NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: MIGHTY DUCKS v DEVILS

June 5, 2003

Mike Babcock

COACH BABCOCK: I find when he's playing well, the puck hits him and sticks to him. When he's not, it bounces off. Giguere doesn't have to have his A-game, because he's technically sound. When he's real good it hits and sticks and there is not a lot of rebounds. Any time you challenge your team, you put all the pressure on him. To me, it looks like he's back.

COACH BABCOCK: I like it the way it is now. I think the travel is great. I think the key to the Final is you get stretched and you find out about desire and will and the teams that play the fewest games because they won the quickest should have the advantage. It didn't help us at all early. Now it should be an advantage to us.

COACH BABCOCK: My thoughts were very simple, Steve. We weren't allowing ourselves to play, and people that haven't been here can't understand how fast it happens. And you get to this stage and you want to do so well, and as soon as something goes wrong, now your brain doesn't work. You're putting so much pressure on yourself to play, you've got to stand back, evaluate what you're doing and why you're acting the way you're acting. And that was the toughest process for us. It was like we were at the start of the year. You have to overcome yourself before you can your opposition. That shouldn't happen at this time. You see it year after year. We were fortunate we went back to our place, and we got good breaks in Game 3, played with a lot of energy, and then we were back to our game in Game 4. Now, we have to do it here.

COACH BABCOCK: I think we got more opportunity in Game 3 and 4 because they managed the puck and skated better. We just want to get one more than them. That's the bottom line. Territorial, if you have an opportunity to get to the net, you better get to the net, pay the price to get there, get the puck there. It's been our simple focus in the whole playoffs. It's been no different in this round.