|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: PENGUINS v RED WINGSMay 30, 2009Dan BylsmaDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game One SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Questions for Coach, please. Q. What's the line between respecting an opponent and respecting an opponent too much that it's a negative? And do you get the sense from your team that they've got the right balance of that? COACH BYLSMA: Well, you respect your opponent too much when you stand around and watch them play. They're a good team. They have good people in different positions. They play, you know, a pretty good brand of hockey, puck possession, they can get to the offensive zone. But when you stand around in awe of them, you play into their hands. I think we have a sense that maybe that's what happened last year and want to learn from that experience. We've talked a lot about getting to our game and what our game is. And that's what we're going to try to do here. We're not going to wait to see what happens. We're going to come out and establish our game. We know what that is. We know how to execute that. That will be the challenge. Q. Have you watched the games from last year's finals? I know you weren't here for those. But have you watched that and used that as teaching tools for the guys now? COACH BYLSMA: Most of the video we did for the guys was from games from this season. As coaches, we watched three of the games from the finals last year and see where we think we're better or what we didn't do last year or what we need to work on to improve to get to our game. So we have watched them. But the majority of the stuff we teach our players was from this season and recent games. Q. You were on a role, an energy guy as a player yourself. I imagine you have a lot of respect for a guy like Matt Cooke. Can you talk about the element he brings to the team and how well that line's worked for you in the playoffs? COACH BYLSMA: The interesting part about Matt Cooke's season is at different times he was the guy that was inserted next to Crosby or Malkin to give that line a little more jump. To give it a little more grit, little more offensive zone presence. And that's the kind of guy he can be. He's a guy who pressures other teams. He's in your face, drives the net, creates room for the people around him. In his current role on that line with Staal and Tyler Kennedy at times have been on our best line in getting to the offensive zone in the playoffs and forcing other team's defense to deal with it for long periods of time. I think as a coach you certainly need different elements to put on the ice, but when you have a third line of the likes of those three, they can play defense, they can check other teams top lines. A lot of times they're doing that by grinding other teams down in the offensive zone. And he's a big element of it. He adds some sand paper and grit to our lineup. People know he's on the ice. But he's also a guy who adds straight line work to our team. He's continued to add that way from the time I've gotten here right through the playoffs. Q. Still going with seven D's to start the series? COACH BYLSMA: It had success last series for us, and we had reasons why we went to seven. Certainly contemplated it the last two days, and we'll go with a game-time decision on what we go with. Q. Have you been more cognizant of the guys' shift length tonight, and overall knowing you have another game to recall? Or do you just have to play it out and deal with tomorrow, tomorrow? COACH BYLSMA: This is the game we get to play right here tonight. Certainly if you go through different scenarios in your head prior to the start of the game, but once the game starts it's going to be all about tonight and getting to our game and making sure we do that. The decisions we make will be how do we do that and how do we get to our game. We'll focus on tomorrow night's game after tonight's. And we've got a few days to think about different scenarios with the amount of games we're going to be playing here. But right now the task at hand is establishing our game and getting to our game in Game 1, and establishing that right from the start. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|