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NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: BLUES VS BRUINS

June 4, 2019

Craig Berube

St. Louis, Missouri- Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach.

Q. Craig, were you surprised at all that Vince Dunn was able to go last night? Is that something you leave up to the players and the doctors?
CRAIG BERUBE: No, I'm not surprised. He's been out a while. He felt good. He felt ready to go.

We worked him pretty good in practice last few days. More battle drills and things like that. He felt ready.

Q. It seems like the series has been defined by adjustments from game to game. How do you go about getting an upper hand?
CRAIG BERUBE: I'm not sure you get an upper hand. Going into the next game, first of all, great win we had, but we just got to get past it, move on. We have to know that we have to come into Game 5 with a desperation and the attitude we need. That's the biggest thing.

We're going to get Boston's best effort. We got to match it, for sure. But the desperation effort, compete, it's going to be a tough game. I think going into Game 5, just got to get your mind right, get it in the right spot, know how hard the game is going to be.

Q. (No microphone.)
CRAIG BERUBE: There's always little things, tactics here and there. Really the game boils down to one-on-one battles, desperation plays, how hard you're competing, things like that.

Q. During your playing days, did you ever have to deal with a broken jaw?
CRAIG BERUBE: I did.

Q. What was that like for you?
CRAIG BERUBE: Well, it's not fun when your jaw's wired shut for six weeks. I mean, that was my situation. They're all different.

It's not a fun thing. I mean, it's a tough, tough go.

Q. Did you have to miss a long period of time?
CRAIG BERUBE: I was out. I didn't play with my jaw wired shut like that. I didn't play. I don't know. Everybody's different. Things are different now, too. That was a long time ago.

Q. As we get closer to the end, the last series of the season, does your thought process as far as player deployment change? With only three games left, are you more: I'm going to let the guys I need run?
CRAIG BERUBE: It's game to game for me. We really try to use everybody. I think that's how we're built. That's how we've had the most success, is by using everybody, getting everybody involved.

I always talk about our best attribute is our team, our team play. By that we use everybody. I don't see any difference going forward here. We need everybody's best game.

Q. What you talked about before, your team, the effort, was there a moment during these Playoffs or late in the regular season that you sensed there was a resiliency that was really building in this group, you could put whatever happened right behind you?
CRAIG BERUBE: Well, I think what they had to go through to get into the Playoffs really showed that for me. But I know it was a little bit different, I guess, when you get into Playoffs.

I thought Game 5 in Winnipeg showed that. That was something that showed me we were here to stay for a little bit. Obviously each series is different. I thought that game showed a lot of that.

Q. How much does going deep in the series play to your strengths? How have you coached with that in mind, wearing teams down?
CRAIG BERUBE: I think all the series we played have been like that, to be honest with you. That's kind of, again, how we're built. We try to play a physical game night in, night out, a forecheck game. We force teams to play 200 feet as much as we can.

Q. What changes now that Chara isn't playing?
CRAIG BERUBE: What changes if Chara is not playing?

Q. Yes.
CRAIG BERUBE: I mean, we're going to approach the game the same way, so nothing from our standpoint.

Q. You're in a phase now in this series where you have two days between games. Does that change your approach at all? Do you give more minutes to some players because they have an extra day to recover?
CRAIG BERUBE: Well, last night I thought the minutes were all good when I looked at it. Two defensemen played more minutes than a little bit normal on our team.

So like I said, I go game to game, see who's going. Maybe there's somebody that's not going, I won't use them as much.

I used the Sundqvist line an awful lot last night in the game. They did a great job against Bergeron's line. They probably played a few more minutes than normal.

Q. Not a lot of minutes for Edmundson. Anything health-wise or just the way the game went?
CRAIG BERUBE: Just the way the game went. We used Parayko and Pietrangelo quite a bit. Dunn looked really good. We got him more minutes, too. Thought Dunn had a good game.

Q. How would you rate how your forecheck has done, especially wearing down Boston's defensemen?
CRAIG BERUBE: It's been good. Game 1 and Game 3 probably not as good. Game 2 and Game 4 really good. That's where I rank it right now.

Q. Before the last game, did you tell Sundqvist (indiscernible) Bergeron matchup? Or is that something that just goes on?
CRAIG BERUBE: That just goes on. I didn't tell them. I started them in the game. I go with it. They know. Once a game gets going, I don't really have to tell them. They know. They're pretty good at knowing what's going on. They're smart guys.

Q. With the team doing a better job last night of staying out of the box, how important will it be to continue that?
CRAIG BERUBE: Really important. Discipline is huge. I thought the game was ref'd really well. I thought we were disciplined. We did a good job of playing between the whistles, checking properly, not taking the hooking, interference penalties, tripping, things like that.

Our forwards did a real good job of reloading. Our F three was in really good all night. We were in good spots, which limit penalties, too.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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