NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 8, 2002

Scotty Bowman

COACH BOWMAN: No, I think -- no overconfidence, that's for sure.

COACH BOWMAN: Well, if you look at the stats, we have a better record away from Detroit in the Playoffs, but we have won some big games in Detroit as well. We beat Vancouver Game 5. We beat Colorado Game 7. It's hard to tell. We have played more games at home too. I won't say we're -- you know, during the year we had a terrific home record; then the on-the-road record was strong. I think we have always felt you got to play away from home, and you'd like to make sure you play a good, leveled game wherever you are. And that is always our goal. It doesn't always work that way, but that's our target.

COACH BOWMAN: Well, there are a lot of the defensemen in the League now playing a lot of minutes. But it's not unusual, I don't think, for a lot of them because I don't know exactly when the 6th defense corps started, probably 10, 20 years ago - but used to only have 4, 5 defensemen. So defensemen can play more than forwards because it's not constantly. I mean, there are some times when they are playing on the point or the puck leaves their zone they can -- they move up, but I think it's a different position than forwards, and they -- the reason he can play is because of positioning as well. And he does -- you know, he doesn't run around, so I'd say his positional play is strong. That helps him. There's maybe, I don't know how many in the League that play within a few minutes of each other, there's probably a good eight or ten in the League for sure, the teams that have those kind of defensemen when they use them a lot.

COACH BOWMAN: Faceoffs are just, you know -- the home team, for some reason, gets the advantage of putting their stick down second; the visiting team has to be ready first. I think that -- the statistics are not really what I always look at. Sometimes teams have -- as soon as the puck is dropped, they are not going to -- they don't want possession, they want the other team. So the percentage means little. They have got a lot of faceoffs on their penalty kill. Brind'Amour, for instance, may not show up in the stats, but there's certain centermen that know when to key-in on the faceoff. That's more important than others. Defensive zone faceoff on the penalty kill is really a bonus if you could ever get it, you know, because you have probably knocked off 20 to 30 seconds if you get it back. And, you know, you can't knock the guys that are taking the stats because they are not involved with the two teams, of what the teams are trying to do. I mean, sometimes you are not trying to get the puck back or forward. Sometimes you are just trying to leave it there. There's a lot of little tricks that the centermen play, play on each other. And, you know, the linesmen, they have to have the centerman, the visiting team is the way it works, they are to get their stick down first. The home team is next, and sometimes they can time the drop to get down and move or spin, or there's a lot of different -- use their skates. So I don't have an answer. I think there is a bit of an edge to the home team on faceoffs because the faceoffs have always been not a concern as much as for the League to -- how do you do them. People don't want the games delayed. They don't want the linemen throwing out a bunch of players, they don't want the team to -- one team to get an advantage over the other. It's a constant to -- what's the best way to do it. There are some guys -- there are players in the League that have the eye-hand coordination that are better than others, and there's other ones that are better at getting the edge. You are trying to get the edge with whatever way you can.

COACH BOWMAN: We have only been here once. Well, maybe once this year. I know that -- or whenever we came here in October, November. At that time you couldn't tell because there was so many Red Wing fans at the game, you know, people that were down here for the winter and there was ticket available. I just saw the Toronto series. I mean, it's hard to tell. I didn't see it in person. I saw it on television, and it was noisy. Yeah, I think Chicago is the one stadium -- Chicago's stadium with the organ -- most of these buildings -- Dallas is really noisy. I don't know if it as noisy as the Reunion Arena, the new American Airlines arena, it's the music, Detroit is noisy. It's the music, it blares between periods, I mean, that's the way people want it. I mean, but I mean, I started with that, the first year we're in the League in St. Louis, we were the ones that started the music, and they used to sing when the team came out, and that was different at that time because they never had that in the buildings, but the makeup of the building is probably a big factor as well.

COACH BOWMAN: I mean, I don't know if it's a surviving as much as is applying yourself like as long as we can get you know, you don't do a lot of talking on the bench. You have to have your lines ready, but usually you do that either with the voice recognition, or probably tonight we'll be touching the players and saying you are next, stuff like that. That's the one thing it does to the bench, you know, we're not going to wear ear plugs or stuff like that. But a lot of stuff -- there's a lot of buildings before that have been loud but they said this is one of the loudest.

COACH BOWMAN: You have to be ready on the bench to make your changes. You have to have your plan ready. You are not going to get your matchups and we are not going to spend a lot of time changing on the goal because you lose a lot of forechecking on that, on that part of it. You take -- you just -- you have to be ready for the next move. You are waiting for the next stoppage if you -- especially at this time of the year, sometimes you may not leave a line out -- I mean, every team has their own strategy. We have strategy for defensive zone faceoffs, whom we want to use at certain times in the game for faceoffs in the attacking zone, whom we may want to put out on the ice, stuff like that. You have to -- you have to be prepared when you are on the bench for your next move and I change the forwards and Dave Lewis changes the defense and Barry Smith gets the players ready when usually he asks me what line is up next. I will tell him; then he will convey the messages to the players, the forwards. Dave looks after the defense. That's the way we have been working it for many, many years now. And we'll talk a little bit, he will be mentioning things to me, I am going to go -- I am going to double-shift this player; I am going to go back to a four defense, whatever it might be. Sometimes I will even mention things to those two about if we're going to make a line change or you know, -- sometimes you do things impulsively. Sometimes you just discuss it with your other coaches.

COACH BOWMAN: Generally you think that -- I have seen games in arenas where it's been very quiet and you know, when you have any kind of a team you just wonder is your team going to be intense enough. That should not be a problem tonight, the intensity of the both teams. That will be there. Just because of the crowd.

COACH BOWMAN: No. I have made a decision.

COACH BOWMAN: I --

COACH BOWMAN: I don't know if they are going to -- I mean, a lot will be in the hands of the players, you know, there was a lot of fouls. I think now they have got a pretty good idea of what they are going to be able to do. There are certain things you won't be able to do and that won't change. If you are asking me -- it hard to predict. You -- sometimes in a change of venue from one city to another, the games escalate, and you know, you don't know how the game is going to be played. But I don't think there's any special -- I mean according to what they have told us there's no special instructions of doing this, doing that, but I think it's because everything is so focused and you know, everything is so -- everybody is here, and you know, there's still a few things that might have been missed but not as many, as during the season, I don't think. Maybe that's one of the factors too, you know, there's quite a bit, there's some games where a lot of things go on that aren't -- they are not as tightly called, but I would go in with the idea that it's still going to be tightly called, rather than the other way, you know, but I don't think you could -- I don't think you could go in thinking you are going to be able to do certain things and you know, or not do certain things. You still have to play good defense. You still have to take the man. There's a lot of things you still have to do, and there's some -- there has been some flagrant calls that have been easy -- not easy but pretty simple calls for them too.

COACH BOWMAN: Obviously since we have had the two officials, there's very little that they won't be able to detect, whether they call it or not is their own prerogative. But I have always -- I mean lot of referees have said in the past even when there was one referee that they see 99% of what went on. Now I am sure it's -- well at least in this series they are going to keep the matchups the same, like for each game there's the same two -- not the same two referees but Game 1, go to Game 3; Game 2 and 4, and these guys I am sure they have also worked together in some games, in previous series.