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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BRUINS v CANUCKSJune 1, 2011Ryan KeslerRoberto LuongoRaffi TorresVANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA: Game One Vancouver – 1 THE MODERATOR: Questions for Ryan, Roberto, Raffi. Q. Roberto, what was it like for you tonight with Zdeno in front of you on the power-play and how does that compare to what you went through with Dustin Byfuglien? ROBERTO LUONGO: It's not the same. Obviously Zdeno is a bit bigger. On the first power-play it was a bit tough to find the puck. But once they got another one, I was able to make a few adjustments, able to see the puck better. I think he's a big body, but at the same time we decided that it's best if we just leave him alone and let me take care of him. Q. Can you describe how you saw the play develop for the goal? RAFFI TORRES: Well, just obviously Kes pulling up there, making a heads-up play, holding onto that puck. For me just seeing that, him throwing it over to Hansen there. Just got to get open. Made a great play there to get it over, was fortunate enough to get it in the back of the net. RYAN KESLER: You know, I saw their line was changing and I saw an opening to maybe go on the offense. Our D, I don't even know who it was, made an unbelievable pass. I just chipped it by their D, held on it for a little bit. Saw Jannik. Jannik made a great heads-up play to Raffi and Raffi buried it. Q. Raffi, talk a little bit about the start of this season you were looking for a job, now you scored a goal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. Talk about that. RAFFI TORRES: Thanks for the reminder (smiling). Yeah, you know, it was a long summer. Obviously the phone wasn't ringing off the hook too much. But everything happens for a reason. I've tried everything in my power to put it behind me. Had some great support along the way. Just in a very fortunate situation right now. For a chance to reach our ultimate goal, which is winning the Stanley Cup, it's been quite a ride. Q. Roberto and Ryan, can you talk about what this guy's goal means to this series. How exciting is it to have this guy score that goal with 18 and a half seconds left? ROBERTO LUONGO: I mean, it was huge. It was just as exciting as an overtime goal. There was not a lot of room on the ice, as we saw. At one point I thought we might be playing all night here. Just real exciting, especially for a guy like Tico to get a goal like that. He does a lot of stuff that goes unnoticed. But it's nice to see a guy like that get rewarded. RYAN KESLER: Yeah, obviously Raffi scored some big goals for us lately. He's been playing well all playoffs. That's obviously exciting to score with 18 seconds left. But, you know, saying that, we've done a good job of forgetting about the pass and moving onto the next game. We know the next game is going to be even bigger. Q. Roberto, was there any point during the game that you felt or believed you were in for a goaltender's battle? ROBERTO LUONGO: Probably the drop of the puck in the first period (smiling). I mean, right away, Timmy made a few big saves in the first few minutes. Then they got their power-play. I was feeling pretty good. As the game was moving along, obviously there wasn't a lot of room. But when saves needed to be made, we were both making them. I had a feeling we were going to go to overtime and play for a little while here. Q. Raffi, you had the goal. Jannik had chances. Max had chances. What does it mean when you guys are going like that? Ryan, if you could follow up, what it means to the rest of the team when the third line is going like that. RAFFI TORRES: For us, we feel like we've been gaining confidence throughout the whole series. I thought Jannik and Lappy had a hell of a third period to go along with a pretty solid game. For us, it's pretty simple hockey, getting pucks deep, trying to work their D. Like I said, our confidence is pretty high right now. But we know, like Kesler said, it's just one game, we got to carry that into Game 2. RYAN KESLER: Yeah, they've been good for us all playoffs. That's the key to our success, is we can roll lines. Every line's dangerous. Tico and Jannik and Lappy all played great games tonight. We expect the same in Game 2. Q. Raffi, you have a good relationship with Manny from your Columbus days. After the Chicago series and the Seabrook hit, can you talk about how Manny took you aside and got you to play your game again and how much that has meant to you? RAFFI TORRES: It's been great. Manny has been nothing but a positive influence on me throughout the season and throughout the course of the playoffs. He's just one of those guys that said, Hey, Raffi, just go out there and relax. At the end of the day, your game is a meat-and-potato type of game. Don't try to do anything out of the your element. Just go out and play hockey, which is north/south, getting pucks, feet moving. He kind of puts that into my head every day. After every period, I just go in there and say, What's up, what do you think? Just a couple words of wisdom from a guy that knows what he's talking about. Q. Roberto, you made the long layoff look easy. Was it easy and is it easier coping with that than it used to be? ROBERTO LUONGO: I've said all along when you work hard on your game, we made some adjustments with Rollie at the beginning of the year, you just go back to those fundamentals when you had a long stretch, make sure that you're working on those things so you stay sharp. Obviously the key is, not only for myself, but my teammates to practice hard like you play, then you won't have the effects of a long layoff. Q. Those adjustments, do they also help you deal with the Chara situation in front of the net? ROBERTO LUONGO: Yeah, of course. I mean, typically I like to look over the guy's shoulder. In this case it's going to be impossible to do that obviously. I have to change that a little bit. I thought as we moved along in the game, we made some good adjustments as far as making sure that the shots come from the side and not from the middle so I can see better. Q. Ryan, you had to weather a couple storms early on with a couple penalty kills in a row. What was being said on the bench and what was the mood to push through that and have a strong finish to the game? RYAN KESLER: That's a very good hockey team over there. When they're on the power-play, yeah, obviously they don't have that great a percentage, but they're a very good power-play and they get a lot of chances. Lou had to make some pretty good saves. After the first couple power-plays, we kind of figured out what they were trying to do and we tried to stop it the best we could. Q. Can you dig deep for me now, can you find that little boy in you, Game 1, you win unbelievable fashion, 18 and a half seconds left? What's going on inside with the city going crazy? ROBERTO LUONGO: I think, like you just said, it's a four out of seven. We're happy to be able to get a win tonight. We know it's going to be a long series, a tough grind. We'll take this win tonight, put it in our pocket. I think once we get to tomorrow, we're going to start focusing on Saturday. That's the way it's going to be. We don't want to get distracted by that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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