NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: RED WINGS v FLYERS

May 31, 1997

Scotty Bowman

Q. Scotty, your team seemed to capitalize on some early either turnovers or opportunities. How important was that for them to score those goals?

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Well, it was very important because we gained a lot of confidence against Colorado by playing a pretty good game the first one, although we lost it. And, you know, the first game these teams, we don't know each other a lot because we only played two games there and I think, you know, we tried to talk about taking the attack to them. I don't know if we did it really in the first period because we had trouble on our dump-ins. They were offering most of them. We were fortunate in the first period because we didn't have a good period on the faceoffs. We made some adjustments going into the second period and, you know, obviously the goal by Sergei to get us the 2 goal cushion, gave as a lot of confidence. Then we lost it with that goal they scored with less than three minutes left in the period. Back down to one goal again. We were fortunate that we came right back and when Yzerman scored - we had the 2 goal cushion twice within a half a period.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Two goals out of them and they were a presence every time they were on the ice. They are good strong players. They have been having a terrific Playoff. They have been scoring very important goals for us. It allows us to get our lines going most of the time. We were concerned in the third period; maybe sat back a little bit. We really don't want to play as much in our own end in the last ten minutes, but I guess we were trying to play safe there.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: No, I thought he had, you know, we didn't talk much about the goalies as much as he is going to handle so many pucks, that that was what we were disappointed in the first period, that we didn't recover any of our shots since we tried to put it where he might not get it even when you are ringing (ph) around hard, he has got good strong -- he is strong on his stick. It is hard to get the puck around him. So, we changed in the second period and tried to slide it in more. I don't know what the stats say, if it really worked, but it seemed to help us, you know, get fore-checking.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Yeah, I mean, we have got him obviously with Vyacheslav Kozlov, they came in in the Anaheim series. He is an important player because he is on our point on the power play and I think obviously with his speed, he is always a threat. And, I think the underrated part of his game is his defense. That is why in the third period we tried a lot of players against Eric Lindros and he was winning a lot of faceoffs. But, I mean you have to continue to play more players against them. Sergei didn't play much against them in the first two periods. We thought we'd be pretty fresh. We didn't play him as much in the first two as we expected. But, I am sure he played a lot more in the third.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: I think having the four lines helps. But, we felt if we didn't take attack even after when we look at the film, I am sure that we have to play more in their end if this thing is going to pull out for us. You know, we are a pretty good team in our own end. When you are in your own end, there is always that opportunity -- they got some defensemen that can move in. They did early. So, I am sure that, you know, we are going to make some adjustments and our fore-checking has got to be -- I think it was because of the score we kind of -- although we did have some opportunities in the third period on the power play, most of them, and, you know, to get that other goal, because with a two goal lead, to get one -- within one again, if the crowd is right into the game, we were fortunate they didn't close the gap.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Murphy took a lot of checks. He gets to the puck. And, when he gets it on the stick, it is generally a good play and it is more -- he can make some good offensive plays. He and Lindros have had a terrific Playoff. We had the good fortune of he playing with Murphy and Fetisov playing with Konstantinov. So, on our matchups, it helps us because we aren't concern that we have to have a special pair against certain players on their team. And, you know, that is a big luxury to have, that you can use two pairs of defensemen, you know, doesn't really -- we don't have anymore defense on one pair over the other. But, Larry, he has just gotten better and better. He is playing like we did when we were in Pittsburgh. He gives you that offense which, on our team, from our defense, when we traded Paul Coffey, we lost a lot of offense, obviously. It took us all year to try to get some of it back.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: In a sense I don't know if that matters. I get more of a sense if we win three more games. Our team, you know, obviously feels a lot better about themselves this year than they did two years ago. Although, we had a terrific Playoff that year. But, you know, we just got into trouble and never could recover. But, there is a good feeling on the team. But, for the most part, most of them haven't been there, so there is still a lot of work to do. Guys like Vernon, Kocur, Murphy keep telling them that the next one is even better. So, keep working. Thank you.