POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS. Thursday, December 20, 2018

BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH On what it means to see David Krejci and Torey Krug reach milestones… Well listen, it’s a team game but individually these players, you know, obviously enjoy having a certain level of success and that, you know, if the individuals are having success, it breeds team success and vice versa. So I’m happy for all those guys, you know [David] Krejci and [Torey] Krug have been great Bruins for a number of years. [David] Backes not as long as those guys but a great NHL player for a long time so, it’s nice to see them healthy you know, Krejci looks good this year and you know, we’ve had a few hiccups in the past, setbacks, but this year he’s been good. Backes as well now. You see his skating legs, particularly in the past 3-4 weeks you see a much more effect player for us. Krug’s always been productive, it’s a tough start for him in terms of his injury, but, I think their health, you know, if those players can stay healthy, they’ve proven they're good players in the league so I don’t see that changing as long as, like I said, they can stay out of the medical room.

On if there is any difficulty taking David Krejci out of his spot… Well we’re, listen, we’re assuming Bergy, [Patrice Bergeron] he’s very close, we know that, whether it’s tomorrow, sorry Saturday or Sunday, or next week, we don’t know but let’s say it is, then you know, we’re going to have to look at the, you know, do we want to set all the lines maybe to balance it out? Or just want to drop Bergy back in there and move Krech [David Krejci]. Without [Jake] DeBrusk being in the mix, you know, I’m a little more reticent to just move Krech out of there and keep those three together but that’s something we’ll have to look to see how Jake’s progressing, for one. So it’s a lot of “ifs” but yeah, it’s going to be tough but a very welcome decision to have Bergy back in there, like I said, you can’t lose right? That’s the way I look at it. Whoever we put in there, whether it’s Krech or Bergy, you know, we’re a better team for it, you know, whatever center gets, you know, onto the next line.

On how he thinks Torey Krug has handled his injury and being counted on more… Well, I'm sure he preferred a normal training camp and a normal time to get going, but that’s, you know, it is what it is, you know, he’s adjusted well. It took him a little while to find his shooting stride. You're starting to see him score more because of his decisions to shoot the puck in certain spots. Some of that is just the game, comes around you when you're a good player, the pucks finds you a little more. Krech, the same way. Obviously playing with those two guys it does find you more, but, Marchy [Brad Marchand] the start of the year, same thing. I think, you know, he was looking to pass more and all of the sudden the puck finds you at the right spot. So those good players, generally, it will balance out. It’s happened with Torey [Krug] in the offensive. The defending part, that’s all on, usually on the player makes that decision on how hard they want to defend and that’s something that’s usually will and compete. We’ve played him with [Brandon] Carlo and he’s usually playing against the second line, in general. So he’s done a good job with force there and you know, until we get back to a full boat that’s kind what we ask for him, see how it plays out.

On if it’s been their best six periods of play since the injuries…

Defensively, for sure. I think we’re working hard for one another to support one another in terms of our routes, forechecking, neutral zone, we’re working to get back above the puck. We’ve had stretches where we’ve obviously played well. But yes, I think team defense-wise, you look at the last two games. Of course, Jaro's [Jaroslav Halak] there for us, making saves, but I think they're both, you know, we’re almost another shutout. I think you could put those under the team category, sometimes the goalie, hey, he’s just not going to be beat that night, but in general, I think the last two games we’ve worked hard for our goaltender to limit the chances. There’s always going to be a breakdown here or there we’re you need the big save, we got that in the second period I think in the PK. So good for Jaro, but yes, defensively, we’ve seemed to have found our stride.

On if it took a while for the offense to start tonight… Well, they’re a good defensive team. They clog it up, and they defend hard in front of their net. Obviously, our power play made a difference, and that matters. It’s a big part of our offense, and it has been all year, fairly consistent. We’ll have the odd dip, but for the most part they’ll bounce back. Five-on-five we’ve defended real well, we’ve just had some issues scoring goals five-on- five. Hopefully we get better and better. Sometimes you generate, and it doesn’t go in. That happened I think in Pittsburgh: it did go in but not enough. Tonight, we didn’t generate as much. I give some credit to Anaheim for that. They play a pretty tight game, and their goaltender was good when he needed to be. But, I see it coming around, got four in Montreal, three in Pittsburgh, three tonight. I’m a little more optimistic in that regard, especially in the last two or three weeks.

On David Backes’ role on the power play when Patrice Bergeron returns to the lineup… Yeah, he’s been good on the bumper. Last year we threw Riley Nash in there. I think it’s a coveted spot, so to speak. You’re going to see pucks, there’s a lot of o-zone time, those guys zip it around. Usually, you’re going to find a puck here or there, so yeah it is a good spot. But listen, Bergy’s back in lineup, and he’s going in there. He’s very good at it, but I think it’s given Backs [David Backes] some confidence. Hopefully, when Bergy comes back he’s still going to be a confident player, offensively, and maybe we reconfigure the second unit a little bit so we use a little more of his talents in that one. That’s something we’d have to consider.

On if moving David Pastrnak down to David Krejci’s line is now a possibility… Yes, again, Jake [DeBrusk] always factors into that, and without getting ahead of myself, yes. We could go in pairs: Bergy/March, Pasta/David [Krejci]. Where Jake goes from there, if he’s in fact playing, that’s where the problems come in. If you split them up… now the third line, we’ve tried to keep those kids together. Something’s going to have to give on the other lines. But, that’s a good problem to have, like I said before, because, listen, we want Bergy in the lineup. We want Krech in the lineup. That’s our one-a and one-b up the middle, so we’ll sort it out from there, which kind of we’ve done all year. See what fits best, and we’re getting to the point where I think we have to look at it. We’ve talked about it as we get healthier and our lineups complete. We’re kind of – I think it’s going to be after Christmas until we get everyone back – but it’s sort of, it’s coming.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD DAVID PASTRNAK On generating offense on the power play...

Yeah, huge for us. You know, the power play didn’t go well, so we try to get a little bit movement up top and it worked today. So, really happy we got some big PP goals.

On if offense was hard to come by against Anaheim... Yeah, well obviously they are a good team. Always tough to play against the West teams and we knew it wouldn’t be easy, but tried to take another step forward after the game against Montreal and it worked today. So I think overall it was a good game. Jaro [Jaroslav Halak] played unbelievable.

On his good performance in back-to-back games... Yeah, I mean, back-to-back great games and you know, how I said, just try to keep moving forward and don’t take any steps back.

On his holiday pants... It’s simple. It’s blue and there is a snowman on it.

On if it will be tough to move David Krejci off the top line when Patrice Bergeron returns... Well, I’m really happy that it’s not my job. So, I really don’t know what to say to it. They’re both great players, so I don’t really think about it.

On Torey Krug’s creativity and passing... Yeah, well you know, you saw it on power play. It was a great pass and obviously we’ve been together for a while in that power play, so we’ve got some chemistry and you know, he has 200 apples already for a reason, right? He’s a great player.

BOSTON BRUINS GOALTENDER JAROSLAV HALAK On his play today… Yeah, but I think it was more of a team effort than anything because I think for one thing we played really well defensively, offensively, and we skated well. We were good on the forecheck and I think tonight we did the same thing. You know, we stayed aggressive at the times that we needed to and everybody was on the same page throughout the 60 minutes.

On the defense playing well tonight and making a difference… Yeah, like I said, I mean, not only a difference but – I think when the forwards come back it makes a big difference, you know, when they pick up guys who are coming in through the slot and the teams don’t get anything from the slot or don’t get any scoring chances I think it’s always easier for everybody.

On how he knows if he’ll feel good or not… No, I just, you know, take it shot by shot. You know, I try and always warmup the same way or whatever. At the start of the game you just want to feel the puck, have a few shots against and you know, obviously in the first period they didn’t have much and in the second, you know, they had some chances on the PK. But I think for the most part we didn’t give them anything on the PK. Our PK was great in the first and in the third and in the second they only had a few chances so I think our PKers did an outstanding job tonight. And our power play as well – scoring two goals for us.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD DAVID KREJCI On 600 career points… That’s a nice number, I have been fortunate enough to play with really good players so I can’t just give credit to myself.

On recent offensive performance… Were just sticking with the game plan keeping things simple, really paying attention to little details. We’re getting to the net, defenseman doing a really good job of jumping in the play and getting shots to go in the , that helps a lot.

On Torey Krug’s ability… He’s a great playmaker, he makes passes that you wouldn’t expect. He can catch you off guard on the kill just like he did tonight. He’s been making lots of great plays, so good for him.

On team’s recent performance… We’ve been playing good hockey the last couple games, especially in Montreal that was a big game for us we built on it and had another strong game tonight.

On goaltending… They have been good, Tuuka, Jaro (Jaroslav Halak) really good especially on penalty kill their making saves. They’re keeping us in tight games and we’ve been doing a good job staying with it in the third period.

On near shutout… Yeah I really wanted him to get another shutout, just kind of a tough break. I won the face-off, hit my shin and bounced back the other way, it happens sometimes. He still should be happy with these last couple games, he played really well.

On desire to play with Marchand and Pastrnak… That’s kind of out of my control. I’m just going to go out there and do what I do, play with the players I’m going to play with, try to create the things that I’ve been doing the last few games with Marchand and Pastrnak.

On playing with Marchand and Pastrnak… It’s obviously been fun, those two players are really good players they make things happen. It’s been lots of fun.

On his goal… I was ready for the one-timer, I was coming late, Pasta put it right in my wheelhouse. Sometimes you got to get lucky because it was a long-range shot. Obviously happy it went in, it was a big goal for our team as well.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN BRANDON CARLO On the last two games being the best games they’ve played in a while…

Yeah, definitely. I think you can feel it on the ice, just the confidence level between the group and everybody is doing their part. I think that’s something that Butchy [Bruce Cassidy] has come in the locker room after both games and said that there’s been no passengers. So that’s been really good for us and overall, yeah, it’s been really fun to play in those games and that’s what we want to keep the intensity like.

On not getting a shutout… Yeah, definitely. I think that’s just the kind of character guys that we have in this room and we all want that for our goaltender each and every night and when he has that opportunity we want to help make it happen. So we were kind of disappointed when that puck slipped by but, overall he [Jaroslav Halak] played a great game and that doesn’t take away from anything.

On if he felt they were in control of the game… Yeah, that’s kind of the way it felt the past two games, I guess you could say. Even when it’s even, the score is 0-0, we still have that confidence, like I said. And, you know, there’s just a good vibe out there on the ice, I feel like. On the bench as well – it’s been a little bit more vocal and active. We just want to continue to play this way and you know, carry each other like we have been.

On the difference in play the last couple of games… I think everybody just buying in to their role. You know, I think our fourth line and third line have been doing a fantastic job on both ends of the ice. Their back-checking has been fantastic and it’s made the gap situation for us a lot easier and they’re holding pucks low – they’re battling it out and I can tell you if I was on the other side I wouldn’t exactly want to be facing them because there are some big bodies and they’re holding on to the puck really well. So, a lot of respect for them and what they’re doing right now.

On his attire… Yeah, it’s Christmas suit day. Last year I didn’t go as crazy – I just got this one off amazon. It’s about four sizes too big overall to get the length. Had to get the XXL – it works. I’ll keep it around, maybe give it to somebody eventually, but yeah fun kind of event for us to do.

On if he’s going to ask for a refund… Yeah, I wish I could send it back but I already took all the tags off.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN TOREY KRUG On getting the offense going in the 2nd period… Yeah for sure, one of those things where if we stick with the game plan we’re going to score. Obviously we got two of them on power plays but you just stick with it, grind away in games and you get rewarded. So that’s what we did.

On whether there was more urgency with the decision making with the power play… Yeah for sure it hasn’t been great as of late, we’ve kind of go through some ups and downs, some stretches where we get complacent and not working as hard but tonight we worked. That first one was a little bit ugly but we worked through it and we got rewarded on the next two

obviously with some faceoff plays, some stuff we designed before the game, and we executed well.

On ending a nine-game losing streak against Anaheim… For sure, definitely. They’re not a team we see too often so you don’t get many chances to flip the script on that. It’s nice that we came out here and played the way that we did, we don’t focus too much on past results because we have a different team this year and it’s a different group. We played a good 60 minutes so something to be proud of for sure.

On playing as well as they have the past two games… You’re always looking to improve but I think we’ve locked it down defensively and haven’t given them too many opportunities. There’s always plays to be made and there’s always little things that we’re trying to change and develop into habits for our group so we’re going to stick with it and continue to try and grow as a team.

On playing well without Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara… Yeah it’s great. It’s something we take pride in as a group. The guys that we have on the ice any given night we can play to win. From our goaltenders on out we’re very confident in everyone, we’ve done a great job up to this point. Eventually once we get those guys back I think it will do a lot for our team development-wise and for the maturation of the team it’s been a lot of fun.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD CHRIS WAGNER On tonight’s win... It was good. We won, and apparently the Bruins have struggled against them, so it’s a big win. They’re a pretty good team, got a good record, so it’s nice to get some momentum heading into this back-to-back before Christmas break.

On the team’s resilience in the past few wins... Yeah, you know, obviously we’ve had injuries, but I think the last few games we’ve played really well for sixty minutes, which is the key. Like I said before, we’re above pucks, we’re reloading, we’re playing good D and obviously Jaro [Jaroslav Halak] has been great these two games.

On if he felt like the team was in control of tonight’s game... Yeah, I think we were a little sloppy in the first but after that we got it together. Power play was huge, penalty kill was huge, so if you win the special teams battle, you’re usually going to win the game, and that was big for us.

On Jaroslav Halak just missing the shutout... Yeah, I know. I felt bad for him. He had a good streak going there, but it happens. But yeah, he’s been awesome. He made a really big save in the second, a tight game, and that was a big momentum shift for us.

On the team’s goaltending this season...

Yeah, probably there. Jaro and Tuukka [Rask], too – he’s been great as well. So, our depth has been pretty good. I think we’re all finding our game at the right time. When these guys come back it will be nice.

ANAHEIM DUCKS HEAD COACH RANDY CARLYLE On the team’s intensity… Well, again, I think you take certain games, and I thought it was a real tight checking game. I didn’t think that the intensity level was where our expectations of the group are, but I don’t know if I can speak for the opposition. They were quicker and more efficient with the puck than we were. I think it displayed in their power play. You know, they got two goals on the power play, and we had two glorious opportunities in the period, one by [Brandon] Montour on the power play, the other by [Pontus] Aberg, and we failed to get the puck up over them. Both saves were, I would say, 18 inches off the ice, where we had an opportunity if we go right upstairs, you know, and that’s the way the period ended for us, and they get one in the third, and I didn’t think we had much push-back in the third period, which was disappointing.

On if there is more to the loss than the special teams’ performance… Well, there’s more to it. Again, as I said, they executed, and they were crisper with the puck, and their passing was more on-cue than ours was.

On the team’s fatigue… Tonight, we didn’t have much jump, and that’s what happens, you know, you play a lot of hockey, you travel a lot, you come from the West Coast, you know, you travel five and a half hours. People don’t realize how tough travel can be. You practice every day. We didn’t get in to Boston the other night until after 2 in the morning from New York, which usually doesn’t happen. Those are the things that add up over time. Everybody is in the holiday season, there’s Christmas gifts to purchase, there’s other things that are on people’s mind, and we just didn’t have the gasoline that was necessary in the tank tonight.

On if Saturday is a big game… Well, obviously, you know, we’ve got to focus on that, get ourselves ready. We can’t change what happened tonight, and in the big picture, if, you know, you go out on a five-game road trip and said you could come home 3-2, you’d probably take it. Any coach would, but we’re supposed to win every game. That’s the way we approach it.

On Josh Mahura’s goal… Yeah, nice reward, but again, there we are. We have situations in the game where we won faceoffs back to the point that we never got shots. We didn’t shoot the puck. We tried something different. That’s not us. That’s not blue-collar hockey, and we didn’t play anywhere near where we’re capable of, and what are the reasons? Well, I don’t have all of the reasons, but I know we can play better than that. We can play with more emotion, and we can play with a higher level of execution than we played with today.

ANAHEIM DUCKS DEFENSEMAN JOSH MAHURA On if he was excited about scoring his first goal…

Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, it's a tough game, and obviously the end result wasn't what we wanted, but definitely excited about my first goal. I’ve been thinking about it a little bit and stuff like that, to it’s definitely nice to get it and, you know, to have that accomplishment obviously feels good.

On what he’ll do with the puck… I haven't got it yet. But I'll probably take it home for Christmas and give it to my parents to keep at home.

On the special teams and lifting the power play… I don’t know, I mean we’ve got such good players on both units here, that they’re good enough that, you know, sometimes there’s some games where it’s just not clicking. You know, like I said, there are top-end players all the way throughout the unit, so they’re going to get it going for sure.

On his own performance and if he feels confident in the NHL… I’m just trying to get better every day. I think I’m still learning, and I’m still so fresh into this kind of NHL environment, so it’s just trying to learn every day and get better.

ANAHEIM DUCKS FORWARD ANDREW COGLIANO On what he did or didn’t see from his team tonight… Yeah, we were just chasing the game it seemed. Took some penalties. I took two. Then they had the power play and they scored, and then you really try and catch up, so I guess tonight was a special teams battle, and you know, I think for myself I took two. I usually don’t take a lot of penalties and they were in the back of the net, but I thought overall they played just a better game. They were good in their end and they broke out the puck clean, and it just seemed like we didn’t have the same intensity that we’ve shown over those stretches of games where we’ve won.

On why the intensity wasn’t there… I think there’s no excuse really. We’re a couple games away from the Christmas break, and you know, you have to find it. These are tough times where you’ve got to push through the, you know, whatever you want it to call it to get the wins and then get yourself a break after that, so there’s no excuses. I think we’ve let a couple games here go and you know it’s unfortunate because we have something really good going.

On how much of a difference it may have made if their power play had clicked… Yeah, of course. I think, you know, they’re trying. You know, it’s tough to, you know, critique anything really about our team because, you know, everyone is trying. Even the power play sometimes it’s, you know, you think goals should go in easily but they don’t. Good penalty kills are tough to score on. [It’s] as simple as that, so I think the problem tonight was we gave up the goals and we took the penalties and gave them kind of unearned goals and gave their top guys good looks on their power play, but our guys are trying. They’re trying to put the puck in the back of the net. They’re trying to find answers, and they will. I think it’s just a matter of time until… you know, they’re good players and they’ll score.

On the hooking and slashing penalties and whether that’s a skating issue…

Yeah, it’s tough to say. You know, I think I took two and I usually don’t, so I think for me the first one I got caught on the net with my stick and we just ran into it in the second one, and I guess it was a slash, but you know, I think at the end of the day there’s going to be penalties called every game, and those… you know, when there’s no goals scored you don’t think about it, but it seemed like, you know, this is the last team you want to give two or three power plays to. Their top line is phenomenal, so they’ll put it in the back of your net like they did, and that’s the difference in the game.

#12/20/18#