NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: MIGHTY DUCKS v DEVILS

June 8, 2003

Pat Burns

COACH BURNS: Hey, it's down to this. It's down to the last game possible of the year that anybody could possibly play for the whole thing. So we're making a lot of people believe that they didn't expect that at the start of the year. It's all down to this now, and it's all down to one game. I don't believe that the home ice advantage factor comes into play a whole lot into Game 7. I think what's important is I think the guys know what has to be done. We have bounced back all year long, and we'll have to see if we can pull it off again tomorrow.

COACH BURNS: Yeah and no. I think -- you can't worry about that. You can't think about that. You have to think about how you played your last game. How are you going to play your next game? What happened in the series against Ottawa happened. It's over. It's these guys now. Again, I've kept on repeating it, they didn't stumble into the playoffs. They've earned the right to be here, and they've earned the right to win this game. I don't know if they've ever been in this kind of predicament before. We have. Does that give us an advantage? Who knows. Does the first goal of the game give us an advantage? Who knows. When it gets to a point like this in these types of games, the emotions of being up, being down, it's just a psychological roller-coaster right now. That's what it is. Everybody's tired. Not so much physically, but mentally. I think it's draining on everybody, and I think right now we have to get a good night's sleep. The guys are having a good meal right now, and away we go.

COACH BURNS: No. I'm surprised, yes, I am. You've followed us most of the time. I don't think you ever saw that from our team before that much. I think that was probably the emotions. Maybe they were wound up too much trying to get out there and get it done early. Instead of waiting for the chance, we took the chance. Those kinds of things don't really make up the composition of our team. I think the penalties were situations where a little bit of the frustrations -- and they do that well. You've got to sometimes be at ice level to see what's said. It's what's said when they skate by our bench. It's what's said on the faceoffs. It's the little poke behind the leg and things like that. All of those things come into play. We're going to have to look through those things.

COACH BURNS: I thought that was coming. I don't really know. Until he gets on the ice, I can't really say. He's talked to some people. Maybe he's told them different. I don't know. We just got off a long flight. I think another night's rest, another skate in the morning, and we get to skate in the morning, and all those questions could be answered probably tomorrow.

COACH BURNS: No. It's hate. It's hate. It is normal. That's why you have these long series. As the series goes on, the teams start hating each other. That's it. That's competition. You're almost hoping that it's going to happen. You know, now it's become we've seen each other every second night since the start of these series. Now the hate begins. It began actually a couple games ago. It's, "You this, you that. Yeah, you, and this and that." That's normal. That will all be there. If you were to end it in four, you probably wouldn't have seen it. Now you get into Game 5, a guy remembers what he did in Game 3 and Game 6, and then it continues and continues. I think there is a little hate there. That makes for good competition.