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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CANADIENS v FLYERS

May 18, 2010

Peter Laviolette

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Game Two

Montreal Â– 0
Philadelphia - 3

Q. You had talked yesterday and this morning at the skate about not having the repeat of the first period and it was. Were you upset in the dressing room or resigned that, well, this is the way it's going to be?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: I'm not going to resign to that; I can tell you that. You know, Michael Leighton saved our game tonight in the first period. We gave up way too many scoring chances. We weren't prepared physically or mentally and we got dominated.
One guy stood on his head, and we were able to chip one in on the power play on Danny's goal. But those are -- you don't want to roll those dice too many times.

Q. What do you think has made the power play so successful in the series?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Our power play has been good all year. I think we've got good personnel for power play. We've got the right people, I think, on the back end. We've got some skilled forwards up front.
I think that Joe Mullen does an excellent job trying to prepare the players. I don't have an exact answer. You never really know why a power play goes south and it's not clicking.
You just hope when you get on a roll where the power play's going good, it just continues to roll. I don't really have an answer for that.

Q. You've said before that you're not surprised by the way Michael plays in net. But to come back the way he did and to just be as near perfect as he's been, does that throw a little bit of, wow, this is even more than we expected?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: When you throw two games together like that, it catches everybody. You need good performances from your entire team in order to keep moving on in the Playoffs.
To me, tonight, he looked as good as I've seen him. He was very calm in there, very relaxed, and in complete control of that net and everything that went on around it. He was really strong.

Q. Can you talk about the play of Danny Briere since moving back to center? And should Jeff Carter come back, do you plan to keep him at center?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: On the second part of that, I think I'll hold off until whenever that day might be that Jeff Carter comes back into the lineup. As far as Danny Briere goes, I think he's been excellent. He was good on the wing also down the stretch.
Since we had to move him back to the center, he's been very good. His competitiveness has been excellent. He's putting himself into areas -- you know, he's not a big guy, so he really has to fight for his space out there and fight for the opportunities to score goals. Then he's got a God-given talent that makes him who he is.
But down the stretch when we needed him in the first round of the Playoffs and through this round, you know, these two rounds here, he's been very good.

Q. Leighton's really been the rock in goal especially during these slow starts. How much do you think the rest of the players feed off of that? That's kind of what fuels the later comebacks, and how much is just him getting confidence as the game goes on?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Well, certainly the players, I don't know if they can fuel for it, but maybe they can readjust their game so they can play better in front of him, and we don't give up those opportunities. You know, in the second and third period, we didn't give up anything. There were some shots, but they were from the outside.
It was the first period there was a barrage on net, and there's no question that they can gain energy from that. But like I said before, that's not a road you want to go down. You want to play a better hockey game in the first period. I'm really disappointed with the way we played in the first period.

Q. Can you just talk about Simon's return and put into words what that's meant for the team both on the ice and off?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Well, he scored some really big goals last series, so that alone tells you he's a natural goal scorer. When he comes back in the lineup, he played those minutes and he gets those opportunities.
You need your best players on top of their game when you move through the Playoffs. You always see teams finding struggles if somebody's not scoring or somebody's not making saves. That's what the Playoffs is all about; your best players playing at their best in the right time of the year.
For him to come back after an injury like that with not a lot of practice and still really not a lot of practice time, it's been impressive.

End of FastScripts

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