NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: MIGHTY DUCKS v DEVILS

May 30, 2003

Pat Burns

COACH PAT BURNS: It all depends on how the situation turns here. One thing, because of their injuries, sitting on a plane for a long spurt wouldn't have helped the situation. There are physical therapists back home that can do a better job than sitting on a plane for six or seven hours and doing half treatment in a medical room. We figure we'll see what happens after next game.

COACH PAT BURNS: He was pretty good over the season, too, especially when he started playing with Joe Nieuwendyk. It's a question of another Western guy going to the Eastern Conference trying to figure it out. I think the second half, he had a very good second half and so far had a very good playoff.

COACH PAT BURNS: You've seen the games. I don't think he's done anything that would merit a lot of criticism. He's keeping it the way we play. That's what we want him to do, and he's doing it.

COACH PAT BURNS: Geez, I don't know. I've seen it help; I've seen it hinder. I think that's a question to be forwarded to the player, how he feels playing against his former teammates. I've seen both sides of the story.

COACH PAT BURNS: It could. Again, those questions would have to be forwarded to them. I think they would be in a better position to answer that. Like Friesen, he's played well in the second half of the season. And we haven't played Anaheim since January. I don't think it made a difference.

COACH PAT BURNS: I watched a lot of the tape of the other games. The other teams did that too. I think it's a question of breaks and bounces that we happened to be fortunate to get that other teams didn't. Giguere made some great, great saves and a lot of times he just makes saves that nobody would have thought he would have made. I know Dallas did it very well. I think in that first game, Minnesota, they dominated that game in Minnesota against them. I think they were all over them, but they just couldn't put it past him. We're not going to take the credit of being geniuses here saying we've done what others can't. I think we have been fortunate to get good bounces. I don't think any other team did it a lot different. Maybe the position we get into at the proper time just happens to be that. I saw the other teams do the same thing.

COACH PAT BURNS: It's very big. You're missing Joe, and Joe is an experienced guy who would have really nourished in these kinds of games. I think that having Joe would have been an asset to us right now, especially in his faceoff position. We don't have him, but Sergei, he's that type of player, but I said that way before today. I've said that many times. You can probably play him any position and he would come up strong.

COACH PAT BURNS: I don't think so. I think the thing is, sometimes players fall into position with teams, that things work out better than they did with others. They're not asked to be the player that has to do everything. I think with Grant, he falls into place with the team that he feels comfortable with, and the things he does well happens to coincide with the way we play.

COACH PAT BURNS: No.

COACH PAT BURNS: You always want to see a perfect game. Unfortunately, that doesn't exist. I think what we do, we have to go into the game thinking about the way we have to play. If there is an adjustment that has to be made, we'll adjust to it. We play the way we play. You don't change systems at this time of year. Your team plays the way it's played, and the habits that's been going on since training camp are still there now. That's one of the reasons you have success.

COACH PAT BURNS: Sure. Players know what it takes. We've won a lot of games, all of us together, and we did have a good regular season also. I think the whole team understands that they really -- the helmets have to fit right in the mornings and the feet have to be solid on the ice. It's not hard with this club.

COACH PAT BURNS: That's tough for me to answer what Anaheim is going to do better. What I anticipate is they're going to be better. I said that after Game 1. They were better in Game 2. I assume they're probably going to be better in game 3.

COACH PAT BURNS: Yeah. Just rest the guys. That's why we brought the third goalie. We don't want Marty out there practicing too long for nothing.

COACH PAT BURNS: You are really into nostalgia.

COACH PAT BURNS: It's in the past. I don't live in the past that much. What was the question again?

COACH PAT BURNS: Felix Potvin in Toronto. He was good on that team. That was the way we played him. He would be called upon to make a big save. That's the kind of guy he was. He enjoyed it. He said it's a lot easier, but those guys probably come to mind quickly.

COACH PAT BURNS: Obviously, it's to their advantage. It was to our advantage the first two games. It will be to their advantage now.

COACH PAT BURNS: Yeah. Let's see what they do. I imagine that they're going to try to keep Rucchin away from Madden, and all the same things that you saw in Game 1 and 2 will probably be different. There are dangers in that when you start doing that, your good players don't get on the ice. I can leave Madden and make a second checking line and play with them, and the third line or fourth line will go out once in a while. That's the danger of it. Players sometimes get frustrated when there is a checking line, again, saying "I can't get on." Sooner or later -- we don't worry about that. We will put our power lines against checking lines and they do well.

COACH PAT BURNS: I think that's unfair to him, because the "defensive system". I think that's really, really unfair to him. He's been our top player all year long. He's been our go-to guy and our MVP. He's won us games. We all know this guy has won us games where we probably shouldn't have won. Marty Brodeur made the difference. When a goaltender does that, he certainly deserves that prize trophy.

COACH PAT BURNS: Not that I know of. Tell me if there is.