	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 STANLEY CUP FINAL: PREDATORS VS PENGUINS

May 30, 2017

Peter Laviolette

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. Your team has shown their resiliency throughout the post-season, particularly after losing, having not lost consecutive games. Pekka in particular has, as well. What is it about him as a goaltender in his career that allows him to respond so well?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think Pekka is a competitor. He's ready to go. He was ready to go last game. He'll be ready next game as well.

With regard to our team, I think our guys have played pretty consistent and pretty well through the playoffs. I don't think last night was any different. I said it at one point, we hate the score, don't necessarily hate the way we played.

We'll have to get a win and get going tomorrow.

Q. Peter, this confidence that this group seems to have despite not getting the result you wanted, where do you think that comes from with this group, on this stage?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think it's probably been built through the course of the year. I think having struggled -- sometimes when you struggle, you have to work through things. By overcoming struggles, you can gain confidence from that.

It wasn't a perfect ride for us in the regular season. I think because of that, you know, we learned to trust each other inside the room and count on each other. With that I think you can build confidence of overcoming tougher times.

This is no different. There's a lot of confidence coming out of the game last night I think because we believed that we can win. Our guys have shown that they've been able -- especially down the stretch and in the playoffs, after a game that doesn't go our way, they've been able to respond.

Q. Peter, what is it specifically about Gaudreau's game that allowed you to trust him enough to put him in these situations at such a critical time of year?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Part of it's by necessity. The players that are not available, they're not available. We need to fill those holes.

When your roster gets set through the course of the year, you have your team, there's always injuries that pop up. Players come up from your minor league system, and they get put into different situations, different roles. They can excel and do a good job or they can prove they're not ready.

Most of the time when the players have come up, they've done a good job in the positions we've asked them. I don't think that Gaudreau was any different than that. He's a good kid. He can skate. He's skilled. He can make plays. He thinks the game well. He's good defensively.

But at some point our players will come back from an injury, any team's players, and you have to, again, stay inside that 23-man roster. Players end up going back down to the minors and continue to develop.

It's been a good development process. He's come a long way in his career. To be here in this situation, you'd think that maybe it might overwhelm him, but it hasn't. He seemed perfectly comfortable last night inside that game. Made not only the goal, but made terrific plays, poise plays with the puck.

Q. Coach, you get the disallowed goal in the first, the two penalties in a row, three goals from Pittsburgh in the last five minutes of the period. Do you think the team got rattled? Is it a case of bad luck, bad bounces?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Just didn't go our way. I don't think we were rattled. I think that last goal was tough, where it goes off of Ekholm's shin guard, it's a nothing play. It's not a scoring chance. That pushed is to 3-0.

I don't feel like we were rattled at all. I don't think we played poorly at all through the game.

That being said, we lost the game. We sit here, they're up 1-0, we're down 0-1. We have to be better. We have to put the hammer on the gas pedal, make sure we're ready to get after it.

Q. What kind of influence or impact has working with Kevin McCarthy had after all these years, three stops together?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think you're constantly learning. If you're talking about me personally, you constantly learn as a coach from different people along the way, whether it's in the National Hockey League or whether it's international, coaching symposiums. You can constantly learn things from different coaches.

Kevin is probably the person that I've learned the most from through the course of the years. When we got put together originally, it wasn't by my choice. I didn't even know him. It was at the recommendation of Jim Rutherford that I give Kevin a try, get to know him as a coach.

I was thoroughly impressed with him as a coach, but more as a person. I think he's an incredible human being. He's good for me. He's calm sometimes when I'm not, a voice of reason sometimes when I'm not. Very smart hockey man, a good man in life.

Q. All post-season your defensemen have generated plenty of offense, including last night. What is it about them that makes them able to do this on every single game it seems like? What kind of adjustments do you expect the Penguins to make?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think our defensemen are all able to skate. They have a skill set. That allows them the opportunity inside of a game plan to use those skills.

I think there has to be some tolerance inside the system for the D-men to activate and become part of the rush. Sometimes you live and die with that a little bit.

But these guys have seemed to figure it out on how to move it out of our end, through the neutral zone. I think probably most effectively become active and important players in the offensive zone.

So while some of it has to do with systematics, what we do on a daily basis inside of our game plan, a lot of it has to do with who they are, with their ability to skate, make plays, shoot the puck, move the puck.

Q. Peter, you were talking about Freddy earlier. This team has such a Milwaukee flavor to it, guys brought through that system. As a coach that sees all these guys come up, what makes that system work so well? It doesn't for every team. Something you can pinpoint that makes it so?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: It probably goes deeper than just a simple, This is it. I think our scouts have done a good job at drafting players, players they feel can potentially get to the National Hockey League. Maybe not talking about that top-10, first-round player. I think it becomes more difficult as you go deeper in the draft to find those players that might make it. It probably starts with that.

From there it goes to development coaches. Like Scott Nichol has been with us for a while, Wade Redden who has helped out and joined on in the development of young players before they even get to Milwaukee. So there's a process that goes into it.

Our guys are pretty thorough about that. I've got to witness it for three years on how we put in the time and invest in our young players. There's a lot of detail to that. At some point they're going to get to our club or Milwaukee. I think Milwaukee has done an excellent job of developing young men and developing young hockey players. Those players come up. At some point, like I said before, it's not a seamless transition. Most of the guys have gone back. Most of the guys that have come up and stayed, they've come in and out of the lineup.

At some point they get it. They get the experience up here. They figure it out. They watch and they learn from the veteran players. They become fixtures on our roster.

Q. Most coaches are trust-the-process people. From a pure process point of view, how good was that game for your team last night?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Yeah, I mean, it's disappointing. I've used the phrase a couple times through the course of the year, down the stretch, I even used it last night: we hate the result. Right now we are 100% in a result-orientated business. I would rather be in their shoes. I would rather have that Game 1 win because you need four out of seven. Now it's down to six to try to grab the four.

I think there's things we did well last night. I would expect -- we're going to expect them to play a better game, as well. We know that we can play better ourselves still. It's one of those situations where, if it was good, it wasn't good enough. We got to get wins. We have to find a way to cut out one of those goals or create one more scoring chance. Such a game of inches right now, you know, you need to manufacture the four wins.

They've got one from last night. We got to fight back tomorrow and get one and get out of here.

Q. Peter, not so much about the call last night, but in the broader picture, what are your thoughts on the Coach's Challenge on the off-side? Do you like the rule? Would you like to see it changed in any way?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Yeah, you know, right now I'm focused on coaching. The rules are the rules right now. I think, generally speaking, it works. Everybody gets a second look at something. So I think it works.

But, you know, right now I'm going to stay out of that and stay away from that. I do think that the process is working.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

PETER LAVIOLETTE: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297