NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: DEVILS v SENATORS

May 11, 2003

Pat Burns

COACH BURNS: Well, I think we're going to get a lot of the same situations again. They came out hard at us early. We responded. I thought the game was fairly physical. But clean physical. It wasn't a whole lot of penalties called like we expected. We're a disciplined team and so are they, so the powerplays didn't really come into effect that it made a difference in the game. Nor did the penalty killing. But it was physical. It was good. It was good physical hockey. I expect a lot more in Game 2 the same thing.

COACH BURNS: Well, I think changes-wise for the game I think I'd like to see a better start from our club and that will probably be the only situation that I'd really like to change. We have been doing video work all morning this morning. We did have a shaky start. We're ready to accept that and their fans were very boisterous and loud and we expected that also. I think they rallied around their team and their team really used that. That is the only situation I would see right there that if we make any changes. Personnel changes we have a couple of days to decide and we'll do that as a couple of days goes by.

COACH BURNS: Well, goals are breakdowns. If there's no breakdowns in the game of hockey, there is no goals and I don't think you'd want to see a whole completed 82-game season without any goals, and that's part of the game. That's what the fun of the game is. I don't think we made major mistakes. I don't think it was something where we looked stupid. I do not think they dominated us. I don't think we dominated them. There is not a whole lot -- this was Game 1, you know, we're not panicking, we're not worried about it. The experience factor really doesn't make a difference after Game 1. Now we just have to go in with fresh minds and just readjust in a couple of places and go after them in Game 2.

COACH BURNS: Is this the Shultz (sic) comedy hour? I don't remember what I said in French (laughs). What were we talking about.

COACH BURNS: Okay, Scott Niedermayer is fine. He will be at his post tomorrow. I don't think the rough stuff changed a whole lot. Didn't see the Senators running away from it and we didn't run away from it. It was -- we started finishing our hits a little bit more. That we didn't do in the first period, we responded a little bit better. We'll probably have to do that for 60 minutes instead of 40. The speed down the wings, we expected that too. They are a fast hockey club, good skating club but I don't think all the goals except maybe for the overtime goal was scored down the wings. I think one went off Neil's skate and the other one was scored from the point, so I don't think that made a whole lot of difference with the speed down the wings. They do obviously have that speed down the wings but I don't think these factors were the determining part. I don't think the players -- I don't think it was the offensive players either that were the determining factor in this hockey game either.

COACH BURNS: Well, it was a 2-2 game until we went into overtime. The chances were numerous early and then everybody settled down. I think to say how they are going to do it, those are questions that I wish there was a button I could push here and be able to answer that question, and maybe jump start that whole situation, but we talked again -- I don't think they played bad. I thought Joe Nieuwendyk had a great game, he scored a goal, he was working hard, I thought Scott Gomez came on in the latter part of the game, Patrik had some chances. Everybody had some chances. That's all we can ask from them.

COACH BURNS: Well, that's tough. To say that we have trailed -- we have trailed in games this year where we have come back. I think there's a couple of games here that people have scored and we have come back. I don't really look at that situation that much whether you trail or not. I think the outcome of the final of the game is what is important. If they score the first goal and suddenly we're going to say, well, we can't play no more because they scored the first goal? You have to play through those situations and play through that. That's the only thing you have got to worry about. Trailing from the series, you know, it's Game 1, please, relax. Everybody relax. It's Game 1, they know damn well that you don't win a series by winning one game. We have all been in situations where we have been down one game, two games; you have a team in the Western Conference was down 3 to 1 and they are still playing, so I don't put much emphasis on being down in the series.

COACH BURNS: Well, I think we started going to the net a little bit more. I think that was one of the things that we did. We have to limit our turnovers; that's one thing we have to do. They are a puck position team and we can't let them have the puck that much. I think that was our problem in the first period, maybe it was a little bit of being nervous maybe the start of the game, the rumble of the crowd, who knows. After the first period we talked about it, guys came out were much better at it.

COACH BURNS: I thought our team responded well in the physical part. We're not a team -- we never asked them to put anybody through the boards; we didn't do it all year long why would we change now. We take the man if there's a man to be taken out, we play the one on one if there's a one-on-one. We're not going to change strategies of a hockey club over the course of 82 games to think that that might be the answer. I thought that we -- the physical part of the game I thought we were involved. I thought we did all those things well. We are going to continue.