NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

June 1, 2001

Jason Arnott

JASON ARNOTT: I think tomorrow-- I think in the first period of last night we came out strong and then we let up and we have to play like that throughout 60 minutes. It's going to take 20 guys to battle back and get out of what happened last night. As for our line, we are getting opportunities to score. We just have to start bearing down and putting it in the net. We are trying to create as much as we can, and maybe we are gripping our sticks a little bit too much and trying to put it past Patrick Roy a little too much. He is playing pretty well right now and it's pretty tough to beat him.

JASON ARNOTT: I think some of the guys on our team were getting frustrated last night. Taking so many penalties it's hurting us as well, guys sitting on the bench waiting to get out there. It kind of disrupts a lot of the flow of the game for us. First period was great. We really played-- stuck to our game plan; then we got away from it. Started to get frustrated and you know, guys took some penalties and we started slowing down. That's what we can't do. I can't say that -- I think everybody is giving 110%. When you get to this level in this time of the year, nobody wants to lose by any means. Sometimes things just don't go right.

JASON ARNOTT: It is tough to penetrate, no question about it. They are playing extremely well. But you know, not to take anything away from us, we had opportunities last night to score. We just didn't capitalize on it and bury it.

JASON ARNOTT: I don't know. That's hard to say. It's two different seasons. It is two different teams that we are playing against, so last night, I think in the first period we were hungry. In the second period we kind of died off. And Colorado played hungry throughout the whole game and that's why they won. They were a little more hungry than us. We got to get that back.

JASON ARNOTT: I don't think so. I think we are getting into our own heads. I think we are getting frustrated. We found it -- found ways to beat top goaltenders in the whole Playoffs, Cujo and the kid from Pittsburgh, and Hedberg. They played extremely well. And right now I think we just got to get into our heads that we can score on him, and that's what we got to do.

JASON ARNOTT: Well, last year we went out and we played a solid 60 minutes of hockey. We had that drive and emotion through the whole game. We are having lapses this year. I don't know why, just happens. We play one solid period and then we let down for ten or fifteen minutes and that's the game. We can't do that. Especially against Colorado, they are too good.

JASON ARNOTT: Well, like I said, we have to have four lines going every night. We can't rely on one line to play good defensively and the other three lines take the night off of it. Colorado is really penetrating us. They are working hard on the forecheck and we have to have 20 guys show up not only on the defense but on the offense in order to win.

JASON ARNOTT: Can you repeat that.

JASON ARNOTT: I mean, I don't want to criticize any of my teammates. I think everybody is trying to score and going out there and doing it. We know our line wants to go out and do it for our team. Right now, guys are struggling scoring, we all are, we know that. I think we are putting a little too much pressure on ourselves. We have got to go out and play as a whole, play as a unit, and we have to start worrying about each other, not scoring and who is going to score for us. We have to just go out and do it as a whole. Do it as a team.

JASON ARNOTT: Bobby has been our strongest faceoff guy all season long. And he has to do that in order to win key faceoffs. This was -- we have been doing this all season is putting Bobby out there for us. He is pretty strong in our own zone for us. As far as faceoffs go we have got to do a better job of winning faceoffs and get control of the puck earlier.

JASON ARNOTT: This is it. We don't want to go back to Colorado 3-1. We want to tie the game up tomorrow. We have to come out and play solid for 60 minutes have 20 guys and we know Marty is going to be there for us. We have got there to be there for him. That's the bottom line. We ^definitely ^ Devil have to win tomorrow.

JASON ARNOTT: I think we definitely play too fancy at home. And that costs us. On the road we keep it simple. We get guys going to the net. We shoot the puck at the net; might get garbage goals, but that might give us the aim. At home we try that extra pass. We don't shoot enough. We try to be a little too fancy when we are a the home. I don't know why ,it just happens that way and we got to get out of it. We have got to play a home game like a road game and go out and press a little bit more and for sure we have got to get more shots.