	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 EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: PENGUINS VS SENATORS

May 22, 2017

Guy Boucher

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Practice Day

Q. Coach, four key players not in practice today. Burrows --
GUY BOUCHER: Oh, they're playing tomorrow.

Q. All of them?
GUY BOUCHER: Boro, I don't know. Burrows, less likely. Boro, maybe.

Q. What was your main focus of practice today?
GUY BOUCHER: Well, if we would have had a game at 8:00, we wouldn't have had a practice today. But we had an early game, plenty of time to come back home and have the normal hours of sleep.

The main focus wasn't necessarily on the ice. It was just to come back and reload, refresh, so we don't have to touch on yesterday tomorrow.

Today is a new day, and I wanted to make sure we knew what we need to focus on and reload mentally, physically, and emotionally, and move on. We can't be sitting in our mud puddle. We've got to get up and go. That's been what we've done all year and all playoffs, and we're ready to do so. Tomorrow coming in fresh and ready to go.

Q. When you talk about the emotion of the playoffs, is it more handling the emotion of the shift, shift of the lock or the emotions of the whole arc of the playoffs in the Stanley Cup?
GUY BOUCHER: Oh, it's everything. You got so much emotion during games, but you get them after games. When you win, you're so on a high that you have to watch out for those too. When you lose, you're on a low, and you have to manage those two. Playoff losses hurt more, and they get you more excited when you win. You have to manage. It's as high as you're going to go emotionally, it's as low as you're going to go after that. That's why you have to be able to manage that enough to stay even keel.

That's why, when you've got a lot of experience, it makes a difference. That's where those guys that have lived it before are able to help the guys that haven't lived it, and you're able to move on.

I said to the players before the series started against Boston, it's about the ability to reload as fast as you can. And if you can't do that, then you're in the wrong business. That's what it's about. We can't stay on a win, and we can't stay on a loss. It's move on as fast as you can.

So that's why, after games that we've won, a few hours, it's great, but the next morning it can't be about the win. It has to be about the next game. That's where we're at right now.

Q. You guys have been going in many different directions in the regular season. Is there something, a technique or a method that you employed (inaudible)?
GUY BOUCHER: Every situation is different because you got to adapt sometimes in a different way. But the one thing that's for sure is, if we stay away from our strengths, there's no chance. We have to put our strengths on the ice.

You know, we went in last game trying to run and gun it with the best offensive team in the league, and that's the result we got. That's the result we're going to get if we run and gun it. We're aware of that. We got slapped, and hard enough.

So the reality sets back in, and we know how we have to play to give ourselves a chance.

Q. Why did they get away from their strengths, the way you normally play? Why did they decide to play --
GUY BOUCHER: I think excitement, overexcitement. I think it's usually always the same. That's where maturity of experience for guys comes in, guys that have lived it before, and that's what we're learning as a group. Some guys know, and some guys are learning it. That's what we always have to come back to is in the Boston series, we've lived it. You guys don't know. But we know, whoop, let it slip away, and we got it back and did well.

The Rangers series in their barn, same thing. Got away trying to push more than the opponent. When you're pushing more than the opponent, you're falling into their strengths because you're not staying with yours. That's just maturity we're gaining as time goes on and as the playoffs go on. We want to be better every game. Now we know what went wrong that game, and we know what went well the games that we played well, and that's what we have to stick to.

Q. (Inaudible) do you anything differently as a coach when you're going from one life to live in the Eastern Conference Finals? You're emptying everything you have, I guess?
GUY BOUCHER: For sure you're emptying everything you've got, but that's where you have to be smart. Those are the moments where you get all emotional and driving and running around everywhere. I've lived it. I've been on teams where I was a coach, and I've been on teams where I was a player. I've lived both, winning and losing.

One thing's for sure, if it's just about emotion, you're not going to have a good game because you're going to empty your tank in the first 10, 15 minutes running around. If it doesn't go your way, you're done. We have to be smart. We have to play hard but smart with our strengths.

That's what it's got to be.

Q. (No microphone)?
GUY BOUCHER: You know what, I have total confidence in them that they will, and then the game goes on, and we need to manage what we need to manage at that point. I think our players have recognized themselves, we got a little overexcited here, and maybe we were trying to recreate that game where we scored four goals right off the bat.

And the game right after that, we could have had two, three goals right away the first 10, 12 minutes. So I think that approach has not served us very well this year at all. That game, it worked out that we scored, but those are anomalies, just like the game we just played there. That's a total anomaly for us.

So we can't be scared of living that again, and we can't be hoping to give it to the opponent like that again because that's exactly how we feel we're going to get lost and not be ourselves and not even give ourselves a chance.

Q. Do you need better goaltending?
GUY BOUCHER: I think our goalie has given us -- the first three games, he was outstanding. The last two games, I don't think we've played well enough in front of him to be able to win the game.

The game here, that was a close one, and that's a one-goal game. I don't think there's anybody to blame on that one. But yesterday, I took him out just to stall the game and then put him back in, but it was one of those games. It wasn't going to happen, so took him out of there.

Everybody has to be at their best tomorrow -- goalie, defense, forwards. But he's not apart from the group, certainly not. He's one of the big reasons why we've had really good seas ones. He's one of the reasons why we've had really good playoffs. And he's been able to close two series solid, and that's why he's our number 1.

Q. Do you need to make some adjustments yourself? Like they seem to have gotten better in the series, and your team seems to have gotten worse?
GUY BOUCHER: Well, I mean, apart from last game, I totally disagree. The first -- it was 2-1 for us, and the third game here is a 3-2 game, where we had an outstanding 12 minutes and a great third. We had one bad second. So to me, it's just like them, they came in here, and we gave it to them, and that's just two games ago. So I don't see a trend. I see one bad game.

Q. Do you think managing emotions in a situation, not getting too excited in the power play, are you forcing things or not doing enough?
GUY BOUCHER: Yeah, it's forcing things. It's trying to do things when it's not there. So that's under pressure, need to be more poised. But it's the same as breaking out, having noise under pressure. There's nothing different. If you don't have poise on your breakouts and your zone entries, you're not going to have it on the power play. And that's where it was at.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297