	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: DUCKS VS PREDATORS

May 12, 2017

Peter Laviolette

Anaheim, California - Pregame

Q. Peter, I know that Mike Fisher is a player that can impact a game in multiple ways, but how do you feel about him not having registered a point so far in the Playoffs?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think he's played really well. I mean, he's taken on a role inside of our room as a terrific leader on the ice, a guy who leads by example. It's not about individual points right now, it's about making sure that our team moves on and plays the right way and prepares the right way if he sets the example for everything that we do.

You know, for me, he's a big part of the reason why we're here, how he's handled himself this year inside of the role as the captain of the team for the first time in the regular season, how far we've grown as a group from the start of the year to the end of the year. That gets set from the top, and he's been a big part of it.

Q. Peter, not a lot of guys in your room have played on this stage before; from your experience, how does this round change from where you've been before, and what will be your message to them about that?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: There's a lot of excitement, as there should be. There's four teams left, so if you're still here, that's a good thing. It's a positive thing. You know, from there, everything grows. But once the puck drops tonight, it's no different than the first series or the second series or the third series or a final series. It's just hockey at that point, and you've got to go out and you've got to play well. Your team has to play fast. They have to execute. They have to do the right things on the ice. There's a lot of buildup that goes into this, as there should be, but once it comes time to play hockey, it's hockey.

Q. You have a lot of good face-off guys on your team. It's become a good emphasis for you guys, a lot of success in the Playoffs so far. Anaheim is a great face-off team. If you can talk about that challenge coming up in this series.
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Well, I mean, it's possession, face-offs and possession. We know they've got a good team. I think our team has improved a lot. Ryan Johansen has become really good, and Vernon Fiddler when he's in there, he does a terrific job, Colton Sissons and Jarnkrok have both improved. Fisher has always been a good guy for us. So we know that that's an important battle. It's one of the situational things that you look at through the course of a game, and if you can come out on top, those are the number of numbers that can swing your game in a different direction. It's like specialty teams at the end of the night, if you win that battle, you might win the game, if you win that face-off battle, if you win that analytical battle. There's numbers if you can put on your side and get enough of them, then that can make the difference between a win and a loss.

Q. Peter, it seems like this time of year, buy-in is really important, just getting everyone going in the right direction. How have you been able to sort of get all your guys going your way, and was it kind of before the Chicago series, just the way you guys have played the end of the season? How have you guys been able to get on this run?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I do think that we've come a long way. Back in October, it wasn't the start of the month that we expected or wanted, and we put a lot of work inside the room, you know, off the ice just as a group and talked about a lot of different things and tried to keep moving it in the direction to be successful. Like I said, there's a lot of good leadership in the room, and it's led by Mike, but there's other guys, I think, that have really stepped up inside that role, and you've got to remember a lot of it is new, too. When you change the captain and you bring in new faces, there's just different personnel in there, and we worked through some things.

Towards the last third of the year, I thought our team was playing really well, and I said it to local reporters at the time, you get asked a question when you lose a game in the last 10 seconds in Montreal. We played really well that night. We played a good game. We like the way we played, we hate the result, and so there was a lot of that that was going on that's what matters. When you break it down, the way we were playing, we were playing some good hockey at the end of the year, and that moved forward into the Playoffs.

Q. When you're facing a similar challenge with Anaheim that you did against St. Louis in terms of a physical, heavier style of play. Taking from the experience you had against St. Louis, how do you make sure you establish that physical edge while making sure that you stay disciplined within it so you can set that tone but not get caught in penalty trouble?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think that you can draw on experience on your regular season and the Playoffs to this point. If we never played a game that was physical, if we never embraced that style, then you might be concerned about how a game might play out or how we might react or how we might overreact to it. But we've talked about it in the past, and inside of the Central Division you have to be able to play different styles and different ways, and I think our team has done a really good job of that. So throughout the regular season it was, I think, a test of that, and even the first round and the second round, the style that we had to play I think was also a test of that. So our guys are comfortable in different styles of games, and I think we understand that if we do the right things and play the right way, and certainly discipline factors into that, that we can be successful if we play a certain style and remain disciplined.

Q. Peter, it seems like you and PK have developed a good relationship in a short period of time. How has it been that you've been able to get him to play a little more straight-ahead game or refine some things and remain effective?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think PK has had a terrific year. He's not only good offensively and north and like you said, getting the puck and making a play and making a pass, he's an excellent passer. He's got great escapeability. Offensively he's got a terrific shot. He sees plays out there. But defensively he's been a really strong player for us. He and Ekholm have been horses, and they've played really well in the defensive zone, so he's brought a good 200-foot game.

To answer the question, there wasn't any special one-on-one meetings. He's a terrific player, and I think he's just worked on fitting inside of the concept of how we want to play as a team, as do the other defensemen, as do the forwards. There's not a lot of individual meetings that say we expect this out of you. What we say is we expect you to play your game inside of what we do, and I think he's done that. He's really comfortable. He's a terrific guy. He's coachable. You can talk to him. He understands when you put something on the table, and he can find a different way to do that, and he gets that. Then he learns from that, and I think he tries to implement that on the ice, as well.

Q. Peter, are there two or three essentials that, say, players need to do in order to maintain themselves and more importantly maybe their bodies over the course of a lengthy playoff run?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: You know, I think that that goes on not just from a playoff run but probably for the regular season. I think NHL rooms are so well-equipped with people who have studied a lot of hours to understand the body and what it takes. We've got a couple terrific guys in Andy Hosler, the trainer, and David Good, the strength coach, and that's what these guys go to school for is to understand the body, understand the athlete, what it takes to get through a regular season and then what it takes to get through a Playoffs. I'm sure other teams are the same way. Thus the jobs that they do keeping the athletes strong and healthy and ready to play at a high level is incredible. You've got to give them a lot of credit. And the athletes I think really buy into that now. It's not -- everybody is working for each other inside of a room now, and they value what those people in those positions have to say, and they do their best to try to follow through on that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297