BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS ST. LOUIS BLUES Thursday, February 1, 2018 BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY
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BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS ST. LOUIS BLUES Thursday, February 1, 2018 BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY POSTGAME On the Bruins start… I thought it was good. I’m not sure the shot clock accurately portrayed kind of the pace of the game and how it was playing out. I thought we were pretty good – a couple of turnovers that kind of came back at us, but other than that, I thought we managed the puck well, we were on our toes, trying to close off space and forecheck hard and get pucks to the net. I thought we saw a lot of that in the second period where we took over. A lot of positives, and I think at the end of the day, we were the better team for the 60 minutes. On David Krejci’s goal… You never know on those. I think the directive came out on those that they wanted to speed them up. Unless there is something obvious, don’t go looking for things. So, that’s the way it looked; they took less time than they have in the past. Glad it went our way, I guess that’s all I’ll say. You never know on those. Sometimes they work for you, sometimes against. It was nice to get rewarded because we had a lot of action around their net, and especially that line. It’s a skill line, real effective off the rush, so good to see them get their nose dirty, score goals at the top of the crease. On David Backes’ goal… I think he wanted to make a statement with his old crew there, and good for him. He was a good leader tonight in every aspect. I thought he was around the puck a lot. Their line did a real good job for us, and a little icing on the cake for him, so good for him. On the Krejci line… I think their line has been very good. We used him in D-zone faceoffs; Krech [David Krejci] is winning a lot of draws in his own end, so we’re not afraid of any matchup situations. I think a lot of that has obviously been Krech – he talks to those kids – and I think Jake’s [DeBrusk] growth, but Ryan Spooner, I think, is doing a really good job on the wing and handling that responsibility. He even won a key draw for us on a four-on-four situation, so I like the line. I liked them especially tonight. I thought they did a really good job playing every aspect of the game – winning pucks, playing with pace through the neutral zone, attacking the net, got rewarded for a greasy goal as well. On the confidence that Tuukka Rask instills on the team… Well, I think this team has always been confident in Tuukka, especially lately. Those key saves late in the second period – I thought we did a really good job keeping it clean in front of him for the most part – but those were two big saves, and he wanted to match the other guy, because I thought the other guy – I don’t know if it was right after with Backs [David Backes] and the [Riley] Nash sequence there when there was a scrum – so, it was good goaltending tonight. I think any team will play better when they know their goaltender has their back, and Tuukka certainly had that, as well as Anton [Khudobin]. We talked about it. Anton has been very good for us, and we’ve been fortunate for the last stretch of – I don’t know, since mid whatever it was – November, to have stellar goaltending. On if he felt that this was a good bounce-back game… We just got sick of losing. I gave that one to Brick [Andy Brickley] and Jack [Edwards]; they said that one. It was. I do believe this – that early in the year we read a bit about it – those heavier teams, could we handle them, and I thought we went out west and got our season turned around in that atmosphere. The other night, some talk about that, so I think our guys did respond well knowing that this is the type of game you’re going to see down the road, and you got to be comfortable in them and be able to win your share. So, I do believe that our guys were prepared to get their noses dirty when need be and still play a speed game when the situation dictated, and I thought in the second period, we saw a lot of that. We spent a lot of time getting the puck up in a hurry and playing behind their D. I think our team has the ability to wear teams out that way, but we still had to have the puck possession in the O-zone and be willing to get to the net and take hits, and I thought we did both very well. On the strategies he has taken from his time in Providence… I guess you talk to your group as, listen, the hard guys got to be hard all night, and the skaters got to skate, but you’ve got to blend it when necessary. So, I think the message over the years down there was, yeah you can skate and that’s the strength of your game, but you’ve going to have to be comfortable playing against men, bigger men, and find a way to use body position. We’re not going to ask a kid that is not a physical guy by nature to start running around and belting guys, but you are going to have to use your body appropriately when need be – on the wall, in the slot winning pucks. Then, the heavier guys are going to have to learn to make a good first pass in these types of games so that we’re not always pinned, and we can use our speed. The message has been that this year, and the message was that in the past. You’ve got to play the game in front of you; you can’t just say, well this game doesn’t suit me, I’ve got to move along. I think the guys that buy into that quicker will make that 60-mile trip up here a lot quicker and then have the consistency to stay here. We’ve talked about that with DeBrusk, [Anders] Bjork, [Danton] Heinen, now Grizz [Matt Grzelcyk]. That’s a heavy game for Grizz, so he has grown as well – learning to use his feet when necessary and ward off some people and win pucks when he has to use his body. On the power play goal… Good entry. We talked about them; they like to buzz up ice, so good trap entry, try to get puck possession quickly; we did that. We’re always looking for Bergy in the bumper if it’s there. He has got a hot stick, had a few looks five-on-five earlier, so that was good that they found him and he was able to bury it. He has been dynamite from that area all year, and it was our first option. We were fortunate enough to find it. On Danton Heinen… Yeah, I thought he was skating very well. I thought he had his legs under him, was able to separate in the neutral zone and get some offensive zone play going, so good for him. Like I said, I liked the Krejci line a lot. I thought Peter [Cehlarik], for his first game, had some issues against their D pinching. That is something we have talked about with Peter. I am getting off topic a bit, but Danton definitely had a bounce-back game where I thought he had his legs. When he is skating, he is smart and uses his body and can make plays, so that’s it with Danton. He has got to find a way to have his legs every night. This is a tough part of the year, so this is the growing pains for him right now. On Kevan Miller’s injury… Miller has upper body, so he will get looked at, and we’ll have a better idea tomorrow. BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD PATRICE BERGERON On their start tonight… Yeah, I thought even without the goal, our start was a lot better than the last eight to nine games, so we just had to keep pushing and finding a way, and obviously getting the goal gave us some more momentum to carry over, but, you know, I thought it was a good effort. On the reviewed goal for goaltender interference… Well, you know, there’s always a little bit a doubt. You never know when the call on the ice is a goal. Sometimes it’s hard to take it back and it could be inconclusive. It’s hard to really have a feel for it sometimes. You know, they [the referees] know the rule better than I do, so we’ve had some taken back this year, but we’ll definitely take it. On Backes’ effort at the end… Yeah, I think it shows you what he’s all about. He’s a team first player and he’s always there to make the little details on the ice to make the other guys look good, and he definitely deserved that one. He had a lot of looks there tonight that could’ve went in, so I was happy for him.