NHL ALL-STAR WEEKEND

January 20, 1996

Scotty Bowman

Doug MacLean

Q. 15 or 29 goals, what happened out there, you decided to coach defense?

SCOTT BOWMAN: Mark was in charge of the defensive parts of the game. We gave him that responsibility before the game.

But no, we told the team average last six games was about 18, try and keep to 9 try, and make it 5-4 for us, but we just missed. But we had to read the riot act at the end of the first period. We had plan A. It didn't work, so we went to plan B. And -- no, it was a great game for hockey, for sure, especially the way the game ended.

SCOTT BOWMAN: I said he deserved it. For an opponent he has always been probably my favorite player because of the fact the way he has played. I think I said yesterday to somebody that of all the players in the League for the -- when he came in, to up to now, you know, you would, if you were building a team, boy, you couldn't get somebody that brought the full kind of a player that he is. So, you know, we just said if you are going to lose to a team and you lose in a place like this, certainly Ray is deserving of every honor that he gets out of this game.

DOUG MACLEAN: No. I think that Steve Casper (phonetice) may have diagramed that earlier in the year. That was a great way to end it for The City and for Ray, so it is pretty exciting. Couldn't have been a better story book finish for the All-Star game.

DOUG MACLEAN: Came in the weekend with the idea that I would listen this weekend and maybe go home learning something. I think I did. It was a fun experience to be around the elite of the game and the best players in the world, and quite an experience. So I listened, I didn't talk, which is hard for me to do.

DOUG MACLEAN: Well, I think we are going to open the Panthers style up a little more when we go back.

ED JOHNSTON: All I did was follow -- Doug's used the trap in the early part of the game, and -- no, I think that all the goalkeepers on both sides played terrific, and it was a credit to them that it was just a fantastic game. Like Scotty and them would say, if you wrote the script, you couldn't have written a better one than what happened here today.

SCOTT BOWMAN: We are going to get the credit for making a good game. I have been in a lot of All-Stars games, there is only one other game I recall in 1970 or something, Blant (Phonetic) saved the west from a humiliating defeat. But the goalies today, I can't believe some of the saves that they really made. And you are talking about the real top scorers in all of hockey. It was unbelievable how the goaltending went from start to finish.

DOUG MACLEAN: Sure was.

SCOTT BOWMAN: No, I don't think you could ask for more, really. You know, I think what made a big difference is the league gave the -- most of the people came in Thursday, they got an extra day out of it, and I think it helped everybody. It wasn't -- didn't seem to be the rush that it has been in other years. And I don't think you could ask for anymore.

SCOTT BOWMAN: Yes, I did. Especially as the game wore on, of course, but you know, Doug and I got confused because they said there wasn't going to be any penalties in the game and I said to the referee, I thought there wasn't going to be any penalties; you were supposed to play with six guys, no (kiddingly) -- is it...

DOUG MACLEAN: I only had eight on there.

SCOTT BOWMAN: You can't ask the players to really do anymore than they did as far as intensity, I don't think.

DOUG MACLEAN: I had a pretty impressive group, to be quite honest and it was Messier, Neely, Bourque, Lemieux, and Eric Lindros, so we would have won it if it went to the shootout anyway. I said to Ray you got to win it by the third one; wasn't going to put the heat on leaving it for the last for him again. So it was a pretty good group.

SCOTT BOWMAN: We are not supposed to tell this. We told it to Brian Burke; that is what he told me, "don't tell anybody." We had Mats Sundin, Selanne, Wayne Gretzky, Mogilny. We would like to try it though, if we can.