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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLYERS v BLACKHAWKSJune 8, 2010Peter LaviolettePHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day JAMEY HORAN: Questions for Coach? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Hello. Do you want to start here? Q. I detect a smile for a change. What has to be different tomorrow night if you're going to keep playing? COACH LAVIOLETTE: We weren't very good the other night. Players will probably be the first to tell you that. Our game, we were a step behind. We didn't generate enough offensively. We weren't physical enough. We weren't quick enough. We didn't defend well enough. Specialty teams weren't good enough. So there's a lot of things we can do better that we had been doing better. Out of the playoff run, there's been probably two games you look back out over 22 where you're not real happy with the way we played. One of them was Game 3 in Montreal and the last game here. Q. Pete, have you told your goaltender who is going to start? COACH LAVIOLETTE: No. I haven't. Q. When will you do that? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Do you know who is starting in the net for Chicago? Did they announce that yet? Q. We assume Antti Niemi. COACH LAVIOLETTE: Oh. But nobody has asked? Q. They haven't been here yet. Q. They get here 4:30. COACH LAVIOLETTE: Our goaltenders have the best numbers in the playoffs. I didn't think I had to announce it. Q. So that means Michael is starting in the net? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I don't comment on lineups or goaltenders. Q. Are you confident in Michael for Game 6? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I'm very confident in Michael. He's played excellent in the playoffs. His home numbers are terrific. Yeah, I'm very confident in Michael. Q. Peter, why do you think that Michael's numbers have been so much better at home, especially here in the Stanley Cup Finals? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think we've played better at home. We've played good in some road games. A lot of road games, but there's some road games where we haven't played -- we didn't play very well -- I shouldn't say that. We didn't give up a lot of chances in Game 1 to Chicago. That was our first road game versus the Hawks. But the chances that we did give up they were some really bad ones. He had no chance or point blank or breakaways. Odd-man rushes. It seems that we've let our goaltending down at times on the road in a few instances. We seemed to have played a better game at home in front of our goaltender. Like I said, when our game has gone bad, usually we have a bad outing and everybody takes part in that. So our home game, our record is excellent. I don't think we should have lost a game at home yet in the playoffs. Q. I don't expect you'll tip your hand on any potential line changes. But can you talk as a coach in this situation when your opponent makes the kind of adjustments and the amount of adjustments that they made, the thought process, the pros and cons versus shaking up a lineup that has worked for you versus feeling a need to maybe try and adjust? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I can't control what Chicago does. I can only control what we do in our room and what we feel comfortable with, in the past and then moving forward in the future and what we need to do. So we're comfortable with our lineup. I can't really comment on theirs. Q. Peter, when they've scored goals in this series, it seems like they've come in bunches. The biggest shift is the one after they get a goal. What do you guys need to do to change what happens on that next shift after they score so they don't build momentum and get a couple of quick ones in a short time frame? COACH LAVIOLETTE: They certainly did that at the end of the -- like I said, I thought we had gotten by the worst part of Game 5. It was probably the first six or seven minutes that they just came out swarming. They had us pinned back. They threw a lot of attempts at our net. And then it settled down in there for probably four or five minutes where it was going back and forth. The game had seemed to calm down a little bit from where it had started. They got some goals at the end of the period. I don't think that's happened a lot where they've come out and they've gone like that. Game 2 was a tight game. Game 1 went back and forth. We actually had the lead a few times. So that was really the first instance, that first period, the last eight minutes or so where they scored those three goals. That's not something we really talked about. Q. Peter, you've preached playing with desperation throughout this postseason. But going into Game 6, after seeing the way that Chicago played there in Game 5, do you need to have, I guess, an edge, a chip to your team going into game Game 6? COACH LAVIOLETTE: We're going to have to play a good hockey game. I think the guys know that. We have played good hockey games. Like I said, there haven't been a lot that we haven't liked. Even some of the ones we've lost we've competed hard and competed well. There's other good teams in these playoffs as well. You're not going to win every game. You don't see teams go 16-0 in the playoffs. But there's been a couple of games we haven't liked. I have confidence we'll show up and we'll play hard tomorrow and we'll bring our best game to the table. Q. Pete, if ever there was time where the fans might expect sort of that Knute Rockne speech, this is it. What's your style? When do you dress your team? Will you dress your team? What did you do in Carolina before this kind of game? What do you do? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I got it actually, now. Do you want me to give it to you? Q. If you wouldn't mind. COACH LAVIOLETTE: I don't think a lot like that. Usually whatever is in my gut or in my heart I usually say it. Sometimes it's -- sometimes they like to hear it. And sometimes they don't. But I don't think about those things like that. Q. You mentioned the other day Game 6 in Edmonton with Carolina. Ville was in here talking about the feeling of having the Cup that close and not being able to close it out. Do you think there's a correlation between how badly you want it on the night that you can clinch it and not being able to do it? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I'm not sure I understand the question. What do you mean is there a feeling? Q. You know, you are that close to the Cup. You are that close to it -- COACH LAVIOLETTE: And then not to get it? Q. And then not to get it on the night -- COACH LAVIOLETTE: It was nauseating. I went back to the hotel room in Edmonton and I almost threw up. To be close, to have an opportunity -- Game 5 wasn't much better. We were winning, they tied it up late. We went on the power-play in overtime and they scored on a short-handed goal in our building with the Cup being polished out back. So that one wasn't much better. So, I mean, you keep fighting. You keep fighting for it. One thing this team really has proven is that they're capable of fighting. We'll be ready to do that tomorrow. Q. Back to those -- to that Cup team. Are you essentially the same coach, same style, this new team? Or have you changed significantly your approach or the way you treat the players, the press, things like that, or is it same guy, new team? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I really don't think about those things too much. Like I don't sit here and wonder if I'm the same guy when I coached the Islanders as I am now. I really don't know. I think you are who you are in life. You try to be other people or do different things. You probably get lost along the way. Q. Coach, will you remind your guys, or do you even have to, just how far you've come in the situations, the elimination games you have been in and how many has it helped you guys faced elimination five times since the end of the regular season and it prevailed every time? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think our guys know that. They've lived it. Our guys are on the ice that have to live in those situations and have answered the bell every time. So II don't think it needs to be pointed out any more by me. Because they're actually the ones out there on the ice that have to perform in those situations. Q. Coach, we see one side of Chris Pronger, that jovial always joking around. From your point of view, what do you see in him, and how does he help control the mood of these players as they kind of get ready for this next game? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think -- I think there's a side that you see that you're talking about. There's also a side of professionalism that you get to see as a coach that you probably don't get to see unless you coach him and work with him. The fact that he's always on time at the rink. He shows up, he does the right things, he says the right things. He practices as hard as he plays. He's a professional. He really is. Q. Peter, your sixth defensemen hasn't played much in the Finals. Would you consider going with five defensemen in the next game, or is that too risky? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Do you want me to answer lineup questions? Q. Just general questions. COACH LAVIOLETTE: Generally speaking, all year I've gone with -- generally speaking, but not for tomorrow, just generally, I've gone with 6 and 12, I think, every time since I've been here, anyway. Q. Is it too risky to go with five in the playoffs? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Generally speaking? I think that's up to the coach and how he feels it would work to benefit his team. Q. Coach, you've talked earlier in the series about Mike Richards and even though he's not putting up the points, not putting up the numbers, he was still working hard. There were aspects of his game that you like. What do you see in him now? Do you expect him to step up tomorrow? Is that putting too much pressure on him to say you have to do it tomorrow? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think our players know exactly where they're at as far as tomorrow goes. In speaking about our game or you talk about Mike Richards or our team, because I would rather keep it in general terms than Mike Richards. Game 5 was not a good game for our players. I think we have stated that. We need to be better in a lot of different areas. Before that, we're coming off of two wins at home where I think our team played well. I think Mike Richards played well. It's a big game. Mike Richards has proven to be, I think, in everybody's eyes, a big-time player. I would expect a big game from Mike tomorrow. Q. Mine is real quick. COACH LAVIOLETTE: Are you sharing the question? Q. Can we? Mine is because they're always asked this, particularly Jeff Carter, what is your perception of if there was a percentage, how much of Jeff Carter is here right now in terms of dealing with his injury? COACH LAVIOLETTE: It's a lot -- there's a lot of time that was missed by Jeff. You think about Simon coming back from his injury, Jeff had come back from the first one. He missed a month. He came back and played a few games for us, and then he was out again. So he might have been back for maybe a total of two weeks after missing a month. And then he missed another month. Or in that area, anyway. Just three and a half weeks to four and a half weeks, the two injuries. So you're talking close to two months of time off the ice. He still looks good out there to me. He still looks like he can contribute. There were a couple of games ago where he had 12 attempts at the net. Game 4 he had more attempts at the net. They looked like they were coming. And then Game 5 I've already mentioned that game. I would expect that -- he's probably not at 100%. But I would expect a good game out of Jeff as well. Q. Get back to what you might say or might not say before the game, Pittsburgh last year was in the exact same situation, got blown out in Game 5 and still won. If not specifically that, do you look for things like that to talk about? Or as you said, is this team responded so well, you don't look for historical precedence? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I do look for those type of things. Historical precedence. I look at the situation. I think part of your coach is trying to motivate and get your team to believe in things, and there's no question we talked about that situation. I mentioned the Carolina situation in the past. We've talked about what our team has been through. You talk about winning championships. You see them happen year after year. But our championship that we're pursuing is special. Maybe more so than others, if you look at how we had to get here and what we had to do to get our hands on that thing. I always think you're looking for something to motivate. JAMEY HORAN: Thank you. COACH LAVIOLETTE: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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