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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CANADIENS v FLYERSMay 23, 2010Simon GagnePHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day Q. You guys are finally healthy here, you know, with getting Carter and Laperriere back. Do you feel like that might be the guys that will get you over the top? SIMON GAGNE: Well, it's going to help, that's for sure. You're talking about two guys that play a big role on the team. Lappy, we all know played very well defensively, played almost on the chicken line, played against the best player on the other team, very good on PK. Likes to block shots, we all know that. So he's a big, big part of the team, and to see him back is definitely a plus. Now having Jeff Carter back, you know, we all know he's our goal scorer that scores most of the goals for us this year. So that gives us a lot more options now on the power play or five-on-fives. Definitely, it's almost like the perfect timing for us to get those two guys back, and we're happy to see him play and feeling good about last night. Q. You're in the same place now the Bruins were when they were up 3-1. Lessons to be learned from what happened to them? SIMON GAGNE: I think so. I think we'll learn -- we all know that the last one, the fourth one is the toughest one to win. We're a perfect example. We did come back from a 3-0 lead, and we all know that's the toughest one to win. You could ask Boston, they'll tell you that for sure. We learned a lot of things from winning that Game 7 in Boston, but we'll try to use it on the other side. We're going to try to play our best game tomorrow night and try to close the Series out. Q. You guys have had three shutouts, and I know Leighton obviously deserves a lot of credit, but you have a beast like Pronger back on the blue line, how much has he meant to this team? The guy's 35 years old, he's logging almost 30 minutes a game. It's pretty amazing what he's done? SIMON GAGNE: Yeah, he's a big, big part of our team. You know, you could tell in the season what type of a player that we were getting here by the trade this summer, but now it's Playoff time. He's able to play more minutes right now. Like you said, 35 minutes on the ice is more than half of the game, so you want him on the ice as much as you can. But at the same time, you need your rest once in a while. But he's a big body right there on the ice. Tough to beat one-on-one, block shots, played very well on the power play. So he's the full package. That's why Mr. Holmgren went after Chris Pronger this summer for this time of the season. Q. How much of what you guys have done with those three shutouts has been a team-wide effort? Not just what your defense or your goalie has done, but what you guys have done as well? SIMON GAGNE: You know what, we're not really too happy about the first two games here in Philly. The reason why we won those two games was because of Michael Leighton. That's all the credit for him from the first two games, And our special teams did a good job too. We have to say that too. The power play did a good job to be able to score some big goals for us, and our penalty killing did some good stuff against their power play. But I think last night that was a team effort. For 60 minutes, you could tell from the drop of the puck, we were ready to play our game. Initiate, not wait to go see what they're going to do, not wait to go see what the crowd's going to do in Montreal. We just went after them, and we all know the story. We came out with the win. It was a tight game. Not too many chances on both sides, but we were able to get a couple chances and be able to score on those. Q. Judging by what you guys did yesterday, what didn't you do in those first two games? SIMON GAGNE: Well, we have to look at what we did well yesterday. You know, what happened in Game 1 and 2, I think it's behind us. We learned from it, and we learned from Game 3, especially Game 3 against Montreal in Montreal. We learned from that. It's behind us. We want to focus on what we did well yesterday and try to play the same type of game we did yesterday in Montreal. Q. But there were significant adjustments on how you approach them? SIMON GAGNE: Well, you know, we play our style of hockey. That's the way we played against Boston, and that's the way we have to play to have success. Like I said, initiate, not waiting to see what the other team's going to do now, be physical and play well in their zone. I think our defensemen did a great job since the start of the Playoffs blocking shots, and as a forward, you try to help them. Try to come back in the zone and play some tight defense, and from there we all know -- it looks like we say that all the time, but good defense brings some good offense, and that's what we did yesterday. It was a game on the road, not too many chances, like I said, offensively. But when you play some good defense you get those breaks, and that's a bit what happened, especially on the second goal. Philly was a good defense, and we were able to get a lucky break and kind of breakaway for Philly and was able to get it in. End of FastScripts |
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