	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: SHARKS v BLUES

May 14, 2016

Peter DeBoer

St. Louis, Missouri: Practice Day

COACH DeBOER: Until you start playing a team, see where you're getting exposed, where you could potentially expose them, then we'll make some adjustments accordingly after that.

Q. What did you think of Tommy's game against the Predators?
COACH DeBOER: He came in, did exactly what we needed him to do. Energy. Was hard to play against. Was effective. Spent time in their end. Drew some penalties.
It's exactly what we need out of him. He's just got to continue to build on that game.

Q. In the past you mentioned that you don't think fatigue catches up to a team till you get past the third and fourth round in a series. They're coming off of two seven‑game series. You had some time off. Do you think that could be an advantage heading into this one?
COACH DeBOER: That's a good question. As the series goes on, maybe. I don't think it's an advantage early. Pretty limited travel through the first two rounds.
I think even though they've gone seven games, they're healthy. I don't anticipate us having an advantage. We'll see as the series goes on whether it catches up.

Q. What do you make of home ice advantage in the playoffs? Does it matter?
COACH DeBOER: You know what, I don't know. I think it's series to series. This is what I know. I know we're very comfortable on the road. I don't think that we're looking at this like, Oh, no, we don't have home ice advantage.
I like how we played at home. Even though our road record wasn't great against Nashville, we felt at least a couple of those games we played well enough to win. We went into L.A. and won on the road in the first round. That's not something that we're worried about.

Q. When you look around the league, the number one defensemen who are able to shoulder 30 minutes in the playoffs, what are the common traits that allow them to do that?
COACH DeBOER: I think absolutely skating. You know, you have to be an effortless skater in order to log those type of minutes and play with that jump. When you look at the guys, it's Karlsson and Subban and Keith and Burns and Pietrangelo and Doughty. I would put all those guys in the same class.
I don't think you can say they're all 6'4", 230, because they're not, but I think they all have that in common.

Q. Talk about Jay Bouwmeester a little bit.
COACH DeBOER: For me, Bo has always been one of the most underrated players in the league. I came in as a rookie coach in Florida. He was outstanding. I think he's underrated offensively, even though his numbers don't show that.
I know the year I had him, he had good offensive numbers. He pushed that offense. But he's also a guy like Eddie Vlasic for us who is asked to do so much on the defensive end, match up against everybody's top players every night, that you forget that he has that offensive ability, too.
It's something you have to be aware of because, you know, he's got underrated ability in that end. He's an elite defender.

Q. When you think back to the deep run you made in 2012, what did you learn from that as far as managing that, the highs and lows?
COACH DeBOER: I think for sure managing the highs and lows. I think any time you go three, four rounds deep in the NHL Playoffs, there's so many potholes and bumps, you know, great moments and disappointing moments.
I think as a coaching staff, you have to be the barometer of the team and make sure that you aren't too high, you aren't too low, you get the group focused and back on track as quickly as possible when it goes off the road a little bit.
It is a marathon. You deal with a lot of that through the course of it.

Q. So much has been made about the success of your power‑play. How do you explain what's working so well?
COACH DeBOER: Well, I think this power‑play has been a weapon in San Jose for a long time. We can't take credit for that. I think the previous staff did a great job. The fact that this group's been together for as long as they have I think plays a big part.
I think it's also not easy inheriting a power‑play like that because, you know, you have to come in and know what you're doing, know what you want to add without changing the foundation of it.
I think Steve Spott, our power‑play coach, has done a great job of keeping that foundation, keeping those guys comfortable in what they have been doing, and adding some things as we've gone along.

Q. How much do you work on the power‑play?
COACH DeBOER: Well, our group of guys could talk and work on power‑play every day (laughter). They love that part of the game. There's a real passion there for it.
We do work at it. But I think from my perspective, we try and push them to work at some of the other facets over that. That's not something we have to drag them in to work on. It's something that they love to talk about, love to work at.

Q. Getting back to what you were talking about, learning from '12 how to manage highs and lows, can you take us back to after Game 6 this last series? How about from the end of Game 6, which led to Game 7, in which you were terrific.
COACH DeBOER: We had two of those situations in that last series against Nashville. The triple overtime game. Two totally different situations. The triple overtime game was a disheartening loss to go home 2‑2. But I really felt we had played very well. We deserved to win that game.
You take a different approach with your team going into Game5. We responded and had a great Game5.
After Game 6, it was a different story. We were not good in a lot of different areas. It was a little firmer approach with the group, a little more of a challenge to play the way we're capable of playing, and they responded.

Q. Early in the season you talked a lot about you coming to a new team. You talked about your core players, how you hardly ever had to talk to them about preparation, leadership. Now that you're in the playoffs, it's all new hockey in the playoffs, have you learned anything more about your group that maybe you didn't know through the course of the regular season?
COACH DeBOER: Well, I think I definitely appreciate their experience. These guys, even though they haven't won a Cup, are battle‑hardened playoff players. The core group has played a ton of playoff games over the last seven, eight years. They've been in almost every situation over the last seven, eight years, both positive and negative.
The fact that they have those experiences and are battle‑hardened this time of year, you know, I appreciate even more.
Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297