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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RANGERS v CANADIENSMay 20, 2014Michel TherrienNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Practice Day Q. A quick question on Max Pacioretty, 39 goals, four goals in the playoffs. What's impressed you the most about his growth and his leadership with the team this year? COACH THERRIEN: He's an important player for us. He became a leader. He's a young leader, and we gave him more responsibility this year. Obviously, playing with the power play, and now once he mentioned to Pat Sherman in the season, we start the season, so I want to give him more responsibility. He's one of the guys that I want to use at the end of the game if we have the lead. And we use at the end of the game if we're looking for a goal. So you're looking all around. I believe you grow as a player. He's got a good attitude. He's working hard, and that is a young player that is growing inside our club, and he became a leader with time and growing with maturity. But definitely he's getting better and better every year. Q. I just want to know if you think the two off days will help reenergize your team? That was a long, emotional, physical series with Boston, and a pretty quick turnaround. Do you think it will be good to help your team that way? COACH THERRIEN: I believe, Pierre, that we will turn around. Yes, the first game was touch for us. Emotionally it was tough for us. Physically it was tough for us. Didn't get much time between Game 7 and Game 1, and it was an afternoon game. Obviously, it shows with the result. But you know what? I thought we regrouped really well from that first game. I thought yesterday we were a team that played with a lot of energy. I thought we were a team that's pushing the pace, and we played a solid game. Yes, you know, it's like today I think it's good for us mentally to get a day off for the players. I think I'm anxious to see my guys tomorrow, and going to New York because, you know what? We were looking for one win, and momentum can change quickly in the playoffs. So I'm really optimistic. Reason why? Because of the way that we were capable to compete and get engaged in our game yesterday. Q. With the unfortunate chance you have Marty St. Louis, can you just see something different in the Rangers? Because I mean, you've played them all year long, and in sports which often times models life, is there just something different about this team that you didn't see all season or up until this unfortunate incident? Can you just tell something about this Ranger team? COACH THERRIEN: This is a good hockey team. Obviously, this is a good hockey team. They've got some good leaders that have won the Stanley Cup. They've got world class players. They're in the Eastern Conference Final because they're a good team. Right now this is the best team that we're meeting. But you know what? I like the way we played yesterday, and that gave us the confidence to approach Game 3. But definitely with the leadership of Martin St. Louis, for sure, this is a guy that's won a Gold Medal at the Olympics, won Stanley Cup, and he's doing a hell of a job for the Rangers. Q. You talked about your team playing better yesterday, and they certainly did a better job. What do you have to do though to step it up? What didn't you do yesterday? COACH THERRIEN: Well, we did a lot of good things. We're going to keep focusing on the things that we did good. We did a lot of good things. Number 1 reason why we ended up losing that game was Lundqvist had a phenomenal game last night. But there are things that we need to get better, and I believe we gave up a little bit too many off man rush, those are the little details that we're capable to fix. But I like the way that we're engaged in the game. I like the way that we approached the game. You know what? To win a hockey game, like I said yesterday, you need some breaks, and we didn't have any breaks yesterday. Right now the Rangers, they got their break, and they capitalized on their break. We didn't get some calls yesterday, but you know what, momentum changed really quickly in the playoffs. This is by experience. You get one win, and then after that, you know, the momentum can change really quick. So that's our focus right now. Q. You had 41 shots at them, but did you feel that there were times when you could have done a better job of getting second chances or taking advantage? COACH THERRIEN: You know what? I'd rather give credit to the Rangers. Yes, we threw a lot of pucks on the net and they blocked a lot of shots. And at times we missed the net by a few inches, and guys were battling to get the rebounds. The defense and the Rangers, they did a phenomenal job to block players out and not giving us the time or second chances. You know, like the first shift, we got some chances. Rene Bourque got three scoring chances on rebounds, but Lundqvist made those saves. Our plan was to get there, but in general the defense of the Rangers, they did a good job. Q. Coach, I wanted to ask you, Rick Nash now he's been slumping for a long time and now he's scored twice in two games and he looks like he's regained his scoring touch. Is there any special attention that you have to pay now to Rick Nash in terms of checking him more closely or anything like that? COACH THERRIEN: You know what? To be quite honest, he's a really good player. He's a world class player, and we try to pay attention to everyone that's on the ice. There is not one guy who steps on the ice that we're not going to pay attention to him, so we'll try to pay attention to all of the New York Rangers. That's the way the game is supposed to be played, and Rick Nash right now is playing really well. He's really productive. Q. Wondering, in the first two rounds you guys are kind of riding the highway so to speak and getting a lot of breaks, and now things have kind of turned the other way. How much do you lean on your veteran core right now to help the younger kids ride that wave? COACH THERRIEN: You know what? I've got the luxury to go to coach a really good group of players and really good bunch of guys who care. That's the reason why we reached the Eastern Conference Finals. I know those guys are going to come to the rink tomorrow with the right attitude and make sure that we're going to be ready for Thursday night's game. You know what? We surprised a lot of people through the course of the season. When we started the season there were a lot of people not even putting us in the playoffs, or if they wanted to be polite, they'd give us the 8th spot. We caused a surprise to make the playoffs. We caused a surprise against Tampa Bay Lightning to win in four, and we caused a bigger surprise to beat the Boston Bruins. Now again, there are not many people that believe in us, but that's a group with a lot of character. This is a group that believes in themselves, and we're going to focus on one game and try to create a surprise for Thursday night again. Q. Do you think the team tends to play better when they've got that going and when they feel like the underdog? COACH THERRIEN: You know what? No, no. It's not about that. If I look, because the game yesterday, it's about the game yesterday. Yes, we've got a tough game Saturday afternoon, but there was a reason why. I could understand the reason why. We just came off a really emotional series against the Bruins. It was a really quick turnaround. It was an afternoon game. It was really demanding for the players physically and mentally. But you know what? I liked the way we responded. I like the way we played yesterday, and that is the only thing we've got to focus on and keep playing like this and breaks will change and luck will turn around. You need some luck at times to win hockey games. The only thing that we're going to focus is to make sure we've got another solid game in New York. Q. Just wondering what you thought of how Alex Galchenyuk did yesterday, and what kind of a different look he gave not only your team, but that line with Vanek, and what do you expect from him in the next game? COACH THERRIEN: You know, for a guy that hadn't played for six weeks, I thought he did well. Especially this is not the pace of the regular season, this is a playoff pace, and I thought Alex did good the first game back. I thought he was capable, made some plays. The more the series is going to go on, the more we're going to see Alex getting better and better. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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