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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCEMay 7, 2008Michel TherrienSCHUYLER BAEHMAN: We now have with us Pittsburgh head coach Michel Therrien, who has led the Penguins to an 8-1 record in this year's playoffs, sweeping defending Eastern Conference champions Ottawa Senators and defeating the New York Rangers in five games. Thank you, coach, for joining us. We'll open it up for questions. Q. Just wondering about Ryan Malone, how you've seen his growth from last year's playoffs to this year. MICHEL THERRIEN: Well, like a lot of players, Ryan grew really well with our team. He's been with us like for four years, I believe. He's doing a fantastic job. He's having a huge role with us. He's a guy who is playing on our top two lines. This is a guy that is playing on the first unit of a power-play. This is a guy who is killing penalties. He became almost a complete player. That was the plan, to work with him since last year. Certainly he's a big part of the success of this hockey team. Q. Did you notice in the first-round series against Ottawa last year he looked maybe overwhelmed or caught up in the moment versus how he looks this year, a little more like he knows what's going on? MICHEL THERRIEN: You know what, and the rest of our team. Not only Ryan last year, it was like 15 guys who had their first experience to the NHL. It's not easy when you're facing your first test in the playoffs. He was part of them. Learned a lot from last year. When we approached the playoffs, having home-ice advantage was a big factor for us this year. There's no doubt that he matured through the course of the season with the experience that we got from last year. Q. There are people that still questioned Marc-Andre before the playoffs started a month ago. Probably don't any more. Your thoughts on your young goalie and his development this year, Marc-Andre Fleury? MICHEL THERRIEN: Well, one thing we can't forget about Marc-Andre, he's only 23 years old and he went through a lot of experience since he turned pro. Just before he got hurt, he was playing really well. For the first time when he came back since he's in the NHL, he's got to fight back for his job because Conklin, the way he was playing, he was phenomenal. So that give us a chance to send Marc-Andre back to the minors, get his timing back. When he came in, we didn't give him the net right away because, the number one reason, how Ty Conklin was playing for us. So he fight for it. He deserve it. You know what, the last 15 games of the regular season, if you compare the stats from all the goalies, he was the best goalie with the stats, goals-against average, save percentage. That's why at that moment I felt really comfortable with Marc-Andre with the way he finished the year. That's why we were confident about him with his performance in the playoffs. Right now he played well against Ottawa. He played extremely well against the Rangers. So that's why we optimistic with Fleury right now. Q. Your thoughts on Martin Biron? This is his first-ever playoffs, even though he's a more veteran goalie than Marc-Andre. He's had to answer some questions. He's been pretty good for the Flyers. MICHEL THERRIEN: You know what, this is a guy that finally get a chance to play in the playoffs. Always had good season in Buffalo. Played in front of good teams. Now he's got a chance to play in the playoffs. Certainly he's one of the reasons why the Flyers are still there. We all know goaltending is a big part of it. He was phenomenal against Montréal. I watched all those games. He give their guys, his team, a chance to win game in, game out. That's going to be a challenge for us to compete against him. But you know what, Lundqvist was phenomenal for the Rangers. And Gerber, everybody was questioning Gerber before we started the playoffs, and he was playing his best hockey. So we're used to facing a hot goalie. Q. You're a Montréal guy. This is being billed as a Battle of Pennsylvania. How much have you tried to bring yourself up on the history of this rivalry, even the history of the Penguins going back? MICHEL THERRIEN: Well, you know what, I've been in Pennsylvania for five years now, being part of this organization. There's always been a rivalry. Even when I was in Wilkes-Barre, the same thing for John Stevens, we've been battling together when we were in the American League. They got some good teams. We got some good teams when we were in the minors. This year it's no different. So they got a good team. I believe that we got a good team. We know what we're talking about when we facing each other because we've been there. For me, like I said, it's been five years, so I'm involved emotionally. The emotion, you always try to bring your best. Certainly it should be a really good and fun series to be part of. Q. As you say, a lot of these guys have been playing against each other since they were in the minors. Has there gotten to be a pretty good rivalry built up between these players? MICHEL THERRIEN: Well, like you said, there's a lot of guys been playing against each other the last few years - not only in the NHL, but in the minors, as well. You know what, when we're talking about the rivalry, I believe it's going to be a hard-nosed series. There's too much to lose if you're getting undisciplined. I think both teams know that. We got to make sure we control our emotion. Q. You played the fewest games of the four remaining teams. How did you deal with the layoff between each round? Was it nice to have that break, gain the legs back? What was your feeling on the layoff? MICHEL THERRIEN: I think it's great. First of all, physically and emotionally. I think you get a chance to sweep the first round, get a chance to win the second round in five games gives a chance to the players to recuperate physically and mentally, too, as well. We all know they're demanding games. They're playoff games. The Flyers, it took them seven games. They ended up playing Montréal. Montréal took seven games, as well. They will have some time off and recharge. I think it's going to be pretty equal for the upcoming round. But it gives us the chance to make sure we gonna be fresh. It gives the coaching staff a chance to really analyze the other team to make sure we're gonna be well-prepared. I know we're gonna be well-prepared, and I believe the Flyers will be well-prepared, as well. It's good for the players and it's good for the coaching staff, as well. Q. Do you feel the adversity that your team faced last season with the first-round elimination, this year, now with the success the team is having, you can really appreciate what's going on here? MICHEL THERRIEN: We certainly do appreciate it, the way we've been playing. One thing we work hard through the course of the season, with the adversity we face all season long, I remember there were times we got six, seven guys in our lineup from the minors. So that was adversity for us. Losing your best players, losing your No. 1 goalie, losing some important players in the lineup. So we faced adversity. Like I told the players at that particular time, when we ended up losing Sid, if we could get out of this, we are going to end up being better because we're going to get a chance to have different players with different roles. So when we get to the playoffs, that will be a really positive thing for our young club. Right now we're playing our best hockey. I really like the way we finished the year in the regular season. I really like the way we started the playoffs against Ottawa. Certainly that was a great challenge to play the New York Rangers. That was a great hockey team, demanding team to play against. Right now we're at our best the way we're playing right now. Q. You said that you watched the Montréal/Flyers series. Were you surprised that Philadelphia won in five games? MICHEL THERRIEN: Not really. How can I say this? Because Philly face adversity, too, as well, throughout the course of the season, they were battling to the end to make the playoff. But they're a much better team when they get to the playoff with the adversity that they face with their players, injury. They make a good move at the end. They ended up picking up Prospal. That was a big addition for their team. When they ended up facing Montréal and Philly, that was two good hockey teams. Obviously every time that the No. 1 seed gets eliminated in the second round, it's always kind of a little bit surprising. But the way they played, they really deserve to be here right now. Q. What type of tone do you want to set in the series? How important is it to set that tone early? MICHEL THERRIEN: Well, we're going to try to take the same approach we took the first round. We're going to try to play our game. That means intensity. That means hard work, playing tight, defensive hockey. We all know special teams is really important. We do make a little adjustment about who would we play. But the focus, it's on us, how we playing, how we playing Penguins hockey. We got to make sure we're going to be on top of our game. Q. Are you going to stick with the same defensive pairing that you had in the last series? MICHEL THERRIEN: We're going to wait and see. Q. I was asking Ryan Malone how quickly the hate is going to start in this series. He said before the drop of the first puck. Clearly Philadelphia is a physical team. They're going to be targeting certainly Crosby and Malkin. How do you prepare for something like that, or can you? MICHEL THERRIEN: Well, you know what, first of all, our top players are getting used to getting checked well. But that's not any difference. Like for us, we're going to check really well their best players, as well. That's part of the game. This is something every team tries to pay attention to. We know they're gonna target guys like Crosby and Malkin and Hossa and Sykora and all those type of players. But that's fine. That's playoff. Ottawa try to do that. The Rangers tried to did that. But we try to do the same thing on the other team. Like last game, we wanted to play really tight guys against Jagr. In the first round we tried to play really tight Spezza and Heatley. You always got to be aware when those type of players are on the ice. They have a few players we're really going to have to pay attention to. Q. How important is how Gill been to you guys? At the trade deadline it was not a very much talked about deal. He's played quite well for you in the playoffs. MICHEL THERRIEN: Well, that was a huge addition for us. We're targeting some specific assets of our team that we try to get improved. A guy like Hal Gill was fitting exactly what we were looking for. We'll try to get better with our penalty killing. We're trying to get better with adding some more depth to our defensive squad. At the trading deadline, Ray Shero did a fantastic job to get a chance to give us guys like Hal Gill. He's been terrific with us. He's a good home defenseman. Really tough to play against. Got a good reach. Can be really physical around the net. We all know there's a lot of goals scored around that net. That was a great addition. What can we say about Hossa and Pascal Dupuis? All those guys are killing penalty first of all. Having Hossa to be able to play with Crosby has been a key factor for us, there's no doubt. SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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