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NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: SHARKS v PENGUINS

May 30, 2016

Peter DeBoer

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Game One

Pittsburgh – 3
San Jose ‑ 2

THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach.

Q. They came at you with a lot of speed in the first period. You answered them in the second. Ultimately they prevailed. How did you make the adjustments in the second period and how will you make adjustments in Game2?
COACH DeBOER: I think the first period was a product, credit to them, they came out and were moving, like you would expect if you were playing at home in the first game of the Stanley Cup Final. We stood around and watched a little bit. Didn't get up to speed, didn't get up to pace.
I really liked our second period. We started to play the way we're capable of playing.
And the third, you know, we didn't play like we did in the second for long enough stretches. We had some spurts here and there. But they played their game for longer stretches than we did tonight.
That's what happens. You don't deserve to win when you don't outplay the other team.

Q. Did you have to make any adjustments going into the second period or did you feel confident they were going to be able to find their game?
COACH DeBOER: Well, no adjustments other than getting to play our game. We didn't play our game in the first period. We stood around and watched.
They're a fast team. They dictated play in the first. I thought when we played our game in the second, they had trouble with us.
It's the first game of the series. It reminds me a lot of the St.Louis Game1. I know we're going to get better. Our execution's got to get better. Part of it was some of the pressure they put on, but part of it was self‑inflicted.

Q. Do you feel it was pregame jitters or nerves?
COACH DeBOER: I don't know. You know guys are dialed in, they want to play well. Everyone's heart is in the right place. It's something. Is it us traveling? Emotional letdown after the last game?
Other than the travel, they're dealing with the same things. They were better than us. We got to fix that.

Q. You knew they were a quick team. Now seeing it up close in person, do you think that's going to be a challenge for you moving forward even more so?
COACH DeBOER: Well, yeah, they're a fast team. But I think if we play our game and execute and play the way we can, we can play with them.

Q. Is it just an execution thing? Nothing you look at and say, That worries me about what I saw tonight?
COACH DeBOER: We'll look at the game tape. There's nothing that I saw tonight that I'm going out of here thinking that we can't come out and compete and play much better on our end.
They're a good team. It's the two best teams in the league. Of course, there's things that we do well. But I think part of it is us fixing our execution. We've been pretty good about that throughout the playoff trail here of getting that stuff fixed.

Q. Did you get a look at Marleau's hit on Rust?
COACH DeBOER: I have not looked at it, no.

Q. You are 5‑1, I believe, coming after a loss. Is there any sort of common thread you've seen with your team that's allowed you to have success coming off the losses?
COACH DeBOER: I think our guys have done a good job of recognizing what we have to get better at and getting it fixed. This isn't going to be easy. You don't get to this point and have any easy nights. We know Game2 is going to be tough. I think we can be a lot better.

Q. Happy with the way your goalie played?
COACH DeBOER: Yeah, goalie was good. Goalie was good.
Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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