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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RANGERS v CANADIENSMay 18, 2014Alain VigneaultMONTREAL, QUEBEC: Practice Day Q. In your own words, what can you tell us about what the day was like and being there to support Marty? COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, what I can say is that the New York Rangers family has been touched by a little Quebec family in a deep, profound way. Today was very emotional, very moving time for our team to have the opportunity to be there and share that with Marty and his family. Marty took the stand or the podium or whatever you want to call it, and shared some incredible moments. It was a very deep message. It was a challenging day for us. Q. How do you go about turning your attention back to a game after something like that? COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, I think considering we've got basically the rest of the day off and guys are going to do what they normally do the night before a game, and tomorrow morning we're going to practice, and we're going to start focusing on what we need to do hockey‑wise. That's the only thing we can do. Today is a day where we think about Marty and his family and his mother, and tomorrow life goes on and we've got to get ready for a big game. Q. I just wondered, is there any update on Derick Brassard? COACH VIGNEAULT: I think he was day‑to‑day yesterday, and he's day‑to‑day to day. Q. You said after her wake you texted with Marty to see how he was doing. What is your sense about where he's at mentally and emotionally right now? COACH VIGNEAULT: After hearing him speak, I don't know how he did it. He's a much better man than I am to be able to do something like that. But I think what he's doing and his family, his sister, and his father, and his aunts and uncles, and everybody that's close to him, I think what they're doing is they're moving on through our team. The fact that we're still playing is enabling them to cope and handle this challenging situation. Q. How then are you avoiding turbulence, in many ways, and connecting as a hockey team (Indiscernible)? COACH VIGNEAULT: I think today was obviously the big day as far as helping us turn the page and move forward. It was a strong message from Marty today. But just because of who Marty is and how we've all handled this so far, I mean, we're just come to the rink and done our business. And that's what we're going to try to do here as we move forward also. Q. On a different subject over Canadiens practice today, both Michel and Brandon Prust basically said they don't think Chris Kreider is a dirty player, but what happened is something he maybe could have avoided. He didn't turn his body or whatever. I think the phrase was accidentally on purpose. Do you have a reaction to that? COACH VIGNEAULT: Today I'm definitely not in the mood to pick a fight with anybody. What's great about this country is that everybody's entitled to their own opinion. You don't have to agree with it, but everybody's entitled to their opinion. I tend to believe a 2‑0 game, guy going on a breakaway, he's trying to score. Q. If Carey Price isn't able to play tomorrow for them, does that change anything for you in your team's approach? COACH VIGNEAULT: I'm sure Price is going to be there, so we're getting ready for him. Q. In a bigger picture with the play with Kreider on Price as he got behind the "D", obviously he was in on a breakaway. It happened a number of times. Do you think your speed, whether it was a huge factor or not, caught them off guard at all? COACH VIGNEAULT: I can't answer to what they were expecting from us. I can tell you that we try to play a fast game. We play whistle to whistle. That's what we do. We try to play north, south, up‑tempo‑type game, and we don't have the puck, we try to check well to get it back so we can go back on the attack. I'm not sure what they expected. You have to ask them. But that's what we do, and we definitely play whistle to whistle. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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