BOSTON BRUINS QUOTES 2021 Playoffs – Round 2 May 24, 2021

BOSTON BRUINS GENERAL MANAGER DON SWEENEY… On Kevan Miller… "Latest update, doing okay, still early in the recovery phase. We’ll probably know as the week goes along how he progresses. He’s obviously back home. He’s in the facility, we’ll check in. But it’s still early in the process."

On Charlie McAvoy’s draft evaluation … "Well, I think everybody had the hopes that he would grow into the player that he is now and impacting at a high, high level. Averaged 27 minutes over the course of the series and was really dominant on both sides of the puck for large, large stretches. I feel that our staff identified that Charlie would impact the game over the course of 60 minutes. And being able to play, the way he’s built, to be able to play heavy minutes against all players. And he’s able to do things at a younger age and hopefully he continues to get better and better. You saw him move onto a top unit of the power play and handle that role very well during the series. So, we’re happy with Charlie and his progression. But obviously, early on, you knew that he had the tools and makings to turn into a great player."

On Jeremy Lauzon and Jakub Zboril... "Our hope is that they'll both be available for the next series. Again, we'll probably have a better understanding Wednesday on how they continue to progress and get on the ice. Until they're in a practice with the main group, we won't really know, but hopefully we get a little extra time and they can move along in the healing process. Then obviously getting up to full speed to become fully available for us."

On the penalty kill... "I mean, we took 21 minors in the course of the series, that's far too many. Self-inflicted with, I think we had two too many men penalties we went through a couple of times. You can't necessarily count those ones as being not disciplined enough in some situations. March [Brad Marchand] early on is getting into the series, and you guys know as well as I do, he's highly competitive. He's going to get pushed and he's going to push back and occupy space and territory. He got caught a couple of times, we all had communication with him. I think Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] in particular had communication with him to understand the importance that he has, to our hockey club when he's on the ice, plus when he's off and in the box. And he's one of our key penalty killers. Overall, our staff did a really nice job. They were well prepared for what Washington was going to try to throw at us. It took an awful lot of courage — you saw [Connor] Clifton rolled out his stick one time, laid down. [Brandon] Carlo, significant blocks. All of our players did a really good job of dialing in on what the staff wanted them to do in all three zones of pressure. It takes a lot of courage to stand in front of some of those shots, but also a lot of discipline. And we have to exercise a little bit more of that. Being in the box 21 times in five games is too much."

On Steven Kampfer signing in the KHL… "You’d have to ask Steven that. He’s under contract with us. Recently had arm surgery and he elected to have hand surgery. So, he’s in a recovery phase and not available for us."

On Ondrej Kase’s availability for the playoffs… "No. Ondrej has shut it down as well and will not be part of availability for us going forward in the playoffs."

On if he envisioned the deadline acquisitions having such significant roles... "I think we, as a staff, tried to identify some areas in both meeting with our coaches and having input from all of our pro staff and analytics group that we had areas that we wanted to try to address. You never know what injuries are going to present as you go along in a very, very compressed schedule. We also felt we needed to address the depth overall. Sometimes, it's about who's available. Doesn't mean you're going to be able to complete a deal, but we certainly identified some players we thought would help us and complement our group. Then find some areas of need. Obviously, Taylor [Hall] has gone in and played well with Krech [David Krejci] and Smitty [Craig Smith]. [Curtis] Lazar has gone in and played really well with the fourth line and penalty killing. And obviously Reills [Mike Reilly] has slid in a played with Brandon [Carlo] and given us puck play that we needed and the depth due to injuries. We played eight defensemen in this round as well. We used 13 overall in the course of the season. It was paramount to try and identify the needs of the club as best we could. Our pro staff, everyone in the group chipped in to hopefully be able to find the players to help fill those holes. They've all acclimated very well into our locker room. Testament to both those players themselves, individually, but also our locker room and the leadership of our group to welcome them in and make them feel comfortable."

On Head Coach Bruce Cassidy... "Bruce is a talented hockey mind, first and foremost. Respects the game on both sides, offensively and defensively. Has tenets that he holds himself to, and his staff, too. It permeates to our group. Trying to play the right way, trying to start on time and holding the group accountable. And trying to continue to communicate at all levels as to what he expects as a coach. Again, part of that is to have the awareness to make adjustments and to see the game in a certain light and be able to communicate it through to your staff. I think he does a nice job of allowing the assistants to attack those pockets of the game, delegate some authority to them and have their pulse on all their areas of the game. We've got young players we've tried to integrate, and they go through some challenges. The assistants have to help steer that ship a little bit. But Bruce is in full command of that stuff."

On the capacity restrictions being lifted… "We’re very thankful to Amy Latimer and Cam [Neely] and the entire TD Garden staff for advocating with all the authorities, including the Governor and thankful to him and his staff to get us to this point. We’re fortunate that we're moving on to the next round and be able to take advantage of what looks like as much full capacity as we can within the protocols and what the league will mandate. And we need it. The players have gone through tremendous challenges over the course of a year and a half and missing the excitement, having the energy of an incredible fanbase. And they persevered, it's incredible the amount of adversity each and every one of those guys have to go through. It’s difficult. You’ve heard our players talk about it in pockets. To go out and perform at a level that we all, including the fans, expect them to do. It’s not an easy task and hopefully now we can get more fans in our building to fully support them the way that we know all Bruins fans will do."

On if the break gives them a window for second vaccines... "Yeah, we're going to try and fill in a little bit of the gaps there with some of the players. We're tracking the numbers with the guys. I think the overall principle was to get as much rest as possible for all facets, injury-wise. It's been an incredibly compressed schedule, as you all know. We played a hell of a lot of games down the stretch to make up for time that we had missed through our own outbreak and other teams. So, we're going to use the rest and time to our advantage in that regard the next couple of days for players to be off the ice and away and spending some time with their families. But to answer your question, yes."

On how optimistic he is for this team... "I'm proud of the group for fighting through all adversity during the course of the season and trying to play their best hockey as we went down the stretch in some challenging situations. The amount of games that we were playing and the amount of injuries we were facing — we were fortunate that we added some players and some depth. They integrated very well and the leadership group and everyone was on the same page. You could tell right from the start of the playoffs that we were ready to play. I mean, we lose Game 1, you go to overtime in Game 2, Game 3. You know the emotional rollercoasters that exist when one shot can make it or break. Then you see the performances last night of Tuukka [Rask] and Bergy in particular, Pasta [David Pastrnak] scores an incredible goal. We didn't play our best hockey game last night, but boy oh boy, the guys that were penalty killing — everybody played their roles last night and did what they needed to do to get a win. We were led by some great individual performances, but I think team overall has trended in the right direction. You have to be healthy, you have to stay healthy through the whole process and get some bounces to go your way and make some luck. Obviously, we have to be more disciplined with our minor penalties and not taking those. Our power play got a little better as the series went along and scored timely goals. I think the depth of our club we addressed at the deadline, and hopefully if we get rid of the injuries we'll have some other players that can step in and play some roles. But overall, the team has played well and the players deserve and awful lot of credit, and the staff for getting them ready."

On the off time between series… "We really don’t control that. I think our team does a pretty good job understanding the schedule. When the league decides when we play, we’re going to be ready to play. And we'll do everything we can between now and then, we'll take the necessary couple of days and if they get pushed back, Bruce, we'll talk and have a conversation about maybe giving it another day and being able to ramp it back up. It’s such a challenging year from the compression overall of the schedule. I honestly believe the time we have right now will be advantageous to us, to have a little bit of a reset. I think if we can get in and stay healthy, we’ll be ready to go for the next round, because it’s going to be a hell of a challenge."