POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS Saturday, March 4, 2017

BOSTON BRUINS INTERIM HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY On if he was impressed with … Yeah well, you know, he’s an experienced veteran player so he knows the league. He seemed to fit in very well with the line that he was on and the power play group he got spotted into. So we’re very pleased. You can tell he’s excited to play and wants to be part of it.

On the overall effort of the team tonight… Yeah, I thought from start to finish we tried to play the same way. We were in attack mode when we had the puck. You know, we had a couple of bounces that came back at us where we, you know, the puck didn’t cooperate with us and they got some odd-man rushes. Obviously you want to correct those, but for the most part we defended well, we defended our slot area well and we attacked theirs. Usually the game plan every night – if you can win that battle, you know, you’ll be ahead of the game. The other things we focus on as a team, but those are two important areas and I thought we did a good job in those tonight.

On the team’s resilience… Yeah, we’re on a bit of a streak that way with a few of those calls going against us, but hopefully it’ll be over and done with. But if you continue to play through them, you’ll be better off for it. And you’re right, I think in the last 10 games we’ve shown a lot of resiliency when we get scored on or something doesn’t go our way. They sort of keep their nose to the grindstone and get after it and we don’t get into lulls for too long. And that’s important because you’re not always going to have the momentum. But the quicker you can get it back the better off you’re going to be.

On if they explained the goaltender interference… No, they don’t give you much, honestly. They called it interfering with the goalie’s ability to make a save – I think that’s what they said, I’m not even 100 percent. But, you know, it looked like on video he pushed his pad maybe, I don’t know. They’ve got to determine that. I guess we’re hoping that – once the original call was made I think a lot of percentage of the time it stays that way – we were hoping it would stay that way, but it didn’t work out. It didn’t matter tonight, so you move on.

On if the defenders are doing everything that is asked of them… Offensively they’re doing what they’ve been asked or within the parameters of our team allowed. We want them supporting the rush. Like [Brandon] Carlo’s example – he’s just up. He’s up the ice and has a good gap, nothing more than that. A bit of a lucky ending for us, but still, he’s there and Torey’s [Krug] is a power play – we expect him to get his and I think we had a couple of other good looks. So like I said, when you’re asking your D to be involved – had a couple of those when you fight the puck and a guy blows an edge and they get a chance. So they can come back at you as well. But overall, I think we have way more good than harm in those situations – at least from what I’ve seen. So we’re going to continue with it because I think it makes you a tougher team to defend if you’re doing it within reason.

On if he had to push the defensemen on the offensive side… Yes but they’re not reluctant now. Listen, every player, whether you’re a defensive defenseman, at some probably was a kid growing up that scored or created some offense in juniors and sometimes you have to change roles. So I think they enjoy it. We build it into our practice and I think that’s where it starts. If you build it into your practice, it becomes a habit and then you reinforce it during games whether it’s verbally or during games and then when the game comes you want them to make the right decisions and be there and have the energy to do it. I think our conditioning showed tonight, we played at a pretty good pace from start to finish.

On if the horns going off was strange… Yeah, the horn – it was an interesting night. The horn going off, I saw the wave for the first time in a long time here tonight so that was interesting. But the goal disallowed – it happened. We’re at a bit of a bad luck streak of those right now and you hope they’ll even out. But at the end of the day you just play on.

On Anton Khudobin’s game… His game was good. And I’m sure he’d rather have the game that he had than the one that [Cory] Schneider had because we tested him quite a bit. So at the end of the day, they were high-end chances that they scored on. So you know, that’s fantastic clean up on some of those opportunities but for the most part we kept it clean in front of him. He did his job, you know, he hung in there, he made saves when he had to and he got the win for it so I’m sure he’s happy. It was a tough first half of the year for him and he’s kind of found his game here a little bit and we’ve talked about it – it’s well documented. We need him, we need him to be good, give us a chance to win.

On Adam McQuaid getting cut by a skate… Yeah, it looked a little dangerous when he went off. From what I understand, I think he got a couple of stiches and he should be okay. But again, you should check with the medical staff to get an answer for sure on that.

On what he talked about with Drew Stafford in terms of what he wanted him to do… No, this is a new opportunity. He volunteered some information there and I said ‘Listen, Drew, you’ve been a good pro in this league. You’ve brought offense and good solid player so let’s get back to that player.’ And mostly what we asked is, ‘are you more comfortable on the right wing or the left wing?’ and we’d slot him in accordingly. Our plan was to put him in with [Ryan] Spooner and [Frank] Vatrano, see how that fit, maybe mix him around. I think we set up the line a little bit – I thought he responded well and did the things that we expected. When the puck was on his stick, he was dangerous tonight and that’s what we want from our offensive guys while still playing that 200-foot game. Like I said, he checked all the boxes tonight in terms of being a successful night for him.

On if not trailing in a game affects the team… Well, you know, when you break down other teams, you look at their tendencies. And if other teams are out there saying, ‘Hey the Boston Bruins are ready to play. They’re coming at you early.’ I think right away mentally you’re making a bit of an advantage to put them on their heels. They might start thinking, ‘Boy we got to be ready, we got to be this that and the other

thing ready to go out of the gate.’ And maybe it takes away from what they want to do. I don’t know, but it’s kind of a reputation identity that we’re trying to build. We’re going to be on time. We’re going to be on time every night when the puck drops and with our initiating play. It’s a simple kind of phrase we use, but let’s be on time. And so far so good.

On if there is less of a mental fatigue when you’re not chasing the score… I think so. If you asked anybody, in any sport – when you’re chasing the score, it can be mentally – you know, it’s the same game out there but mentally it gets you after a while. Especially when you get frustrated and run into a hot goaltender. We went through that a bit the other night against New York. I mean, [Henrik] Lundqvist is standing on his head, you know, it gets to you a little bit after a while. So especially when you have the lead, you know, with some many games during the year, you never know. If you get a team to start thinking about their next game, then well, you’ve got an edge. I’m not saying that will happen but we’re trying to do our part to go out there and play good, solid, first periods. Because I think it kind of snowballs into the second and third if you start well.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN On the team’s start… Yeah, I thought we had a strong start. We came out flying. We had our skating legs tonight, which I think benefits all aspects of the game. But, they have a great goaltender that kept them in it and they kind of – in the third period, wear on you, wear on you – they get a couple of opportunities, and they bury it. So, they hung around for sure, and it was nice to get the result they wanted.

On what’s been the change in the mindset of the D to be more aggressive lately… I think just realizing we're going to make mistakes, but just to learn from them and make sure they’re not huge mistakes or game-changing mistakes; I made one tonight where it kind of changed the tide of the game. It’s a 1-0 game on the power play and they go down and score. I think it’s just realizing that mistakes will come. We have some younger guys back there and just bouncing back from there, just continuing to look forward. I think that’s helping us.

On if he’s enjoying having freedom to move forward… Yeah, you always want to be able to use the talents you’ve been blessed with and your instincts, and you want to use it to the best of your ability. So, you’ve got to make sure that the coaches can trust you to put you in every situation. But, it’s nice to be able to play and you’ve just got to stay focused.

On how much of his success is attributed to having his legs as opposed to a system change… From an individual standpoint, skating is my whole game. If I’m not skating, then everything else shuts down. I’m not seeing the passes and I’m not seeing the passing lanes and not getting my through. That’s the number one thing in my game. I think system wise; I’ve been approaching it the same way with Bruce [Cassidy]. He obviously thinks the game very similar to myself and he’s made a couple changes that allows us to play instinctively and assertive and I think that helps everybody.

On how fun it is to see the defense scoring… Yeah, I think D corps in general – you want to get offense from the back end and good teams do that. We’ve been on a little bit of a roll lately and we want to help contribute to the team wins. When we do that, it obviously bumps up our scoring because our forwards feel less pressure and they can go in and just do their things that they do.

On the focus and resiliency through tonight’s game… Yeah, it was good focus. We always talk about just looking forward and not looking back behind us. There were times where we could have let this game slip away from us. Their goaltender played a heck of a game and kept them in it. They kind of lulled us to sleep there and they capitalized on their opportunities. It was a good job by our guys staying focused and staying in the game.

On if they’d rather go for it than back off on 50/50 plays… Well, I think right now, everyone’s reading off that first guy. If that first guy is aggressive and assertive, then everything else falls into place. There’s no second-guessing out there. There’s going to be times where you make mistakes and you make the wrong read. But, if we’re going hard and we’re playing confident, I think the second and third layers will be there to back you up.

BOSTON BRUINS GOALTENDER ANTON KHUDOBIN On his game tonight and making some tough saves… Yeah, a couple odd-man rushes, but wasn’t much work from the point or whatever. It’s always that they try to play for tips and try to screen you and stuff like that. We did a good job though.

On if it feels good to get another win… Of course, it’s always a good feeling to win the games. I’m always saying that and my answer is not going to change, probably. So, of course, and after a rough start, especially my start, and winning right now, it just gives you more confidence, it gives your team more confidence, and gives everybody confidence which is important at this time of the year.

On if he thought he would be back in this situation when he was in Providence… Good question. At that point, I was just focusing on my game to be honest. I was like, whatever happens, whatever happens next – I was literally living day-by-day. I was driving from here because I never moved out of my apartment. I drove to their practices. If I don’t have a game, I drive back. My answer I, did I think about it? No. Did I want to come back? Of course.

On if he felt like he got a vote of confidence because the team didn’t trade for another goaltender… Well, thanks for, I think – if they believe in me and they didn’t bring anybody, I really appreciate it. I want to do my job and I want to win for the team. If they did that, I really appreciate it and believe it’s always most important. If they believe in you as a player, it gives you confidence, and that’s it.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN BRANDON CARLO

On the play leading to his goal… I was just kind of trying to follow the play up, just kind of read what was going on, and fortunately the puck bounced out in the right area, and I got my stick on it, kind of walked in, and got lucky.

On if he was more likely to execute the play that led to his goal with Bruce Cassidy’s system… I’m not sure. That was a pretty juicy puck there. I don’t think I could’ve passed up on that opportunity. Overall I do think we’re all trying to get up the ice a little bit more, and you can see that with the defensive side of our team scoring a little bit more goals. It’s exciting and fun to be a part of that, but at the same time, you can make mistakes with that as well, but we’re just trying to learn through it, especially myself, and continue to go from there.

On if he saw a spot on the net when he scored his goal… I was trying to hit [David] Backes on the back door actually, and got a nice lucky bounce.

On if his goal was a pass that was tipped by a defenseman… Yeah, [David] Backes was sitting right on the back door. I kind of made a little bit of eye contact with him, and just tried to pass it over, and it was hard enough to get off a stick and go in.

On the odd third period with the siren going off twice inadvertently… Yeah, that was, we didn’t know what to really do. I had the puck on one of those plays when the horn went off. I was kind of sitting there, and what was going on I didn’t really understand, but things like that are going to happen. You can’t let it bother you.

On if the referees told them to ignore the siren if it went off again… No, they didn’t really talk to us. I think they had it figured out at that point. That’s what I was going to guess they were going to start saying, just to forget about it.

On how frustrating New Jersey’s game-tying goal was… Yeah, it is frustrating, but you can’t too rattled over it. Things like that are going to happen in every game, and it’s the NHL. Guys are going to come right back at you harder, and those first couple shifts after you score a goal are pretty important, and you’ve just got to focus on continuing to play hard and not let anything behind us.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD DREW STAFFORD On how he rebounded from his waved off goal… Yeah, that’s a big turning point because it’s either 2-0, and then they come back and it’s 1-1 and we’re in one. So, it’s unfortunate. I don’t really know what happened. I was just battling in front trying to get something on it and wasn’t really paying attention too much so I don’t know. The refs obviously made their decision. I’m not happy about it, but it is what it is. We were able to grind one out – big win for us, we needed that.

On the Ryan Spooner goal and looking like they’ve been playing together for a while… Yeah, he’s a great player – same with Frankie [Vatrano]. We get in on the forecheck and they make little plays underneath sticks and things like that. I like hanging onto the puck and making those kind of plays myself. It was a great start, but we’ve got a lot of work to do to keep getting

better – take it day by day here, have a good practice tomorrow, and hopefully continue to improve that. Definitely happy with the start, but some areas we definitely could improve.

On if the first game feels good for him… Absolutely, yeah. Couldn't ask for much more than that. Big win with the boys. I was able to get settled in here for a day and a half, so, it was still kind of a quick turnaround to jump in. But, the boys have been great; very supportive – the coaching staff, everybody. So, made it easy. I just had to go play and get back to how I know how to play and I was able to get an opportunity to kind of get back into the rhythm and the routine of the minutes and making plays. Those guys, like I said, they can make those little plays and it’s great. But hopefully, it can get better.

On if people can expect him to fit in seamlessly moving forward… Yeah, I mean, I hope so. That’s the way I like to play and it makes the game a lot easier when you have players like that that like to make those little plays and hang onto pucks. There are some areas that we can improve on a little bit. Some system stuff for me – I’m still trying to make some reads and a little indecisive on a couple plays, but that will come so I’m not that worried about that. But, just to be a part of a big win, we needed this one to get on track here. So, it’s great. Good start.

On if the chances he had helped him get acclimated with the lineup… Yeah, for sure. I think that’s a pretty good example of the way this team can play. We had plenty of chances and goals disallowed and this and that. So, it’s a big one for us, but back to work tomorrow and we’ll find ways to try and improve.

On if he ever recalls an inadvertent siren going off twice… Yeah, I don’t know. The wires got crossed up there or something. I don’t know what happened. But, I’ve seen that a couple times here and there. But yeah, I’m just glad it wasn’t during anything important because that would have been a tough one. But, it was good.

On if he is comfortable going to the net… Yeah, for sure. That’s the way you score goals in this league now is front of the net. You can find guys that – maybe if they’re searching for ways to get more production, that’s usually one of the first things they can do is hanging around the net a little more, making sure they can be strong in front of the net, and hope for the bounce. Hope for that play – unfortunately, it didn’t work out here, but hey, we’ll take the win over anything. Like I said, just be a part of it, and that’s huge.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD FRANK VATRANO On the first game with Drew Stafford… …I think he fits really well in the line. He’s a guy who can make plays, he can shoot pucks and he competes hard, so it went well tonight.

On how much he and Ryan Spooner were able to communicate with him before the game… I mean, not much really. At the end of the day you’re out there playing hockey so obviously chemistry comes with time, you know. We talked a little bit before the game about some plays that we like to do, but other than that it’s just [talk], you just go out there and play hockey and

that’s what we did tonight and we ended up getting rewarded with that game winner. That was a good reward for us.

On coming out of the scrum with the puck… Yeah, that’s something I try to do, I try to make the uncomfortable, I try to use my speed as best as possible and whether that’s being on forecheck first or being first in the neutral zone forecheck. So for me that’s something I try to do every night, night in and night out, is get in on the forecheck, make sure I’m a good stick and turn pucks over and that’s what led to our goal. [Drew] Stafford made a great play to Spoons [Ryan Spooner] and Spoons was in the right spot at the right time.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD RYAN SPOONER On if he was yelling for the puck… I didn’t really want to, um, I thought that he saw me and he did, so I didn’t want to let the goalie know I was there.

On there not being many opportunities with that much wide open space to the net… I was kind of surprised when I got it. I was like wow this is, I mean I just didn’t want to miss. I got robbed this year by I think it was [Roberto] Luongo and then last year in the Winter Classic with kind of the same play. So it’s good I scored this one also.

On if he was surprised with the chemistry in the first game with Drew Stafford… Yeah, it was good. I think the first period I thought it was good for us. The second period I think we only played together two or three shifts. So, in the third period it was good. I’m excited to play with him; he’s a really good player.

On the game winning goal… Yeah, I haven’t been able to score a lot this , I only got 11 goals so I definitely want to be – definitely want to become more of a shooter and it was good.

On what it was like to play with Drew Stafford tonight… Yeah, it was good. I thought in the first period it was good for us. I think him as a player is a little bit more of a shooter. I think for me, just got to find him and I think it should work out.

On what it was like playing through all the commotion in the third period… Yeah, I mean the sirens I don’t really know what was going on there. The goal that got called back, that’s happened to us five or six times in the season so it’s going to happen. But, I think as a team, I thought their game was actually extremely good.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS HEAD COACH JOHN HYNES POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE On his overall thoughts… You know, I thought in the first period, we just didn’t have the competitive level we needed to on the puck, you know, I thought that we got hemmed in our own zone. We didn’t execute coming out of our own end when we had the puck on our stick, and then that allowed them to get quite a bit of offensive zone time, so we had to spend time in our defensive zone, and then we

didn’t have our competitiveness on the puck. You know, we didn’t end any plays below the goal line, up along the wall, and [we] allowed them to have some sustained offensive zone time in the first. And, you know, I thought in the second period we came on and did a better job and got ourselves much more competitively involved in the game.

On the absence of Andy Greene… Yeah, Andy’s a 23-to-25-minute player, and he’s [our] team captain, so, you know, you’re not going to be able to replace that player, but you have to do it by committee. And, you know, I thought we played a good team tonight. They’re a strong offensive zone, they’re strong on the forecheck. I thought in the first period our defensemen really had to work, but they got themselves in the game. I give them credit. Some guys had to play much higher minutes than they probably should play, but I thought that they battled, and, you know, again, I thought that it came down to a tight game. We had a breakdown, and there’s that one extra goal in the D zone, but I thought that our D core worked and did a fairly good job in some overextended situations for them.

On Andy Greene’s availability… Andy had a personal situation with his family, and he will not be available tomorrow.

On the Bruins’ overturned goal… When we looked at the video review, we were just looking to make sure Cory [Schneider] had his pad over it and that the puck wasn’t loose, and they pushed his pad in, so, you know, that’s what happened. So, that’s why we called it, and it was an important time for us to be able to at least keep it close.

On whether the siren situation affected the Devils’ momentum… Yeah, the explanation was just that the sirens were going off in the building, so eventually we talked to the referee about it, and they did wind up shutting it off after the second one, I guess, in the building…yeah, you know, sometimes, I think, competitively you look at situations like that, and it takes us out of some offensive situations, but I thought that the referees did a good job of handling it, I mean, they did shut it down, it wasn’t going to happen a third time, and, you know, that’s part of the game. We just can’t let things like that — and I didn’t think we did — affect us or take our attention towards why the buzzer was going off. You know, I thought the guys did a good job of maintaining focus, and I thought we handled that situation well.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS DEFENSEMAN BEN LOVEJOY On the play of the team… We need to find some consistency. We’ve got some new guys in the lineup and some old guys, we need to be far more consistent, we need to be better from the drop of the puck and we need more guys going.

On the game going from 2-0 to 1-1 after the overturned goal… It was huge but we didn’t take advantage. It’s a frustrating night. We need to be better. We had trouble with that team the first two times we played them and we wanted to come out and have a better effort and we didn’t do a good enough job tonight.

On the Bruins controlling the play most of the night… Corey [Schneider] kept it a one-goal game. He was awesome tonight. He was the best player on the ice. The other 18 guys that were playing weren’t good enough. We weren’t good enough at getting pucks out of the zone cleanly to set our forwards up. We weren’t good enough out of the neutral zone and we weren’t hard enough. We were making some hope plays in the offensive zone and that’s a team that you need to play a methodical game against and we didn’t do that tonight and didn’t earn it.

On if they had too many penalties… Very much.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS FORWARD NICK LAPPIN On the tipped-in goal… It’s pretty tough to swallow, you just try to move on, forget about it and get after it with your next shift.

On if he saw energy from the young players… Yeah, I think so. I think we’ve got a lot of guys here that have been playing in Albany pretty recently, including myself, and, you know, any time when you can get up here and try to help New Jersey and get some wins, unfortunately we didn’t tonight, but hopefully tomorrow night, we can get a win.

On the performance by the Boston defensemen… Yeah, you know, they activate their D well, it’s tough to cover. You know, they move around in the offensive zone too when they’re playing there. They’re jumping into the plays, and that makes it difficult. I thought they did a good job with that, but I thought we did a pretty good job defending it as well.

On getting called up from Albany… It’s just kind of part of the job. I mean, you’ve got to be ready to go no matter what, and when I got here, I just tried to do what I normally do to get ready and, you know, that’s pretty much all [there is] to it.

On the quick turnaround to the next game… Yeah, we’ll get on the plane, get some food, try to get some rest, and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS GOALTENDER COREY SCHNEIDER On how he views the outcome of the game… Well I mean I think the feeling is a lot different than it was in Washington where I think we were pretty proud of the way we played and competed and it just didn’t go our way but I think tonight is a little bit different where I think we all feel we could have given a little bit more, myself included so again, losing is the same no matter what but I think there is different kinds of losing and right now, tonight, not a great loss for us. So again, in spite of that we were 2-2 halfway through the third period. So we got to, we keep talking about it, we keep finding a way to get the next one or keep it tied and not give one up and at least find a way to get some points.

On facing a lot more pressure than a couple nights ago… Yeah they’re going right now Boston is. They’re kind of built on their speed and hard work and their forecheck and I thought they were doing all three of those things really well tonight. They were skating and competing and winning puck battles and you know when you win those battles you get to play with the puck in the offensive end. So you know they put a lot of pressure on us, our discipline obviously wasn’t great, five penalties, you know that gives them basically 10 minutes of zone time in our end. So again just a number of things that I think led to them playing with the puck more than we did.

On what he thought of the goal being called back… You know it could have gone either way. It was a tough call by the officials but obviously I’m a little biased but sometimes it’s hard to know what I feel and see versus what an observer sees but obviously he kind of pitchforked my pad in there and I’m not sure how much of the puck he got if any, I don’t know if it was stuck under me and him pushing my pad knocked the puck in and kept me from keeping it out. So I guess by definition that’s the ruling and I’m not going to complain about it. He clearly jammed my pad in the net and if that were another instance, say a shot was coming and he pushed my pad in the net then the goal would be waved off I’m sure. So I guess you can equate it like that.

On playing without Andy Greene… Yeah he’s a big part of our team, not only on the ice but he’s our captain and just the steadying presence he gives us and the calming influence he is in the room but again it’s always an opportunity for other guys to step up. Johnny Merril jumped up with Benny [Ben Lovejoy] in that top pairing but you know they did a great job against their top line. They’re a good line, they’re going to get some looks and shots but I thought overall, Johnny and Ben did a great job against them. So you have to give them a lot of credit and the guys underneath have to step up and play more meaningful roles. So again, it’s never easy without your leader and your best defenseman but that’s part of hockey, everyone goes through it where they are missing key guys and we’re no different.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS HEAD COACH JOHN HYNES PREGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY On the status of Michael Cammalleri… No, Cammy will be out tonight and he’ll be out for a week and then maybe longer. But, we’ll have to really get a good evaluation at that point.

On who will slot in the lineup for Cammalleri… We’re going to go 11 and seven – 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

On if Dalton Prout is going to play tonight and his expectations for tonight… Yes. He’s a big, strong player, and I think we knew that coming in. So, you can see that. I think he’s got a very good shot. When you look at – even the goalies make comments in practices a couple times saying boy, he’s got a strong, heavy, hard shot. So, we’d like to see him be able to use those assets. So, here’s a guy coming to a new organization and he hasn’t played in a while.

So actually, with seven, it’s good to be able to get him in and get him acclimated to our team and be able to play. Hopefully, he has a good night for us.

On if the seven defensemen in tonight are the seven on the roster… Seven on the roster, yup.

On if he is going to split up the goalies during the back-to-back… [Cory] Schneider will go tonight, and we’ll make a decision for tomorrow.

On how it has been being in Boston and practicing yesterday at Boston University… Yeah, it’s been really nice. The couple other trips we’ve come on has always been the night before, we haven’t had the extra day here, so it was nice. Particularly, to get back to BU and be able to see some people you haven’t seen. Even when you come into town and you’re here at the Garden, you don’t get the opportunity – sometimes you see some ex-coaches and players, but just some people that were at the school that you haven't had the opportunity to see has been really nice. And to see family and friends has been fun, too.

On having the best power play in the league over the last month, but why they struggled in the last game… Well, early in the game, we didn’t win any faceoffs in our first couple of power plays against Washington. So, we never started with the puck in the offensive zone. And we really didn’t do a good job on our recovery battles off of faceoffs or when we got some zone-entry plays, we were in and out too much. I thought the four-minute major there, we had offensive-zone time but we were too slow in our execution. Whether it was delivering the puck to the net, and I think just some quicker decisions just to pass the puck or shoot the puck would have been a little bit different. I think it would have helped us get a few more scoring chances, or possibly a goal.

On if Pavel Zacha is a possibility to play tomorrow night… No, it’s a good question. He’s doing well. We’re going to give him another hard skate today and a little bit more battling and conditioning and see how he responds. So, he’s a possibility. But again, it’s a young player, it’s important to make sure when he does come back in, he’s going to be ready. But, he is making significant progress.

On if it will be harder to roll four lines with only 11 forwards and if that alters his rotation… No, we feel with the lineup we have – when you have [Joseph] Blandisi, [Kevin] Rooney, [Blake] Coleman, there’s three guys that can play wing and center. So, when you get into that 11 and seven rotation – you’re going to have [Travis] Zajac and they’re going to have the matchups and situations. I think you have Adam’s [Henrique] line, played pretty well. Then, I think you have the other sets of forwards. They do give you some options where – like the other night, Rooney played really well but he only played nine minutes. So, can we bump him up to 11 if he has the same game? We think so. As a center, if you look at Joe Blandisi, maybe we could bump some of his minutes up a little bit as opposed to sometimes with four lines, you don’t get the opportunity and we’re fresh. We had a day off yesterday, so we feel like it’s an opportunity to do that. And then, we will most likely go back with 12 and six coming in on the back-to-back against Columbus.

On the power play’s struggles and if that was why they only had 15 shots on goal or if it was because of losing Michael Cammalleri… I think it was really a combination of both. We didn’t generate a lot, they didn’t generate a lot. Both teams played a pretty structured game. There wasn’t a lot of free ice there. I thought particularly, early in the game, we had a lot of shot attempts. They blocked a lot of attempts. They’re the best defensive team in the league. They have a lot of big, strong, heavy players. They get in shot lanes. So, it’s a combination of us not getting shots through. I think there were opportunities where we could have had more of a shot mentality. But it was almost what the game was played. I talked to Barry Trotz after the game too, and to his team, it was here’s the game that was presented to us tonight. We have to find a way to win it. And it seemed like it as the game went on, it was going to be either a major mistake by one team or the other or it was going to be special teams. They won the special teams battle.

On how Boston is different under Bruce Cassidy than they last played them… I think, structurally they look very much the same. I think that their aggression down low in the offensive zone seems a little bit different where it seems like their forwards have more of an attack mindset coming out of corners bringing it to the blue paint, challenging more one-on-one down low in the offensive zone. Their D is more active on the rush. Their transition is very good. A lot of times, there’s four guys on the rush. I had the opportunity to coach against Bruce when he was in Providence and I was in Wilkes-Barre. You can see the similarities of how his teams played in Providence to how the Bruins are playing now. They’re well coached, they play fast, and they compete.

On if playing Thursday’s game leads into tonight’s game pretty well… Yeah, you’re right. When you look at the game, we’ve talked about in this stretch here, in early March – we’re playing for some things and to try and keep ourselves very competitive. We have a mindset as a team, these are situations in games where we have to continue to compete hard in and learn how to win and find ways to win. If you do that, we’re in the race. I think when you look at Boston’s situation; their organization is about making the playoffs. They made some decisions to do that. You can see that their team is plugged in and ready to play.

On having played a low-scoring game Thursday and getting them ready for Saturday… Oh, yeah. I mean, you expect it to be very completive. For me, it’s not so much what the score is, but it’s making sure that for us, we’re ready to be able to compete the way we did against Washington. #03/04/17#