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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: PENGUINS VS SENATORS

May 14, 2017

Guy Boucher

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Practice Day

Q. I'll start with Mother's Day. It's been a tough year for Bobby losing his mom and for Craig with Nicholle. Do you sense an important day around the team today?
GUY BOUCHER: I'm sure it is. But to be honest with you, I haven't been much with the players yet, in the sense that it would be a lie to say, yeah, I sense everything. A lot of it's personal. I'm sure everybody's aware it's a special day, and everybody owes their mom so much. Whether it's Bobby or the rest of the group, I'm sure they all got something planned for their mothers, like it should be.

Q. How much of the things that Bobby and Craig have gone through have just helped shape this team's identity maybe from day one?
GUY BOUCHER: Obviously, that's documented since the beginning of the year, but there's a lot more than that. That's the personal side, but there's a lot of other things that came about during the year and solidified our group. But also the hockey part solidified our group. It's been a growing process since day one.

Like I always say, the intangibles matter more than anything else. And we've had a lot of those in the course of the year and a lot of positive stuff, a lot of really positive stuff that helped us grow up to now.

And still to this day, our motto has always been about getting better every day and improving every day and finding ways to be better the next day. So we definitely don't want to change that.

Q. I know you had five power plays, so maybe scoring chances are up. With the penalty kills, scoring chances are up. Are you happy with the way you kept scoring chances down in that game?
GUY BOUCHER: Yeah, I thought we played well. Obviously, with five-on-threes and a lot of the power plays they got, it's hard to keep those guys in check. But I thought five-on-five we played well. We got 35 shots, and we out shot them even though they got a lot of power plays. I have to give credit to our guys. I think five-on-five, I think we're double the shots or something like that.

So the scoring chances are -- we gave ourselves enough to create some offense, and we tried to limit them, but the reality is you're not going to limit those guys to nothing. That's impossible. Those guys are too good. That's the Stanley Cup champions. We're expecting the next game they're going to be coming out roaring and at their very best.

Q. Speaking of damage control against that power play, why were you guys so effective?
GUY BOUCHER: I don't think there's any genius in there. Every penalty kill that's good is a penalty kill that's willing to block shots. It's a penalty kill that's in the shooting lanes. It's a penalty kill that's able to be there on the rebounds.

The tough part obviously for them is you never know which side it's coming from. You come from left to right, the top, the middle, the bottom. And so it's hard to know what they're going to do, but I thought our players yesterday reacted well and anticipated well, and I'm sure their team's going to adjust and get ready for the next game, and we're going to be challenged even more.

Q. What did you guys in particular do that was effective against Crosby? It didn't seem like he could generate speed in the zone or generate from behind the goal either?
GUY BOUCHER: To be honest with you, we didn't talk about Crosby once. We didn't -- we've approached games the same way for a while is that we need everybody to be able to play against anybody. We've always wanted our team to look at our defense -- our defensive group playing not as a one-on-one but more as a pack mentality.

So it doesn't matter who we play against or how good they are, we're aware of their strengths, but if we pay special attention to Crosby, then Malkin's going to give it to us. If we pay special attention to him, then Kessel's going to give it to us. They've got too many tools and players for us to start focusing on particular guys or start worrying about them every time they're on the ice. They're always on the ice.

For us, it's a pack mentality defense, and I thought we did fine with that, but we're expecting Crosby at his best the next game and Malkin and Kessel and those guys, and it's going to be very, very, very, very difficult.

Q. Do you anticipate having Stalberg tomorrow?
GUY BOUCHER: We could have him. We could have him. We'll see. He's going on the ice today. We'll see where that takes us.

Q. Still no Burrows?
GUY BOUCHER: Burrows, no, but it's moving along. Right now the information I get is he could be back in the series.

Q. Is Neil hurt?
GUY BOUCHER: He had a little nagging thing there, but he could play.

Q. Guy, do you think in Anderson's case the rink has served as a good escape for him?
GUY BOUCHER: Sorry. The rink?

Q. Yeah. Do you think being at the rink is a good escape for him?
GUY BOUCHER: I think you'd have to ask him that. I couldn't pretend to know how he feels. I've never gone through what he's gone through. I think that any human being that gets time to have his mind go somewhere else, where it's tough, of course, it's helpful. At the same time, I think you'd have to ask him on the ratio. The ratio, I think, is what matters and what he needs. Every individual is different. And so some people are able to shut things down and be focused on something for a certain moment, and for other individuals it's tougher.

Obviously, in his case, what we've saw throughout the year is that his ability to focus is unbelievable. I mean, to be able to go from one reality to another and perform, that's very tough to do.

It's not just his character. We talk about his character, but it's more than that. It's the ability to focus and refocus. Obviously, when you're a goaltender at this level, that's usually your biggest asset. He's displayed it now, not just in terms of hockey, but in terms of his personal life too.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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