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NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: PREDATORS VS PENGUINSJune 5, 2017Peter LavioletteNashville, Tennessee - Postgame Nashville - 4, Pittsburgh - 1 THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Laviolette. Q. Forsberg, Jarnkrok and Arvidsson all break through in the Final. How important was that to the team? PETER LAVIOLETTE: It's important. We need contributions, need everybody on point here. Somebody asked me that question this morning, about Filip. I answered it the same way. The biggest thing is our team is being successful. I think Fil has been playing well. I think Arvi has been playing hard. Jarny's best game, I think, was last game. The guys are doing the right things. We need contributions from everybody. But the big thing is that we win a hockey game, and even the series. Q. Peter, to your point about getting contributions from everybody. Since Ryan suffered his injury, there were also two games where you didn't have Mike Fisher. You had to do a center by committee throughout the last five or six games. That group in particular really hasn't missed a beat at all regardless of who you put in there. What has made that center group and depth so successful? PETER LAVIOLETTE: Well, I mean, they're good players. Certainly we wish we had Ryan here. He's been a guy that's carried that load for us the entire year. But we don't have him. I said this the other day. You're at a point in the season where you sink or swim. Guys have to step up. Colton has to step up. Calle has to step up. Jarny has to step up. Freddy Gaudreau steps in; he has to step up. If he doesn't, it makes it difficult to move forward. Fiddler jumps in, give us important games. Those are your only two choices. We need to have guys to continue to play the game at a high level because of where we're at in the season right now. Q. On Gaudreau, a few years ago he gets an invite to a development camp. Do you sense in him he's a guy that's had to grind it out the whole way? PETER LAVIOLETTE: I do. That's a credit to him. When you start the way he did, having to work for everything, literally every contract and every opportunity, improve yourself. At this level, it's no different. That's on him. There's a lot of people that have helped along the way in his development, from his coaches in juniors to our coaches in the minor leagues to our development coaches that help him from summer to summer. But I think that speaks to Freddy, to be honest with you. To be able to take the road that he has, come out on the end, be a contributing player in the Stanley Cup Finals. Q. In putting Zolnierczyk in with Gaudreau, how has that allowed him to flourish even more? PETER LAVIOLETTE: Freddy has bounced around. He's played in different positions. When we were missing Fisher and Johansen, he was further up the lineup. He's played wing. He's played center. You enter into a new series, you're trying to figure it out, trying to figure out what works, where everybody gets slotted. To me, he reminds me will be of Calle Jarnkrok, where he can play first line right swing, second line left wing, fourth line center. He has the capability to play all positions. Just a smart two-way player. Q. People were marvelling at the pass that Mike made to Viktor. Could you describe for me what you got out of Mike in the third period trying to close this out, going head-to-head against Sid for a lot of it. PETER LAVIOLETTE: Mike has skill. I think the second part more than anything, it's will. He's got will. Tremendous will, tremendous heart, tremendous character. He's the heartbeat of our team. Again, I've taken on questions about Mike. People will say it's time to produce. He's been unbelievable. He's an unbelievable captain. He's been great in the locker room. He lives his life and lives his hockey life every day in a manner that you would want to follow. Most of it is led with heart and will. I think that that poke to move the puck forward is just typical of him. Q. In the second period, the Penguins got a few high-quality chances. Pekka made some saves. What kind of lift does that make for you there? PETER LAVIOLETTE: I mean, he was unbelievable. It seemed like some of their chances came in flurries. We let a couple people behind us tonight. They seemed to be flying the zone a little bit. They caught us a couple times. It led to Crosby's goal. It led to a couple other chances, us having to chase down partial breakaways. He made those saves. But then there was at least two times at the net where he had to make the save, then maybe one, two or three more saves after that. Even when the game was over in the last minute and a half there, he held his left leg out there forever to stop three or four attempts to still try to push it in the net. He was extremely competitive tonight. He seemed on point. He was a difference-maker. Q. A lot of players were asking about Freddy's locker position. Is that your call? Is he going to get one? PETER LAVIOLETTE: I stay out of that stuff. It's working for him. Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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