Phoenix Coyotes Post Game Interview With Coach Tippett: The Transcript
By Jack Briggs
An interview with:
COACH TIPPETT
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Tippett.
Q. Comparing game 2 to game 1…
COACH TIPPETT: It was disappointing the way it finished. I thought
we certainly started better. I thought the first four or five minutes of
the second period we had four or five very good chances to score to get the
game back to even. We weren’t able to do that.
They got that second one. We ended up putting ourselves in a lot of
penalty trouble.
First period they had a lot of shots from outside. The first period
I thought was a better period for us. Last game, it was one of those games
we were hanging around the game. Needed to capitalize on the chances.
Unfortunately, the penalties took the game away from us.
Q. Is your team frustrated?
COACH TIPPETT: Well, it’s frustrating not winning, not being able to
do the things you want to do. That’s for sure.
Q. How much does it hurt right now that your top two offensive guys
haven’t been able to get anything going the way they did in the Nashville
series?
COACH TIPPETT: We need everybody to give a little more. Those guys
aren’t excluded from that, obviously. When you’re looking to make those
opportunities count, your margin for error is very slim.
When we do get chances, and the players that are around the chances,
you know, that’s the difference where we are right now compared to
Nashville. They went in in Nashville. Here we haven’t been able to bury
anything.
Q. Mike Smith said today he doesn’t know if it’s feeling like the
team was just getting to the Conference Finals was good enough, but you
haven’t shown the kind of team you are in the first two games. Do you
agree with that?
COACH TIPPETT: You know, I think there’s sometimes, I think you have
to give them credit, how they’re playing. I certainly think that we can
show better than we are right now.
Like I say, I like the first period, first part of the second period.
We got to find a way to sustain that, obviously keeps some pucks out of our
net, be more disciplined, capitalize on a chance or two. At least give
ourselves a chance where we feel like we’re competitive in the game.
Q. Down 2-0, facing the possibility of losing two players,
worrisome?
COACH TIPPETT: Well, I’m not going to worry about the discipline.
The league will take care of that. I don’t know what will happen there.
But obviously being down 2-0, that’s not the results we were looking for at
home.
We got to regroup tomorrow, go in there and try to steal a game on
the road.
Q. They’ve got size on all of their lines. It’s not like you’re a
small team. What is the difference with them being able to use their size
against you guys?
COACH TIPPETT: They are using their size? They’re throwing a lot of
pucks at the net, you know, crashing the net. We’re trying to do the same
thing. We just haven’t got as many pucks there.
The games are competitive. Like I say, I thought for stretches
tonight we were much better than we were in Game 1. I think in Game 1, if
you look back, we were a team we weren’t sure how it was going to go. Took
us a while to figure out that the bar goes up every round, so…
Like I say, I think there were some things we could grab out of
tonight’s game we can build on and there’s some things that are going to
have to come out of our game or get out of our game if we’re going to have
a chance to be successful.
Q. When it looks like you lose your cool, especially in the second,
how do you get that back for Game 3?
COACH TIPPETT: Losing our cool over there? The Doan penalty was a
little frustrating because that’s one, you know, it’s a slash, these sticks
break like they do. The Yandle penalty, I don’t know why only one guy was
taken there. I still felt like we were around a little bit.
The Doan penalty is an interesting one. It’s a dangerous place. A
player can’t put himself in that position either. I’m not saying it was a
good hit.
Anybody who’s played the game, you’re in that position, the guy is
beside you, he turns his back to you, you can’t stop. You can’t stop. You
know, that’s the way I saw that hit.
I don’t want to comment too much on it. Obviously that was a big
factor, spending that much time down five-on-three.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, coach.
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