On If the Bruins Were in Too Big of a Hole to Climb out of After Two Periods… Well, It's Too Big of a Hole, but It's A
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BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS NEW YORK ISLANDERS Tuesday, December 20, 2016 BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH CLAUDE JULIEN POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE On if the Bruins were in too big of a hole to climb out of after two periods… Well, it’s too big of a hole, but it’s a hole we dug in ourselves, and to me, it’s not acceptable. Some of those mistakes on those goals are coming from our best players, and secondary scoring is there, yet we’re still not getting the scoring we should from a lot of our guys. So I think that until we can find, or some of our best players can find their games, we’re going to be playing these types of games, back and forth, winning a big one, losing another one, and so on, so forth. Tuukka [Rask] has a bit of an off night, but the amount of times that he’s bailed us out, the least we could have done was bail him out. Tonight, we couldn’t do that. On if a lack of concentration hurt the Bruins early in the game… Well, whatever it is, what you saw in the third period, I don’t know why we don’t bring that in the first. We wait until we’re in a hole, and the desperation, and I guess our work ethic and our compete level, should be that at the first. Not in the third, when you’re down three-nothing. So, somehow we’ve got to find that. It’s not good enough, and we know that we struggle to score goals. Let’s be ready to play, and the way we gave up goals tonight, didn’t look to me like we were ready to play. On why Jimmy Hayes has been able to bring more offensively the last couple games… Well, he seems to be doing more. I can tell you he’s doing the things that we’ve talked about. He’s going to the net, and he’s winning some battles, and he’s playing with an edge, and he just seems to be finding his confidence. So, those kind of things are important, and right now, he’s was on one of our better lines tonight, because Bleeder [Anton Blidh], him and Mooresy [Dominic Moore] were the line that gave us the most offense tonight, and that kind of explains a little bit of why we’re where we’re at here tonight. On if he’s found a fourth line with Anton Blidh, Dominic Moore, and Jimmy Hayes… I don’t know if I’m going to call it a fourth line, to be honest with you. They seem to be better than some of our lines. So right now, it’s nice to see that some of those guys are doing their jobs, and we need more guys doing their jobs to the level that they should. On if he says anything to Tuukka Rask after the night he had tonight… He’s fine. Tuukka’s fine. He’ll move on, and he’ll bounce back, and it’s not the first time it’s happened to him. But at the same time, like I said, we had an off night. Tuukka was part of it, but at the same time, I think Tuukka can be excused a lot better than others. On if Colin Miller throwing more pucks on net is part of the team’s gameplan… Yeah, I think it’s part of the whole scenario. I think the fact that he’s skating the puck out the way he has, and he’s skating well, and he’s on top of his game right now, as I’ve said before, it’s nice to see him turning the corner. BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD PATRICE BERGERON On if he was particularly motivated in the third period… Yeah. But, then again, it’s too late to start playing the way we should be playing for the full game. I guess, we got back in the game and that was a good third period. But, that being said, it was way too little too late. On if he felt the team wasn’t ready to start the game tonight… Yeah. We had some – the goals they got were basically from our plays and mistakes we made. Miscommunication on the first one. The second one, same thing – kind of misjudged plays and not being there for support and not communicating. So, a lot of the things they got were from us. On if they came out harder than they expected… We talked about that before the game, so I hope not. I hope we were expecting that and they played exactly the way that I would expect them and we didn’t respond. On if this is as frustrated as he’s ever been offensively… Yeah. It’s one of those things where I guess, though it’s cliché, keep shooting on net and keep sticking with it is getting old and you want some results. We’re at that point now. On if other lines can take anything out of Dominic Moore’s line tonight… Yeah, for sure. I thought they kept a simple game, north-south, and everyone was moving their feet and creating something out of that. I thought that line was great and a great example of Anton [Blidh] putting the puck on net and you never know what can happen. So, yeah. They were great. On how the team even-keels the momentum from Sunday and tonight’s first two periods… It’s really simple – going back to playing your game and being ready from the drop of the puck. We talked about this last stretch before the break. It was three games, now it’s two, but it was three games that we wanted to get those points from and we needed to do the job and we didn’t do that tonight. We didn’t show up for the first two periods and we paid for it. BOSTON BRUINS GOALTENDER TUUKKA RASK On the third Islanders goal… Yeah, I guess so. It should have never happened but I found a way to tip it in my own net. What can you do? It happens. On games like this happening to the best of players… Yeah. I actually made some saves in the first period, so I’ll take some positives out of it. The first one, there’s nothing you can do about that. Second one, felt like all was square. Then, you know, to seal the deal and wish a Merry Christmas to the Islanders on the third one and let’s call it a night. But, I don’t think you want to think about it too much. As our goaltending guru always says, you’re never as good or as bad as you think. So, it’s an even keel. On if he felt the team was ready to play early on… I don’t know. I guess, after that first goal, maybe it even deflated us a little bit. I think, if you look at the chances from both sides, in the first period, we probably gave up too many. Or, we wouldn’t like to give up that many. But, I didn’t think we were bad. Throughout the game, we created some chances. As the game went on, we tightened up defensively and really pushed forward and kept the pace going. But, it’s tough if you fall down to or three to nothing in the first. On what happened on the first goal with him and Brad Marchand… I stopped the puck and then I turned around, I saw him flying in, and we were on the same rails. That’s about it. Usually, it’s not a forward who comes to grab it and we kind of both caught ourselves surprised in that situation. He thought he was going to hit me because I was going to go the other way and I had my regular route of hugging the net and we just happened to hit each other. So, just a weird coincidence. On him not dwelling on the losses… No, you try not to, that’s the thing. It’s a long season and I guess that’s something you learn throughout your career. You try not to get too high or too low and stay even-keeled. As I said, you’re never as good or as bad as you think. On what he was thinking when he got taken out of the game… Well, I think it’s the only reasonable thing to do as a coach, especially with a goal like that. It happens, you move on. On what the standard is for him playing the puck behind the net… Well, D-men always go close to the boards and I go close to the net, that’s just the way it is. I stopped and I turned around and started looking to play, but then I saw Marchy [Brad Marchand] coming in so I just tried to get out of the way and we just happened to hit each other. BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD BRAD MARCHAND On if he got a sense that the team wasn’t ready to play… A little bit. I mean I think there were a couple mistakes, but you know, they capitalized on a few opportunities. I think we… our offensive game wasn’t too bad to start out, and again, you know, we got down by a couple mistakes and tough to claw back from that.