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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLYERS v BLACKHAWKSJune 3, 2010Peter LaviolettePHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day Q. Peter, what are your thoughts on how Mike Richards is playing right now? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think that Mike is working hard to make sure that our team is successful, along with every other guy in the room. I'm sure he wishes probably they were contributing more points perform, but they're getting lots of chances. Typically from me when the chances are there, the points usually follow. He's getting the puck to Carter and Gagne. Carter had 12 attempts at the net last night. Gagne had five attempts at the net last night. They've gotten some looks that they want. They just haven't been able to fall for them. He had a couple of chances on the power-play. He had a look at a couple of side empty nets, and just fired a bit high. So it's only a matter of time for me. I think Mike is playing hard. Q. Peter, a couple of questions about Pronger. Can you just give us your thoughts on his battle against Byfuglien for the first three games. It looks like he has the edge, so far. And secondly, 32 minutes last night. How is he impacting the Series? COACH LAVIOLETTE: You get into overtime, those minutes are going to go up. All our defensemen were in that 30-minute range. I don't know. You guys made it Pronger against Byfuglien. I didn't. It's Pronger against the guys that he's out on the ice against. And they're good players. He plays against that line quite a bit. Byfuglien is on it. But the other guys are pretty good hockey players as well. I think he's done a good job defensively. Along with Matte Carle. I think all of our defensemen played pretty well to this point. What was the second part of your question? Q. The ice time. COACH LAVIOLETTE: The ice time, when you get in those overtimes you're going to get up in that range. Q. You guys are killed off 27 of the last 28 penalties going back to the other Series. Is there any kind of adjustment that you made that made it that much better? And the second part of that is, if you were given a choice between a great PK in the Final or a power-play, which would you take and why? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Are you serious? There's been -- the penalty kill -- the penalty kill is -- you're always having meetings on it. Craig Berube does an excellent job. Ultimately the players have to go out there and run the routes in the system. Really no changes for us. Just well executed so far. And the second question I have no thought about. Nobody has asked me to pick which one I want to work. So I haven't thought about it. They're both important. They're both important. Q. Peter, can you talk about the confidence level on this team right now after last night? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Is that not the answer that you were looking for? Do you want me to reword it and give you something better to write? I mean, I see you shaking your head. I'm not. Q. Hitchcock would have preferred the penalty kill if he had his druthers, the penalty kill would be more dominant. COACH LAVIOLETTE: How would we have made out last night if we only had a good penalty kill? How would we have fared? Q. You would have lost two goals. COACH LAVIOLETTE: All right, then. Right? Q. You're 27 for 28. COACH LAVIOLETTE: I'm just asking you how we would have made out last night under your perfect world. I missed that question. I'm sorry. Q. I hate to interrupt you. Can you talk about the confidence level of your team right now even though you're down 2-1? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I've said this before. I think we played well in the Playoffs on most games. I think there's always a period you look back and you know you're not happy with it. But the guys have confidence in what they're doing right now. They believe in each other. And I think that's really important. They believe they're going to win hockey games before the game is played. I think that's really important. And then you have to go out there and you have to execute. You have to play with a lot of energy. You have to execute. And I think that there is a lot of confidence in our room right now. Chicago is the same way. I think that's why you are seeing really good hockey. They have confidence in what they're doing. They believe in it. They play with it a purpose. Hockey has been fast and furious out there. It's hard-hitting and hard-skating. Q. Same question that you got about Richards. What are your thoughts on Jeff Carter so far? If this were the regular season who knows if he would even be playing right now. So far in this Series, how would you assess him? COACH LAVIOLETTE: You know, again, I'm sure he wants to contribute more on the sheet. There is -- I always look at Jeff and when he's getting 12 attempts at the net for me, I always know it's a matter of time. He's getting the looks. He's finding those lanes. He's finding the opportunities. You're right about where he's at with the injuries, to come back and be able to play at the pace that going on out there right now. He seems to be finding it. I'm good with his game. Q. Peter, Scott Hartnell is probably one of the more unorthodox players that I've seen. He had a really rough regular season. How do you think he's been able to turn this around and be so good in the Playoffs after having such a tough year? COACH LAVIOLETTE: You know, the Playoffs sometimes is a second opportunity. You get to right some wrongs in the regular season if you're not happy with the way you played, you enter the Playoffs, your team gets in. If he continues to play well, nobody will be talking about his regular season. They'll only be talking about the Playoffs and his contributions. I think he's worked really hard. He's focused. He's disciplined. He's playing really good hockey for us. Q. Pete, what do you feel it is about your coaching style that brings out the best in players? And two, who was your greatest influence as a coach? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think the players bring out -- it's the players who go out and they have to play that game. And like I said, it's a really, really good hockey game. Really fast hockey game out there. I think the players deserve the credit for the way we're playing right now. They really do. As far as influence, I don't know. I really don't think about those things too much. I have lots of coaches that I've worked with. I think you learn from people. You learn from your family. You learn from your up-bringing. You learn from players. You learn from winning and losing. I don't know. I haven't really thought about that too much. Q. Coach, kind of a follow-up on your style. After Carcillo's penalty yesterday there was a great shot of you on TV banging your fist against the glass three times. Do you think that the players fuel off some of your passion during games? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I'm not sure. I was angry. Not at Danny. But I'm not sure. I should probably try and keep it in check more. Q. Peter, what happens if one of these first lines finds its scoring stride? And is there a concern that you want that one to be yours if one of them is going to get off? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Why are you asking me to choose which one I want to -- no, because if you're asking me to choose, I'll clearly make a choice, if you would like. They're both talented lines. And they're both getting some dangerous looks. One of their guys got sprung last night, and you see what happens. As fast and as furious as it is where guys are trying to attack nets and dig look for offense and two on ones and home run plays, the reasons why the shots aren't 50 to 50 at the end of three periods is because it's as fast a defense as well. It's hard for those players to find the open ice and the space they need in order to create offense. Chicago's back-pressure is excellent. That takes away from us being able to move east-west and make plays as we enter the zone. We're trying to do the same thing. So it's not a lot of wiggle room out there for great scoring chances. When you have them, you have to take them quick. Because things close up in a hurry. Q. Peter, there's some similarities between your run and the Blackhawks' run, long winning streaks that ended and Game 3's on the road. Is there a shock value when you have a long winning streak and it ends like that especially in overtime last night? And did you learn anything in Game 4 against Montreal that you can now use against Chicago to use the energy in the building to try to make it 2-2 instead of falling down to 3-1? COACH LAVIOLETTE: We have to -- I don't know -- I really hadn't compared Chicago to us, as far as -- I don't know, teams in comparison. I think they took a different road to get here. We took a different road. Ours is not harder, but not the most optimal way to get to where we are right now. We really had to go through some potholes. So I haven't really compared us to Chicago. I think you're always -- you always are learning. We definitely learned in that Montreal Series from Game 3 to game 4. Game 3 we were flat. We refocused. So it should be -- they'll be ready to play tomorrow. We have to make sure we're ready as well. Q. (Question off Microphone). COACH LAVIOLETTE: I'm not sure I have had one. Have we? Q. (Question off Microphone). COACH LAVIOLETTE: No. That's a pretty good one. I think when you get -- I think when you get this far, every game is so important. There might be -- I'm not expecting them to be shocked better or worse. I expect -- I would expect them to come out and play another good hockey game. Chicago played a good game last night. I think the shock is less when you're this deep either way. There's too much at stake. There's too many -- there's too much on the line. Q. Coach Ville is such a good player. He's kind of behind the eight ball in Detroit. He gets here. He's behind the eight ball again. When you have conversations with him, was it you initiating it and saying hang in there? Was it him coming to you and saying what do I got to do? What do I got to do? COACH LAVIOLETTE: When we didn't get Ville in the lineup, I take responsibility for that. That's -- my job -- part of my job is to get the most out of everybody. At the time we were winning a lot of hockey games, and there was a certain lineup that was in there. He just couldn't crack it. It wasn't necessarily a knock against Ville or his game. We just couldn't -- we didn't have any spots. Our forwards were healthy, which was a good thing. We were winning a lot of hockey games. I just didn't want to mess with him -- the make-up of the room at the time. When he finally did -- and there were a lot of conversations with him. He's a terrific person. I don't know if you have gotten to know him a little bit, but he's a terrific person. He comes to the rink every day. He comes to the rink the same way today as he did back two months ago when he hadn't played for ten games straight. And he's just a happy guy that wants to play hockey. I think it really shows out there in his game. That's one thing for me that shows is you can feel he just loves playing the game. I can, anyway. I can see that and feel that. The conversations at the time were yes, hang in there and keep working hard. And he did. He worked hard. Q. Can you -- COACH LAVIOLETTE: Not every day. It's hard when the player is not in the lineup. It's hard to go to him every day. Yes, there were conversations. Ville deserves the credit. When he got the opportunity, he's made the most of it. He looks really sharp out there. And to stay in shape as well through that stretch of time when you're not playing, he's in phenomenal shape. Q. Just to follow that up, how good was he last night and what has he added to that second line? COACH LAVIOLETTE: That second line has been, I think, they've been terrific. They're generating a lot of scoring chances. A couple of those I think two of the goals we bumped either he or Danny Briere down with Giroux. Just to give them a burst of offense, and it worked out for us last night. What he's brought to the table offensively point of game player and somebody who makes other players on the ice better as well, certainly is important for our team. He's been terrific. Q. Coach, when you go through a long regular season, you are dealing with players who have, you know, lots of issues every year. Whether their kids get sick, there's all kinds of things that happen with players. As a coach, how do you get them to focus on hockey and only hockey? Especially this time of year? COACH LAVIOLETTE: When we're sick? Is that what you said? Q. No, no. There are lots of issues that players deal with. Their kids might be sick. There might be all kinds of issues that players deal with during the regular season. But as coach, you've kind of got to get them to separate themselves from that and focus on hockey. Is that a tough challenge as a coach to do? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Sometimes it is. Sometimes we don't do a very good job at it as coaches and your team isn't successful. I think -- I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you asking like regular season or are you asking now in the Playoffs? The focus now is pretty simple. There's an end date in sight here. And everybody knows when it is. It's either this day, this day or this day and the season is over. So the focus now is -- it's a lot easier about focus and motivation right now than it is in Game 47. And that's when it's I think a little more work involved from the coaching staff and the players trying to block out things that may be going on at home that they're dealing with. Everybody has family, whether they are your immediate family or your mom and dad is coming in and out. You can get distracted. Right now, I don't know, there's not a lot of room for that. And the players realize that. That doesn't have to come from me. Because we're down the road, it's been narrowed from 16 to 8 to 4. Now there's just two teams. And the prize is right there. So focus is pretty sharp. And that comes from the players. Q. Peter, this is about Game 110 for young guys like Toews and Richards, and a lot of that if really high intensity hockey. Is it possible they are just -- both of them just running out of gas? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I don't think so. You're talking about -- I'm not going to bet on that, anyway. They are elite athletes. They have had -- we've got young players too. I think the teams are somewhat comparable in that way. The goaltending situation for both groups and some good defensemen. Some young leaders up front. Some veteran players added in. I think there's comparison in the make-ups of the lineups. They're great hockey players. I don't think fatigue is a factor. On either team right now. And the only reason why I say that is because the hockey has been too good. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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