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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SHARKS v CANUCKS

May 18, 2011

Alain Vigneault

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA: Game Two

Vancouver Â– 7
San Jose - 3

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Alain, what can you say about the play of Kevin Bieksa right now?
COACH VIGNEAULT: He played a real solid game again tonight and I thought both ends of the rink. Obviously his goal was a great passing execution there. He beat their goaltender in the five hole. But he's competing real hard. He's playing real well for us.

Q. Todd says he expects Ben Eager to be 100% Friday. What is your take on his hit on Daniel Sedin? Should it have been a major or should it be reviewed?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, obviously, Danny embellished that. The league will do the right thing. It was great embellishment.

Q. You mean, he got up too fast?
COACH VIGNEAULT: You guys saw the hit. I'm confident that the league's going to do the right thing.

Q. Your team's discipline, it paid dividends tonight. That says a lot.
COACH VIGNEAULT: Yeah, I mean, I think we've been that way all year long. We've talked about playing whistle to whistle, staying disciplined. That's what we've done throughout the playoff.
We did it again tonight. When their fourth-line player took a run at the NHL leading scorer, possibly the MVP, we stayed focused, we stayed disciplined. You know, we went out and played.
We're confident that the league's going to do the right thing.

Q. He's running around, you don't make him pay with the power-play? Is that the difference tonight? You hurt them with the extra minutes?
COACH VIGNEAULT: I think this year, anytime a team has tried to, I don't know, play us maybe a chipier way, our power-play has always responded. I thought tonight we moved the puck well. I thought we were physical when we needed to be, when the opportunity was there.
Obviously, power-play tonight at the right time got us important goals. Now we're going to turn the page on this one and focus on the next game.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about how Daniel was playing tonight and how he answered after the Eager hit.
COACH VIGNEAULT: Yeah, I mean, that whole line tonight obviously had some quality shifts on the ice. They spent a lot of time in the other team's end protecting the puck, getting great chances.
I think the other thing they did well tonight was they created a lot on the rush. Our D's were able to jump in the attack and able to find them. They got some grade A scoring chances and played real well.

Q. Is it the way the Sedins are being defended?
COACH VIGNEAULT: I think it's probably a combination of they're obviously very motivated right now, confident. We said before this series that we needed them to step up. They have for the first two games. We need it to continue.

Q. Is that the most complete game your team has played in the post-season?
COACH VIGNEAULT: You know, we've played some really good games that have been tighter and lower scoring. Tonight in the third period our power-play just took over because of Eager's penalty there, et cetera, et cetera. So we made them pay and took over the game.

Q. What does it say about Bieksa that nights like this are almost becoming the expectation for him? He's expected to play this exact way. What does it say about him?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, obviously we've all known that Kevin is a character guy and a real competitor. That's what he did tonight. That's what he's done for us consistently this year.
On the Marleau fight, it was Marleau that dropped the glove it wasn't Kevin Bieksa. Eager was ranting and raving at his bench, he was going berserk. It wasn't Kevin that dropped the mitts, it was Marleau that dropped the mitts. Not sure what he was supposed to do there.

Q. What do you expect from San Jose on their turf?
COACH VIGNEAULT: We expect them to play hard. They're one of the best teams in the NHL. They've got a highly skilled set there, real competitors. We're going to practice tomorrow and fly to San Jose and get ready for a real tough game.

Q. I know Aaron Rome's goal wasn't the biggest one of the night. He told me he didn't know what he was doing behind their net.
COACH VIGNEAULT: It was a set play (laughter).

Q. Can you comment on how well he's played for you, why he's made the lineup recently?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Because he's playing well in our mind at both ends of the rink. He's been physical. He's been confident with the puck. When the opportunity to jump in the attack is there, he's jumped. That's what we want our defense to do.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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