NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SABRES v STARS

June 7, 1999

Stu Barnes

Joe Juneau

Geoff Sanderson

Miroslav Satan

Jason Woolley

JASON WOOLLEY: The younger guys don't really ask too much. They are learning a lot as they go. I think more than anything it is to help them realize how much it takes to get this far. And how many guys, Ray Bourque, for example, who have had long careers and have been All-Stars and won awards, but have never won a Stanley Cup. So it is trying to see the moment and take full advantage of it and play your best hockey and don't put it aside and hope for another chance to get here. We may be underdogs, but we have been the underdogs since the Playoffs, from Round 1 on. I think a lot of people have wrote us off many times throughout the Playoffs. I think we have done a pretty good job and obviously we are doing something right in order to come this far. We are getting contributions from everywhere. Even Rob Ray scored. That is what it is all about, you don't know who to cover on our team and the offense seems to come from everywhere.

JOE JUNEAU: It was tough to adjust at first when I got here. By now, obviously, I feel comfortable. I know the guys -- last year obviously it wasn't the turnout that I was looking to for but I see a really good attitude on our team. We had a good attitude all Playoffs and we are looking at this series the same way as we looked at the other three. That is a great sign. I don't think anyone is more nervous. I don't think anyone is looking at this differently. It doesn't matter to me. A lot of people say different things, but all that counts is that one team is going to win and you are going to have the Stanley Cup Trophy and the ring and it doesn't matter the way people look at it. To me it is just winning and that is all I care about. I remember last year when we played Buffalo, it was a very hard team to play. They were a lot faster than we were in Washington and Olaf Kolzig had to be on top of his game in order to beat Buffalo and Hasek is a tough guy to score on. He is a winner and he just works so hard he has got this great attitude and obviously he is one of the leaders on this team and is his work ethic reflects on a lot of guys:

MIROSLAV SATAN: I don't think our strategy is going to be to score a lot of goals. It is probably to try to play a good defensive game; try to take advantage of our opportunities. They have also been playing very good defense. We know we are going to have a lot less opportunities. We haven't done anything special. I think we are going to play the same way that we did over the last three series. You can look at it from different angles. One, they have experience and they have been there. And they know what it takes to win it. We have never won and I think we are a very hungry team. That might be the driving force for us. Every guy is talking to the other teammates about it and we have talked about it a lot. I think every guy in this dressing room would like to win it. We are a young team. We have a lot to do for ourselves and the fans and everybody. We really want to accomplish this kind of thing to win this Cup. For all of us it would be quite an accomplishment. He is the biggest goalie in the world and he hasn't won it either. So I think he is hungry and we are going to need a superb performance against a team like Dallas.

GEOFF SANDERSON: It is the Playoffs. Every night it has been someone different. Every series we have there are one or two guys that have had really big series and have really pulled through for us; a lot like Dallas. There is no line that you can really shut down. If you try to shut down Modano, okay, but then Langenbrunner picks it up. So you got to work at shutting down all four lines. Obviously our line is trying to shut down the line that we are playing against, but they have scorers on every line and they have to be dealt with. We hope there is not a big advantage. We know they have won a lot of Cups and have a lot of Playoff experience a lot of character; guys who have been through a lot of wars in the League, but the only way for us to get here was to go through those wars. We have done that in the Playoffs up to now. Hopefully a few years down the line, teams will be saying this about us.

STU BARNES: In Florida we weren't supposed to be anywhere near the Eastern Conference Finals. So we were real excited when we won that. Where, in Buffalo, we had a little better chance. We are here; we have tried to stay focused; keep our feet on the ground and get ready for the series. I think these are two different situations. In Florida, no one really gave us a chance. There is a really good bunch of guys here, it has been good. Having played in the Finals before I think it is a bit easier. I went through a stretch where I hadn't scored for quite a while. I knew that I was doing a lot of other things really well. I just have to continue doing that and it doesn't really matter if I show up on the score sheet.