NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: RED WINGS v FLYERS

June 3, 1997

Scotty Bowman

SCOTTY BOWMAN: No. We, you know, we were trying to play attack hockey, but, you know, in all fairness, Shanahan can shoot a puck as good as anybody in the league, I will tell you that. The first shot of the game, you know, he got it deep on the goalie. He put it where he wanted it. The other goal he scored, of course, was a one-timer, got it to the top of the net. But, you know, he played -- I don't think it is a matter of just the shots that we are taking as we got a pretty good wake-up in the second period. Played most of it in our end. We contained it. But, we needed a few saves, got into some penalty trouble, but in the third period we seemed to be able to come back to our game.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: No, I think we are trying to have a not out-numbered situations. I think when you are in the lead, you might play a little more carefully. It causes the other team to really try to take the attack. They got many defensemen that can move in on the play defensively; were a lot more active tonight; a lot of little shots from the point that nearly got through. Some just were tipped by. So, I think it is mainly a case of --. They did a few adjustments in the first half of the game. I thought they made shorter passes. They had more speed through the neutral zone and we got trapped a few times. But I think we adjusted. We did adjust into the third period pretty well. And by that time, the ice is get heavier. Of course, a lot of players are playing a lot on both teams. I mean, our defensemen and their top guys, too.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: I mean, I don't know what their deal was. I knew -- I mean, you know, you can look at it two ways. I mean, you know, Rod Brind'Amour is a top player, too. So you can't say if there was a lot of other players involved, I really don't know -- we just knew we needed somebody who could step up big in the big games. And, I give a lot of credit to Steve Yzerman because after the Canada Cup or after the World Cup, Steve was, you know, he wasn't a top player on that team because it was a lot of other players before him. But, he scored some big goals and he did come back and we were trying to improve the team and he told us that this guy is a total package off the ice, on the ice, everywhere you want. Tonight, I mean, he took the body, he played defensively in the third period when we asked him to. And he scored a huge goal to give us a 2-goal lead. He has had a lot of pressure on him. It has been a lot of pressure on Brendan Shanahan and he has responded.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: It was kind of a lucky trade, really -- well, I mean, they got a good player out of it. We didn't have a real good report on the defenseman that we traded. He was going to be traded for a 12th round draft pick and I didn't -- I mean, I had talked to the coach of talking about the defenseman McGillis. Our people just didn't want to sign him and it was a pretty tough decision, but they didn't want to sign him. And, one day I was talking with Glen Sather, and I think Maltby had just come up or he had that eye injury, and, you know, I felt like getting a player rather than 12th round draft pick. And, you know, we had played against him. We knew that he liked to play. He was a great beginning player to play against, but Edmonton had a lot of other players and it is a deal I could see that is going to work out for both teams. We are grateful. Those are the best kind of deals really.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: Well, I think, you know, we are a pretty confident team. We had a lot of games towards the middle of the season that we kicked away in the last 5, 8 minutes of the game, tied, wins that should have been ties and few losses in there and we thought we played well enough, but always seem to make that one mistake. I said, well, you know, we get through the regular season, got to get into the Playoffs. You got to play these close games, defend these leads, I thought, like in the third period. I mean, it was probably our best period. We did get off to a good start, but the penalties, you know, got them right back into the game again. And, the quick goal by Maltby, I think who scored that next goal, especially if the Flyers would have got it, they would have brought their crowd right back in the game because they were right there at the end of the first period.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: He is an experienced goalie, and the Flyers get a lot of people in front because of their size. They used their size quite a bit tonight and there is always people around the front of the net. So, I mean, I think it is more experience than anything, sort of knowing when to cover the bottom of the net or when to, you know, when to freeze the puck. He is handling the puck very well in this series. And that has helped our defensemen because I thought tonight their shoot-ins, they were better than they were in the first game. They got to some pucks, especially in the early part of the game and Mike made the right decision. You know, he hasn't done a lot of puck handling as a goalie, as some have, but he has really had a good one going in the last two rounds.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: It was. The first time we came down and, you know, I think I -- I felt our team was ready to play because, you know, we talked about the fact that you can't have an off game in this series right now, especially it is going to get tougher as it goes along. But, you know, it gives a big boost and then we had -- our power play hasn't been as productive as we want it. But, the second goal was probably a real big goal because it was, I think, our second or third power play of the game. They had killed them, minute and 57 seconds, sometimes you get a power penalty kill and they - bang, they scored right away. That takes a lot out of your team when -- but killed just about the entire penalty and you score a goal like on a rebound play and we hadn't had a lot of shots up to that time in the power play. We had the puck in the rink, but we had to make adjustments. We are not taking many shots.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: I said before the series and Paul is the same way, I am not going, you know, I got caught in a thing in a dressing room in January with a couple of people and they were telling me about this and that and they -- it went around the world 27 times. I am not interested in that. No, Paul is a Hall of Fame player. You know, if Paul was with our team, the kind of team we have this year, it would have helped him. He went to a team that -- like Philadelphia with the size and everything. I am not going to tell you that we lost the last two out of three years because of Paul Coffey. That is not right. We didn't have as big a team. You know, we had some disagreements. It was a tough situation. He got involved. We got involved in the trade, trade went down, and it started to go up again. I even told him when the day that he came back, because we were -- the deal was done on the Sunday. I said, Paul, you know, what can we do, just go back in and practice with the team and, you know, the next day of course, two days later, the deal went through. So, I am not going to get into that stuff about Paul Coffey. I felt bad the last time because, you know, he handled it better -- I am not going to deny some of things I said, but they were definitely taken out of the context and made into a bigger story than I thought it should have been.

SCOTTY BOWMAN: No, no. We said the other day the goalies, both aggressive goalies, both handle the puck pretty well. And they are both pretty good size goalies, so, I don't think we had a special strategy that -- we didn't have a special strategy to offset the change in goaltending not at all. I mean, they were disappointed in the first game, and they had a goalie that had gone in and won a couple of series. I told our people at the end of the first game, I said they will come back with Garth Snow. I mean, it just felt that way and they did. And, you know, I think if I was in the same position, I probably would have done the same thing.