NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 6, 2002

Scotty Bowman

COACH BOWMAN: I think you are more concerned about, you know, you don't give them any chances because we got that penalty, we made -- Dominik made a big save on that, I think it was on Battaglia. But we were much better with the puck, and obviously that makes you play better defensively.

COACH BOWMAN: He played -- we were surprised, but most of his -- 10 of his 20 minutes after two periods, I don't know what the final would be, they were on the powerplay. But he just seems to have so much endurance, the way he plays. And we made a change on -- we put him on the umbrella, on the right side, always had a good one-timer, played a lot of right defensemen. It was rewarding for the way he played, killed the penalties, like you mentioned, played even strength and played against -- for the most part he was out against Francis, O'Neill and Kapanen most of the night.

COACH BOWMAN: He paces himself. I thought he did it more tonight. I thought he tried to do that a couple of times. He was instrumental in the Maltby goal because he was killing the penalty and he didn't stop skating, made it 2-on-1. We know how good he is defensively, but he really -- he helped our attack. He's that good of a player.

COACH BOWMAN: I said before -- well, before this game, the second game is the most difficult game in the first couple, I think, because especially when you lose the first game, you go down two. We did it once, but it hasn't happened a lot. Even if you win the first game, that second game is not easy to get, it doesn't matter who you are playing. So going into the third period, it was sort of like overtime, the way we scored on the -- we killed a penalty, they got a penalty for slashing and we got the powerplay goal, finally.

COACH BOWMAN: I thought we were a lot better. Seemed that we were able to get the puck in. Irbe made some big saves early. Second period, wasn't many chances, even with all the powerplays for both teams. But in the first period we had 7 good chances. That's a lot more than we had in any other period. With the temperature and the humidity and everything, the ice -- with the crowd and everything, the ice gets heavy. It might be one reason why the powerplays are tough to handle for both teams. You're just a bounce away from missing a shot. And I think that's what happened basically, the puck was in the end zones on both team's powerplays. But it's tough at this time of the year, there there's no question about it. Do the best to get the best ice they can. When the people pour in 20,000 and the temperature goes up there's nothing anybody can do.

COACH BOWMAN: No, we knew coming in the way they had played in the other series. And they have been very stingy, especially all through the Playoffs. They haven't given up many, many goals, so this was a typical game. I am sure they have had a lot of these kinds of games before. We had a lot of these kinds of games against Colorado 'til the last game when you are hanging on one goal. I guess that's what the Playoffs are all about. The goalies seem to rise to the occasion, there's some open nets, there's some pucks bouncing around. And the edge seems to go to the goalies. They make the saves. There's open nets, and there's not much room to maneuver around. I think that's history of the Playoffs. If you look at all the teams that go this far, it's generally -- the goaltending has been second to none. That's the way it is.

COACH BOWMAN: Yeah, you know, at this time of the year, like even at the end of two, he had 25 minutes, Brind'Amour had 19 for them. And it's a little more skating for a forward. I think all teams right now, when they are down to this time of the season and especially we are down a game, you are putting a lot into this game. But he's averaged, I think, 30 minutes a game. They have got some players that played quite a bit. I think at the end of the two -- I am not sure. Hill and Wesley were up around 19, 20. When you look at it, it doesn't seem like Nick was 25, but probably the 5 extra minutes that he had over those two would be on the powerplay, and on the powerplay it's not the same. You're in the end zone, I mean, you know, you are taking some shots, making some passes, but it's not back and forth. So they can do that in hockey. I once had a guy play the whole game. So, you know, you can come out for a few minutes here and there.

COACH BOWMAN: Doug Harvey. He was 43 as well (laughs). So it's how they play and you know they pace themselves. You get into a game like this, he's such a good two-way player. But tonight he had more attack than he has had in many other Playoff games, maybe even playing a few minutes more.

COACH BOWMAN: Yeah, it's kind of new. I think they get criticized, whatever they do. There's always been criticism that they are not going to call this, not going to call that. You know, I thought maybe the first game there were three or four. I have to look at all -- there's nothing you can do about it anyways. I thought in the first game you might have got away with 12 minutes, 14 for the two teams on the powerplay, got over 20 -- could have been 26, but teams, they scored, but you don't know. There's more focus now. Everybody is watching. You know, like I mean the whole world is watching, especially the hockey world, and you know, their supervisors -- and there's less chance to get away now. And then you have your best officials. I mean, I think that's what you got is you are down to four. I mean, ideally they probably could have had six or eight referees, but it's too many. Same as with the linesmen. I think that's basically why the games are like this because there's no slippage at all and there's a big accountability. They review all the games, and if the players are going to foul, you know, they are going to call penalties. Like you take some of the penalties tonight in the third period, two slashing penalties. Why they do it, you don't know unless you are a player. Your emotions get the best of you, and they are not going to miss those.