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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: GOLDEN KNIGHTS vs JETSMay 15, 2018Paul MauriceLas Vegas, Nevada: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. What has made the team such a good road team so far? PAUL MAURICE: I think we have a good understanding of our identity. I don't think it changes a whole lot whether we play at home or on the road. Played in a loud building, Minnesota is a loud building, to start. I think once you get into it, you kind of get immune to it. Certainly even our building at home. It gets you right when you get into a new building. Q. Home teams actually have a losing record these playoffs. Any idea why? PAUL MAURICE: No idea. None. I really don't. It may well be parity more than anything else. There used to be a huge matchup advantage. Maybe it's the structure, I haven't done the math, of the playoff format where you're getting pretty powerful teams lining up against each other early. No, other than the fact that the kids that come into the game now have become used to big stages, big performances, loud buildings at a younger age, maybe it doesn't faze them. That's the best I got. Q. Nobody has a travel advantage in the playoffs. Everybody is on the same rest, except maybe a Game 1 sometimes. PAUL MAURICE: Thought maybe at times the west coast teams had an advantage in the Final. We spend our whole year switching time zones. But the question would be, Does all the travel in the west before you get there stack up on you and cause you a problem? We're used to it now. Q. Can you get energy from a crazy crowd in Nashville... PAUL MAURICE: I don't know. I mean, you're always listening to your own bench. That's what you're watching for on the road, is your own bench talking. It's not real loud when the play is going on. As long as you can process right on your bench what's happening on the ice. The other team is building to get a shot within four feet of your net, they're going crazy. As long as you realize what it was, it doesn't shake you up, you can handle it. Q. You mentioned the Preds' forecheck last night, the adjustment you guys made in handling that. How does your team better handle this? PAUL MAURICE: I think we're handling it fine. The team's forecheck, right? They get into the zone. Our possession numbers are right in terms of full control, possession in the offensive zone. I'm all right with that. They're going to have time in our end of the ice. They're going to forecheck hard, we're going to do the same. Q. The defense corps, an unheralded group compared to what you saw in Nashville. PAUL MAURICE: That would be the team. When the regular season is going on, you got your pre-scouts you got to do. I always watch the teams that are hot. They got hot early. I watched them play an awful lot. They move as five real well, have all year. Up the ice when they're going north with the puck. Their forwards push back to their D. Three guys back there that really move well, skate well. Other guys can move the puck. Good team. Q. You're talking about the possession. It's pretty even across the board, much like in the Nashville series. Can you say the series are similar in a lot of ways? PAUL MAURICE: Yeah, not a lot of easy ice for either team. Probably different styles of puck movement, but other than that, very similar. You're right, I've got the chances for and against that even after two games. Q. You talked before the series about the challenge that top line was going to pose. Have we seen anything from them in these first two games that surprised you at all? PAUL MAURICE: Not surprised. I mean, anybody's top line around the league is going to be a real power. They won't need a lot of room. They won't have to dominate a game to put two or three by you. They just need the right chances. They took advantage of theirs. Q. Would you be comfortable if Gerard wanted to switch the line around tomorrow? PAUL MAURICE: The structure of Vegas is very similar to Nashville, right? You've got the Johansen line and the Karlsson line. You have the Turris line and the Haula line. More bent on offense. You have Bonino and Eakin. Then you have the grinders. It's very similar. I thought in the Nashville series, we both kind of agreed about 10 minutes into the game that we were both fine with the matchup. Hence, we alternated. It may well happen. We have a line that's built to check. We have (indiscernible) line. One of those two lines plays against the other team's best. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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