NHL ALL-STAR WEEKEND

February 6, 2000

Scotty Bowman

Joel Quenneville

SCOTTY BOWMAN: It is only for one game. Too bad. (laughs). Yeah, I think in a game like this, like we were talking before, it is so much a different game when you don't have the checking in the game and -- but he -- I have always been a big admire of his. He doesn't need very many chances and he doesn't need much room. That is obviously the reason that he scored this year and scored 60 in Vancouver that one year.

SCOTT BOWMAN: No, Joel's idea. We talked about trying to play players that -- I mean, we did it yesterday, Joel and I talked about different guys and we had the Czech national team to pick from. It was just a matter -- we had a lot of center -- a lot of wingers we had to move some in, but it worked out that -- I don't think we really even talked about Selanne and Kapanen. They were two Finnish players in the game playing together. Each team had 14 forwards so you had to bring a guy in and Joel had seven defensemen.

JOEL QUENNEVILLE: I think they wanted to win. They were out there to play the game. I think they were having fun. They were pretty loose. A lot of them were speaking different languages, but they were getting along real well. I think it was just a good day for them, I think. You saw some skill and saw some nice plays and some nice finishes today.

SCOTT BOWMAN: We had a meeting yesterday and they really listened to us because I told them -- I said, I know you have all had this diversity training, but I said as soon as I finish talking - I was kidding them - I said I don't want to hear another word of Russian, Czech, Slovakian, Slovak, Finnish, Swedish -- I turned to Kolzig, I said, what are you? He said, I am German. -- German, French, that is it. They looked at me and I think they kind of believed me for about a second. I said, look, do what you have to do. That is what they do in that room. They all have their friends and they talk together. Naturally, they are going to be comfortable with their own people.

SCOTT BOWMAN: Just French. I'd like to have been able to learn Russian because when I first started in the League we used to play all those tournaments and games. You'd go to meet them then, they never spoke English, then the interpreter we always wondered if he really answered the questions the right way. And we didn't know.

SCOTT BOWMAN: Well, Joel asked me that yesterday about is there any one I can remember. I remember the first one because I was with the West Division coaching the St. Louis Blues, and the West Division as everybody knows wasn't as strong as the East, but we had a team that really put on a big show to try too well, we were afraid really how bad it could be. We ended up tying a game in Montreal, so the different formats, it was much more competitive then as it is now, and you know, I remember the game in Montreal when we had two touchdowns and a safety to win, you know, 16 goals against eight, but I think this format is probably as close as you are going to get to having two different styles.

SCOTT BOWMAN: Joel is the one that -- I didn't know about it. I hadn't seen it, but he will tell you what he told me.

JOEL QUENNEVILLE: When I first heard that they were going to do it. I almost -- I was almost shivering. Then when I saw it, I saw it prior to going out on the ice and, "wow," it was a "Wow" and when I saw it again on the big screen, I almost had a tear going down my cheek. It was pretty -- it was a special moment and it was a great idea.

SCOTT BOWMAN: Yeah, I hadn't seen it. Joel had mentioned it to me and then when we watched it together before the game, and you know, there are certainly a lot of other players -- I was a little disappointed Bobby Orr wasn't there because he was always one of my favorite players, but I can understand those things happen. But, hey, I will take those seven guys anywhere, that were there. It was a great show.