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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RANGERS v CANADIENSMay 23, 2014Michel TherrienNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Practice Day Q. Can you respond to Vigneault's comments about that hit? COACH THERRIEN: You know what? If there is a team that can understand the loss of a player, it's us. We lost Carey Price in the first game of the series with the hit on Kreider when he hit Carey Price, and we felt frustrated at the time. We're still frustrated not having our goalie, our number one most important player, because those type of plays, usually players like that when they go to the net, something bad could happen like that so fast, and they don't go as fast for icing or they don't fall on the boards because they're going to get hurt. So they know if they fall on the goalie they're not going to get hurt. The only guy that can get hurt is the goalie. So, hey, you never want to see players, first of all on our side or even on the other side, get hurt. You don't want to see that. You want to make sure that both teams are competing hard, and at the end of the day no one wants to see players get hurt. You want to see players competing and playing hard and playing the right way. But I believe sometimes even we get frustrated as coaches, and at times players get injured. Q. Did you feel that Prust hit was clean? COACH THERRIEN: You know what? His intention was not to hurt anyone. Like Kreider, his intention, even if he was going hard to the net and then laying on Carey Price, I'm sure his intention was not to hurt Carey Price. Brandon Prust, he tried to finish his check. His intention, honestly was not to hurt Stepan. Q. What did you feel about the way Brandon was playing after that point, before that point? COACH THERRIEN: Well, you know what? He's a guy bringing intensity to our team, and he's killing penalties. He's a good teammate. He's a good leader. I thought yesterday he had a good game. Q. Is this something that maybe can help this series right now having a little bit more animosity? There was a lot more hatred with the Bruins. We haven't seen that much in this series. Is this something that will have an effect on Game 4? COACH THERRIEN: Both teams have one goal in common and that is to go to the Stanley Cup Finals. So for sure game after game there is going to be emotion that's there. For us to be able to win last night, that was a huge game for us, we all know. Tokarski did a fantastic job, and without his job we probably wouldn't have won that game. And Lundqvist did the same thing at the Bell Centre. He was phenomenal. And if it wouldn't have been for Lundqvist, probably we would have won that game. I've been with both teams, and, yes, the compete level is going to get higher and higher because we all understand the purpose of every game. Q. The decision to go with Tokarski was, some people say it was a gamble, maybe less of a gamble with what you guys knew about Tokarski. But was there a moment yesterday where you kind of breathed a sigh of relief? COACH THERRIEN: No, honestly, it's not about that. We've got confidence in the kid. The kid's a gamer. He battles. He's proven it in the past. He's proven it in the past and that's why we based our decision. We've got the luxury to get three good goalies. We've got the luxury to have Carey Price, one of the best in the league, obviously. We all know that. We've got the luxury to have Peter Budaj, good teammates, working hard, great attitude. He's won some big games for us this year, big games. We threw him out there in Boston this year and he won those games. He's been a good teammate, and right now we've got a young goalie who is doing a phenomenal job. We've got three great people and three great athletes. Q. It could have backfired though. I mean, he's a young kid, a lot of pressure. It must have been a relief that he did come in ask approximate get the job done? COACH THERRIEN: You know what, we've got confidence. When we take a decision, we're confident we're doing the right thing. Q. I know you rely on the advice of other people when you make that kind of call. But how well have you known Dustin whether at training camp? Have you gotten to know him at all? COACH THERRIEN: Well, we started to know him when he joined our organization last year. We knew his back records, and we knew that he's a kid that competes and battles hard and is capable to play those big games in the important times of the year. This is what he proved in his career. This is what, again, he's doing right now for us in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That's why, for us, when we took the decision, it was not an easy decision to make, but we're glad we did it. I think this is going to be good for his confidence the way that he was capable to seal the game last night. Q. Coach Vigneault suggested that the hit itself really changed the momentum in your favor. That it was something the bench took notice of it and it was a big hit and it helped the team? COACH THERRIEN: The hit? Q. The hit that Prust made. That it brought good momentum to the bench and the team. COACH THERRIEN: You see, like I said, Brandon Prust's intention was not to hurt Stepan. It was to try to finish his check, and sometimes it's less than a second that a player's got to react. It's tough. You never want to see, like I said, you never want to see a player get hurt. You never want to see a player get hurt. But it was a good hit. It was a hockey hit, you know. Obviously, Stepan got hurt on it, but did it change the momentum of the game? I don't know. I can't say. I thought we started to play better in the second half of the game, not right after that hit. Even the first period we were a little bit on our heels. I know probably I won't say it's because of that hit that we started to play better. Q. I heard you mention in French that you had to talk to the leadership group about the decision to go with Tokarski. How important was that? COACH THERRIEN: When we take a decision, the decision to go with Tokarski, you know, for sure personally I sat down with our captain, and Brian Gionta and Josh Gorges and they understand and they felt good about the decision. That's what it was for me. Yeah, the players really bought into our decision. Q. A different type question. Two of your key guys are Coach Vigneault and Brendan Gallagher, both shorter guys, what is it about hockey now that players like that can still be effective even in playoff time? COACH THERRIEN: Yeah, what's the most important thing is it's always whether you're small or big, you play big games. Even Desharnais competes, Gallagher competes, and they've got success and they're always in traffic. For me, it's the way about the competing whether it could be a small player or a big player as long as you compete this is not negotiable with us. This is something I tell our players a lot. Competing is not negotiable. You've got to make sure when you wear that jersey you've got to compete. Q. The Rangers obviously are unhappy about the hit. Do you have to stress discipline to make sure that whatever they come back with in Game 4 that there is no retaliation? COACH THERRIEN: Well, when we lost Carey Price, we were frustrated, so we all know the purpose of every game and what every game means and what is the goal. Both teams want to go to the Stanley Cup Final, so I don't know what they're going to do. I know what our focus was when we ended up losing Carey Price, and I want to make sure that we play hard, we compete, we play the right way, and that was our focus. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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