|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LIGHTNING v BRUINSMay 18, 2011Guy BoucherTAMPA, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. The ups and downs of the Playoff series are talked about all the time. But you guys have been on such a high for so long. Is there any different challenges having dealing with the loss for the first time in about a month heading into tomorrow night? COACH BOUCHER: You know what, we've lived it, we lived it just before the Playoffs, we won seven out of eight and we had our first series, obviously we lost and had to bounce back. So we've lived that this year. I think every team has. No, I don't think the bouncing back is any different. We're playing the same team. We know what we did wrong and we know what we need to adjust, and we're back in front of our fans, which is going to feel pretty good. No, we've circled a few things that just after the game that we knew that we didn't do right, and now we're - obviously with looking at it, being more specific in what we need to do. But the last time we lost, we bounced back and we won eight in a row. So there's absolutely no need to panic. Q. You guys have put nine pucks past Tim Thomas, but do you feel like there could have been or should have been more goals that you guys have scored in this series? COACH BOUCHER: I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Q. You've already scored nine goals in two games on Tim Thomas. Do you think that because of the chances you've had that maybe you guys should have buried more? COACH BOUCHER: Obviously we should have buried more, but he's a great goaltender so he's going to make some incredible saves. I just think that it's the - it's not our offense right now that's the problem; I think it's playing better defense. And we've given them things on the rush that we never give against anybody. So I think we have to tighten that up. Q. Guy, everybody talked a lot about structure last night. I was curious, could you elaborate on what aspects of your structure that you were particularly disappointed in? COACH BOUCHER: Well, we gave a lot of rushes, odd-man rushes, and that's not us. We're actually - the opposing coach talked about that after the first team, that we were the team that didn't give a lot of odd-man rushes to the opponent, and he's right on. That's one of our biggest strengths. And we did, break-aways and two-on-ones and three-on-twos and four-on-threes and things that we don't do. And I think that's probably the biggest part of our structure that I'm disappointed in. When you look at two of their goals, came from our turnovers past their blue line on zone entry. We're not used to that. Usually we're better than that. Defensivemen jumping into the play when it's not time to jump into the play and creating odd-man rushes. So those things, we can certainly correct these and we will for the next game. Q. You even talked about how in the Playoffs sometimes it seems like you win one game and you're on top of the world and you lose one and it seems like everything's going wrong. At this point in the Playoffs, do you feel that your guys have gotten past that kind of mentality? COACH BOUCHER: Yeah, you know what, we've reloaded emotionally throughout the series in the first series and the second series. So I don't see this one being any different. As a matter of fact, we should have more experience rebounding, maturing from that. Having said that, doesn't necessarily mean we're going to win games, but we're for sure going to be more aware of the weaknesses we presented in the last game and going to make sure that we don't kill ourselves in the next game. And they're already a good team. We don't need to give them any more chances than they deserve. Q. How much credit are you willing to give the Bruins for the aggressive forecheck right from the opening faceoff last night, how effective were they on that forecheck? COACH BOUCHER: Well, I think they were aggressive in the first game. When I look at the clips, it was the same as the first game. I think the difference was we got in the penalty box to heighten that tempo and that momentum they were getting. So when you get a five on three at the beginning of the game like that, obviously they're shooting from everywhere on that and their goaltender has to make miracles. And the fact that they scored with one second left on their last power play, it has an effect on your team. And so we want to make sure we stay out of the box. And having said that, at the same time when I look at the penalty, I'm not going to tell Malone his three calls were bad calls. In my opinion on what happened during that game, one is the Bruins came out and fought with a lot of energy, and we were expecting that. And, two, there's things we can control. There's other things we can't control. And the game moved on. I thought we had a great beginning of the second period. But then we just - after missing that one break-away, all of a sudden they're allowing break-aways and two-on-ones. So we missed four break-aways, four guys and one against their goalie, and two two-on-ones. And they got their break-aways and scored and scored on their two-on-ones. And so that's not the kind of game we want to play. It's the run-and-gun game that we've never had success with. And if we focus on that for the next game, the Bruins are already very good and already deserve to win the game, we don't need to pad on in that respect. So we want to make sure that in the third period we were back to our game. But when you're chasing and you're chasing too late, it has a tendency not to turn your way, and they deserve the game, end of period. That's it. We have to rebound from that. Q. What kind of atmosphere are you expecting at The Forum tomorrow night? COACH BOUCHER: Same as the atmosphere back at home for the Playoffs. People are having a great time. They talk about it here. It's a real hype. It's an atmosphere they haven't had for a lot of years. I think the atmosphere is going to be extremely positive like it has been the rest of the Playoffs. Q. I wanted to ask a question that's kind of an off-the-ice question about Jeff Vinik as an owner, what you've seen as a coach, how his approach has benefited you. He seems to be kind of a hands-off guy. He owns, you coach, so on and so forth, where there's been other owners in other sports that kind of get a little too involved. Could you just give me your take on him as an owner and how it has benefited this team? COACH BOUCHER: I personally can't say enough good words about the man. He's been terrific since day one. He has an approach to everything that makes you feel important and makes you feel what you have to bring is needed and it's essential. He's extremely supportive, and he's present in subtle ways and it just trickles down. Him and Steve are similar in the sense that they're so humble, but at the same time you can see why they've had success in whatever they were doing before. And I think it's a very quiet confidence that has a tremendous impact on our group. And I think the biggest impact probably is the fact that since day one he's been extremely active in doing things. I know that sometimes you talk about changing things and you talk about the future, but I think for him what's impressive is that the future is now all the time. And it just makes everybody feel that we've got to act now on what we need to improve on the hockey level, and we've got the results. Q. Is there a specific example you have that when you first met him that made you kind of say, wow, this guy's a little bit different? COACH BOUCHER: Yeah, because when you expect to meet an owner, sometimes from your handshake or from your first discussions, you feel that you're going to be - I wouldn't say lectured, because that's probably not the good word, but you feel like you're going to be an employee. And what was impressive is that it just makes you feel that you're part of the future success and the immediate solutions and has a tendency to put a lot of enthusiasm into whatever you're going encounter in the next phase for sure. Q. The penalty kill has been so good throughout the Playoffs that you haven't really been hurt too much with the number of penalties you've taken. But is it starting to be a concern with the number of times you're shorthanded in games? COACH BOUCHER: Well, I would say it depends on the team and it depends on the circumstances. And I always look at the penalties between periods and after the game and see what we can control with that. And sometimes I'll blame our players, but sometimes I won't. And obviously in yesterday's game there's a few penalties we can avoid but there are some that are not within our control that I'm not going to discuss with the players. And so there's - obviously you want to kill at the least possible times, but at the same time you don't want to lose your aggressiveness. And so if it's a penalty because of aggressiveness during the play, that's different. If they're stick penalties, they're penalties that we certainly want to take out. And if they are penalties that we feel we don't deserve, we don't spend much time on it and we don't blame the players for it. So it's case by case basis and game by game, and we're really a team that's focusing on the things we can control. And having a five-on-three at the beginning of the game was a little disappointing, but you look at the video after, I didn't blame our players. So the only thing we can do in those moments is try to bounce back and stay out of the box, because it does give the momentum to the opponent for sure. Q. If I could follow up on something you said before. You said that some guys maybe made some bad reads last night and jumped up on a play when maybe they shouldn't have. Does some of that come from a little overconfidence because of how good things have been for a while? COACH BOUCHER: You know what, probably. You're probably right. But I couldn't talk for the players themselves. But we did see things yesterday we don't normally do. So whatever the reason, it's not a good reason. And we know that we've been successful because we stuck to our plan and the players are extremely dedicated to details, and it's just one more proof out of so many this year that the minute we get out of how we want to be, we're not successful. And I know we've been scoring a lot of goals. But our focus has always been defense first. And when we don't do that, we scored five goals in an opponent's rink, it just proves that even if we do focus on offense, it's not going to give us any success. There's things we don't want to allow players to do and didn't allow themselves to do because they know by now we have the entire year to figure out what kind of group we've got and what kind of game we need to play to have success. And we didn't play that last game. So to give ourselves a chance in these games we at least have to be on the same page on the things that have made us successful and stay away from the things that haven't. And that's going to be our focus for the next game. Q. I heard you talk about Kubina there in French. Any new update? Anything new on him today? COACH BOUCHER: He might have been able to practice today. I didn't talk to my therapist today or the doctors. So I'm going to do that in the next hours to see where he stands. Obviously we're not expecting him to play in the next game, but things might have progressed. So I still have to make that phone call. Q. Curious if you could zoom in on the faceoff circle for us a little bit, after the great performance in Game 1 did you notice anything in Game 2 other than the Bruins redoubling their efforts? COACH BOUCHER: Bruins did a better job on the faceoff we did in the first game and the second game it was the opposite. It comes down to what I said before. These games in the Playoffs, they come down to the smallest minute detail and faceoffs are part of that. When you start with the puck obviously you're not chasing the puck. They started off with the puck more often than we did in last night's game. Therefore, they started with the advantage and then that makes us chase a lot more. And it's our job to be better on those faceoffs. We put a lot of emphasis on it for the first game, and maybe less in the second game, and we're going to take care - we're going to take part of the blame on that, but it's important next game. And I'm sure Bergeron will play in the next game, so that means they're even going to be better, and that's something that we felt that was Boston's strengths going into these Playoffs. And I'm sure it's going to be a continuing struggle for us for sure, because even if you do try as hard as you can, you're playing a team that's good on the faceoffs, usually at best it's going to be a 50/50 game. Q. I'm sure you had a perception of Martin St. Louis as a player before you had an opportunity to work with him. How did that perception of Martin St. Louis measure up to the reality over the last season? COACH BOUCHER: Well, I had so much information that I've got no reason to be surprised of what I've seen during the season. But it is impressive. It's a great relationship that me and the rest of the staff have had with Marty. I also am lucky in the sense that our kids played hockey at the same time. He's got three boys, I have a boy and a girl who play hockey, and they play at the same levels. We see each other very often. We got to talk many, many times this year. Obviously this turns around hockey (laughter). And the thing I found was on top of being a great leader, on top of being somebody that everybody looks up to and a work ethic that's just absolutely mindboggling, he's a great individual. He's a person that genuinely cares about others and cares about the things that what we call the intangibles. It's not just a game, but I think life in general. And I think when you see him raise his kids and the way he runs his family and the way he conducts himself off ice, not just at the rink, I think he's one of the greatest examples and idols that the youngsters can have in this game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|