BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS WINNIPEG JETS Tuesday, January 29, 2019
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BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS WINNIPEG JETS Tuesday, January 29, 2019 BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY On the game overall… I thought it was very good, for most of the night. I thought we had the better of the play when you look at the big picture, that part of it. A lot of positives. We were physical, answered the bell when we needed to. I don’t think we had any passengers. Generated a lot of good looks. We just had some breakdowns. You have to be careful you don’t beat yourself, and I think there was a little bit of that tonight. No disrespect to Winnipeg. They’re one of the best teams in the National Hockey League, but I think some of it was self-inflicted, and the good teams don’t do that. So, we have to correct that. Line change against a pretty clearly defined play and we decide to change in the back end. We’ve just got to be sharper there. Obviously, we needed a big save on one of those two and didn’t get it. End up in overtime, and the shootouts, and those can go either way, and it went their way. On Trent Frederic… I thought he played very well. He’s as advertised, played between the dots, strong on pucks, played behind their d, made a few plays. If he had a chance to shoot it he did, great scrap, good for him. We need some of that. There’s a lot of younger players in the league now, so it can’t be Zee [Zdeno Chara] and [David] Backes policing 20-year-olds every night. They’ll take care of the veteran guys, obviously talk to them, but you need a little bit of the younger guys to stiffen up. And Freddy brought that tonight. Hopefully it rubs off. Starting to see a little more of it out of [Brandon] Carlo a later on. So, we have plenty of size and grit in there. You saw it last year with [Jake] DeBrusk, Pasta [David Pastrnak]. They all got in altercations, Charlie [McAvoy]. So, you need a little more of that in our younger group to take care of the younger guys. And I thought we were able to do that tonight, and Freddy was a big part of that. On if a rookie fighting in his first game is looking to seize an opportunity… I think so. Listen, he said it, “I came out of school to play in the National Hockey League,” or left school early to do that, like a lot of guys, and I think he means it. He’s a big body. He’s got some of that in him where he’s willing to do that, so if those are your strengths, or the intangibles I guess, that you bring, then you need to bring them. And he did. So, I think he knows that there’s a window here to show what he can do, and that’s part of it. And get after it. I don’t expect him to do that every night, but a guy came at him and he was willing to stand up for himself, and good for him. I think he did a lot of other things well, too. He’s trying to be physical on that line, against a physical line. I think he’ll endear himself to the fans if he plays that way and to his teammates and to the coaching staff. On how he judges the performance of the offense beyond the top line… Well, listen, we need secondary scoring, so you look at the scoresheet and you don’t get it. You get one and it might be the difference in the game. Having said that, I thought our d were trying to be involved. They got a lot of shots that the other team was able to block. [David] Krejci’s line, I thought Jake [DeBrusk] was flying around, doing a nice job. Krech had a couple of chances that they were able to step in front of. So, we needed more out of them, obviously. That’s stating the obvious, but I don’t think they were completely quiet either, so I guess I’d rate it…they were generating some looks, but they were unable to finish. On if there were less shots for the Bruins later in the game… No, I think they tightened up. They’re a good team. I think they realized if they kept playing that way it could be a 7-0 job. Let’s face it, we had some grade-A’s from the slot, shots we wanted, so most good teams, even the average teams, are going to recognize hey that wasn’t our period but we’re still in the game. If we want to have any chance we have to tighten up, and I assume that’s the message that was delivered in their room. That’s what would’ve been delivered in our room, so I think they did a better job of limiting us getting into the scoring area and managing pucks. That’s usually where it starts so could we have funneled a few more pucks? I think that’s where the lines have to understand what they are, and I think that maybe we got away from that with maybe a few of the lines that are better at creating second chances. So, I guess that’s where we were a little bit fine. We could’ve been a little heavier or simpler. On if the second period power play was too tentative or selective… No, I think they were stubborn. Winnipeg kills a certain way. If you rotate the puck around up top you will get a, we’ll call it a flank elbow, top of the circle look. Their d don’t come out and contest. They’d rather box out in front via the bumper. I just think we were unwilling to shoot the puck. That’s been an issue for the second group all year. It was in the meeting this morning, looking out after intermission at the shots. They were there for the taking. We chose not to take them, so shame on us. And what’d we get out of it? Squat, so there you go. Hopefully, it’s a lesson that, listen, you have to take what they give you some nights and not force plays. Now, Marchy [Brad Marchand] did get a good look off. It was high and wide. It was a good one-timer, but then they got away from it, so they were able to get an easy enough kill even though we had some o-zone time. Unfortunately, we’ll go back to the drawing board on that, see what the next opponent brings. On playing Brandon Carlo instead of Matt Grzelcyk in overtime… A little bit of both. It might have been a size matchup too. They’ve got some bigger forwards. Grizz’s numbers in overtime haven’t been as good as we might like, so that was a part of it. We looked at the analytics. Sometimes we certainly went with two d in faceoffs in our end. We find that’s working a little better for us to regain possession at least and then we can make the change on the fly. BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD TRENT FREDERIC On his first NHL game… Yeah, it was good. I mean, it was tough that we didn’t get that extra point, but it was good. It was good to get my feet wet and it lived up to the hype of a first NHL game. It was a lot of fun. On what got him to engage in a fight… Uhm, you know, it just kind of happened naturally. It just kind of got chippy a little bit at that point of the game, just kind of happened naturally. I wasn’t really going in trying to get one tonight but it just happened. On being in a choke hold by Tyler Myers… Yeah, I kind of grabbed him and like I said it just happened naturally. Yeah, it was good. On if he saw the video of his parents high-fiving.. Yeah, I was just riding the bike and Travis just showed me. Yeah, that’s tough, we’ll have them work on that. But one of these days. On how fun was the energy right after the fight… Yeah, it was really cool. I mean, my parents probably showed a lot of emotion because they’ve followed my brothers around and stuff so obviously, a fight isn’t as cool as a goal or something so I can only imagine what they would do then. But, yeah, it’s a lot of emotion. I’m just pumped and I’m pumped to have them in my corner so you know, a high-five, missed or not, they’re in sync and they’ve been great. On if he thinks it’s important to contribute in any way possible… Yeah, for sure. I mean, not every night you’ll get a goal or get an assist or have a fight or anything but just be a positive effect on the game and a fight, I guess, is. But yeah, just a positive effect on the game and making plays happen. Obviously it would have been nice to contribute, but yeah, it was good. On if he anticipated getting in a fight so early in his first NHL game… No, no, I didn’t really.