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BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS FLORIDA PANTHERS Sunday, April 8, 2018 BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY POSTGAME On what he expects from the team on Thursday… I feel we’ll be a lot better than we were tonight. We better be, or we’re in big trouble. I just felt that, coming down the stretch here, you could start to see us mentally get tired. You know, physically, I think every team goes through it, the schedule. Every team has difficult parts of it, and at the end of the year, you’re a little heavy-legged, but mentally, looked like we were losing some of our passion, and that showed in the first period. That’s what we were missing, and then the execution crept in when we tried to do, you know, when we started to want to get the game back, we did it more as individuals instead of a team. Then, the third we started playing together, but then it’s too late; we’re chasing the game. So, yes, to get back to your question, Thursday, I believe will be the 50-win team that we saw all year. We’re not going to allow one game to define us, yet we understand the meaning. We let one get away, an opportunity lost to have home-ice advantage, and we’ll see if that haunts us down the road. I think it’s too early to tell that right now. On what needs to be done before Thursday… Well, we’ve got to defend the front of our net better. Clearly that’s an issue. Some of it is stick position. It seems like, three of those shots, if we were better sticks, we could alter the shooting lane or get in the shooting lane, make it more difficult. I thought we did a better job of that in the midway part of the year. Lately, it’s been a bit of an issue, so reminder of that. But, it’s not an easy fix. If we start we’re not chasing the game, it will allow us, when our structure is good, to allow us to transition better, because other teams will press. So, we’ve got to find a way to get out in front early. Not early – we’ve got to find a way to not continually chase the hockey game, whether that’s getting a big save, whether that’s managing the puck better, whether it’s tracking back better because I think all three of those came into play for the most part, and why we fell behind. On if he thinks the Bergeron line is suffering from mental fatigue… I do. Marchy [Brad Marchand] and Pasta [David Pastrnak] and Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] have all played a lot of hockey. They’ve been checked hard all year. Right now, the puck’s not bouncing their way. Marchy looks like he’s passing when he should be shooting and shooting when he should be passing, and he has the puck a lot, so clearly that’s not the issue. It’s just, I think, right now, he could use a breather, get reset here against Toronto. I think it will be the best thing for them right now. We’re going to need them to be our best players. I trust them; I have no doubt they will be. They usually come through. They did the other night against Ottawa, got a big power play goal tonight again. So, they’ll be there. It’s just, yes, I do believe, mentally, right now, they could use a break. On the rookies playing in playoff-style games… Well, I think they’ve been going through a bit of that playoff environment. But yeah, you look at the first goal, Grizz [Matt Grzelcyk] turned into – he looked tentative. As you saw him later when he got comfortable, he’s popping out of piles like he has been all year, so maybe that was a little bit of it early on. Charlie [McAvoy], when he first came back, I think he’s found his game. We’re going to need that. Jake [DeBrusk] a couple of times in tight just missed pucks. We’re going to try to take the positives. I just, I don’t do a very good job with that five minutes after the game is over. I mean, it sucks when you lose when you have an opportunity right in front of you and you let it get away. At the end of the day, we’ll look at it, and we’ll try to take positives and be ready for Toronto. They’re a very good team, and New Jersey would have been a good team, so either way, we knew we were up a very good opponent. We’re going to have to find our game if we expect to advance. On what he expects from the matchup with Toronto… I’m looking forward to it. Two Original Six teams. They’re young. We feel – they’ve got some veteran guys – [Patrick] Marleau, [James] van Riemsdyk, certain guys that they expect to lean on. [Nazem] Kadri’s kind of in between. We have some younger guys; we have some guys we’re going to lean on. We both exited in the first round last year, probably learned some lessons. They’ve got a great coach that I’ve always looked up to and tried to learn from. I think, both good goaltenders. It should be a terrific series if both teams are on their game, and that’s playoff hockey right there, a lot of speed, probably a lot of physicality. I thought the games during the year, even though we lost more than we won, I thought we were very competitive and could easily have won. We let one get away in the last minute earlier in the year, and that’s when, I think, before we had really learned how to win, what to do to play winning hockey down the stretch. We’re a lot – a different team than we were way back then. On what it means for him personally to get back to the playoffs… Well, personally, it’s our goal every year. We did it last year, whatever the amount of games, and we’re back there this year. And, I feel we’re a better team than we were a year ago, and we’ve got to go out and prove it. So, personally, as a coach, you want to win. You want to be playing this time of year in the spring and as deep as you can. So, I’m excited. Even though we just lost a game, we’re still going to the playoffs, and we’re still a good team. We just have to live with this, probably, for a few more days, and we would have rather not had to, trust me. But, here we are. We’re not running from it. But, we’ll be ready for Toronto. I think our guys are truly an excited group to be ready to go, and we’re going to have to be, because they’re a good team. On what he wants his players to do over the next three days… Well, they need to rest, first of all, both mentally and physically. We’ll see what we’re going to do on the ice Tuesday. I think Wednesday needs to be a good, crisp, address areas of concern. But, again, some of it, I think, it’s not a switch, but some of it is the guys understanding where we’re getting beat and starting. I think starting on time is mental, so that’s a part they’ve got to be prepared to do. We can obviously coach a few more strict details into the first two, three shifts, but at the end of the day, it’s about when you win that opening draw and get it behind their D effectively and start the forecheck, you usually build momentum off that. And, each line has to manage the puck. That’s what our goal will be. Manage the puck early in the game so we’re not on our heels defending, and that’s going to be our goal for the first five minutes, and we’ll crunch it down to that. But, what does the team need? I think they need to get away from the rink tomorrow and get back to feeling good about who we are. We didn’t finish April the way we wanted to. Clearly, we weren’t the same team we were in March, but we’ll get going here on Thursday and see where we’re at. BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD DAVID PASTRNAK On the past six weeks being tough and whether mental focus was a factor… Yeah, I guess you’re right. You know, maybe the mentality was a little tired, you know, but that’s not an excuse. You know, obviously tough schedule for us, but we… we did what we could, you know. Last couple weeks wasn’t our best, you know, or wasn’t what we would expect, you know, but you know, the season’s over and another part begins, you know, and obviously it was tough loss today, but you know, tomorrow we need to regroup and get ready for the thing we were working for the whole season. On how big the three days before playoffs begin will be… Yeah, it’s huge.

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