BOSTON BRUINS QUOTES DON SWEENEY’S PRE-SERIES PRESS CONFERENCE Monday, April 9, 2018

BRUINS GENERAL MANAGER DON SWEENEY On if he is concerned about the team’s play the past few weeks… Well, we won 50 games, and I think the body of work speaks that this team deserves to be where we are, and we focus on Thursday night. I think every team would recognize that they have areas that they want to clean up. We just want to be playing our best hockey Thursday night. And, the schedule has probably presented some challenges, but for the most part, the whole schedule all throughout the year has presented a lot of challenges for our hockey club, and they’ve risen to meet each and every one of them for the most part. I think the body of work, as I said, speaks for itself, so they’ll be ready to go.

On if he has expectations for the first round or the playoffs in general… Expectations? We want to win. We’ve put ourselves in a positon with 15 other teams. We deserve to be here, and hopefully we can continue to move forward. You’ve got to play your best hockey. The opponent wants to win as badly as you do, so you’ve got to go out and put forth your best effort to try and get it done, and generally, over the course of seven games, the better team wins.

On if he expects the injured players to be ready for Game 1… Well, they’re all working that way. You know, we’ve got a couple days to practice and see where they all, kind of, get to. Hopefully. Hopefully they’ll all be available. Well, we know Brandon [Carlo] is not.

On if Riley Nash skated today… He was on the ice today, yup.

On if he is satisfied with his trade deadline acquisitions… Well, certainly our goal was to deepen our team; I think we did do that. We tested our depth coming down the stretch. We knew, with 17 games in March, 16 games or so in March, that we going to have to probably utilize everybody. Ryan Donato was also – that was not a fait accompli that he would be joining our team, but once that decision was made, obviously, he has acquitted himself well and added to that depth. And, several players in Providence have certainly stepped up in that regard. I’d hope to not have to use everybody, for the fact that injuries would dictate that. We’re hopeful to have guys that we might be able to jockeying around and get prepared, but injuries are what they are. This club has faced a number of them throughout the year.

On his early impressions of Bruce Cassidy when they started working together… Smart hockey guy. Made a lot of decisions on ice that read about playing – not necessarily about individual play – about styles of play, how your team was playing, how the other team was playing, which is unique to have an on-ice ability to do that. Made adjustments very well very early on in games, would recognize how another team might forecheck in the neutral zone and such and make adjustments accordingly. And convey, one to teach every day was critical in the moment, but the next day, showing up and being able to teach again and prepare for the next game, and I think he does that very well. He puts things behind him to take what he needed and then move forward to what he needs to do for the next day on an individual player level, but more importantly, on a team-wide basis. He went in as an assistant coach with Rob Murray, so he wasn’t necessary in charge of those things, but you could tell that he wanted to make sure he was making the imprints on his D, took, really, ownership of the defense and a willingness to have that group perform and improve. So, he’s pretty target-specific.

On the overall job that Cassidy has done… I think our staff has done a very, very good job. I’m proud of how they work together. Obviously, Bruce sets the tone of how we want to play, and they work well together to get the most out of our players and have them respond. As I said, 50 wins, I think it speaks to the job that they did and certainly, obviously, the players because they deserve the lion’s share of that credit.

On if he buys in to the fact that coaches can be out-coached by opponents… Well, I think the coach is a part of it. Putting forth a game plan and having players executing and keep them on task. Ultimately, I think the players determine who wins and loses, but I do believe the coach has some bearing in that.

On where he sees the rookie group heading in the postseason… Well, I would disagree with the fact that that’s why we’re here. I think we’re here because they integrated with a pretty strong core of guys. Those young players deserve a lot of credit for moving along and developing accordingly. They got opportunity; we spoke at the beginning of the year that players would get opportunity, it was up to them to take advantage of it, and I think several of those players have done that, and we’ve benefitted as an organization as a result of that. But, I’ve always said all along, I think the core group of our players are the driving influence there, and then we have players that are emerging to hopefully grow into the next core.

On if the playoffs are a learning experience for the rookies… This is winning. This is all about winning. It has from day one. That’s how you’re judged and surveyed this time of year even more so. We talked about Pastrnak last year going through the playoffs for the first time. Yeah, some players are going to go through that. It’s about winning.

On what Pastrnak learned in last year’s playoffs… I hope he has an appreciation for how difficult it is and the lack of space and how hard people are going to play for every inch of ice. I think that he took that to mean he was going to be targeted as a top line player. He was an emerging top line player last year. From day one, people recognize that that was a group, that was a line that’s very difficult. He’s a big part of that. He’s played every game this year. He’s stayed healthy and produced from start to finish. Hopefully he’ll carry that forward, recognizing that it’s going to be a hard matchup every night.

On the team’s recent play… Well I did mention early on that I think 50 wins speaks to the body of work of what our team has accomplished thus far. It’s a successful regular season but now we’ll be judged on how we do going forward and hopefully the players will – it’s not about a reset, it’s really about tightening up what they do and the coaches will address some of the areas that probably haven’t been as tight as they would like to be going in. You have to be playing your best hockey. You don’t win if you’re not playing your best hockey this time of year. Every team that is here deserves to be here and they want to win. If you’re not playing your best you’re not going to win.

On if they expected March to be difficult based on the schedule… We always felt March was the daunting part of the schedule unfortunately. We were in a pretty good position, but we were still pushing forward. That’s the type of team that we had. They wanted to win, we had the chance right up until the final bell to try to keep climbing the standings and meet every challenge. We fell short in that regard, but I think they’re ready to look forward and hopefully they’ll play their best hockey, because that’s what it’s going to take. The league itself, the parity, the races, the amount of points it takes just to get in, it’s a grind. You start the year and realize you have to make 100 points, close to 100 points to make the playoffs now. It’s a difficult task. You run through the injuries that we’ve had, the depth question was asked earlier. Part of that was March. We knew what we were going to go through. And players deserve an awful lot of credit, coaches deserve a lot of credit. Now hopefully as I said, we have to play our best hockey.

On Tuukka Rask’s workload... It’s something we started with first part of the year to be very cognizant of and we’re appreciative of how Anton [Khudobin] has handled that. I think he’s done more than his share. Tuukka had a great run and hopefully he takes that and the fact the we have managed it pretty damn well and runs with it.

On Matt Grzelcyk’s progression this season… He’s made a really big jump this year in particular. The confidence in knowing he can play at this level and use his skating ability on both sides of the puck, transport it – also that first pass, staying out of the defensive zone as much as possible because bad stuff happens when you have to defend all the time and I think Matt takes that to heart. He’s helped our transition game. His confidence at the offensive blue line to keep plays alive or to generate has also improved. I think it started this year in Chicago in exhibition when we started to see him take control of that. Bruce had made a challenge to him to say, ‘bring what you bring’. You’re a lot more dynamic than what you’ve been showing and take that confidence out on the ice. He carried it into the Nashville game, probably deserved to stay. We had a numbers game at that point in time, but when he came back up, he’s carried forward. And that’s a credit to him and the coaches that have worked with him. But I think confidence has been a big part of Matt’s overall development.

On the Bruins fourth line… It was an area that we had addressed a couple years ago. Being target specific on some players that could take especially the penalty kill side of it. What we felt as an organization that you have to spread those minutes around. You have a player playing the bottom six we’ll call it, he’s not on either specialty team, that really taxes the rest of your group. We think the emergence of all those players that played as you described them fourth line, we’ve played them in situations where we’re playing against top lines. They’re very accountable, that line has scored close to 30 goals. It’s been a big part of our identity, our club from top to bottom. It has taken away a bit of the ice time as we described that is taxing against some of the top players. It’s allowed them some offensive zone starts, some situations that we’re trying to be cognizant of. They’re a big part of what we’re trying to do and as far as a player aspiring just to play the fourth line – we always talk about guys that they want to play in the National Hockey League and they haven’t had someone to keep them there. It’s up to them to find out how far, whether it’s a top nine role or where they really play. Then you have injuries and players get an opportunity to take advantage of it. It’s not about putting a player in a box and saying you’re in this box, you stay in this box. It’s about impacting our club. And I think that those guys as you described fourth line, I think that they’ve really had a big impact this year.

On how Charlie McAvoy managed his setbacks this year… Charlie hasn’t experienced the injuries, certainly a unique situation with the ablation. Charlie’s handled things very well. It takes everybody time when you come back from injuries, when you miss time, to get your game back to where you’d like it to be and where you feel comfortable. So, he’s gone through some ebbs and flows in that regard, but he’s handled things very well. He’s kind of matured beyond his years on the ice and want to see him continue to evolve as an impact player. On if the team will look at any players from Providence to come up over the next couple of days… Hopefully we’re healthy and we go forward. We have players – they’re still playing, they have three games left this weekend. They’re in the playoffs, so we have everybody readily available if needed.

On what stands out about Toronto… Quality hockey club. They play with a lot of speed, so we’ve got our work cut out for us from top to bottom. They’ve got depth, they’ve got scoring ability. It’s going to be a big challenge, they’re a quality hockey club.

On if it was Leafs country where he grew up in the Maritimes... I can’t honestly say I was ever a Leafs fan if that’s what you’re asking me. When you’re growing up, it’s Montreal and Toronto. That’s what’s available to you in Hockey Night in Canada and Peter Puck – I’ve really dated myself now with Peter Puck. That’s what you did. Fortunately, TV 38 came in and I got the Bruins emblem stamped on me.

On Torey Krug’s production… I don’t think anyone was ever worried about Torey’s production, especially on the power play and being able to contribute offensively at the National Hockey League level. I think Torey’s emergence of wanting quality minutes in situations that people might not think we could handle. He wants to be on the ice in all situations, not just ones that are protected or offensively titled. That’s a challenge, to find the balance of minutes there when you can take advantage of his offensive attributes. But from a production standpoint, he was quiet there for a time, he was injured when he came out of the gate and then he really jumpstarted and took things on his shoulders to make sure that our power play and offensive situations for our hockey club were moving in the right direction. It’s a credit to him.

On the penalty kill job description for defensemen… It’s still time and space, pressuring as a unit. You’re never going to assert pressure by one, it’s got to be as a group, one goes, I’ll go. Blocked shots is a big key component, being in shooting lanes. It takes a lot of courage. You look at Brandon and Adam [McQuaid] and Kevan [Miller] and Zee [Zdeno Chara], those guys eat up a lot of shots. Adam broke his leg as a result of one this year. It takes courage to do that. But all four guys on the ice really have to be unison. It starts with down-ice pressure, Joe Sacco and Jay [Pandolfo] do a good job. But I think that’s part of the question earlier. You don’t know whether Sean Kuraly’s going to kill penalties in the National Hockey League when he first gets here. Our whole thought process is we’ll have players doing it. Danton Heinen killed penalties, Jake DeBrusk killed penalties. We’re making sure our players organizationally are put in situations because they might just not roll out on the power play here. Now you got to realize that they’ve got to be able to do it in the National Hockey League level, against really, really good players that take advantage of time and space and situational things. It’s a steep learning curve in that regard, but it’s a credit to our group. As I’ve said, we’ve tried to do it collectively to make sure that it’s not just any 1-2. Generally, we have three sets, we’ve had injuries that have come in and done a good job. It’s an organizationally philosophy to the coaches and the players that have adopted and done well.

On Brandon Carlo’s surgery… He was here last night. Doing much better, up and around. Obviously, the recovery is a long one. Surgery went well. We’ll miss Brandon, he was a big part of our hockey club.

On if the surgery was as anticipated… No surprises there. I know people had asked, ‘Was it just a straight fracture?’ The swelling was such that we wanted to make sure there wasn’t any further damage, going through an MRI, making sure the doctor felt very comfortable before we just sort of disclosed it was a simple procedure and didn’t want any surprises after that fact. It went very straightforward, very successful. He’s on the road to hopefully the recovery process.

#04/09/18#