NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: STARS v DEVILS

June 5, 2000

Larry Robinson

COACH ROBINSON: I am not the referee, so I can't call those. Four of them out there; one didn't see it. But I honestly played it back, I thought maybe he hit him with the stick, but he didn't. Definitely was with -- some of the penalties that were called, that definitely was -- should have been a penalty. But, hey, it is a tough job, and you certainly don't want to be the cause -- I am sure they feel they don't want to be the cause of a win or a loss. Just live with it.

COACH ROBINSON: Honestly, I haven't even given it one thought.

COACH ROBINSON: Well, definitely those were huge goals. Definitely, we dug a big hole for ourselves by taking as many penalties. That is probably the first time in this Playoff series where we definitely lost our composure and took some very stupid penalties. Luckily, our penalty killing came up big and got a goal for us. Madden missed a good chance right just before that, then came back got the other one. But those were definitely huge turn of events for us.

COACH ROBINSON: Well, I don't look at it -- I don't really look at them as four rookies. To be honest with you, they are four very talented hockey players, and otherwise they won't be on the field. This is a great learning experience for them, and they are going to get better, and they have been put into different situations because they deserve to be in better situations. The only way they are going to get experience and get better is to be in those situations and, you know, have success or failure. Even through failure sometimes you learn a lot about yourself or about the player, and all of our rookies have performed extremely well.

COACH ROBINSON: Believe it or not, it is his quickness. He is one of the quicker guys for the first ten or fifteen feet. The other thing, he is a student of the game. He studies the players. He is very good at getting his angles and knocking pucks out of the air. And anticipation, I think all those are great traits. That is why Carbonneau for all those years was such a great penalty killer is that because of his anticipation and his ability to knock pucks out of the air and get the angles.

COACH ROBINSON: Well, I think really that, you know, the tying goal gave us a huge lift. Up until that point, we had a number of good chances. But we either made a pass and it deflected away, or Eddie came up with some big saves. Just breaking the ice and getting that first goal gave us a lift, certainly a shorthanded goal is a big demoralizer for any club, and that gave us a lift. Then Raffy jumped on that loose puck and made a great play.

COACH ROBINSON: No, we looked -- when we were looking from the bench, he had the same shot the first time, and he just was a little fine on it. And I was saying to myself: Please don't pass it this time, because he had the same amount of net to shoot at. Usually the guy that goes in the first time doesn't usually miss the second, so it was a big lift for us.

COACH ROBINSON: Well, I think momentum sometimes in most cases, I think in the Finals isn't really appropriate, because it is not like, well, you have got another series to go, and so these guys know that there is no tomorrow, and usually the last one's the hardest one to win. Definitely the longer you go in a series, the more things that can happen through injuries or bad luck. I mean, we know this firsthand, having come through a series ourselves where we thought that we were down and out of it and never gave up. So there is no reason why, with the amount of veterans that they have and the talent and experience that is over there, that they are going to come out even stronger the next game.

COACH ROBINSON: The game of hockey is speed. But you can't tell me that Nieuwendyk and Modano are slow out there. They are flying. It is just that we were able to get our sticks on some of their shots, and few of the times that they had some chances, Marty came up with some big saves. That is the way the game -- that is the way -- sometimes you get some bounces, sometimes you don't.

COACH ROBINSON: Well, I mean, when Brian is on his game, he has got the ability with his skating ability. He is a lot like Niedermayer in that the two of them can skate the puck out of danger, even tonight when Dallas were dumping the puck in, he was able to get back and carry the puck out of danger. And one trait that he has had since he came to our club in training camp is that if he sees the ice very well, sometimes he is hanging on to it a little too long. But most of the time, he can see a lot of the open men and makes great passes; got very underrated shot. Most of the time he gets it on net.