	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: PENGUINS v RED WINGS

June 9, 2009

Dan Bylsma

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA: Game Six

Pittsburgh Â– 2
Detroit - 1

GARY MEAGHER: Questions for Coach Bylsma.

Q. You've played in a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final. Most of your team would not have, I'm not sure anybody would have. What can you tell them?
COACH BYLSMA: Well, the best thing you can tell them is about going out and winning the game. It's not about trying not to lose. You try to go out there and play your game. Play the way you've played all year long. Don't wait back, sit back and wait for a mistake. You know, you don't want to treat the game differently than any other game.
So it's about getting to your game, and playing the way you've played to that point. And that's a tough thing about a Game 7.

Q. Can you talk a little about the decision to play Sykora? Was that about as much line juggling as you've done since you got here? And when you're doing that, is it a gut feel? Do you have percentages in your head or match-ups you're after? Can you elaborate on that process a little bit?
COACH BYLSMA: Some of it is a gut feel. Some of it is giving a guy an opportunity. You know, Petr Sykora can get his puck on the stick and shoot it in the net. Turns out tonight he can block the shot and get it out as well. You know, that's why Petr played was to get that one chance to shoot the puck but he added in other ways tonight.
I think I juggled the lines a fair amount at different times. But with Max Talbot killing penalties, then sometimes that gives a guy who is on our fourth line a chance to play in that second line with Geno and Fedotenko. Different things go into those line combinations. But I didn't think it was out of the order for what we normally do.

Q. I don't know if you'd pick up on it, but I guess his teammates were just killing him over a quote he had, calling him the piece, talking about Rob Scuderi, just he kind of earned it tonight, just his play, the blocks, the block at the end, that whole bit?
COACH BYLSMA: Well, he has been taking it for the way the quote came out. I know he said it takes a lot of pieces and I am just a piece, not the piece. You know, Rob Scuderi doesn't go unnoticed for our team. He gets more notoriety for doing the job he's done in the playoffs against guys like Ovechkin and Staal. But he's a steady defender, he dives in front of a puck. He'll pay the price in the corners to get a puck out or make a play defensively. He's also excellent on the penalty kill. He's charged with our match-up situation on a lot of nights, and that's something you can't really put a value on if you're not really there in the trenches with him. He's a big part of our team, and a big part of our defensive corps. And a lot of nights sets the tone for how we play defense.

Q. Can you talk about Marc-Andre Fleury's play, especially after giving up 5 and not finishing the last game?
COACH BYLSMA: Well, I think if you look at the articles, you hear our team, myself and the other coaches talk about Marc-Andre Fleury, there is no question in how he approaches the game, how he can play, and what he can do for us.
He's a guy who has come up big in a lot of big games. And there was a handful of times he came up big in this game. In the first, there wasn't a lot of shots, but there were two by Zetterberg that were big. You know, the breakaway in the third is a pretty big save at a pretty big time for our team. And that's what Marc-Andre has been able to do for us throughout this playoffs. He's shown that repeatedly here in Pittsburgh.

Q. The Jordan Staal line obviously had a big game. What did you see in Jordan's game tonight that you had him on the ice more than Sidney Crosby?
COACH BYLSMA: You know, penalty kill had a little bit to do with that. But he was also getting the match-up with the Zetterberg-Datsyuk line, so that had something to do with it as well.
But I think Jordan Staal can, with his skating ability and his size, he can be a force in the defensive zone, he can be a force with his speed through the neutral zone. He can be a force in the offensive zone. And I think I saw him probably we saw him do that numerous times tonight where he was a force in whatever zone he was in. He's a unique combination of skating ability plus the size he can bring to the game. And he's a young kid. He's just learning what he can do out there, and tonight was a game he did it on both ends of the rink.

Q. Tyler Kennedy, huge game, very unsung throughout the whole playoffs. He and Staal coming up big in a Game 6 like that? What does that mean for a team when the third line comes up?
COACH BYLSMA: I think that's the story line of the playoffs. When your team can play well enough that different people can put on the cape on any given night. Tonight it was Jordan Staal gets a big goal here. It was a big play on the wall by Matt Cooke to get it out. Then Jordan Staal gets the goal on the two-on-one. Then Tyler Kennedy makes pretty much a goal out of nothing. Just in the offensive zone, and he takes it to the net and stuffs it home.
When your team plays well enough long enough and you put yourself in those positions, different guys are going to be the heros. Tonight it was TK, and Jordan was also a huge part of that.

Q. You come into this series and they've got more experience, the older guys, and you go along all the way. They've won Cups before. Now you get to a Game 7 and they're no more experienced at it than you are. Does that even things out in your mind?
COACH BYLSMA: I think each game is an entity of itself. We didn't have a good performance in Game 5, and you can attach whatever emotions or thoughts to it that you want. We came out and we played a much better game tonight. We were especially the first 30 minutes I thought we did a great job. Somehow it looks totally different than Game 5.
So Game 7 is a one-game, winner takes the trophy home. You know, each team gets their game first. Who can put the guy back on their heels. Who can capitalize on the power play? You know, the turnover situation may get the upper hand in that game. I don't have a ton of experience. I can tell you that we're going to approach it like we just gave ourselves an opportunity that we didn't have before tonight. That's one game for the Stanley Cup.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297