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 One on one with Dave Tippett

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Stars coach Dave Tippett answered some questions about his team and its upcoming series with the Anaheim Ducks.

Question: Where do you think you stand going into the playoffs? March was a little rough, but there were some positives here towards the end of the season.

Tippett: “There’s always ups and downs during the season. As it turned out, in February we probably won some games we didn’t deserve to win and in March we lost some games we didn’t deserve to lose. I think in the end that all balances out. We’ve had a pretty good focus on what we have to do to prepare for the playoffs. One of our key things was to get as many people healthy as we can. It looks like [Sergei] Zubov won’t be able to start the playoffs with us, but if we can get everybody else available that will certainly help our group. We’ve gone through some changes with trying to integrate [Brad] Richards into our group. There’s been some challenges, but I think some of that adversity will help our group going in, and we’ll go in the underdogs and have a lot to prove.”

Question: Will not having had Zubov in the lineup for such a long time help deal with him being out here to start the playoffs? In other words, is it easier to deal with it this way instead of losing him just before the playoffs start?

Tippett: “You, look at the experience our young players (Matt Niskanen, Mark Fistric and Nicklas Grossman) have gotten. They wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near that if Zubie had been in the lineup. Zubie is a 25-30 minute player in a game and we’ve had some players really step up and take a big chunk of that role, but it also filters down to your younger players. That being said, you never want to see a player like Zubie out, but the progression of those young players to be good NHL players has been enhanced by the extra playing time they’ve gotten.”

Question: Those young defenseman have seen the intensity ratchet up here down the stretch with all these teams fighting for playoff spots and positioning. Does that help them prepare for the playoffs?

Tippett: “It certainly does. The better the competition the more you are prepared. That’s something that we’ve stressed to our young players all along. We always talk about that the game is going to ramp up, the intensity levels and the will of your opposition is always higher. Anytime you can get experience in those situations then you have that experience to fall back on in order to react to situations accordingly. They’ve had a lot of good experiences so far and there are going to be some new experiences, but we feel like they’ve come a long way.”

Question: I know integrating Brad Richards into the mix has been a work in progress. Are you comfortable where it stands?

Tippett: “Yeah. What we’ve done is tried him in a lot of situations to make sure we had a good read on where he was in a lot of those situations. Some of them were better than others. I think the one guy that seems to have some chemistry with him is Loui Eriksson. I always like to try to get a couple of forwards that blend together well and then there is some mix and match with the third guy. We tried [Jere] Lehtinen with him, but Lehtinen seems to fit better with [Mike] Ribeiro and [Brenden] Morrow right now. But Loui Eriksson is a guy that seems to have attached well with Richards We feel like that could be a good combination for us.”

Question: Up until last year there were a lot questions about Marty Turco’s playoff performances. Does what he did in the playoffs last year help him moving forward?

Tippett: “In the end Marty wants to win. He wants to make sure he is on the winning side. There are 16 teams in the playoffs and their coaches are saying the same thing: their goaltender has to be top notch if they expect to win a playoff series. So, we expect Marty to be at that level. There are just certain things that dictate a series. It can be a save at the right time. Marty competes hard. Going through those experiences – some negative and some positive like last year – I think will certainly help him.”

Question: I want to read you a quote from Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer, who said this about the Stars: "They're a team that certainly plays a bit of a playoff-style of hockey. That's their identity.” What do you see as your identity?

Tippett: “We talk about trying to be hard to play against. Sometimes that is not hard physically or a bruising team. We try to play smart, not beat ourselves and do things that keep us very competitive within the game. We feel our players are very good at recognizing situations and doing things that allow you to win games. One of our sayings is: ‘Find a way to win,’ and there a lot of games that we do that. Those things you do all season you hope will bode well when you go into a playoff series. We feel we play defense very well, our goals for have been up this year and part of that is that our power play has been very good. You put all those things together – and you have to continue to be strong in the playoffs – and that makes you a good playoff team.”

Question: What makes the Ducks a top team?

Tippett: “They have a real strong identity and a strong defending team. You look at their defense group, it's one of the best in the league in a long time. They rely on those defenseman a lot. [Jean-Sebastien] Giguere is a solid goaltender with a solid, proven record. Another thing is that they are experienced. Because they won the Cup last year, those guys have been through the experiences. Those things give them that strong identity they are looking for. They play well, use their assets well, have an identity as a team and they stick to that identity very strong.”

Question: The keys to this series?

Tippett: “Goaltending will certainly be a big key to it. Special teams seem to have dictated the outcome of games we’ve played against them this year. The third thing is the ability to stay with the game. They have a certain style of game, we have a certain style of game and the ability to stay within what makes each team successful is something I know we will focus on.”

This interview was conducted by Andrew's in conjunction with The SportsPage Weekly of Dallas.