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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: GOLDEN KNIGHTS vs JETS

May 19, 2018

Paul Maurice

Winnipeg, Manitoba: Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. They were asking in Vegas to ask on Steve Mason, why he wasn't around. How is he making out today?
PAUL MAURICE: He was available for the game.

Q. Not a lot of difficulty for your club to score goals throughout the season. How much of it is just the situation they find themselves in right now? This is pressure packed.
PAUL MAURICE: I don't feel it's a pressure issue. They've done a good job in their own end. They spend a lot of time there, a lot of shot attempts. They've gotten sticks a lot. Then they've had some pretty darn good saves.

It's not a matter for me of squeezing sticks. A lot of times we're getting the shot to the net. But playoffs usually, I don't know if it's working for us this year, usually are low-scoring affairs.

We get out on the road, we're looking at 1-1 halfway through the game both times. That's kind of what you expect, right? Both goaltenders making some saves. We haven't be able to get the timing of the next goal. Gone against us in both games. It's affected the score.

Q. Is it sort of standard operating procedure that you would expect your goaltender to need to allow two or fewer, or is this asking a lot of your goaltender?
PAUL MAURICE: You know what, both teams are going to ask a lot of their goaltenders, all four teams left. That's because every shot now that gets to net is a potential. That's the pressure that those guys operate under.

But we have confidence that we're going to still generate the offense. We have to get it by them for sure. We think we can get enough to win the game.

Q. The daunting task of winning three in a row, how do you as the coach wipe out the big picture and let them focus on 2:00, the first shift tomorrow?
PAUL MAURICE: Well, that's been our operating procedure all year, not looking past an opportunity to make the playoffs, not looking past a potentially difficult road trip, not looking past closing out a game against Nashville when you couldn't, not making it the end-all be-all, and getting into a Game 7 and coming out right.

We've been under that procedure all year. The idea of winning three in the playoffs in a row in any series is a daunting task. The idea of one is perfectly understandable.

Q. The percentages are so low on teams to come back from 3-1 down. How do you keep that out of the room?
PAUL MAURICE: I just don't answer questions about it (laughter).

It wouldn't be part of my pregame speech. But go back to the question prior: How you mentally frame things is important in NHL daily life. We know we're capable of winning a hockey game against any of the 31 teams. That will be the attitude we bring to the rink. Why we think about the day after when we never have prior to... We'll get ready for that game.

Q. When you have played as well as you have five-on-five, haven't been getting the results, especially now in the playoffs where every game is so much more magnified than the regular season, is there ever a dip in belief in the team?
PAUL MAURICE: You know what, every single team takes a hit after every single loss. That's the key piece to all of this, is the recovery and belief, right? So the stronger, or that's why they would say, the more experience you have, the advantage you would have.

But we've played both the teams that we beat had more experience than we did. They both beat us, and we beat them in games. We were able to recover from it. So certainly there's a value to that experience, not losing that belief.

Pittsburgh wins the Stanley Cup, they get in behind in that Conference Final series to Ottawa. They're still going to have a real strong belief because they have that experience.

Ours is shorter term. We have that experience in these playoffs now.

Q. Is there anything about, through four games, Vegas that you didn't know coming into this series, that they've surprised you with?
PAUL MAURICE: No. You know what, like I said, I've seen this team play hockey an awful lot over the course of the year, then into their playoffs. They've been very, very consistent with their game. Exceptionally opportunistic when they've had the chance. They do a good job controlling the net area in their defensive zone.

If you talk to Pete DeBoer, John Stevens, about the series themselves, the comments they would have made would be identical to the ones I'm making right now.

We've got to try to control the one line, if you can. It's a turnover game for them. They've got good speed on the way up the ice. Then you've got to work exceptionally hard to kind of crack through the grind that they have in their D zone.

Q. You mentioned their number one line. I'm thinking about the switch in defense pairings yesterday. Was that something you saw specifically to the Marchessault, Karlsson and Smith line?
PAUL MAURICE: It wasn't a defensive concept. It was with things happening at the offensive line. We know that Scheifele and Wheeler and Connor have the bulk of puck control time in the offensive zone. When you're heavy man-to-man as they are, it has to become a five-man group.

We like Trouba and Morrissey in that. But clearly it's where Dustin Byfuglien excels, so we just changed that. It was an offensive mindset.

Q. What would you like your players to do in preparing for tomorrow? Do you want them just to clear their mind and not think about the magnitude of this, especially in front of their fans?
PAUL MAURICE: I want them to take their experience from Game 6 and 7 and create the environment they created there where they came out with an excitement and smile on their face. Going into Game 7, there's as much pressure in that game as there was here, right? It's the exact same game. This one is at home. We'll need that crowd. They've been great for us.

Both teams, all four teams now, there's not quite as much in the tank as there was before. You're looking to draw on that and go out with an excited smile.

These are the best games, always are, when everything is on the line. Everybody will be at their most excited. You have to find a way. It shouldn't be very difficult to love every minute of it. The greater the stakes in anything, we think, especially when you live a life in pro sports, eventually that's what it's all about. This has to be your finest hour. Before the puck drops, I'm not talking about the play, be able to get your mind that this is the most fun game of the year now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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