	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BRUINS v CANUCKS

June 4, 2011

Claude Julien

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA: Game Two

Vancouver Â– 3
Boston - 2

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Julien.

Q. Why was it Zdeno Chara and Andrew Ference to start in overtime?
COACH JULIEN: Because we don't know who they're going to put on. They got the last change. It's a pretty normal thing.

Q. It's two games in a row now where they were able to exert their will, take over in the third period. How alarming is that for you right now?
COACH JULIEN: Well, I think it's not what's alarming right now, it's what we need to do better. I don't know if it's them taking over in the third period. I think our team certainly has to be better with our puck management, our decision making. We need to play a little bit more like we did in the second period. We're capable of doing that.
We got to go back home, regroup, and get back to work.

Q. Lucic seemed to not really know, what you just spoke of there, why that's happening. Do you pinpoint it to anything?
COACH JULIEN: I don't know. But I know we have to fix it. It's as simple as that. In the last two games here, we've lost by one goal and still I don't think we've played the way we can. We're a better team than we've shown. We got to go back home and start showing that and get ourselves back in this series.

Q. Is there ever a concern on how you lose a game? The last two could have gone either way. To lose this way, to be down 0-2...
COACH JULIEN: Not really. We've been through a lot this year. We're resilient. I don't think that's what's going to drag us down.
We've been able to bounce back before. We've gone through the experience of being down 2-0 against MontrÃ©al, probably even worse because we lost to them at home. So it's probably a better team here, absolutely a team that makes it to the final is a better team. It doesn't change the fact that we've been through it.
We didn't come here just to roll over. We're definitely going to go back home and regroup and bounce back.

Q. Claude, Zdeno was talking about the turnovers, puck management. He seemed to struggle tonight. Any concern about his level of play? You expect him to bounce back at home?
COACH JULIEN: Well, I guess, all of a sudden you lose a game and now we're going to start wondering about certain players. I think it's really about our whole team. It's not about Zdeno. Zdeno didn't lose the game for us tonight. Our whole team did.
I don't think we played very well, to what our standards are all about. I think the decision making, the puck management, it's what's costing us games. When you turn pucks over in the neutral zone, this is a team that thrives on it. We know that they thrive on it, yet we kept turning pucks over in the neutral zone. We have to be a little better in those areas.
I thought in the second period we started doing that, got ourselves in the lead, then they got themselves back in the game with that tying goal. Obviously that last goal was certainly a hard one to swallow.

Q. I wanted you to maybe address the move of Chara maybe going back to the point on the power-play and the power-play in general?
COACH JULIEN: It's a lot of different things. I think Zdeno has a lot of ice time. When you play a lot, certainly don't want him in front all the time. It's a very taxing position to be in. We thought that Lucic was bringing a pretty good physical presence tonight. He was capable of doing the job there for him.
As I mentioned today, I said you're going to see him there at times, but it doesn't mean you're going to see him there all the time. Lucic did a great job and got ourselves a goal out of it.

Q. With the night that Burrows had, any thoughts on whether or not the league made the right decision there with the biting incident?
COACH JULIEN: No comment. That has nothing to do with that. I never thought about that that way. They made a decision. We moved on. For us, if we start using that as an excuse, we're a lame team.
To me, it's not even a consideration.

Q. For a while it looked like you were taking a lot of time and space away from the Sedins. They score a goal, they started to generate a lot. You pointed to turnovers in the neutral zone. Is that where it really hurt you?
COACH JULIEN: Well, that and our puck management. I thought on our breakouts, we needed to move the puck a little better. Puck management, D-to-D passes weren't crisp or on the tape. We bottled a lot of pucks in our own end tonight. That allowed their forecheck to be efficient.
So those are the things that I keep talking about. So we're basically repeating ourselves with a lot of those things that are happening because of those two reasons I feel is hurting us right now: puck management and decision making.

Q. Your players talk about remaining positive. How have you, as a coaching staff, done that?
COACH JULIEN: Because we've seen it happen in front of our own eyes. We were down 2-0, came back and won the series. I don't think there's any reason here to not be positive. You don't get this far, guys, and all of a sudden hang your head.
They had home-ice advantage, won their first two home games. We got to go back home and do the same. One game at a time, as you hear always. We win the first game, it builds up momentum, and you get yourself back in the series.
It's not the end of the world here, guys. We lost the game, but we're a better team than that, and we're a team that's bounced back all through the season.
I don't see an issue here.

Q. The way the team has been able to move on. What has been the key for burying those emotions once you get home?
COACH JULIEN: Because you got to forget what just happened here tonight as far as the loss is concerned, but you got to learn from what we did wrong, our mistakes. We got to correct those. We know if we correct those things, things are going to be a lot better for us.
As far as I'm concerned, we're taking responsibilities for this loss. It's our own fault. We beat ourselves with some bad decision making and some poor puck management. You take responsibility and you make the corrections that you have to do and you move on.
I think our game this year has been good when we've been at our best and executing properly. And we didn't to that here.

Q. Does your goalie have to start playing a little closer to his net? Is he capable of that?
COACH JULIEN: Well, I think at the stage we're at right now, if I ask him to change his style, I'm not sure that's real good advice.

Q. On a positive note, from a lot of the other questions, just talk about the power-play, getting results on that, and Recchi getting the goal, shutting up some of the critics out there.
COACH JULIEN: Well, again, I go back to last game here. We had six power-plays. I thought we generated some good opportunities. We didn't score. Tonight we got rewarded.
I guess that makes it successful, obviously when you score. I thought our guys again tonight did a good job at moving the puck around, getting some opportunities. We had good traffic in front, whether it was Zdeno, the other time it was Lucic, then Recchi timed it well for that goal, tipping it in.
We're battling away in the special teams areas. Right now the main concern has been what we've been talking about since the start of this press conference.

Q. Can you explain how that last play broke down, that you had no one defending the front of the net.
COACH JULIEN: Turned the puck over in the neutral zone. I think tried to chip it in. They intercepted it. Again, whenever you turn pucks in the neutral zone, they went on a counterattack. I think Z came across. When Timmy was down, he had to go all the way around him. That gave Burrows that extra leverage that he needed to tuck it into the empty net.

Q. Somebody that should be coming down to that point, helping Z out?
COACH JULIEN: I think we're going in the other direction. I think it was more if we chip that puck in, we got support. I saw Marchand turning over and coming back. But Marchand couldn't do anything as far as Burrows was concerned. I think we had some guys coming back to take away some of the options that he had.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297