NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 12, 2002

Scotty Bowman

COACH BOWMAN: Well, the good goalies, the ones that I have had have always, for the most part, really enjoyed practicing. You know, they are pros and that's -- I mean they are all pros, but they really get themselves ready. I think with goalies, now there's goalie, coaches, and consultants, but I never was very active with the goalies, even when I started. I mean, you know, when I first started I had Glenn Hall as one of our goalies in St. Louis then Jacques Plante. And then, of course, Montreal, when I got there, Ken Dryden had already won a Cup in the big upset in '71. I haven't really had much input into how they play. And I have had some -- been with good teams that had good goalies. Even Buffalo, we had -- initially we had Bob Sauve, and Donny Edwards, then Tommy. We drafted Tommy Barrasso. Then got to Pittsburgh, of course he was there by then. So it has been a history of having real top goalies. I think it's just one of -- I think it is the most unique position in sports because of -- even now, the way guys shoot. They are well padded, but it is a tremendous skill.

COACH BOWMAN: I think what happens is you get with certain teams, it changes. And, you know, he was counted on to score a lot of goals. When he got to St. Louis, he was traded from Calgary as a young player. And when he got St. Louis, he started to really score great numbers. That's what they expect, the people. I think it just evolves that they are expecting you to score goals. If you don't, you are not recognized as doing what you are supposed to do. I think as the teams got better -- and then he went to Dallas and obviously they had real -- they won the one Cup and they were close a few other times, and they were -- when you are on that kind of a team, I would say that that's when he probably really focused on how the game -- probably felt a lot better playing with other players that could take some pressure off you. Then he came here and just carried on what he had done in Dallas.

COACH BOWMAN: Well, I am not going to go -- I am not going to go into that territory of the specifics, but, yeah, we have thought about -- we started to think -- I got the call yesterday late in the afternoon, so we're going to -- we went through the practice today and we have got some options that we have to really focus on, and we're just going to probably do it later -- well, not much later, but get a couple of guys that we're thinking are ready to go.

COACH BOWMAN: No, he won't have played for at least the full Playoff run. We're into -- what did we have, 18, before this series, and it has been 22 games now. That's something we're really evaluating. Fortunately our guys that haven't played -- the only one that really played somewhat was Jason Williams, our forward. But they have worked hard. We have told them from the beginning that even though they are role players, they can play a big part in a team winning in some circumstances, and that is what it is now. So that's the one evaluation that we have to make. On the other hand, they will be fresh and ready to go and, generally speaking, those guys really can raise their game. I don't think it's much of a pressure situation as it is an opportunity. We are going to evaluate -- we have had guys that have worked very hard, and it's not an easy job to be a reservist in the Playoffs because teams, especially as the series goes on, teams don't make a lot of changes. That's something that we are going to have to monitor, of course his ice time, stuff like that, because Fischer was averaging close to 20 minutes a game. We have the good fortune, though, that Fischer has been -- his best play this year has been playing with Chelios, and I imagine the player that we put in will play a lot of time -- a lot of the minutes that Fischer has played with Chelios. That will be a big influence on him, we feel.

COACH BOWMAN: It's really hard to make the comparison because there's different eras. And the Montreal team had a strong run, especially the last four years. I mean, there was -- you had to win 12 games and the team -- you know, it's all different now. The competition is a lot different. I don't know how many real contenders were in those years, what was there, maybe 12 -- more than 12, because Buffalo and Vancouver came in in '70, and New York, I think, and Atlanta came in, I think, in '72. But the team had four years where -- the first, I don't -- they lost one game second year, they lost two games, third year they lost three games, fourth year they lost four games. It's pretty hard to compare anybody to that because they won 48 games in the last ten. And their percentage is so high. You look at that percentage, it's over 800 or something, or 700 and something. So, you know, if you are just going on straight stats, that's going to be hard to beat for anybody to win 48 games and lose ten, even though now you have to win 16. And even the Montreal team in the '50s that won 40 games, I am not sure -- I was looking it up the other day. They had lost something like eight or ten games themselves. But I can't compare this team with those kind of teams because it's all changed now. Yes, there will be some Hall of Fame players. Most of those players made the Hall of Fame from the one team. There was a few that made it may be coming from other teams, but they basically got picked on their days with those teams. Same as with the Edmonton dynasty and the New York Islander dynasty, those guys made it on those four and five years of great success.

COACH BOWMAN: I think the players enjoy it personally. There are certain things they don't -- you get this far, you know going in -- you know going in that you have got to win the 16 games and I think obviously if you went in and didn't think about what it was like -- some of them have experienced it before; some haven't. That's -- maybe that's the answer is that the ones that have gone through it -- you don't need everybody to go through it. You just need a few that have gone through it. I am sure there's other players on the other side the same way that have gone with teams and have gone all the way. This is the time of the year that they play for. They are a select group of players that have a chance to do something that's a dream of every player. So I don't think it's a strain on them. There's not much time for anything else and that's basically what happens, travel, play, practice, you know --

COACH BOWMAN: It was pretty exciting in the Stanley Cup Finals. Didn't have all the media attention they have now, but there was a lot of teams that -- I think -- I am not even sure, I think even in St. Louis when we went away to play in the Finals we tried to get out-of-town and thinking back it maybe wasn't the right way to do it because you can't -- you can't separate the players from the excitement -- I mean, you can, but obviously in St. Louis it didn't work. But we were out -- pretty well outclassed on the ice for the most part. We were fortunate to -- the way the League set it up that we were going to be in the Final.

COACH BOWMAN: I am not going to get into his personal stuff. I don't know much of his quirks -- I know one thing, he likes to practice. He likes to take shots, certain kinds -- I mean, we structure it that way and I am sure he has got the same -- he has got a regime that he does prior to the game to get ready. But when he came here we knew where he had come from and what he had done and, you know, we didn't play a lot of games against him. It seemed every time we played Buffalo, there was, I don't know, he was injured one year. We didn't play a lot of games against Dominik. We just knew him from being a player in the League and looking at what he had done and every time the end of the season awards come along, he's won one or two awards. So obviously you get a goalie like that but he still has to come and play. He has to come and play and perform - not exactly the same as maybe he did, because it's a different kind of team and it's different -- I think maybe this year during the regular season there was probably some nights where he might have had less work than he did in Buffalo. That's always a special kind of goalie that has to get adjusted to that. A lot of goalies get adjusted to a lot of work, but I think there was some nights this year that maybe he didn't have as big a challenge and -- but in the Playoffs it's always -- and the hockey is tight right now. There's not -- there's not a lot of scoring chances in the games, but you have to be focused; which he is.

COACH BOWMAN: I think he has been a good -- terrific Playoff player for us because the way the game is played in the Playoffs, I said yesterday his all-around game is a big feature. When you have those kind of players on a team, you can't get them on the ice enough really, and that's what makes the great players play that much greater. When the Oilers were winning, Messier -- I mean Gretzky was a great, great offensive machine, we know that, but Messier had to kill penalties and play -- teams were always worried about him. Trottier and the Islanders, those kind of centermen that are counted on to get crucial plays going for their team. He has been a good part of that line. He's had Steve with him and Steve -- the reason we moved him to the wing, he doesn't -- he can't skate as hard as he would want to, because of his injury and it's been a good -- I mean, we have tried them before, and we had some reasonably good success, but this has been the best that they have played together they are rooming together, and it's just been a good fit. He's been here, what, 10, 11 years, something like that, and he's had to play under the shadows of other players. But it doesn't bother him. I am very pleased that he's had a good run and I just know what he can do for us, not only in key situations, but defensively.