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NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: PREDATORS VS PENGUINS

June 4, 2017

Peter Laviolette

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Peter, your fans here have a pretty special Subban culture going on. You've seen it all. Do you have a particular chant that they do that's your favorite that you enjoy hearing the most?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I like 'em all. I think they're great. I'll be honest, I never heard the introduction to the lineup. That's the first time I heard that. I like the way the Pittsburgh lineup got introduced last night. But the reason why I'm saying it is I never heard it before. So that one actually surprised me. But pretty amazing.

I've said before, it's a little bit similar to European soccer match where everybody is on the same page and knows exactly what to do and when to do it.

Q. From a forward perspective, you entered this series shorthanded. You didn't have Ryan, Kevin, Colin. Your forward group hasn't been out-matched at all. When you look at how that particular battle has gone, how has your team handled that?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think just the way the guys have stood up when pushed into positions, they've responded. Some of the roles have dramatically increased from what they might have been maybe two months ago.

We're in a sink-or-swim situation. As much as we'd like to have Ryan in there and Kevin in there, with their longer-term injuries, that's not going to happen. There are only two choices: that's to step up or probably exit.

Our guys have done an amazing job. It's more than that. As with Pittsburgh, I'm sure they're banged up, as well. I'm not sitting here playing the violin. I think it's part of the playoffs, the injuries, the war you have to go through for two months in order to get to the end.

I think our guys have done a really good job of just stepping up. I guess probably Colton Sissons is a good example, Aberg, Gaudreau being able to contribute. Whoever is called upon, coming into the lineup, helping out, with it's Harry Z, or P.A. or Fiddler, Mack, guys have done an amazing job of coming in and contributing.

Q. When you have a player like Gaudreau who had 10 games of NHL experience heading into the Final, you play against Pittsburgh, he might be in there against Crosby, Malkin, how do you handle that? How do you think he's been able to handle situations?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: We just had some quick conversations about him and his game. Just talked through it a little bit. Basically told him to play his game and have fun, enjoy the experience.

I think sometimes if you think too much about a situation or the pressure of a situation, that can work against you. So sometimes it's better to stay loose.

He came highly regarded from our minor league club as a very, very smart two-way player that would not hurt us in any zone, and would be able to contribute inside the game.

The next part of that is making the step to the next level, to the National Hockey League. While a lot of these guys have come up from Milwaukee, he's probably the least experienced of that group. He stepped in and has done such a terrific job. He's been able to play different positions on different lines for us. He's done it very well.

Q. Mike Fisher was saying there's been some adjustments for him wearing a C for the first time this season. From your perspective, how do you think he's handled that job?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think he's done an amazing job. He had good-sized shoes to fill. But Mike has always been a leader. He's always been a guy that I think does the right thing, says the right thing, approaches every day, whether it's an off day, a practice day or a game day, he sets an example inside of the locker room that you would want every one of our guys to follow.

He is a class act human being that lives his life and plays the game in a respectable manner that you want people to follow. I think he's done a terrific job of taking a team that we talked about at the beginning of the year. We needed to find our places and find out how we were going to move from day-to-day and win hockey games, not necessarily him, but our group in general.

Inside of that, you need the one guy that's at the head of the bus making sure. He's always been that guy. I think we figured it out behind him. Players really started to grab hold. I think that started to show most at the end of the season.

But, like I said, I think Mike has done an incredible job. He was excited to get this opportunity. He's made the most of it.

Q. Peter, last night I think you referred to Roman Josi as a 200-foot defenseman. We hear that a lot when you refer to forwards. I don't know if I've ever heard someone described as that. Can you elaborate a little bit what you mean by that.
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Well, I think when you refer to that, for me it's about somebody who's as good at any point on the ice, both defensively and offensively, and anywhere in between that.

As you can see by the way we play, our defensemen have the green light to add to the rush or lead the rush, take charge offensively in the offensive zone. That kind of takes the restriction off of just playing on the blueline in the offensive zone.

Now you're talking about goal line to goal line. Maybe a lot of times it does refer to a forward, not necessarily for a guy like him or a guy like Mattias Ekholm who really likes to take the puck and can go 200 feet with it.

His offensive skills, I think they stand out more sometimes because he's gifted offensively. Offense always draws your attention.

I guess what I was saying is his defense is equally as good for me.

Q. You've often mentioned throughout the playoffs when discussing certain players that the eye test fits it and the analytics as well. Explain to us to what extent, how big of a believer you are in number-based sort of evaluation, how much you use that to prepare your team or review games, what role it plays.
PETER LAVIOLETTE: It's not new yesterday, but it's new to everybody. I think to ignore that information would be not wise on my part. There's a lot of information out there that can help guide you to how your team's playing, how a player's playing, how a line is playing, how a matchup works. There's just a lot of information out there. I think you're crazy not to use that information.

I do think that your eyeball factors into that. I do think that somebody's will to win, what they might bring to a locker room, what they might bring to a lineup might not show up in some of those numbers. Those are the things you have to take into consideration, and then evaluate the bigger picture of your team and of that player and of a situation.

I think it's important. There's a lot of information that comes in from different ways, whether it's numbers, whether it's my eyeball, whether it's the score of a game, whether it's somebody's X factors that they bring to the table. All that stuff should be weighed and make decisions from there.

Q. (No microphone.)
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Yeah, not too much. Some of it. I mean, you could dig around. It's out there. You could dig around and get it on your own. I don't think they do. But for me, for probably most coaches today, it's probably valuable information.

Q. Filip Forsberg is seemingly getting his chances out there offensively. He's involved defensively and physically. Do you expect him to break through here in Game 4?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: You know, I like the way our guys have played. We know we need to have a big game tomorrow. I know that Filip is going to play a terrific game.

I can't answer that question. But that's really a smaller detail and a smaller picture to the bigger picture of our team's success. He's a big part of that.

Prior to you saying that, I can honestly tell you that that was not on my mind, whether or not Fil would break through tomorrow. I'm not thinking that at all. I'm thinking he's playing a really good 200-foot game up and down the ice. He's physical. He's fast. He's getting looks and chances.

Our team was successful last night. We'll try to build off of that.

Q. Peter, P.K. Subban has really relished the opportunity you've given him to play shut-down minutes against top opposition. He seems to be nose to nose with Sidney Crosby or Malkin. Not just for him, but any player of that capacity, how much is that in-your-face mentality necessary to be successful?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Your last couple words were probably the best way to describe it. It's a shut-down. Whether it's Crosby or Malkin or Getzlaf or Toews, you're talking about some of the better players in the game. You have to play good defense.

As much as, you know, we sit here and talk about attack all the time, look to create. If we don't play good defense, if we don't hold ourselves accountable to a level of defense. You know we went through times in the season that we had to have meetings that peeled back the layers of what we're doing on the ice. If we don't play good defense, we won't be successful.

Not only is that with regard to all of any team, I think certain players on the ice have to be marked as players that can really be dangerous. With that, I think you have to pay extra attention to the way you play against them.

Again, they're doing the same thing. They're trying to figure out how to hold Fil Forsberg accountable to his game, contain him. I just think that P.K. and Eky, all of our defensemen, if I'm being honest, even from a team concept defensively, it's been pretty good in the playoffs to this point.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

PETER LAVIOLETTE: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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