NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: CAPITALS v RED WINGS

June 12, 1998

Mark Tinordi

MARK TINORDI: Yeah, I mean, still angry at ourselves. But, can't worry about it. I mean, we have got to get ready and play tomorrow. If we win the third game, we are right back in it.

MARK TINORDI: That is fine. That is good. I mean, that is what Playoff hockey is all about. You want to play and you want to get in the game. So the more you play, I think the better it is. Unfortunately in the third period, with breakdowns, that cost us the game.

MARK TINORDI: Obviously we get the lead again, we have to play better with the lead. We lost the battles along the boards and that ended up costing us a game.

MARK TINORDI: Hopefully if we get a lead again we have got our home crowd pushing us in the third period. That is going to help us a little bit. We could have won both games, that is the way we have got to look at it. We have got to go into the third game thinking that we are going to win that game and if we win that game, we go to Game 4 still in our rink; we can win that one and it is a whole new ballgame from there.

MARK TINORDI: I don't know, we haven't played yet. Have to wait and see.

MARK TINORDI: No. We kept our shifts short, 30 seconds, so we were fine.

MARK TINORDI: You can only play six at a time. So, that is just the way it went last night. I don't think it really made the difference in the game. We made mistakes, you know, farther up the ice that cost us goals, but, you know, what can you do?

MARK TINORDI: We are confident as we have ever been. We played well the first game. They were supposed to dominate us. I don't think they did. I think we have been right there with them. We go home now and we feel pretty good.

MARK TINORDI: I don't think it is that important. We might get it and get the momentum, but I mean they got the first goal yesterday and that didn't -- it didn't stop us. So, we just got to play. We should have played aggressive in the third period. I think we kind of sat back and waited for the time to run out instead of going at them and playing to win the game. I think that was our biggest mistake. That is same kind of habit we got into. We kind of sat back and tried not to get scored on and usually when you do that, that is when the bad things happen to you, so, I mean, we learned a lesson. You have got to keep playing. They are the champions. They are going to keep coming at you and we have got to keep going at them. You have got to play 60 minutes. Yesterday I don't think we played 60 minutes.

MARK TINORDI: I mean, sometimes when they are just shooting to shoot, you know, you shoot from outside the blue line or from the wide, those shots they add up, but they are not, you know, they don't really -- they just add shots, but I mean, obviously they are trying to get the puck to the net and -- they have got big strong guys, that is their game down there, get the puck to the net and get their goals a that way.