NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

June 7, 2001

Ray Bourque

Adam Foote

Patrick Roy

Joe Sakic

ADAM FOOTE: Maybe the circumstances usually I don't get the offense there, but I will take it. The main thing is just the win.

PATRICK ROY: I think we should get a lot of confidence from that game. I understand that we all understand that it is important to come up with the biggest game of, I guess, the season and everybody is playing very well right now and tonight like you said, might be nervous at the beginning of the game but I thought in the second and third we played outstanding.

PATRICK ROY: Well, I think it was important to have -- I thought it was important to have a good start and we had 3 powerplays and we killed them all. And Footer came up with a huge goal for us. Took a great shot and coming back in the dressing room after 1-0 was big for us. Game 7 I think we had a lot of confidence from the game against L.A. It was good for us to win that game. I am sure we are going to use it a lot more than thinking about Dallas.

PATRICK ROY: No, I was -- you never like to make a mistake, no doubt about it. But I think in the series everybody makes mistakes. It's part of the game. Just try to live with it and you know, kind of regroup and keep playing the way I was playing. That's all I wanted. And I had no doubt in my mind, with the quality of persons that we have on this team that we were capable of bouncing back in tonight's game.

ADAM FOOTE: Well, I think the first half it was important not to press when it wasn't there. They really got on a transition game, the Devils, and they burnt us last game, and we felt we needed more shots and more traffic at Brodeur, and you know if we can get some shots on him and hope one goes in, hey, then that's good luck for us. But I didn't try to go all out offense. That wasn't in my mind. First off just playing good "D"; not giving them a lot of opportunities.

RAY BOURQUE: Just try to keep everybody loose and keep things positive. We had a great year all year and really the belief that we should have coming into this game and the great feeling I had coming in and really letting everybody know that you know, we should feel good and we should will feel confident and we go out and play like we can, you know, we had proof in the two games that we won in this series. I think we dictated the play, just showed us there when we are on our game that we are capable of winning. You know, just to have fun with this and make sure that you know, we go out and play our best and give ourselves an opportunity. No secret speech or anything like that. I think the guys came out pretty well. Obviously when you got the best goalie in the business it gives you an opportunity, he saved us big-time in the first ten minutes, gave us an opportunity to get going, and I think second period on when we scored some goals, that first goal was huge and then you know we kept playing pretty well. It was a huge win.

RAY BOURQUE: Well today was my biggest game of my career and the next one is Saturday and that's the biggest one. Playing in big games at this time of the year, especially you know, at this point in time in my career getting into a 7th game and really the first time that I have had an opportunity to play for the Cup, I have said, I have enjoyed every second of this so far and I am having a blast and I am really looking forward to that game.

RAY BOURQUE: I mean he is so solid and you know he plays so strong and he does so many things well. He skates well. He moves the puck well. He plays physical and I think we really feed off each other and read each other really well. When he is aggressive, I am filling in for him. I know what he is going to be doing and same thing goes for him, when I am doing things out there. When you are playing with a guy as talented and as competitive as he is, it is a blast. I have really been spoiled since I have been here playing with him and the acquisition of Rob this year I have played with two of the best in the business. For anybody, you know, it's a joy, but for me at this point in time of my career being able to go out there with a warrior like him, and play against the best lines, really is a lot -- is very comforting for having a partner like that.

JOE SAKIC: No question about that. He made some huge saves for us. We got into penalty trouble again, I think that they had three powerplays right off the bat. They generated a lot of chances. I mean, to come out like that and still being -- after the way Patty played that period gave us a lot of momentum going into this -- into the second period. We just -- we talked about just trying to stay out of the penalty box and we seemed to have our legs and from then on, we got that second goal and just kind of kept skating and played our style which is pretty similar to their style when we have a lead.

PATRICK ROY: Yeah, no doubt in my mind. I saw him doing a forward motion and I knew it would have been very surprising if they would have allowed that goal. I thought it was a pretty easy call. They made it pretty fast too.

PATRICK ROY: You know, I just mentioned to someone don't like to make mistake, it's part of the game, we all make mistakes. Unfortunately that night I made it a 2-2 game. I couldn't lose my focus because of it. I tried to remain focused and that's what I am trying to do every game.

JOE SAKIC: This is something we have worked hard for all year, the opportunity, if it came to a Game 7, to have it on home ice. Yeah, the teams seemed to struggle on home ice, but I don't think that's going to be a factor next game. We are looking forward to the energy in the building and coming out and playing well. I think we are going to learn from our mistake in Game 5. Like everybody says. It is a game of mistakes, you know, we tried, forced the play that game, we got burnt. We are going to make sure we come out like tonight, play patient, and wait for our opportunity.

PATRICK ROY: Doesn't mean much right now. To me, it's winning games, and today I mean, when I approach this game I just want to make it one save at a time and not thinking about anything else than play the game and see what they were trying to do against us.

JOE SAKIC: He has been focused all Playoffs. It's the same look you have seen; not any different than any other game.