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NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: PREDATORS VS PENGUINS

June 6, 2017

Peter Laviolette

Nashville, Tennessee - Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Laviolette.

Q. Coach, how effective do you think your forward group has been on the forecheck so far in this series as far as bankrupting their breakout? How important is that with this particular team?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think it's gone both ways. I thought they were good on the forecheck, as well, last night. I think both teams play an aggressive game, a skating game, a north game. I think it's been -- when it's worked for us, it's worked well. I thought it was probably one of their better games on the forecheck last night, as well.

Q. The pairing of Ekholm and Subban, is there anything in particular that you like about that matchup against someone like Malkin?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I mean, they've got a lot of good players. At times they'll break it down into three lines where they're trying to move players around. We're just trying to get players out on the ice. I guess our top four against their two top lines.

I think they've done a good job defensively against them. I think both groups are good defensively. They both have their hands full. The two home games here, I thought they've done a good job.

Q. Peter, obviously they have a lot of big names up front. You don't have similar names. You've been able to get it done by committee. Do you think the group has taken pride in embracing that challenge, producing the offense you need?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Yeah, I mean, we are who we are with the injuries. Those were tough injuries to have happen. Certainly I think that could give us more depth up front.

But guys have stepped up. We have done it by committee. We've done it by guys answering the call. When moved up the lineup or put in the lineup, guys have responded well for us.

Q. Peter, is it a more confident group going back to Pittsburgh now than after Game 2, coming home after a couple losses?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Our guys were pretty confident after Game 2. I know it's a nasty hole to be in. But we really liked the way we played in Game 1. We thought we played a real competitive game in Game 2. Could have had results in both those games.

Q. In Game 1 and 2, you gave up some goals on quick-strike transition opportunities. Seems like you gave up a lot of those opportunities last night. Any concern about that? As a coach, is that an area you'd like to see?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think last night was different. There were some opportunities where they got numbers behind us. I didn't see that so much in Games 1 and 2. You're right about goals going in the net. We were hopeful enough to put two in ourselves. We knocked two in. Had a five-on-three goal. They scored a couple of goals off the rush, but we had we had numbers behind that rush. It wasn't like they got behind us.

So I think the only game really where they did get behind us was last night. From that, I said it last night, when they did get behind us, not only was there either a goal by Crosby, but there was a chance, then a second chance, a third chance, sometimes a fourth chance. When they got behind us, they were able to do some damage off of that.

We need to play a little bit tighter than we did last night in those situations.

Q. Why do you think that happened?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: We made mistakes. But I didn't feel that way in Games 1 and 2. I don't like the goal numbers that we gave up, but I don't feel it came the same way.

Q. Your team has shown an ability to go into the enemy's rink for a huge game in a series. What is it about this group that is able to handle a hostile environment when the pressure is at its utmost?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Well, we wouldn't be here. We were the last game in the door. We have no home ice. We knew that coming in here. Again, it's kind of the same thing with our players being injured and out of the lineup. It's sink or swim.

We have to win a road game. There's no other way around it. So for three series, we've been able to do that. We've been able to find some success on the road.

We'll look to go into Pittsburgh, take a game from Game 5. We have to at some point. We have no home ice in this series, so we have to go in and steal one at some point.

Q. Heading into the series, your team had an advantage on Pittsburgh as far as rest went because you had a shorter series. Do you feel at all four games into the series now that the energy level has been a benefit for you guys?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I actually feel like they're probably getting rested now. You're right, they had some time off, but they get involved in a seven-game series. At some point I think the body catches up.

There's a lot of time between games in this Finals. A couple days already. Now every game from here, a couple days' rest. You get a chance to rest.

There's a big advantage. It's good to have one day off. When you get that second day, our guys will be in, and I'm sure Pittsburgh will feel the same, they'll go in to work tomorrow, and they'll feel a lot better than they do today just mentally and physically. That's not even the game day.

These extra days in the Finals I think really helps make for good hockey. It helps make the game really be good and have the best of the players, theirs and ours, on the ice for what would be a good game.

Q. I got to ask. Catfish. You talked about it many times. You had a public service announcement saying, Please don't do this, we might get penalized. At the end of the day, looking back to Pittsburgh, how this really kind of ramped up, do you think Pittsburgh and the city of Pittsburgh kind of brought it on themselves and the fans are just responding after the fan was charged?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I'm not asking for catfish to go on the ice. To be honest, that's not what I was really talking about. We don't want to be throwing bottles and towels and cups and different things on the ice. Our fans are awesome fans. So the announcement was more for that.

If a catfish slips out on the ice, what are you going to do.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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