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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: DEVILS v RANGERSMay 19, 2012John TortorellaNEWARK, NEW JERSEY: Game Three Rangers – 3 Q. Coach, Dan Girardi, we know a lot about his defense. What is it about the offense? Can you talk about how he's succeeded so well on the offense, he got the win tonight? COACH TORTORELLA: Well, he just‑‑ we're trying to shoot the puck. I thought the biggest play there was a faceoff win. We struggled a little bit there on our power play. We find a way to get one and, again, we're trying to get pucks to the net. Q. Do you remember the first time somebody asked you about Brad Richards and being a clutch player? I'm sure there have been many times. Do you remember the first time? COACH TORTORELLA: No, I don't. I've known him since he was a kid. You could see he had that intangible. He went through some growing pains, but he makes big plays at key times. Q. What's that like in that room for the rest of the players to see that time after time this spring, when you absolutely need something to get done, that he's part of that? COACH TORTORELLA: Yeah, obviously we went after him pretty hard during the summer. And, again, it hasn't been smooth for him. He has had some struggles along the way here. And in the regular season and in playoffs, but I don't think he played that well the first two games of this series, but found a way to get involved in some big stuff tonight. Not only offensively, he made some big plays at key times. Q. Can you talk when your penalty kill goes 5 for 5 what that does for the rest of the team, in a game like this where it's 0‑0 going into the third, just shutting them down there? COACH TORTORELLA: How tight these games are, they have a good power play. They've got some good people on it. And we're just trying to again‑‑ we're flirting there taking five penalties. But tonight it came up big for us, especially in the third period when we had the lead. Q. Couple of good shifts there, the Richards line, before Girardi scored, is that sort of what you guys were trying to do the whole time you get the puck deep, get it behind the goal line and get it there, is that what you were talking about after Game 2? COACH TORTORELLA: We spent too much time in our end zone. That's due a little bit to them and due to us also, as far as some of the struggles we've had. So‑‑ and I thought the second half of the game I felt we were better. Certainly Hank gave us a chance in the first. The second half of the game I thought we were much better as far as just gaining some territory. Q. When you go to the third period and it's 0‑0, you've been through this so many times before, and when Hank is playing the way he's playing, is it no matter how poorly or good you're playing do you feel the slate is wiped clean when you get to the third and guys are feeling confident? COACH TORTORELLA: During the regular season and we've gone through the playoffs, that's what I like about our team. I'm not sure how far we go. I'm not sure what goes on from here, but it's a team that stays with it. And, again, I thought our game started coming back a little bit in the second period. Our third period was more what we were trying to get to. We still have things to improve on. But there's no panic. We know who we are. We know how we have to play. We're trying to do that more consistently. And that's how we'll go about it. It's no secret. Q. How much do you think the guys really feed off of Lundqvist when he's battling the way he is and seems to be locked in kind of like that? COACH TORTORELLA: It's a bit of our personality. I think Henrik, I've always said that about him, that's a bit of who we are. And I think Henrik displays that, how he does compete. And he's a great competitor as far as his preparation and as far as what he does for this hockey club. Q. When did you get the sense that Kreider would really be as good as he's become for you? COACH TORTORELLA: I don't even know the kid. For me to sit here and say I thought it was going to be that time, I have no idea. I don't know the kid at all. I've probably spoken to him probably three or four times since he's been here. But he has a knack. The puck follows him around. And he has a ways to go away from the puck, but he has a knack with that puck. We talked about it in between periods. We needed him to be better defensively, but we felt he had the best chance to score the goal. We end up scoring a couple of them, and him scoring one. And as we continue, especially when the season starts next year, I think that's when we'll certainly find more about him. But it's pretty exciting to see what he's doing as a kid coming right out of college. Q. Emminger in for Bickel today, can you talk about how you thought that would make your lineup a little better today? COACH TORTORELLA: I don't know to put Bick in a bad spot, because it's certainly not why we lost the last game. We put Emy in because we just wanted to get to pucks quicker. We thought he may be able to get to pucks quicker. We've had a few struggles with our coverage. Bick's a hell of a story as far as what he's done for our hockey club this year. We tried it today. We'll look at the tape, and I'm not sure where we go with it for the next game. Q. Just on your timeout, what was your thought process going into that and how did you think they responded? COACH TORTORELLA: We were too slow. We were lethargic at the beginning of the period. We were too slow. Q. And that seemed to‑‑ they seemed to respond to it? COACH TORTORELLA: I don't know if they responded to that. I thought we played better the second half of the period. But we were going to get hurt there. We were going to get scored on, I felt, because we were just too lackadaisical. For what reason, I have no idea. Q. Could you talk about Callahan's ability to lead the team out of that start and being involved in the goal, getting that one late and just physically leading you guys through those last two periods? COACH TORTORELLA: Yeah, he blocked shots, made a huge blocked shot at the end of the game. He gets robbed by Marty within the game there. There's a guy that just, it's killing him. He's not helping us a whole bunch offensively. ItÂ’s killing him. But he continues to do those other things. And if he continues to do other things and gets out of his own way a little bit, because I think he cares so much he's in his own way, you know, we're finding a way here to win a few games along the way really without him totally going, I think he's close. And you never know, you get an open net goal like that, you never know what that does for you. I've seen it before. A guy takes off. That's what we're hoping will happen with him. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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