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NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: PREDATORS VS PENGUINS

June 2, 2017

Peter Laviolette

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Peter, talk about Pontus Aberg and his impact not only in the Stanley Cup Final but since he's been with the Predators.
PETER LAVIOLETTE: There's been a lot of growth watching Pontus from when he first got here, the North American game, his development physically, his maturity as a player.

I think he's, like a lot of our younger players, gone through the process of going to Milwaukee, figuring it out down in the American Hockey League, becoming a good player for them, becoming one of their best players, most consistent players. Call-ups through the course of last year, and certainly this year.

I think the difference this year was every time he got called up, he came up and played extremely well. He got caught a little bit in the numbers game, but it was still good for him to mature and develop in the American Hockey League when we sent him back down.

As the playoffs were approaching, we were able to start to utilize more players. He was a guy that was always in our mind who finished the season here and come up and possibly contribute.

His speed and his skill is excellent. He's taking good strides in our organization to put himself in a position to be here and play in these games.

Q. Because of the Penguins' opportunistic nature, how does your team need to adjust in terms of pinching in the offensive zone to prevent those opportunities?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Every team pinches. I shouldn't say every team. 80% of teams pinch in the offensive zone. They have their defensemen that are active. I think there's an execution that goes with that. Certainly that could have been better the other night on the third and fourth goals. The third one was kind of funny with Watson coming up, kind of handcuffed Matt Irwin. Waty went to do the right thing. We had possession of the puck. When he went to send it back down into the zone, Matt Irwin put himself in the path of the puck and it turned over. At that point there was a scramble. We got caught on the wrong side of it.

The last goal was clear-cut, but I think we could have done something better, more systematically and been a safer option than what we chose.

The goal to start the period was kind of a flukey goal, a 50/50 puck that went to the penalty boxes, two players went for it. Shot off the pad. It's a common shot. If it's hit perfectly, you can leave a rebound on the backside.

Q. Justifiably relied on your defense for offensive production. Do you feel it's time for some of your offensive players to produce more beyond the chances they're getting?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think both. We've got to find a way to produce more offense, for sure. That comes from everybody. It comes from our forwards. It comes from our defense. It comes from our power play, which has scored some goals for us.

There's no question that we've got to do a better job against the Penguins at scoring goals.

That being said, going back to the previous question, we have to do a better job defensively in a couple of circumstances. The chances that we've given up are low. The shot opportunities we've given up are low. But yet we're finding ones that I think we can clean up and help take care of some of the situations that we're leaving against an opportunistic team.

Q. Viktor Arvidsson might have been hurt by the loss of Ryan Johansen. What does he need to do to get going offensively?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think Arvid is generating chances. If you look at the end of the night, when the goals aren't there, right away you go to it. You have to look at whether or not we're generating chances. We are.

He's still part of that equation that's a guy generating chances. I always say when the opportunities are there, you put people that are good at scoring goals and creating offense and making plays, typically the points will come, and your team production will come. We feel like it will be. We can be a little bit better as a group. I wouldn't necessarily say Arvie. I think he's done an excellent job in this playoffs. He works. He gives everything he has every shift. He generates offense.

Generally speaking, for a team like I just addressed, I think if there's a chance to be better offensively, we need to, because we're not scoring enough goals.

Q. Peter, you talked about being better offensively. The team that played Pittsburgh in the previous round very nearly beat them by sort of grinding things down almost to a halt. Does your team have that capacity to do that? Would you want to play that way?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: This might be one of the lowest defensive productions, if you look at the numbers, the shots, the analytics of it. It could be one of the best defensive games going.

We've got to cut down on a couple of mistakes. We've had a couple of tough puck bounces with regard to us putting two in our own net, going off of us, off of a skate, off of a shin guard. They've made a couple really nice shots in Game 1 and 2.

There's things that we can do better that I talked about already. I think the combination of that can help cut down on the goals again.

But numerically, it's pretty tight.

Q. I was curious if you decided who the starting goalie would be for Game 3, if you'd be willing to share.
PETER LAVIOLETTE: You ran away with this one yesterday, so I'll say it again.

As I said on the first day when we talked about Fisher and Wilson, which had nothing to do with the goaltender, we don't talk about lineup decisions. That was what I said yesterday. I said nothing about a goaltender. I said, We don't talk about lineup decisions.

To be polite and answer your question again, we don't talk about lineup decisions.

Q. When you're making that kind of decision at goal, how much of it is your choice, how much of it will be the goalie coach's influence? How much will you watch practice, and does that factor into your decision?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think any good staff communicates. Ultimately there's a decision made. When the decision is made, it's my decision.

Q. Peter, a couple players talked yesterday about maybe being a little slow to adjust from the physical play against the Blues, the Ducks, needing to skate faster in this series. Could you talk about that? How do you address that, the need to stay out of the box?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: There's been a lot of good -- I'm giving you my opinion, an opinion from Pittsburgh's side might be different. I think there's been a lot of good hockey in the 120 minutes played so far. There's been a lot of things that we've really liked the way we've done.

If I'm being honest, there would probably be about 10 minutes of the 120 that I wish we could do over and just tighten things up. That little span in Game 1 and then the start of the third period that probably lasted four or five minutes.

I said that yesterday about the playoffs. There's a lot of things that we're doing. We've been able to adjust from a Chicago series to a San Jose series to Anaheim series, which is completely different from this series.

I think we're trying to get better. I mentioned things defensively that we want to do, certainly offensively. We need to have more production. We're trying to do that with speed and with our identity and our game plan.

That's what we're trying to do. I don't know if it's been that much of a hitch. Probably, like I mentioned earlier, cleaning up just a few mistakes, that would help.

Q. Peter, P.K. Subban said after the game that he would promise a victory for tomorrow night.
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Is that what he said?

Q. Well.
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Well, what did he say?

Q. Exactly, We will win, something like that. As a coach, do you embrace the fact that a player like him takes the pressure on him?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I didn't hear the words you had said. I don't want a misquote here.

If a player is confident about our ability to be successful, I have no issue with that. I'm confident with our group's ability to be successful, as well.

I don't know the exact quote that he used, but I don't think it was that. He didn't promise anything, I don't believe. I do believe there's confidence in the room. I said that yesterday.

Q. You mentioned the other series you had to prepare for. This series, from a stylistic standpoint, is most similar to the one you played against Chicago.
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Right.

Q. Cody McLeod didn't play in that series.
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Cody has been a warrior for us. You got to remember, too, inside of any locker room, there's a lot of physical issues that you're dealing with. Certainly with the likes of Johansen and Fiala out of the lineup, Wilson not playing in the first two games, you now start removing pieces.

Those options vary and are different from round to round. To speak of Cody, he's a hard-working guy that plays a north-south game and finishes his hits. He's great in the room, a great teammate.

That being said, the decisions go into every game. We have to look at every series, then we have to look at every game as a single entity to make sure we're putting the right pieces on the ice to try and be successful.

There's always adjustments, always moves. Certainly Cody brings a lot to the table when he's in the lineup.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

PETER LAVIOLETTE: Thank you, guys.

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