NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: CAPITALS v RED WINGS

June 9, 1998

Scotty Bowman

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Well, talk all you want. We will see what it is all about. I thought Washington played a real good game for the first game of the Finals. We started off pretty good and we felt we played pretty good in the third period. The second period we have got to do a lot better than that overall. The shots on goal don't mean much. Maybe in the first period after ^ Joey's scored for two goals, we seem to be a little mixed up.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Well, I don't know how many more chances we had after that. It is hard to tell. Think about all the chances. We didn't have that many. There weren't a lot of chances in the game. In the third period, there was as many as there was in the first two periods. It seems to be mixed up. I wasn't very happy with the way we through our lines out there in the first two periods. So, we went back -- maybe I had the players mixed up a little bit because we ended up -- started with -- the lines man played so well the other night. We might have played -- they got some matchups that they needed which seemed to be better in the third period.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: It is a tough game for a goaltender. For both goalies, not a lot of chances. He made a good reflection move on Juneau before he got his breakaway, obviously on a breakaway in the second period he made a couple of real good saves. It looked like they could come on. I think if they would have tied it up in the second, we would have been really tough in the third.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Not with Steve, I never worry about Steve. He can dish it out. He can take it. But obviously, you know, in the game like this, we had to restrain ourself more than -- that is the way we are going to have to play. We did a pretty good job on the penalty killing, ^ ck but better off that, we didn't put them on a powerplay many times. That is the thing about penalty killing, you don't want to give them ^ points. I thought we showed them restraint. There were a few skirmishes after the whistle which didn't really alter that much. It really wasn't that physical.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Yeah, we lost -- Joey missed a few games. He is well rested. It is a good line. I thought the first goal we put a lot of pressure on them and you know, then Joey's line -- they are not easy to play against. They got a couple of lines like that as well, but Joey seems to come up with the big goals now. It was a real good play. He just was there at the right time, the puck got there, just before he got there.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: We have to give -- I ^^^ mean they are down 2-nothing, I think --

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Well, as I told them before the series, they certainly believe they can win. Maybe in the first period with a quick couple of goalies it might have been -- in the second period Washington's record in the Playoffs doesn't matter what kind of game is going on, if the scoreboard shows within a goal, this that gives them what they need, and I think that is what happened to us at any time. They definitely in the second half of the -- when they were only down one goal that is the way they have been winning, tying games and winning 5 in overtime sometimes you pay for it and tonight we didn't. We are going to talk about that, the fact that I thought in the second period we didn't -- put any pressure on them. When teams are down they are going to put pressure on you, no question.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Like I said we did a good job on whatever it was 4, 5 chances, but I was glad there wasn't a ton of powerplays. There wasn't enough of them. America requires an experienced referee, players react to him they are not going to take any chances. So, I didn't think I had a good game myself as a coach. I just you know, we were mixed up in the first half of the game and we had a too many different line combinations and I have to do a better job on that. That is the way I feel. Sometimes you have to do when you were down. We were up and I don't know if the players were confused in the second period. We had some lines out there that we had in the last game against Dallas. I made up my mind as long as the score was 2-nothing I wasn't going to change it. As soon as they got a goalie said we are going to go back to what we had before.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: A little different than Dallas because you know you have to make a decision with the two -- like naturally with those kind of defensemen you are going to play them against oats's line or the Nikolishin, Bondra. They mix their lines up a little bit. When you are in a game like this had your going to try to get them out against the guys that score. So it does -- we have to see how the games are going and see how the pressure is on. Although I thought in the third period the line of Fedorov, Kozlov and Brown had one terrific shift against that line, and I think there will be a lot of surprises in this series. Seems one team can take the pressure and put it on the other team, just changes automatically. Because of the defensemen they addressed Jeff Brown in a game like tonight, guys like Brown and Housley, Gonchar, Johansson we got some guys like that too, Lindros, Murphy, that is the kind of game that you need those kind of defensemen.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: We know that. Chris this is a big game for him H. His first game of the Finals. He is coming off a shutout, what can we say, 2 shutout periods. I don't think we have to really discuss Chris much more. Just look at his record. It speaks for itself.