NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: AVALANCHE v RED WINGS

May 29, 2002

Scotty Bowman

COACH BOWMAN: Yeah, sometimes when you get the lead you sit back and I'm glad we didn't. I think that was something. The second goal seemed to spur us on, and because when you're up one goal, it's been happening all the season and teams have always come back.

COACH BOWMAN: Both goalies are making close goals. We've got 15 and they've got 13 after six games. You got to be lucky or really in a zone to beat them.

COACH BOWMAN: Yeah, they're missing, you know, especially on the -- guys like Keane, he's a very aggressive player, real playoff person. And then Yelle, he's been with them for all their good years. And then they lost Tanguay a couple games ago, and so there is a lot of top players out there. Hinote had a great playoff. He's averaging 10 minutes. He played a lot this series. He took a lot out of us. He's a role player, but he plays his role very well. Starting with three regulars out of the lineup, they played a gutsy game, we know that. We had a couple of injuries as well that we didn't really play them that much.

COACH BOWMAN: Steve doesn't say a lot. I always talk a lot with Brett Hull. I said, were you with Dallas in that year when they were in this position? That was the year he scored that goal and I knew it all along. I said, you must have been there in '99. He said, yeah, I scored the Cup-winning goal. I said, no, I lived in Buffalo, that was no goal. We had a lot of fun with it. Dallas went home to try to take the lead in the series. He said it was a shoot-out. The game was 7-5. They came to Colorado and played a tight game, might have been 4-1, and then they went home and shut them out. It doesn't make any difference what happened before because it's all new, but I'm sure we were down once against St. Louis, but not in the same situation.

COACH BOWMAN: It's hard to tell because we have been doing pretty well not getting it. After five games, somebody is going to be up by a game when you lose a game in overtime. I don't think the teams will fool themselves on the home ice. It's amazing. We've won two here and they've won two in Detroit and Carolina won three in Toronto and Toronto won two in Carolina. It's a good lesson that you can't take your home rink with you.

COACH BOWMAN: Not really. We had tight games with Colorado. They beat us three times, and they have great teams. They won the Cup in '96, and the other times they've always been strong. They have been strong in the net since they got Patrick, and he's been a huge factor in most games.

COACH BOWMAN: That's the duty of the trainer and the players. We measured all the equipment. We're pretty diligent on that. The only thing you can measure on a goalie's equipment in the game is the stick. All the rest of his equipment is measured regularly by the league. It would have been a disaster had they got the power play. It was still 1:22 left on the first call. It's tough enough to defend with one man short. Two, we know what it's like.

COACH BOWMAN: I had no idea. I thought he had it in his glove. I was a little disappointed. The guy made a good play on Steve, I think it was Rob Blake. Rob Blake came quickly with his stick. I said, that's probably the best chance we have had to score trying to get a first goal in all the other five games. That was a great chance. The puck came right back to the crease. I thought it was in his glove. I had no idea until I saw the guys. Both Fedorov and Shanahan, they were like both after that puck when it got behind them. A lot of times the puck can be in the glove and you don't know it. The gloves are regulation but they're big, and you know, it could be up in there. I mean, I couldn't blame him for thinking it was in the glove. It's usually in his glove.

COACH BOWMAN: Maybe the stats would show it. I don't think it's where the game is played as much as how it's played. There is no comfort zone for either team in this series. I mean, we had a lot of emotion in the first game. We got a hat trick in the one period, and they came back the next game and took it away from us. So, I mean, I think you have two teams -- I don't think there's been any games they haven't really played all out. It's going to be in two days, you know, the guys that play a lot are going to play a lot. There is no tomorrow, and that's the way you want the players to play. I would have been proud of our team tonight no matter what, the way they were playing. Some nights you're not that proud. I thought our team did as much as they could. You're only a bounce away. We got a lucky bounce on that winning goal. They have had a few themselves. Dominik, four or five. Even the other night he dove at that breakaway as well as he could. And Forsberg just got it by his shoulder. Somebody said it even struck a little bit of the post. I didn't know that until today.