUONGO: Yeah, we battled. I think maybe the first half of the game they had most of the chances. Once we got that five-on-three, even though we didn't score on it, we generated a little momentum off of it, got a little bit of a rally in the third. Unfortunately fell a little bit short.
But we liked the way we finished it off and can use it as a buildup for tomorrow.

Q. Different defensemen tomorrow, how important is the communication tomorrow?
ROBERTO LUONGO: Communication is always important. Also it's going to be important for them to make sure they look at the video and see what they like to do when they have the puck behind the net, the plays they like to make. We have to make sure we're on the same page of what we're giving up and what I'm expecting.
Like I said, we'll be ready to go.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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