NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 13, 2002

Scotty Bowman

COACH BOWMAN: Yeah, we have.

COACH BOWMAN: We don't give our lineup. Doesn't make any difference.

COACH BOWMAN: I guess the first time was -- I am not sure. I played junior hockey in Montreal, and I don't know if -- I don't remember if he ever talked to - I don't think he talk to us as a team. But I was at the game in '55, the Richard Riot game, Detroit at Montreal, and I actually was at the standing room in the game, and then it was -- so when the teargas thing went off, I went down to the junior dressing room. And then we -- they told -- there was a few other players on the team. They said come to -- I wasn't playing at the time. I just had finished junior a couple of years before that, and I went to the Canadiens' dressing room. He just -- that's first time I met him.

COACH BOWMAN: Well, just when he was with the Chicago Bulls, I know that we played in there. And Chris Chelios is pretty friendly with Michael Jordan because they both had played in Chicago. And I met him there and he just -- we were talking about players once, and he just -- the thing that stuck in my mind was, you know, they did get into some slumps, and what do we do to try to change the tempo, whatever it was, I said. He said, really it comes down to if those kind of players don't get it, me saying it isn't going to get it either. So sort of put it with the players, that they are the ones that decide the games. Naturally the coach can have a game plan, and it has to be exercised or executed. But that was about the only thing I could remember saying, that the players have to get it on their own, whether they are struggling, they have to work their way out of it.

COACH BOWMAN: There's always a nervousness about the game you need, and I think that's where it's at right now. We have a forced lineup change. I don't hear them talking a lot about it, but they know it's there. Players like things to happen as happened before if you are in a successful run. But I don't sit with the players, so I don't know -- I mean, I know the mood is pretty tight, but they are looking forward to starting the game for sure.

COACH BOWMAN: Mine?

COACH BOWMAN: Well, the same thing: You try not to think too much about the overall picture, and I try to keep my thoughts of the bench and what we would do if certain situations come up. Probably a little more thinking right now because of our lineup change for penalty killings, a lot of factors. Sometimes you plan for penalties, there aren't any, and you have -- you sort of keep everything open.

COACH BOWMAN: It's difficult, that's right. You have to have a lot of resources to do it. I think that has been one factor with this team. They did lose one player to free agency, Martin Lapointe. He was a good part of our winning team, and, you know, not a real veteran and not a rookie; sort of mid-range, age-wise and experience. They were disappointed that they were going to lose him when it came down to it, but he had such a great offer from Boston that I think everybody felt that he some day -- he had a lot of characteristics of a captain, he was a good leader and hard-working player. So I think once they knew they weren't going to sign him or he was going to go with Boston, then they turned to other guys to replace him, they knew that Doug Brown and Pat Verbeek weren't coming back, so I would say probably their last -- not in order of importance, but their last acquisition of the free agent was real important as it turned out in Brett Hull because, you know, they were going -- we were going in without three guys that had played quite a bit of right wing last year. So that was the last acquisition. I don't know how it transpired, but I just heard he wanted to play here and he had some -- you know, Brendan Shanahan, they were teammates in St. Louis, and he's also very -- they have -- I don't think they played together. Oh, they probably played on the national teams, Chris Chelios and maybe -- I don't really know if it was Bobby Hull that played in Chicago, but he didn't play with Chelios. But Hull and Chelios, I mean, they room together now. They have been friends for a while.

COACH BOWMAN: Sure, it is. I mean, it's disappointing when you don't win in the NHL. It's a long season and you get into the Playoffs and you get on a run. I have been on, I guess I have been able to be on both sides. I know how you feel in hockey. It's tough to get over a season when you don't win and I have had my share of the wins, but I know the other kind are pretty tough to take too. Time takes care of it all anyways. That's the way I feel.

COACH BOWMAN: Pretty apprehensive, not -- especially the way, you know, the format, is we had only played Carolina, it's a much different feeling when you play teams that you don't play quite a bit to play them in the Finals, you know, like Detroit and Colorado. Detroit and St. Louis we have played each other so many games that the teams know, you know, their lineups. You knowing everything about them. We tried to find out as much as we could about Carolina because they have been playing in the Playoffs on the other -- in the eastern side. It's just that you are playing against a team that you have only played twice this season and very early in October and early November, I think were the two games. So it's pretty apprehensive of -- like not knowing what to expect is about what you are thinking about.

COACH BOWMAN: Well, it's not final because I think everybody knows there's still two more seasons under the present agreement and I don't know what is going to happen prior to the third but there's an awful lot of -- it's conversation right now because if you are not -- we don't know -- I don't have any idea what the League is doing and I don't know if -- I imagine the players have some idea of their association. But it's not like this is the last year of this situation. We do have some veteran players. You don't know how many are going to stay or leave. I know in Montreal when we had our fourth Cup in 1979 there was a lot of speculation that our goalie who had been there for eight or nine years, Ken Dryden, was going to just say this is enough, I am going to do something else. I had not been contacted at that time. I was -- we were -- it was different than the first three yours because the general manager left the Canadiens in 1978, Sam Pollock, so we kind of operated a team the next year, there was Irving Grumman was the managing director, Sam Pollock, Claude Ruel, myself, Ron Caron and Al McNeil, they had everybody's input. But we knew something was going to happen. Then I got an offer to go into the United States with Buffalo. I had a chance to go to Buffalo, Washington or Toronto and I chose Buffalo. And Jacques Lemaire decided that he was going to retire. So I don't think going into that Playoffs that everybody -- nobody didn't think that those players would all be back. Especially after winning four Stanley Cups. But everybody has their own, you know, their own input into what they are going to do. You don't know how many of these players are going to -- the ones that are signed obviously, that's not -- they still could retire if they want to or move on. But I think they'd want to stay. But you don't know that.

COACH BOWMAN: In hockey. I can't speak for the other sports. I know in hockey the teams that I have been on that have been strong have had terrific goaltending. Look at all the teams I have been with, I got a great start in St. Louis with a new expansion team. I mean, we really got lucky. We didn't have the first pick. They had two drafts in the original expansion, a goalie draft and they had a player draft, and I think we drew the last -- they had six teams and we drew last on the player draft and we ended up taking Jimmy Roberts, was a very useful defensemen and forward, and they made a rule that if you got last in the player draft you couldn't draft worse than third in the goalie draft. And we were last in both. I mean we were 6th in the player draft and third in the goalie draft. But probably reasons of age. I am not sure of the first two. I think Terry Sawchuk was one and maybe Caesar Maniago because he was a good young goalie that hadn't played much up to that time. Glenn Hall was sitting there and that was a great pick for St. Louis, more or less made, I would say, definitely made their franchise. Goaltending and the ownership, when I went to St. Louis the first year, the ownership of the team was very -- was a different kind of ownership. They rewarded the players. We had a lot of veterans. The two principle owners, the father and son, Solomon, father and son, they brought the team to Florida at the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final, which we lost four straight. They brought all the players, they brought all their families and they gave them a 10-day vacation in Florida. They got a lot of criticism from the other 11 -- not all the 11 teams, but mainly from a lot of the original teams that you know, you are going to spoil your team and this was unheard of. But it paid off because the team became very close. So I would say -- and then Montreal it's the same thing when I got there, Molson had it, there was three brothers, three Molson brothers, David, Peter, and Bill Molson that owned the team. I was only there a year or two then they sold it to other brothers, Brofman brothers, Edward and Peter. They were just like fans those -- they wanted to win. I think Ken Dryden said it the best in one of his books, he said that every player on the team felt the ownership of the team would do anything to win. And I think that stuck- -- the same feeling -- I had the same feeling when I went with Pittsburgh and the late Bob Johnson was the coach and he was such a dynamic leader, the ownership there changed hands, but the same kind of people. So I would say goaltending and ownership were the two main -- there's a lot of good owners in the League. It's not like you have a monopoly on it. I don't know if you can go all the way. It has happened on occasion where the owner is not probably the biggest fan of the team and that's what has made -- especially in today's climate, hockey climate this owner here, I mean, to do what he did this summer, people were, I mean, you know, everybody didn't have maybe the same opportunity, but to do what he did this summer and he had to go on a long run, I don't have the figures to back it up, but I know they had to go on an awful long run in the Playoffs to recoup his investment or it could have been a real financial, I mean, you obviously thought both things I would say goaltending and ownership would be the two key factors in the teams that I have been with.