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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLYERS v BLACKHAWKS

June 1, 2010

Peter Laviolette

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day

Q. (Question off Microphone).
COACH LAVIOLETTE: We have lots of meetings. Lots of different messages are sent. A lot of them we keep internal.

Q. Peter, you guys did a tremendous job against the likes of Toews and Byfuglien, and yet you still come home down 0-2. Does that make it more frustrating, given how well you've played against the top line?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: You know, I've -- it's difficult. Obviously you like to keep those guys in check. Frustrating and irritating to come back 0-2, yeah. I think everybody in our room believes that -- you know, you play the game a certain way. You try to do the right things on the ice. You hope that you can generate more quality chances in the opposition. And when you do it and it's a margin of 2-1, you expect better results than 0-2.
The place we didn't win was on the scoreboard. That's the most important thing this time of year. So I think frustrated, yeah. Irritated, definitely. And anxious for tomorrow, can't wait. What a shirt. Really. The lights are bright. But that shirt is ridiculous. [ LAUGHTER.]

Q. Do you realize --
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Does have it any luck in it?

Q. It's for game nights. The shot clock, the last year -- you make some adjustments, the shots, did you look at the (Indiscernible)?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: You know, you try to find shot lanes the best you can. In the Playoffs that's what happens. The attempts are there. A lot of them get blocked. I think we can still do a better job of getting -- it seems a lot of times the pucks are coming in and the screens may be just off to the side.
I think we need that extra step to make sure we get right in front of him, cause more havoc and more chaos for him. The bottom line is, like I said, our opportunities to score last night were there, drastically there in the third period and we couldn't find it. We couldn't find the back of the net.
We believe there's -- that there's holes there. We found them in the first game, and we didn't get them to the back of the net in the second game. So we've got to make sure that we can continue to fire, we continue to create, we continue to clog it up and take as many looks and opportunities as we can at the net.
Sometimes that means trying to change that lane or that angle to get around those blocked shots.

Q. Peter, after two close games, how much advantage (Indiscernible)?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: We're way past that. We're way past that mental thing. If you're asking if this team can overcome obstacles or overcome adversity, we're so far beyond that. We've been towing that line since Christmas.
I don't think you get to this point in the season where you're 29th in Christmas and not be able to overcome adversity. We it did all year. We did it at the end of the year. We did it in the first round. We did it without players. We did it in the second round. This team is capable. I'm 100% confident in that this team is capable.

Q. You spoke about outchancing the Blackhawks. Does this remind you of the first two or three games against Boston?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Absolutely.

Q. And can you build on what happened in Boston?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Well, we have to get there. You know, you have to keep -- like I said, we found the opportunities we were looking for in the first game. Last night we didn't get there. We've got to put more pressure on their goaltender. He's a rookie goaltender playing in the Stanley Cup Finals. We have to get on the board here tomorrow night and put a little bit of doubt there.
Our team is capable of scoring a lot of goals, put a lot of pressure on him. It's a tough position, goaltending. He's representing a city that hasn't won a Cup in 50 years. We have to give him a crack of doubt. We can do that tomorrow night.

Q. Peter, you've been second-guessed about playing Chris Pronger(Indiscernible) can you just share with us (Indiscernible)?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: We can't keep playing Chris Pronger 33 minutes every night like -- we're going to wear him out. We've got to utilize our other defensemen and try and find the spots where we can put them in. Mike Richards has drawn the checking line for them 98% of the time. We didn't get it on that matchup. We were on the road.
Like I said last night, we have confidence in our players to get the job done. We didn't have that matchup. We didn't have the luxury last night. Coverage was there. We tried to sweep the puck away. Our goaltender pushed it. Our defensemen tried to clear it. It didn't happen. And they ended up a good goal scorer put it in the net. They made that change after we already had our players on the ice.

Q. (Question off Microphone).
COACH LAVIOLETTE: I'm not even sure -- I found out about it today. I read about it. I think it's kind of comical. If Chris Pronger wants the puck, then he can have it, as far as I'm concerned. I don't have any problems with that. I don't know what the big deal is.

Q. (Question off Microphone).
COACH LAVIOLETTE: What is it you're going to do? The Hawks? What added incentive do they have now? They're mad? They're angry? It's the Playoffs. We're going to show up. We're going to compete like hell tomorrow night. I promise you that.
I don't know what else they're going to do, because we stole their puck. I think it's funny, just like you guys are laughing right now, I think it's kind of comical. Prongs wants the puck, take it.

Q. (Question off Microphone).
COACH LAVIOLETTE: I didn't know it happened. I read it today on the web site. I had no idea it happened. You guys are bringing it up.

Q. My point is --
COACH LAVIOLETTE: We didn't talk about it. I said the meeting was some things -- that did not come up. We did not talk about who is going to steal the puck in Game 3. None of that.

End of FastScripts

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