Off-day June 1 quotes: Darryl Sydor

Q.  After the first couple of games of this series in this building, where fair to say I think, they carried the majority of the play, what is your confidence level coming back into this building with everything on the line?
   
DARRYL SYDOR: It's obviously a good question. The first two games weren't obviously what we wanted it to be. But I think those nerves are out of our system now. And the last two games we've played well, and we had opportunities last night. Obviously we didn't capitalize when we needed to. But I think we're focused right now. Obviously, the old cliche is just one day at a time. But I don't see it being a problem coming into this building and playing well.

Q.  You've been in this situation before, facing elimination in the Stanley Cup Final. What can you talk to the guys about? What can you impart to these guys about what it's going to take, about what you have to do at this point?
   
DARRYL SYDOR: Yeah, I've been there with Tampa. We had to go into Calgary and win Game 6. And that was a pretty hostile environment there. And what happens is that fourth game is the toughest game to win for a team to try to close it out. But the team that wants to keep playing, plays with a lot of desperation and urgency, keeps it simple and just never says die. And that's what we're going to do tomorrow. We're going to make it very tough.

Q.  Is that a Stanley Cup ring on your finger?
   
DARRYL SYDOR: That's the Dallas one.

Q.  You wearing that with a purpose for yourself or your teammates?
   
DARRYL SYDOR: That's what I've always done, I've always worn my rings in the playoffs. Just kind of reminds me of how hard it is to try and get these.

Q.  You mentioned the desperation level. Do you think the team has lacked some desperation maybe in some of the losses earlier in the series?
   
DARRYL SYDOR: No, I don't think we've lacked desperation. Breakdown of the games, Game 1 was kind of like we were in awe and gave a lot of respect instead of just going out and playing our game. And Game 2 we played better. And Game 3 we had a lot of puck control. And then in Game 4 we didn't have that puck control. And they did. Although we had a lot of scoring, more scoring opportunities, we just need to capitalize. And we need to defend well. We can talk about scoring all we want, but we need to defend well, and we'll get opportunities. That's what we've done the whole second half of this season. And first three rounds, we defended well both offensively and defensively, and we've created opportunities, and we've had success from it.

Q.  First three rounds you guys were pretty much owning the third period. Now they are. Why? Why do you think that is?
   
DARRYL SYDOR: I'm not sure. It just comes down to puck management. Right now they have it. And we need to just be confident and composed. And you look at their second goal was -- it wasn't the prettiest goal, but it was the winning goal. That's what's it's going to be. The two teams are similar. They both want the winning goal. They both want the puck. They're better with the puck. That's one of our goals, we need better puck management.

Q.  How deflating is it in the third period when you have an opportunity on a five on three and five on four to convert a goal and they shut you down?
   
DARRYL SYDOR: Obviously, it doesn't give you a boost of confidence. But that's the way the games are. There's breaks here and there. I think our power play started off well, and then the second period we had another power play at the end of the period that we never really got anything going. But obviously had an opportunity on a five-on-three to score, and we didn't. But that's the cards that we were dealt with. So we had to move on and we had some more opportunities and just never worked out.