NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

June 3, 2001

Rob Blake

Ray Bourque

Adam Foote

Joe Sakic

JOE SAKIC: It is very easy. A bad game, you have those, and now it is the best 2 out of 3 and we have home ice so hopefully we can take advantage of that tomorrow night.

JOE SAKIC: Once they got that shorthanded goal they really took over, got momentum and, you know, we didn't find a way to get it back. But that was yesterday and/or last night, that game is over. Nothing you can do about it. Just we are looking forward to tomorrow night now.

JOE SAKIC: Well, that's the situation we are in. You don't look back. It's 2-2, best of 3. We have got home ice, and it's a situation that we worked hard to get all year and we are in it and hopefully we can take advantage of that.

JOE SAKIC: Well, obviously we know we can play better and we have to play better. That is the approach we are taking. We just for some reason didn't have our legs and didn't generate anything. Like I said, they got the momentum and carried it on the whole game. We didn't react.

ROB BLAKE: It is so nice to have a guy be able to play the puck. When things are dumped in, their goalies get out. They set it up for you. They make the plays and it is like having, you know, a third defensemen when you are out there.

ROB BLAKE: The game wouldn't have been close without Patrick. He stopped the barrage from Jersey in the second period and again in the beginning of the third period. So I mean, you know, without him that game wouldn't have been 2-1 our favor by any means.

ROB BLAKE: We know it is going 6 no matter what. And you know, it means each team wants to take advantage of their home ice. We split both times there. It gets down to a point now where you have got concerned about one game. I think both teams maybe they win a game and concern themselves about the next couple. You don't have time for that now.

ROB BLAKE: I haven't seen it. I heard it wasn't bad.

ROB BLAKE: Tempo has got to be set, you know, each team has to go wanting to win the game. No way you can sit back. I think both sides did that a couple of times during the series and tomorrow night I think you will see both teams raise up to the occasion.

RAY BOURQUE: You got to look ahead and for us it's Game 5. It is tied 2-2, we have home ice and we got to go out and play a great hockey game tomorrow night. And you know, I think we are going to come out and do that.

RAY BOURQUE: You got to put it behind you. You got to look ahead. We know we played a horrible game last night. But you got to look at the things we did well and when we did things well and stuck to the game plan we have played well and we have won. Those are the things we have got to take into tomorrow night and not the things we did last night.

RAY BOURQUE: That's the way it goes, seems like every time a team has dropped a game they have responded and come back and played a lot more desperate. I think that's what we are going to bring out tomorrow night.

ADAM FOOTE: Long series with the team, things are going to happen, high intensity out there. You are going to see injuries, that's just part of the game.

ADAM FOOTE: Oh, I guess it is an edge, 3 games to two -- the key is not to look ahead. When we have looked ahead when we have been up a game it seems like you lose energy thinking about all the what ifs, you can't do that. You have got think about your game and all it takes is to be off your game a little bit and you are not playing with momentum and you know, we haven't dictated in the losses we had, we didn't dictate our game. We didn't play to detail. So we have got to bring it to these guys.

ADAM FOOTE: We can't get spread out. We have to play in our end. Play as a five-man unit. Bring the energy, win the battles on the war. They won most of the battle last game and we have got to bring that back in our game.

ADAM FOOTE: Like I said, every time we play East/West hockey we don't play together. We get into trouble. We get spread out. We didn't -- we left Patty all alone in there and he stood on his head and we kind of sat on our heals. We are not a good hockey team when we sit on our heals. I don't know if we are looking ahead or our mind wasn't totally focused on it. But we have to forget about it now. We know what we did and bring back when we are successful and that's listen to the detail and playing together.