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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LIGHTNING v BRUINSMay 14, 2011Guy BoucherBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game One THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Your thoughts on getting off to the right start. Both teams talked through the course of the week how to approach this game given the long layoff. Right off the bat, what do you tell the guys? How do you position the guys to be ready for tonight? COACH BOUCHER: Well, we don't want to fall into the trap of being over-emotional. I think it will be a shock for both teams to go back to playoff intensity. I mean, everybody's going to be ready to go. I'm sure they're like us: it's about time it starts. But I think it's important that we stick to what we do best in the first period rather than come out and rely on our emotions to lead us. I think it's the opposite: we want to stay poised. We're expecting to come out of the gates real hard and strong and their fans to elevate them quick to another level. That, we need to be aware of right off the bat, yeah. Q. Guy, how much will you pay attention to line matching, specifically trying to get some of your stars away from Chara in this series? COACH BOUCHER: You know, I think I've found over the years is you have to watch for line matches and pair matches. Sometimes you lose momentum because of that. Your player is sitting on the bench instead of playing. Whether it's Chara or Orpik or any other Washington guys that we've met. The idea is that your top players need ice time. I don't want my top players to sit on the bench just because of the matchups. In the end, your top players have to be able to play against their top players. There will be some matchups. We don't have much control over it here in Boston. Therefore, everybody has to be ready to play against Chara or anybody else. Q. With Simon coming back in the lineup, what is your inclination of the split between forwards and defensemen? When you're coming off a successful lineup, is it difficult to take someone out? COACH BOUCHER: It's a not hard to put Simon back in, that's for sure. What we've been doing is most of the year we've played with seven defensemen and 11 forwards. I do have a tendency to go that way. Blair Jones from the American League was playing as the 11th forward the last games. Therefore, I think it's only fitting that Simon takes his spot back. We're going to keep the same defensive core for tonight, so go with 11 and seven again. Q. Guy, Dana Tyrell skated the last couple days. Can you give us an update on where he stands. COACH BOUCHER: He's getting closer. Obviously next week was the target. It's still the target for Dana being available. It will just give us one more body that's able. He played the entire year with us. He was terrific on the penalty kill. If he's able to play, it's obviously one more tool for us to be able to put on the ice. He's got the speed, the heart and physicality to play at this level in the playoffs. Certainly wouldn't hesitate to make him play. I think right now there's still at least one more week for him to get ready for. Q. What immediate impact are you expecting from Gagne being back in the lineup tonight? COACH BOUCHER: Well, I think all our players, including Gagne, right now for us it's that first period. The first five minutes are going to be really important, whether it's him or anybody else. The impact that we want is we want to make sure we don't come out and start running around everywhere. So he's the same as everybody. But I think in the long run, Simon, he's had a terrific last two months of the season. If you look at his stats, he was one of our top, top guys. In the playoffs he certainly made a big difference against Pittsburgh. It was too bad we were missing him against Washington basically the entire series. But he's a pressure guy. He's lived it with Team Canada in the Olympics, he's lived it in Philly. He's been in pressure situations in the NHL so many years, and he's come up with big goals. He's one of those guys that's a clutch player. Certainly has and will be playing a huge part in our team. Q. Guy, you mentioned Montréal as a good comparison for you guys. When you're doing your pre-scouting, what struck you about the Canadiens and the way they gave the Bruins a dogfight? COACH BOUCHER: I think throughout the entire year, obviously Canadiens I think won three, had the upper hand against Boston. Same as Buffalo, for instance. I think they're smaller guys, really fast skating. That's why I said we were a similar team to Montréal. We got very good goaltending, we've got a lot of speed with the forwards on all four lines, we've got guys who block shots, and we have defensemen who are strong down low. It's a similar outlook, I think, than Montréal that we've got. We're not Montréal, though. We're our own team. But somebody asked me back then what kind of style we have compared to the other teams that the Bruins have played. I think we're closer to Montréal than Philly. But obviously we're ourselves. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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