Phoenix Coyotes Hockey on AZ Vibe

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Comments from Peter Laviolette and Mike Richards

Q. Coach, you took over this team when it was struggling back in December. It took about ten games for them to get playing the way you wanted to. You said they were one of the best teams through the middle of the season, and they got to this point. Can you talk about the pride you have in the team the way they played in this season and the way they rallied tonight. The fight they showed tonight.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: You know, it was — I think when you go through something together as a group, you know, you learn a lot about your team, a lot about your players, what they’re made of. I’m proud of the guys for giving themselves an opportunity to compete for the Cup. It’s going to sting for a while. It hurts right now.

But they never quit. They are a resilient group. I think we grew through adversity. I think our team became a strength of ours. And I’m proud of the way they competed and the way they fought.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about your own personal odyssey? You mentioned before, you started the season on an island in Florida. You wound up here. Can you talk about your own faith in your coaching?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Well, it’s not really about me. I’m fortunate to be in such a great organization. I’m thankful for Paul Holmgren for giving me the opportunity to be able to coach the Philadelphia Flyers for Mr. Snider. I’m a fortunate person.

Q. Coach, can you tell us from your perspective with all the confusion at the end what you saw and when you realized what had happened?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I haven’t seen it yet. I didn’t see the goal. Things happened quick. It came in off the angle. I saw one of their players skate across the ice like he had won something. I got a little pit in my stomach.

But I didn’t know it went in. I haven’t seen it.

Q. Peter, what was it at the beginning of the game — it was so difficult to get shots through. I think it was like 17-3 at one point.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think the Chicago Blackhawks — I would like to congratulate them. They had a terrific season. They had a terrific playoff run, and they played well in the Final. They’re a strong offensive team. They’re as fast defensively as they are offensively. And it was challenging.

I don’t think they got to this point and went through the teams that they went through by chance. They have a good game. It’s attacking offensively. It’s tough defensively to penetrate. We didn’t get as many looks as we would like. They’re a tight defensive team. I mean, they’re fast both ways. They deserve credit for their season, their playoffs and for being Stanley Cup champions.

Q. You just started to address this. Can you characterize the way Chicago seemed to come back with a goal right after you scored a goal? It happened in the second period tonight and a few other examples in the series.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Well, you know, when you have a lead, there was an opportunity to go further, I felt like we had opportunities towards the end of the game to put things away, and we didn’t. When we had momentum, we could have maybe jumped on it more. There’s goals going back and forth the entire series. You can make as many cases the other way. So I haven’t thought about that too much.

Q. Peter, after you get the late goal in regulation, did you feel confident in the overtime? Looked like you had the momentum going into the overtime.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I thought down the stretch in regulation and overtime we played probably our best of the night. It seemed like we were attacking. Like maybe we had started to wear them down and we were able to get some looks offensively. We had some really good opportunities. We weren’t able to cash in.

Q. Peter, what did they do to nullify Richards and his line to the point where you had to break it up? Richards was spectacular in the first three rounds.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: We were trying to — you’ve got two centermen out there, and Jeff went over to play center. He really reads the middle of the ice well. We tried to put Richie over there to get Jeff back in the middle.

When the shots were low and the opportunities were low, we decided to split it up. We talked about that before the game, if we couldn’t find the offensive punch that we were looking for, that we would split them up and put them back — put Jeff back in the middle, keep Richie in the middle. We wanted to keep the Briere line together because they’ve been so dangerous.

Q. What did they do to nullify Richards to this degree?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Well, I think just in general — I’m not speaking about Richie — defensively they played a tough game. Danny Briere’s line seemed to find success.

But defensively they were fast. They’re a fast-moving team. They’re as fast defensively as they are offensively. They transition quick both ways.

Q. Coach, given the adversity you guys faced and the journey you took to this point, where does this group rank amongst the teams that you’ve coached?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I’m very proud — like I said before, I’m proud of our team and the way we compete. The way we played, the way we never quit. We never gave up. They kept fighting.

Q. Coach, before Game 3, you challenged your players to put more pressure on Antti Niemi, their rookie goalie in the Stanley Cup Final. Your players responded. Won an overtime game. Best offensive performance in Game 4. Niemi came back and played two strong games. Can you reflect on his character and the importance of his performance to the championship?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: He was very good. He’s been good throughout the entire playoffs. For a young kid to come in and be able to do that, to grab hold — I know there was — I know it moved back and forth for Chicago through the regular season. He grabbed hold of it down the stretch. Very strong for them in the playoffs. He’s quick low. He even, late in the game we had some opportunities. He’s very quick side to side low. Those are opportunities you like to see go in the back of the net. He came up with big saves. So you have to give him credit.

Q. Probably the most interesting player late in the season and through these playoffs has been Hartnell. He’s been up and down. He just seemed to play spectacularly tonight. Can you address how his playoff run has been and how he finished it off?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think it’s really good for Scott to finish as strong as he did through the playoffs and have the playoffs — to end on a positive note like that. His regular season was a tough year for him, I think on and off the ice. Everything seemed to kind of be put behind him. He focused just on hockey.

His playoffs were — that line of Briere, Hartnell and Leino was dangerous. Every time they were on the ice they were the most productive, most dangerous line that we had on the ice. They bring different elements, Scott brings an element to the net and physical play.

He had terrific playoffs. He had a very good series and he had an excellent game tonight. Thank you.

Comments from Mike Richards

Q. Mike, a roller coaster ride all the way through, wasn’t it?

MIKE RICHARDS: It was. It was a tough game. We had a lot of opportunities. We missed the net on a lot of them. He made a bunch of big saves.

They threw everything at the net. At the end they got the last bounce.

Q. Was your approach to overtime as specific as it looked? Throw everything early? Press forward early on?

MIKE RICHARDS: Yeah, I think as the third period went on, that’s when we had the most success. Just getting pucks to the net, creating scrambles and getting it back. That’s what we did in overtime. It happens every time you seem to have control of the overtime. They go down and they capitalize on one of their chances.

Q. Mike, so close. How much does this hurt?

MIKE RICHARDS: It hurts a lot.

Q. Mike, when you talk about the roller coaster of the bigger picture of this season, this team predicted in October to make a Cup run, it didn’t look like it was coming together for a while. How proud are you of what you were able to pull together as group and do?

MIKE RICHARDS: It was a good learning experience for us. I mean, you have to take out of it what it takes to win. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough.

Q. Do you believe most great players and most great teams have had to at least been hurt once and felt this kind of sting to make a push the next level? I know it’s early to talk about the loss and the positives, but do you think this is a bit of a necessary step?

MIKE RICHARDS: I mean, I hope so. We went through a lot this year as a group. I can’t analyze the season right now, but like I said, we went through a lot. We’ve gone through a lot together. When you go through stuff like that, I think it brings the group closer together.