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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LIGHTNING v BRUINSMay 15, 2011Claude JulienBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Claude Julien. Q. Last night you were asked about Tyler Seguin not playing in the power play. I wonder if there's something maybe that you see that makes you reluctant to use him in those situations that you can describe for us. COACH JULIEN: Not really. It's a situation here where you gotta understand this is a 19-year-old that hasn't played in 11 games. He comes back in and you want to give him some small chunks to bite on and certainly work his way up. But I think the other part is that our power play's not started picking it up, which I thought our first power play was really not a good one. Our second one got a little better. And we got some shots starting to go through on the other one. Had it not, there's no doubt we would have thrown him in there. But our power play has been good the last couple of games. And just because you struggle on the first couple of ones, you explode it again and try something new. I think had it not gone well, we would have. And he certainly would have been considered. Q. On the power play, when you have time off, as you did leading into last night, was it disappointing that you didn't have the energy or the execution to start on the power play last night, given that you had time to work on it? COACH JULIEN: Well, I mean, we had time to work on our whole game. And I didn't think our execution, obviously, on the power play is really what hurt us, especially at the beginning. When you have your best players out there, you've got to execute better. And we gotta get our shots through. We need some traffic through the net. And that's the part that wasn't there. But a lot of that, the same thing, five-on-five, people are going to say we're okay, but okay isn't good enough at this time of year. We need to be better. We know that. That's what we're aiming for for Game 2. Q. A lot of comparisons in the media to Tampa Bay to Montreal, but what do you see different about Tampa Bay out there that maybe we're not seeing? COACH JULIEN: Not much. I don't think it's a big deal. Again, let's take time to realize what happened last night. A minute-25, as everybody knows, there's three goals scored. And they didn't score until they got that power play goal late in the game. And then empty-netter. Let's not overanalyze this situation more than look at your team and what you can do better as a team and not worry so much about the other team. Q. If you could assess for me what you saw in Tyler last night and what you liked and what he might have to do to stay in the lineup when he gets healthy again? COACH JULIEN: He's a young kid, again, competed well last night. Was rewarded with a nice goal, the type of goal you're going to see more as he moves forward here in his career. He's a great player. And last night, excited about his first game, played with lots of energy and did a good job. Q. You said last night afterwards that you think a lot of the things were correctible. Would you say that you woke up this morning maybe optimistic, or do you look at last night as make a wake-up call? How do you look back at last night and ahead to Game 2 here? COACH JULIEN: I think a little bit of both. It's certainly a wake-up call. We know we need to play a lot better. But, again, as I said, I think we have to look at our team here. If we play a little better, we compete a little harder, we win more battles and stuff like that, it's going to make a big difference because we didn't do that last night. Yet, you know, it was a pretty close game after those three goals. And it could have been different. They were the better team last night. Don't get me wrong. But I think if we can up our game here the way we can, certainly it will make a difference. There's absolutely no reason why not to be optimistic. We're this far because we're good enough to be this far. And we just gotta make sure we bring our A game next game. Q. During the regular season, in general, teams are more cautious with guys with injuries and then during the Playoffs, maybe there's a little leeway with that. Where are guys with concussions, and Bergie's situation, where does that fit into that? COACH JULIEN: If he's not 100%, he'll never play. Whether it's regular season or Playoffs, our organization, even before they tightened up the rules on that, there was no way we would ever do that to a player. And that's too important to his personal lifestyle and the life he's going to lead after hockey. That will always come before the game. And it's unfortunate, but that's the way it should be. And we believe in that and we're going to continue to enforce it. So the day you see Bergie back in our lineup, he will be 100%. If he's not, you're not going to see him. Q. I'm just curious, you used David Krejci on a penalty kill last night. You haven't done that in a while. You have been able to save him and roll him out after a penalty kill is over. How does it change your rotation, your line, whatever you're going to do when he has to play on the penalty kill? COACH JULIEN: A lot of things were tough last night. Number one, we lost a really good penalty killer in Bergeron. And second of all, just seemed like some of the guys that were going into the penalty box were some of our penalty killers. So you're one short before the game starts and get short by another guy because he's in the penalty box, whether it's Kelly and I think it was Pouliot at one point. But those are the kinds of things that are hard to adjust with. And at the same time, you like to keep Krejci as a fresh guy coming out with his line after killing penalties, and that's always something that you try and utilize that line for. But it made it tough. And sometimes, you know, you want to use them early and so save him so that you can come back with his line at the end, but they've just been on the ice and they're tired, so I can't start them off. So it was a bit of a challenge. But it's a challenge that you're ready for as a coach. You look at all the scenarios, and you try and work around it. Q. Claude, you didn't get off to the start you wanted with Montreal, but you stuck with the same lineup, same approach, and it worked. Are you inclined to do the same thing here or does last night give you pause to say: Maybe I've got to change some things up? COACH JULIEN: We'll see. This is why we got a couple of days here. And there's injuries, and there's situation guys that came in our lineup and what do we want to do with it. That's certainly something that we're going to be thinking about. And just because we didn't change it against Montreal and it worked doesn't mean we have to do the same thing. We're open to whatever is the right solution here. Q. After the game last night, Guy Boucher expressed some concern about the punch Lucic stirred on Moore to the point we're saying maybe even the League should look at it. I was curious what you thought of that and if there was some frustration from your guys at the end. COACH JULIEN: If the referees need to call those things, that's their call. And I think it's part of the frustration sometimes in games and liberty is taken, and same thing as usual. It's always easy to look at the main punch just like that penalty that Boychuk took, how he ended up shorthanded is tough to see after Lecavalier jumps him after a clean hit. Those are things that happen in a game and we can whine and cry about things. We take care of our own business, and if he feels that way, that's his prerogative. We're moving on to the next game and we're not even thinking about that. Q. I know you don't want us to be too hard on Lecavalier. I'm not just thinking about the give-away to the goalies, seemed on the power play his shots are kind of off. He looks, at least, like he's really pressing, and how do you think he's handling the whole situation with him right now? COACH JULIEN: There's no doubt he's pressing a little bit, Matt. I would say that because he knows what's expected of him. He knows what's being said about him and he knows all that stuff. And at one point, you know, you hope that he's capable of focusing on just doing the job. And we have confidence in him. And we're going to work with him for him to get better because we're going to need him to play at his best if we plan on moving on here and winning some hockey games. So that's something that we all have to work with, himself, and us, and working through this together. Q. Again, you guys have proven before you can come back from a 2-0 deficit. How important is it to not get into that position again? COACH JULIEN: I think every game is a must-win game. I think we realized that last night was an important start for us, and I thought for the first ten minutes we had a really good start to the game. And I thought we were playing the way we wanted to play, and then they got those three quick goals. And that kind of changed the whole outlook of the game. Now you start pressing, and now you start taking chances, and you get away from your game a little bit. And that's what this game is all about. And every team will do that, once they fall behind, they've got to start opening up a little bit. And this is a team that blocks a lot of shots. This is a team that doesn't give you too many outnumbered situations and somehow we gotta grind it out and find ways to get ourselves back in the game. And we missed some chances. On the power play we had some opportunities to shoot, and either we didn't or we missed the net and those are little details that at the end of the night make a difference in the game. Q. Marchand was breaking a stick on the bench last night, he looked a little more ornery than usual. Was there anything exceptional going on down there or was that just him expressing frustration? COACH JULIEN: That was him frustrated. That's something we don't like to see and don't want to see, but he's a first-year player. He's a rookie and he's certainly learning and he's going to be the first one to tell you that he's learning as he goes along here. And you can't allow yourself to get frustrated. You've got to battle through things, and he just showed a little bit of frustration. And I'm sure you're not going to see him do that again. Q. Any update on Bergeron today? COACH JULIEN: You saw him skate and that's basically where he's at right now. And that's the only update I can give you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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