NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: RED WINGS v FLYERS

June 5, 1997

Scotty Bowman

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Well, I think, you know, any time you play like this in the Finals, but maybe the way we got out of the first period, killing the penalties, we have had some power play goals scored against us. I'd thought we were two men short. That gave our team a lot of the confidence, obviously, but we played some other games pretty sound as well.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Well, in the first period, especially, I thought we were kind of fortunate that we were in a good position because the fact that, you know, we had killed the 7 minutes of power play time. Mike was there. When you are killing penalties, that is usually what you get. He is really good at stopping the play and loose pucks. They are a big team. There is a lot of rebounds around, especially after the way they scored in the first -- the first goal. But, you know, obviously he is playing at the top of his game. I mean, this is what we felt when we made the deal to get him and he has been something in these Playoffs.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: I think the fact that we scored a power play goal after they had, you know, first penalty and it was a good play - Steve Yzerman, that was a big goal for us. Then when Sergei's went in -- you know, he put it in. Mario LaPointe hit the post, came back out. Even though it looked like in the first period we had a lot of bad things happen to us, I feel that when those things happen, you can win those kind of games because we dodged seven minutes on the penalty kill. We had the two-man disadvantage for a minute and 20, but yet we came back. I don't really have one goal or the other. I just think there are some nights when the breaks go your way. You make your breaks, but, you know, Marty comes out of the penalty box, the puck is there, so we had some good fortune and capitalized on it. If you didn't capitalize on it, might have come out of the first period with a different story.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: We are trying to get a fore-check. I think our four lines are really helping us. Like our four center men, obviously, with the experience of Yzerman and Fedorov, has come up with a tremendous Playoff for us, especially late and Draper. They got a lot of foot speed, put a lot of pressure on the defense. We felt that we had to put pressure on their defense early, or they would do what they did in the second period. They are a big, strong team. They were getting some shoot-ins, some territorial advantage, but we had like a 3 goal lead. That is pretty comforting when you are in the second period.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Two years ago we played the Devils and they were as far as matchup, we had -- wasn't good for us. We know that. We had a good offensive club, but we weren't big enough and strong enough. We made some mistakes. But, you know, I don't think there is any comparison year to year. This is a bigger team, Philadelphia. They come into the series, you know, leading the Playoffs in goal scoring. So, that was a good challenge for us. It is still a challenge with the next game and they can score goals. We are trying to frustrate them. Their power play has been effective and we talked at the end of the first period the fact that we were getting away from our normal type of game in the Playoffs. We were questioning the calls. We were feeling that we shouldn't have gotten this or that. I said, the more you are going to bitch about it, the worse it is going to get. We already killed the penalties. You can't cry -- you get the penalty there is a lot of calls out there, some go your way, some don't. When you are killing the penalties, you know -- we just had a good talk at the end of the first period. I said, feel fortunate we are ahead by a couple of goals.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Not really. When you look at the way teams play today, you know, you can look -- I just finished telling the players, I think the plays that we made in the first period, those four, five things, you have to do that. There is a lot of things you have to do, you know, I used to have about 11 points to win a hockey game, to get eight or nine of them scoring a goal a minute to go is a big play. If I had to pick a goal, that is probably -- it is just make sure our team is ready to play because they are going to bounce back. We had one of these other games in Colorado against Colorado and we went and we got smothered the other way. So we just talked about that.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Well, our team has been good defensively this year, most of the year. It has been offense mainly. We had a lot of the puck. We, probably, in the second period, opened up a little bit and there wasn't -- the kind of hockey we don't want to play, trade chances, all that kind of stuff. But, basically we have been a good team with the puck. We try to play good percentage hockey. The players, you know, from -- especially the way our defense has been playing, I mean, you know, the experience of Murphy and certainly Fetisov they are on different combinations, but they get a lot of experience. That is helping us a lot. As far as the confidence goes, that is why it is there.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: No, we are just talking about trying to win the Championship. I mean, the rest -- a lot of stuff is out of our hands. We know that. We have just -- I don't think -- I don't think about it very much. I don't know -- you know, we don't talk about it. So, I don't know what the players are thinking about. Told them to enjoy the win for five minutes and I told them that the media can stay here all night. You are not obligated. We can't throw them out of the room, that is the rules. Talk to the media, give them the story, but, you know, start thinking about the next Game, 5 minutes from where we left.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: We are three-fourths of the way. That is the way I look at it. And, you know, there is no other way you can look at it, really. People are going to write and say things. I said this morning, they are not meaning bad things. They are not meaning good things. They got a job to do. They are not involved, you know, it is -- that is the way I look at it. The people that are going to decide the game are in the two rooms. And, I told the team about that, getting the right focus. But, hey, you don't win a series with three games, there is no 3 out of 5 series. We know that. We are not going to say anymore about it. Obviously we are going to try to show up like we did tonight and I told them these games you play them right from the beginning to the end. You are not going to be able to look back and say you turned it on or off. It is not going to work. Not going to work.