NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SABRES v STARS

June 16, 1999

Ed Belfour

Guy Carbonneau

Mike Modano

EDDIE BELFOUR: We can't give up those chances and we did and they capitalized on it. We have to make sure that next game we guard against giving up chances like that. I think overall it was a real good game back and forth and could have gone either way.

EDDIE BELFOUR: We got the best out of three and two of them are at home, so that is definitely good for us. Looking back at the Colorado series, we ended up winning, so it is a good omen for us.

EDDIE BELFOUR: Go out there, we will play our best defensive game and I want to make sure that I am playing better too. I'd like to have those chances back, but you make up for it next game.

EDDIE BELFOUR: I don't think we are really thinking about stuff like that. Go out there and competing hard and you definitely don't want to make mistakes, but it is part of the game and when you do, you have to forget about it right away and move on.

EDDIE BELFOUR: Just played beside the net where it was him and I, I just reached behind me, I saw the puck laying there. He took a whack at it and fortunately he didn't get it up and I got my stick down in time, so just a reaction play that I made.

EDDIE BELFOUR: Won't get too impressed.

EDDIE BELFOUR: Well, we are a veteran team. We are definitely composed. We know we made mistakes and we paid for it and there was nothing we can do about it now. We learned from it and going into the next game we will play better.

EDDIE BELFOUR: The first one, I'd like to have that one over. Caught me a little off guard. He made a couple of nice moves by me and got around me pretty good there. I'd really like to have that one back. But he made nice moves and that is part of playoff hockey.

EDDIE BELFOUR: We have to be a little more patient. I think we came back here after the first two games, we didn't score a lot. I think everybody was thinking that maybe we are going to. Might have to win a game 1-0. I think that has been brought up and I think that is one of the things we are going to have to focus on.

GUY CARBONNEAU: You know, I don't know really what the answer is. We definitely like to make things hard. It has been like that all year. I guess just got to live with it.

GUY CARBONNEAU: I think a little bit of both. I think they played a better game than they did in Game 3. I don't think we played as good as we did in Game 3. We made two mistakes and they took advantage of it. Beside those two mistakes, I think we played a pretty good game. You have to give them credit too. They have their back to the wall and they came back strong, so.

GUY CARBONNEAU: Those are the way those two teams play. All year those two teams have been playing well defensively; the two goaltenders are on their game, you know it is tight. Every mistake that you make can cost you a game.

GUY CARBONNEAU: I don't think it matters. They won the first game. We won the next two and then they won -- it goes up and down. Guys in those situations find always a way to get that emotion really high. Like I said, it is just a bounce here or a bounce there makes a difference.

GUY CARBONNEAU: Well, when you get two goaltenders, the way they play and everybody in front of them trying to block shots and, you know, do everything they can to make sure the puck doesn't get to the net, it is really hard. There is not too much room. Like I said, we made the two mistakes where they had better chances than others, but the rest of the games both sides I think, it was really tight.

GUY CARBONNEAU: It is the way you have to play in the Playoffs. It has been like that for years. Just got to get used to it, and work harder to get those chances.

MIKE MODANO: It is a big game tomorrow for us as far as tempo and getting off to a good start and extending it through the whole game. We have had bits and pieces of good games here and there but to extend it 60 minutes; that is what you have to do.

MIKE MODANO: I don't know what it is. It is hard to put finger on it, what really happens. I think it has been spend too long a time, you kind of read here and there a lot things when you are kind of sitting around; you let things dwell, and maybe think too much about the next game. But Game 3 was real big for us and it was -- it was a make-or-break game for us and the fourth game was real critical for us to hopefully come out and really get a stranglehold on everything.

MIKE MODANO: It pushes you to the limit. It tests everything you are made of as a player and as a person, mentally and physically and that is why it is so draining when you watch guys who of won it emotionally you have a breakdown after you win it and carrying that Cup around, you see a lot of guys who cry and just break down because you know you have been pushed to the limits, you have been pushed to that limit you never could get to and you overcome it and you win and that's really what we have to find right now in ourselves.

MIKE MODANO: It is okay. It is uncomfortable but it is frustrating not being able to do the things you want to do on the ice; not being able to make plays and there is not much range of motion anymore because of the cast, so kind of limited in what I can do.

MIKE MODANO: Just mainly, you know, controlling the puck and stick handling, you don't have the free range of movement in your wrist. It is locked in and so there is not much movement. So any movement, it is totally with your arms and, you know, in that case I just try to keep it simple; not try to over handle it; just get it; move it, and to really simplify things is what I do.

MIKE MODANO: I don't think you are going to score more than two or three in a game. I think we have to understand that in order to win games we might have to win it 1-0, 2-1. You are playing against a team that is very quick and very quick to lose pucks and they crash on you quick in their zone. It is not much more, you know, chances on the rush as there was maybe in the previous series, but I think that is the -- if we have to win a game 1-0; then we have to win it 1-0. It is not going to be high-scoring games. Both teams are disciplined in those areas.

MIKE MODANO: I think it is good. We have always been able to answer the bell. When a desperation game is needed we seem to do that. We seem to respond very positive in that type of game and that is our position tomorrow night, it is very desperate game, all aspects and all areas of it, defensively and offensively, a lot of urgency tomorrow for ourselves.

MIKE MODANO: Sure would be nice to have those guys involved and part of this right now. Again you want him at 100%; you want to have them effective and be able to play their game the way they want to play it. Plus you know your heart tells you one thing; your minds tells you another that you want to be smart and you don't want to jeopardize things because you are not 100%.