NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 3, 2002

Scotty Bowman

COACH BOWMAN: Well, yeah. He has got his own structured workout. We work around it, but he likes to get certain types of shots. It's good for him. It's good for us too. Yeah, he's very focused. Well, you know, I think most of your top goalies are like that now. Dryden was like that. He liked to practice and he liked to -- you know, I think when you get players shooting on him, they like certain things. I am always concerned when they shoot on these goalies the way they shoot today, especially that I know they are we well equipped, but I get more concerned about -- not what the goalie is doing, that he doesn't take a shot that could hurt himself. I try to tell our players, maybe it's not fair, but I told a couple of them today, if you are going to shoot high don't shoot it on him, shoot it on the other guys. But I didn't tell the other goalie that though. (LAUGHTER) He's very focused. But he likes to practice. That's a big plus for him.

COACH BOWMAN: I told the team it's not about being overconfident. It is about how you are going to play when the game starts. I am sure when the games start you don't think about anything at all except how you are going to play. And I told them they are going to face a team that had 27 overtime games during the season; they have had 18 Playoff games. I think there might have been one or two blowout games, maybe at the most, the last one against Montreal where they won handily and had to clinch that series. But all the other games have been real close, so that you know, when you play over 40 games of that kind, and we know what they do. They are a structured team and they are a disciplined team, and when you get -- it's okay for me to say it. We showed some video of how they play. But when they get on the ice and play against them, they have got to -- they got to react. Because they are going to be doing a lot of things -- there could be surprises too. Just because teams do certain things in one series, it doesn't mean they have to do it all the time. They could change. But it's very similar when Montreal had their great teams in the '50s, and they won those five Cups, looking at it the other day, you know, I think in those days they had to win eight games. But they won -- it said they won 40 games and lost five, or something. It's amazing record. They asked Henri Richard once, they were so good defensively for being an offensive team. He said, what system do you use to get the puck out of your own end? He said, I will just tell you the way we get it out is as fast as we can. And Carolina does a lot of that. They don't fool around. Their defensemen, they are a very, very positional team. I am not saying they can't be broken down, but you better continue to be ready for it. If you go in just thinking you are going to overpower them -- when you play 40 games and there's, I don't know how many -- well, 27 of them were in overtime in the regular season. I think they are 5 and 1 -- 6 and 1 on the Playoffs, so, you add -- you got 30 something games in overtime, you get used to playing a patient, tight game. And that's the best way to approach it. If it isn't that way, if it's like we approached Game 7 against Colorado, I mean, I thought it was a chance to be hanging on one goal either way. And because it wasn't that doesn't mean anything. We have to be ready for it.

COACH BOWMAN: No comment.

COACH BOWMAN: I said the same before, if I never won another game after that I would have been satisfied. To even be thought of with Toe, he was very influential in my career when I was even a junior coach in Montreal. I remember one series we had a very underrated team playing against a very top class team in Toronto, the Toronto Marlboros had a powerhouse, and I think we were the only team -- we were a Junior B. Team and the only team that beat them in the Playoffs. That's how good they were, none of them went in the NHL. Few of our players did too, but they were younger. I said, what do you do when you play a team you are outclassed by four or five goals? People don't know Toe, but he said that they didn't know how structured he was and he took him about ten minutes, he gave me three different systems. He said, you got ten days to practice, I don't know if they will catch on that quickly, and he was right on. We played a real defensive-oriented game. We won the first game by a fluke maybe, but we did beat them once. It was a big accomplishment for the team. I never worry about records. They are there. I have always said that, you know, Toe Blake coached thirteen years in the League and he won eight Cups, something like Ken Dryden. They asked me how good he is. I said he played, I think, eight years and he won 6 or 7 Cups, that's how good they are. I think that's how I look at Toe as, you know, he came into an organization that was having some difficulties and they won five Cups in a row and then they went downhill for a few years, so I don't think I'd like to be compared because I would win another Cup with him. I think he was far and away the best coach that's ever coached in the League, and there's only six teams at that time. I don't consider myself because I would get one more try -- I have had 30-something years at it, so, you know, if you stay long enough on a job, you usually do -- you can get yourself in a position where you are looked at.

COACH BOWMAN: It's often been a big factor. It was a huge factor last year with Colorado as much as the motivation, Ray Bourque was a great player. And, in fact, you see a lot of the tapes of those games that he played in last year and you see -- watching the other night on some channel, they saw the Final game with New Jersey and how dedicated and determined they were -- 3 to 1 with five minutes to go, he played the last four minutes or last three or four minutes, he was a great player. I think it meant so much to their team. On the other hand, with our team, these players just joined our team. Something I needed. But there's players on both teams that are feeling the same kind of thing. But I think with Hasek and Robitaille especially and Duchesne, they have been in the League a long time. They are -- they have had good careers, very good careers, and they have got a lot of individual accolades. But it's unfortunate the way it happens, if you don't have your name on the Stanley Cup, that's the way people often look at these players. I don't think it's a true measure, but because there's a lot of great players, one in Detroit, Bill Gadsby, I saw him play. Never got his name on the Cup. Wasn't his fault; wasn't any of his problems but just getting at the right place. So I think the motivation of those players, you know, they can -- the best thing they can do is play as hard as they can. And I think that's what they are doing. That's usually what you get -- it's not so much motivation, it's what they are doing when they get on the ice. And now it's the last series, and they are saying, you know, how many more chances are we going to get? Especially now, you got to go through three teams over a month and a half of -- or maybe two months, month and a half, before you get into the Finals.

COACH BOWMAN: Well, every series is different for sure. But I have been on both sides. First year I coached in the Final was '68, where everybody was laughing at us because we were the West Division and we -- people know that follow the hockey in those days, that the West Division was a bunch of players that the East Division basically didn't want, or you know, couldn't keep, and some Minor League players. And we got -- we got a freebee into the Finals because we were the best of that lot. And the first year of expansion, Philadelphia finished first that year with 74 points, and the fifth-place team had 67. That's how close they were. You could throw a blanket around all the teams. But we got in the Finals, and I don't think we disgraced ourself. We got a bit of a break. It wasn't because Montreal was overconfident. I think it was because we played a certain style of hockey that they hadn't been used to. We had a lot of determined players, and so I remember that very closely, those games, losing in overtime, and things like that. That's why I can relate to when people say this team is better than this team. It doesn't mean a darn thing. You have got to go and do it. So I have been on both sides. I have been swept a lot of times. First three years we got swept in St. Louis. But it doesn't look good on your resume, but who cares. I know those games were pretty close, even the famous goal that Bobby Orr scored in '70, we were down 3 games to nothing and they were getting -- going home to win the Cup, which they did. And we were ahead in that game. 2-1 'til late in the game and they tied it up. So what I am saying is basically, you know, when you get into the Finals, I think it's showed me that we put up a good fight. We didn't win a game, but there has been a lot of teams swept since then. That's 30-something years ago, and we have swept -- we have swept the last two times, but we also got swept in '95.