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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANESJune 14, 2006Craig MacTavishRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Game Five Q. You guys went through a stretch of the regular season towards the end of the year, about a month and a half, where it seemed every game was a gun to your head kind of an evening. Do you think that stressfulness maybe helps you be prepared for what you are facing now? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: I think it could. I don't think we're really looking that far back. We're just looking at tonight's game and as I said before, I said yesterday, cliche time, but we won't make it easy on them tonight and we're not looking any further ahead than trying to get a good first shift in tonight and try and build some momentum. Obviously we have got to find a way to score some goals if we're going to win the series. I don't think there's any question that we have got to be better collective than what we have been to this point if we're going to win it. So we got to find a way and execute better. Q. Are you playing Todd Harvey because you never loses when he plays, 6-1? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: Sounds like a loss in there, I don't know. (Laughter). Q. First game against Detroit, but none since. COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: Which is good reason as any, Matty, I guess, 6-1 since Detroit. I think Todd, he's not a guy that you can play every night, but you know, I can generally see when he's ready to go back to the lineup and I was seeing that, oh, a couple of games ago, he was ready. So he gets his legs back and he gets fresher and then he plays three or four games and then he starts to drop off again and it's time to come out. But given where this series has been played the last little while, I think it hasn't really been outside of maybe the first game, hasn't really been a north, south series. And he's a smart guy. He's highly skilled, smart, I think given the opportunities that we have had, certainly in Game 4, that his style of play may suit this game tonight. Q. In the last two games you were able to control a lot of line matchups and especially around the faceoff circle, with them being at home how will that impact things? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: Well, we have got a decision to make, much like they had a decision to make in Edmonton, how hard we want to fight the matchups. We'll see tonight, but you know, a lot of times that has a negative effect on your team. It becomes fairly disruptive where it can -- if the visiting team is trying to fight that hard match. It's harder to get a hard match now the way the game is played because there are fewer whistles. So you can do a little bit more. It's not as structured as what it used to be with all the whistles. There's quite a bit fewer whistles now. So if you get the momentum of the, game sometimes you can get away from that match. And we'll certainly try and do that and try and give ourselves what we feel is the best matchup available. Faceoffs, I think, are obviously have played a pretty key role and they always do this time of year, puck possession is everything. You know, the series has gone two ways, really. The home team has dominated so we're obviously looking to reverse that trend. We did a better job in Game 2 here certainly than we did in Game 1 and we're looking just to have a fair shake on the faceoffs. Q. What was going on at center ice during that practice? Were you taking something out or bearing something there? COACH CRAIG MACTAVISH: I don't know. I am not going to get into that right now, but as Ryan is prone to do, he doesn't miss a lot out there, and he surveys every inch of the ice and he did that today. Might have found a nickel or loony or whatever, I don't know.
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