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NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: PREDATORS VS PENGUINSMay 31, 2017Peter LaviolettePittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Postgame Pittsburgh - 4, Nashville - 1 THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Peter, the Penguins have shown through two games, really throughout their post-season, of being a very opportunistic group. Why are they like that? The first four minutes of the third period, why were they able to take control of a game that was pretty even through 40 minutes? PETER LAVIOLETTE: They are opportunistic. They've got good players. I think the first goal of the third period -- we went out there after playing two really solid periods. They scored a goal in the first shift. I think that put us on our heels for a few minutes. That was kind of a 50/50 puck that went towards the penalty box, and two guys went for it. They poked it. They got the numbers going back the other way. Ended up scoring on a rebound on a hard-angle shot. After that, we made a couple mistakes. Those mistakes ended up going back in our net. I think that's something we need to clean up. After that, it just settled back down to the same thing. They are opportunistic. They made the most in that timeframe and got themselves a lead. Q. Coach, that's now zero wins versus double-digit losses in Rinne's career against the Penguins. Do you see that now as a trend or are you confident to go back to him in Game 3? PETER LAVIOLETTE: Pekka has been terrific through this entire playoffs. Like I said, I think there's things we can do better. All three goals in the third period, we could have done something better. We're leaving an odd man numbered rush. I believe all of them were odd, three-on-twos and two-on-ones makes it more difficult. Q. The first two periods you were probably happy the way you played. The penalties, did they derail you at times? PETER LAVIOLETTE: We talked about it. We're doing things that put us in the box. We have to be more responsible with our actions. We cannot go to the penalty box. We killed them. You're right. It drains the bench, takes the flow out of the bench. Our five-on-five game is really good. All of a sudden we're losing sync all the time because we keep going to the penalty box. So discipline, even though they didn't score, it definitely affected the bench, the way the game played out. Q. Seems like there was a good amount of chippiness throughout the game. Do you think the necessary hatred set in this series, especially going back to Nashville now? PETER LAVIOLETTE: That's playoffs. We've been going through it for a few rounds here. I think that's just playoff hockey. Q. Are you committed to Rinne for Game 3? PETER LAVIOLETTE: Pekka has been excellent for us all year long, like I said. There's things that we could have done. All three goals in the third period were odd-man rushes. Q. Does the going home and playing at home where you've been so good give you confidence that you can turn this around now? PETER LAVIOLETTE: Well, our building is great. The atmosphere is great. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of energy in the building. Like I said, we've done some good things. There's five and a half periods we really liked things we did. There's a stretch, as was pointed out in the first question, where they gained some momentum. They're able to capitalize, be opportunistic. Swung two games in their favor. Maybe a little bit more consistency. But certainly we're happy to get home. Our home building has been a good place for us. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. PETER LAVIOLETTE: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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