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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: DUCKS VS PREDATORS

May 22, 2017

Randy Carlyle

Anaheim, California - Postgame

Nashville - 6, Anaheim - 3

Nashville wins series, 4-2

Q. Congratulations on a great season. I know it didn't end the way you wanted it to, but you guys were a comeback team all year. Came back from two goals twice tonight. Was it a case you eventually just ran out of energy and steam?
COACH CARLYLE: A case of -- I'm sorry I didn't hear that.

Q. You came back so many times this year, came back twice from two goal deficits tonight. Did you just finally run out of steam?
COACH CARLYLE: Again, I look at the game and I look at our body of work and how we played, I don't think I'd complain about our effort. Yeah, we could make some definite improvements in our execution. But our effort was there and we were a desperate hockey club right from the opening faceoff and we didn't quit until they scored the second empty-net goal.

So from that standpoint we did a lot of good things in the game, but we gave up too many goals early in the hockey game to get ourselves back.

Q. Looking at the power play when it was 3-3 and then they scored shortly after it. What did you see in that power play, the way it was executed?
COACH CARLYLE: We didn't -- we had a plan to try to direct more pucks towards the net. And they were pressuring up high. So what we felt we needed to do is to go up over and back and then deliver pucks to the net with two people in front, but we didn't seem to be able to execute at the level that was required. And when we did, their goaltender got to see again too many shots. They did a good job boxing us out, not allowing our people to get to the net to create the screens.

Q. How frustrating was that? You peppered Rinne with a lot of shots even if you didn't get all the shots and looks that you wanted, his performance tonight keeping you out.
COACH CARLYLE: Well, I think that if you look at it, we scored three goals. We should win the hockey game. Simple as that. Playoff hockey. If you score three goals in a game, you should give yourself a pretty good chance for success.

Q. When did you know that Gibson would not be able to go?
COACH CARLYLE: After the morning skate this morning. He indicated that he wasn't available. So we went along the premise that he was going to be able to play based upon how he felt yesterday, but then when he took to the ice today he basically indicated to us he was not available.

Q. Did he say what the injury was?
COACH CARLYLE: Hamstring.

Q. There's a lot of ways you can boil down this series. Could it be just as simple as they were able to finish more than you guys did with the opportunities they had around the net, as compared to yours through the series?
COACH CARLYLE: If you look at it, I think they got more dirty goals than we did. That was the difference in the games. And you know, you gotta give them credit. But, again, I don't think we played poorly in the series. I think that the toughest part I have about the whole thing is that this was our seventh game in 13 days.

Now, there's various reasons for that, but I think there's got to be some consideration in the scheduling in the future between series. We finished on a Wednesday and had to open again on Friday, whereas other teams had to open on Saturday. An extra day would have given us a chance to recover. And we know how tough these games are. And that was a tough hand that was dealt to us.

Q. Had you won, when do you think you could have -- I know it doesn't mean anything now -- but had you won when do you think you could have got Rakell and Eaves back?
COACH CARLYLE: Rakell would be probably an option before Eaves, because Eaves, with the skate yesterday, it set him back for a point where we didn't really know because we thought he was progressing, progressing, progressing, and then just didn't have the necessary strength with the injury.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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