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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BRUINS v CANUCKS

June 1, 2011

Claude Julien

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA: Game One

THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach.

Q. How do you feel? It's finally here.
COACH JULIEN: Great. Like we mentioned, this is a great place to be right now. We're excited to play our first game. There's been a lot of buildup around it.
What matters to us and what counts is what's going to happen on the ice tonight.

Q. Do you prepare any differently for a 5:00 start?
COACH JULIEN: I don't think it's much different than afternoon games we played throughout the season. It really doesn't change much.
For us it's basically an 8:00 game if we were in our time zone.
We've been used to these afternoon games, played them all year long. I don't think it's going to be an issue at all.

Q. Coming off a layoff, them playing in front of the home crowd...
COACH JULIEN: Any team that is going to be in the Stanley Cup finals can certainly take advantage of their home crowd. We'll be in that position Game 3 and 4.
For us right now, as I mentioned, you have to try to block those things out as best you can, concentrate on your game.
When we go to MontrÃ©al, we have a pretty good feeling of what those crowds are going to be like. I'm sure Vancouver will be a lot like MontrÃ©al has been against us. We've had a lot of practice in that area.

Q. Do you need to say anything pregame here or just enjoy the moment and take off from there? What have you been saying to the guys?
COACH JULIEN: It's been kind of a buildup. You don't want to throw too much to them all at once. I think we kind of worked our way through this in our preparation.
The fact that they're enjoying it goes without saying. It's something that you want to cherish the rest of your life. You have an opportunity here to choose how you're going to cherish it, whether it's a Stanley Cup win or playing second fiddle.
It's up to us. It's a clean slate. Start from scratch with both teams. May the best team win.
We certainly want to give ourselves a really good chance at it. We believe in ourselves as a team. We have all year. That's why we're here.

Q. A number of people see you as underdogs. Do you see yourselves in that role?
COACH JULIEN: Well, it really doesn't matter what people see us as, where we're put. All I know is we're here in the Stanley Cup finals because we deserve it. We've gone through a lot to get to this stage. Because of that, we've got a lot of resiliency in our game, we've got a lot of determination.
It doesn't matter. At this stage, somebody's got to be a favorite, somebody's got to be an underdog. Some people really thrive on being underdogs, some people would prefer to be underdogs.
For us, it really doesn't matter. We're not playing that card right now. We're just playing the card that we're here and we're here to win.

Q. The discipline and energy your team showed in Game 7, is that what you need to beat the Canucks?
COACH JULIEN: We talked about that after we won that game. Those are the type of games you have to win to win the Cup. We've obviously proven that we can. Now it's up to us to go out there and do it on a game-after-game basis.
We understand the challenge, we understand what's at stake, we understand who we're playing. Basically our homework is done. Right now it's up to us to go out there and show that we can, and we believe we can.

Q. There's been a lot of speculation in the last few days about the top two lines and so forth. Can you talk about the bottom six, third and fourth lines, their roles.
COACH JULIEN: Well, I think everybody in the Stanley Cup finals has a big role to play. If you're just relying on just a couple players, you're probably going to end up on the disappointing end of the finals.
For us, I know that our whole roster has played a huge role at one point or another during the season and throughout the playoffs. So we don't expect that to change.
We feel good about our depth. Depth means you have more than two lines. We feel good about our depth on the back end. Again, that means that guys that are in the lineup are guys that we feel good about. That hasn't changed.
I can say the same thing about our goaltending. Although you've only seen one, the one behind him is a great goaltender and will be for a number of years.
I'm happy with what our team has as far as depth is concerned. Hopefully we'll be able to utilize that.

Q. Is it just a matter of time before your team strikes with consistency on the power-play?
COACH JULIEN: I don't know. Is it a matter of time? I think right now what we have to understand is we have to do our best in all areas. Hopefully our power-play is going to produce for us. If it does, we better make sure theirs doesn't either.
That's the way it goes. That's the way it was handled against Tampa. It helped us get here.

Q. Do you believe in twin telepathy?
COACH JULIEN: Listen, they've earned respect because of the chemistry between the two of them. They deserve it. But at the same time I don't think we're sitting here saying we're worried about them.
There's more than the twins on that team that can do damage. I think we're looking at their team as a whole. There's obviously key players on every team. I'm sure they're keying on ours.
For the most part we know what to do against them. Now it's up to us to go out there and do that job against those guys and try to minimize the damage.

Q. Emotions aside, what do you see as the keys to tonight's game for your team?
COACH JULIEN: Well, I think number one, we have to come out here and play like we want to win the game. Certainly not play on our heels. That first game, especially on the road, you know, you kind of try and get a feel for each other. We're not teams that play each other a lot.
Right now we have to go out there and play our game. It's not a big secret. There won't be any secret plans talked about here for sure. Nevertheless, it's a matter of going out there.
We feel good about our game. We feel if our game is on top, it should give us an opportunity to win a game.

Q. Do you see the breakout being one of the areas that will post a big challenge for you?
COACH JULIEN: We've faced those kind of aggressive forechecks all year.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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