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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BRUINS v CANUCKSJune 13, 2011Mark RecchiSteve ThomasBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Six Boston – 5 THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players? Q. Tim, you knew you were going to get this one. Any analysis of the Brad Marchand goal given your style, if you would have stopped it? TIM THOMAS: No, I'm not going to go there. I would prefer to focus on the fact that Marshy made a great shot and came up big for us and got that first goal that helped lead us to a victory. Q. This will be the first Game 7 in the Stanley Cup in Bruins history, more than 80 years. Can you talk about going beyond the enormity of the game to your team to the franchise and the city? MARK RECCHI: Obviously it's tremendous for the city and the organization and not too many people counted on us being at this point right now. It's a great feeling. We battled hard tonight. We came to play and it's coming down to one game. This is what we dream of, when you're little kids playing street hockey, you know, you're in Game 7. We're going to go up there and we're going to go lay it on the line like they are, and I think it's going to be an exciting game. It's been three close ones up there and we've got to find a way to win a game to win a Stanley Cup and we're going to do whatever we can. Q. Mark, if you could go back to Brad Marchand and just how big he's been for you guys, rookie and everything he's done. He kind of reverted back at the end of the game, but how he's learned to deal with discipline as well. MARK RECCHI: He's a young kid that plays on the edge and sometimes the emotions get the best of him. But when you're young, that's not a bad thing. I would rather have a kid like that than a kid that plays with no emotion. It's a big part of his game and he's learning. He's learning to coral it when he needs to and when we need a lift, he's learned to go out and do it. That's the sign of a smart, young player who wants to get better and better. You know, it was a huge goal he scored and he emotionally kept on driving for us. It's a great thing. He's such a good kid and it's nice to see him get rewarded but also play an intelligent game tonight. He still played with the edge, but it was on the right side of it. Q. Reccs, you're one of the few guys in the series that knows what it's like to be one win away from a Stanley Cup. What do you tell these guys from your experiences? MARK RECCHI: We'll talk. We have practice tomorrow and the biggest thing is just embracing it. This is what we dream of. We've had pressure all year, pressure all through the playoffs. It's come down to one game. There is no pressure, go play, go out and have fun with this. It's what you play for and what we've worked hard for all year. We're going to have a blast doing it. That will be the message. They'll see how I'm acting and see you can't let it grab ya. You can't let it bite ya. We're going to play on the road and go and play a tremendous road game and compete and try and win a hockey game. It's something the guys will be focus and ready. Q. Tim, from the standpoint of a veteran goaltender, what does it mean to have to skate off the ice eight minutes into a Stanley Cup game and do you think there is any kind of carryover whatsoever? TIM THOMAS: I don't know. I've been through a lot of experiences but that's not one of them. So it's not something I can personally speak about. I'm not really going to comment on it because I have no personal experience in it. Q. Mark, first of all, can you take us through the Ference goal there, how you saw the play develop, and at that point in the game how important was it or how significant was it to get that net-front presence? MARK RECCHI: It's very important and it started with Rich Peverley winning a big draw to start with. I was able to get it back to Andrew. Andrew threw it down to Rydes, and then Rydes made a nice play. Andrew made a terrific shot. There was a couple of screens, their player, me, and I tried to get on top of the paint and create traffic for my guys. That's my job on our power play unit. And Andrew did a terrific job. But it started with the big draw. If you don't get that big draw, we don't have the opportunity. So we need to get the presence for sure. Q. Tim, you've been consistent throughout the series. You're spotted a 4-goal lead. Do you change your mentality at all? TIM THOMAS: A little bit but not a lot, because, you know, getting that fourth goal was a big goal, 3-0 lead, we had bad experiences with in the past, even during the regular season a couple of times this year. So that was big, but I didn't want to relax because I didn't want to give them any confidence and let them feel like they were going to get back into the game. Part of you relaxes, but part of you is like, telling yourself not to relax. It's kind of a inner battle. It's human nature and the tendency to start conserving energy starts to kick in and you have to fight against that. Q. Mark, the home ice a big factor is feeding off the energy of the crowd. The physicality, you guys at home have carried that, Game 5 not so much in Vancouver. Seems like for the Bruins that's going to be the difference in Game 7 in terms of can you bring that physical factor to Vancouver and play that way? How do you change that? MARK RECCHI: We can do it. We know we're capable of doing it. It's one game. I can't imagine us not doing it and laying it on the line and doing things that are going to help us try and be successful. You know, we had our backs against the wall tonight and the guys came out and did a great job. We've been resilient all year with stuff like that. It seems like when we get backed into a corner, we fight back pretty hard and now we've been in some Game 7 situations already this year and we've responded with a couple of our best games. Now we've got to play our best game. You know, the guys will be excited and we know we have to be physical and that's going to be part of it. It was something outrageous. We got out-hit in Game 5. I don't believe that's going to happen in Game 7. We're going to be there and we will be focused. Q. Mark, you guys have had so much offensive success here, not so much in Vancouver. How does that translate given one more game? MARK RECCHI: It's getting to our game and playing with the energy that you need to. We've got to go do it on the road for one game now. We've done it at home. We haven't done it as well in their building. We've done it in spurts. More so the first two games we did it in spurts there. But in Game 5, we were really inconsistent in that area and we're going to have to put together a full 60-minute game. You know, to realize your ultimate goal, your dream, you know, I think guys are going to be willing to do it on both sides and it's going to be a heck of a game. Q. Mark, can you talk about trying to go in Vancouver and trying to win the Stanley Cup for the guy on your right who seems to have done everything right now in his career and in those playoffs? MARK RECCHI: For Timmy, I mean, for Timmy and all the other players that haven't had the opportunity to raise the cup, I want nothing more than for them to enjoy that feeling and get a chance to feel that, especially what we've been through as a group. It's one of the best groups I've been with through the course of the year, from day one of training camp till now. You know, I want them to feel it, and I want them to enjoy it. We've got a 60-minute, hard-working game ahead of us and like I said, we're going to lay it on the line. For what Timmy has done for us all year it's remarkable and we all want this for each other. And it's special to get to this point. And we hope we can, you know, realize our dream and we've got a couple of days to get there. Q. Tim, is this stretch that you're having as good of a stretch as you've ever had? How does it rank in streaks that you've been on before in your career? TIM THOMAS: Well, at this level in the NHL, you know, if you want to call it a "streak" that I've had, I've had some good run in different years and in different leagues. My first year in Finland, I won the championship there and I had a really good run. I was actually 9-0 in the playoffs and .962 save percentage or something like that. Then the lockout year in Finland. But this is a totally different level. You're playing against the best players in the world. That was high-quality hockey in Finland, but this is a whole different ballgame. Q. Tim, following up on that, it was 18 years ago when you were up in Vermont and the career has been long and windy. What does all this mean to you with one game to go? TIM THOMAS: You know, I'm very happy to be here and very happy to have this opportunity. Like Mark said, I'm going to try to embrace that opportunity and take the same attitude that I've taken throughout the whole playoffs. And, you know, hopefully that will get me through that one last game to get to the goal that we've been shootin' for all year long. Q. Mark, first, seeing that this could very well be the last couple of days in your career, how differently are you savoring the sites, sounds, smells of the final journey compared to how you have in the past? And secondly, since you scored in Vancouver and answered your critics, you've been on a roll, have you been motivated by playing with a chip on your shoulder? MARK RECCHI: That doesn't motivate me. Number 1, playing for my teammates is what I play for. That's all I play for, my teammates, coach, and organization. I don't want to let them down. That's important to me. You know, first question was? Q. How differently you are savoring it? MARK RECCHI: That's the great thing about it. You know, I was fortunate to win won early in my career. From '06 when I won in Carolina to every playoff I've played in after that, I've been able to embrace it and enjoy it and watch how guys react and watch how they're acting and enjoy the experience of seeing guys go through their "firsts." It's neat and you're able to do that. I've been doing that for a number of years now and it's been just a great, great year this year for me. Like I said, great from the get-go with this group of guys. You knew there was something special right from the first time we got together. When we went over to Prague, we knew we had something good there. Q. Mark, at one point on the Jumbotron, Curt Schilling was up there and he talked about the Red Sox and what it meant to this city. I wonder what you think about that and especially as you leave The Garden this year? MARK RECCHI: We know the significance, '72 the last time this town got to see a Stanley Cup, great sports town, great hockey town and it would be remarkable. There has been a lot of success with the other sports teams and the Bruins included, but it's been a long time. We hope we can do that. I've enjoyed Boston so much, as we all have, for the time I've been here and it's an incredible city and the people are wonderful and the sports are just -- it's a fun thing to be a part of. I hope we give them, you know, what they deserve. Q. Tim, just a quick question for you. In all your years of experience, I'm curious if you've ever had an experience to your counterpart that Roberto Luongo is having in this series where you play so well at home and struggle on the road. Have you ever had that experience and how difficult is it to recover from if you have? TIM THOMAS: Have I personally ever had that experience? I don't recall having that type of experience, so, again, because I haven't had that experience, I don't know what to say, sorry. Q. Timmy, it wasn't long ago, three or four years ago when you were going into your first playoff series with Montreal and you didn't know what to expect. Can you talk about the last three years, building on -- even last year watching how it has prepared you for what's happening now? TIM THOMAS: That was five years ago, the first Montreal, I just did it in my head. Yeah, experience in these types of situations, definitely helps. I was just thinking about last year's run the other day and how much being able to see the game from a different side really helped me. Kind of seeing the in's and out's and the way that people interact during the playoffs and, you know, the things that we were doing which gave us the success that we did have last year. Just see it go from a different side, I think that helped. I'd never really had that opportunity in my career before. I was always on the ice and so focused with playing, so all those little things add up. I think, you know, having my first playoff series in Montreal with that type of crowd, that's helped the rest of my playoff experiences. I've experienced probably the loudest crowd in the NHL, that's what it feels like at Bell Center. And, you know, losing Game 7 to Carolina was an experience that, you know, it helped me in the long run. Last year, seeing the playoffs from a different angle helped me, too. Q. Mark, did you ever consider, with today or in the last couple of days, that tonight might be your last game? MARK RECCHI: It crosses my mind, but, you know, I have a job to do out there for the guys and I can't put those thoughts in my head. I'm going to, you know, lay it on the line one more time and see where it takes me after that. No matter what, it's been a great 22 years, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. This has been one of my best ones, regardless of what happens and I'm just still proud to play in the NHL. I love playing hockey and love being in the NHL and I think it's the greatest sport out there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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