BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS WINNIPEG JETS Thursday, December 21, 2017
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BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS WINNIPEG JETS Thursday, December 21, 2017 BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY POSTGAME On Charlie McAvoy in the shootout… Well, we’re not in a lot of them, so yes, he has moved up the charts. I think last time he shot about tenth and it was just a hunch, so this time, we were going to go with Bergy’s [Patrice Bergeron’s] line and then Charlie or maybe a [Jake] DeBrusk, who has been shooting the puck well lately. Obviously without Krech [David Krejci] and [Ryan] Spooner that are used to going – even [Riley] Nash has good numbers in this league. Good for Charlie. He seems to rise up to these moments, and we battled hard for that extra point. It’s always nice to have a win, even though it’s one point, it always sounds better, and it’s always nice at home, too. On importance of earning the second point… They all add up. I think, for us in the locker room, when you win, it’s one more point which it can come down to. It’s the way you win. We are missing guys down the middle of the ice; you’ve got guys battling through that weren’t 100 percent playing today, so it always feels a little better when you can suck it up and get it done. It will mean something at the end of the year, but it means more now going forward that the guys know they contributed. A lot of young guys in there; we added another one to the mix tonight in Colby [Cave], and knowing we can count on them, and they can get it done. It goes a long way for their confidence in these games. If you want to play into May, you have to be comfortable in these types of games. You just have to be, where it’s tough going, and good goaltending, and hard defense, and you’ve got to stick with the program, so good for them. On Colby Cave… I thought his game was fine. I know him from Providence; he is a good 200-foot player. We were one of the, I guess, why hasn’t been up before, will his pace be good enough, strong enough on the puck? I thought he did well for himself in those areas. He did what we asked him to do, so I was happy for him. For me, I thought he did his job and helped us get the two points. On Jake DeBrusk… I thought Jake, after the first period, his minutes were down. He wasn’t on the kill. I knew we would start with [Tim] Schaller a little more and [Noel] Acciari in our end at times to start the period, so I just moved Jake up there for that reason to get him a few more minutes, because I figured that line would play a little bit more. On adversity… I think, clearly, experience is the best teacher. We went through it. A lot of different things came up, so the adversity is second nature now. No one feels sorry for you. You have got to plod along. I think they understand, as a staff, we’re not going in there making excuses, and we are going to trust guys to do certain things that they wouldn’t normally be asked to do, and they’re going to have to handle it if we want to have success. Without putting a burden on them or pressure it’s like, here, this is what it is. Have at it. I think the veteran guys have done a good job getting them through it when we sort of push them. You’re seeing more of it now. You saw a little more inconsistency at the start of the year – young guys, perfectly natural. We’re seeing some of the guys get through that now. Other guys might take a little longer. If we were 10-18, we would look at it as, well, injuries, but give the guys credit for not using it as a crutch. On illnesses… I don’t want to go through the whole room, because we will reevaluate tomorrow, but [Brad Marchand] Marchy was one of the worst ones along with Nash and Spooner. He just happened to find enough energy to get out there and play. The other guys hadn’t eaten all day. There’s a few more of them, but like I said, I don’t want to go through the whole room. I don’t think that’s fair to assess everyone now, because we will see how we are tomorrow and Saturday. You can tell it has gone through a few of the guys. Some of them were not quite as bad, I guess. I am not putting down Nash and Spooner. If they could have played, they would have, but they could not digest any food all day. On special teams… They draw a lot of penalties, and they were able to again. Their power play is deadly, so that was a big part to not have to chase the game. When you are fatigued and a little under the weather, it can be difficult. So yes, a big part of our game. Even our power play started to come around with some action at the last one that almost got us the lead. Special teams were solid. It’s just one of those games that you thought maybe one play here or there was going to make the difference, and each team made one when they had to, and then the saves were good. I didn’t see all of the highlights of all of them, but I thought [David] Backes had a rebound chance, Bergy was in tight there, Marchy’s shot – I don’t know – when McAvoy made that play to him – if it got through or not, but those are high-end chances. Tuukka at the other end, had some great saves in front of the net. On Tuukka Rask… He knew that we were going to be, I don’t want to say, offensively challenged, but some players out of the lineup, and some players in the lineup that generally give us a lot of offense were going to be fighting it a bit, so he stepped up. That’s part of it. I think team defense has come a long way from the start of the year. We have helped the goalie’s along. When Tuukka came around, I thought we were playing very well in front of him, and on a night like tonight when he had to be a little bit better, he was. It is almost like the guys are looking out for each other on the nights when they need to, and that is the sign of a good team. Those are the teams that end up getting the points and winning. We are in that mode right now, and we want to stay in it. On Patrik Laine… I expected him to come down and rip one in the shootout. That move surprised me. I don’t know if Tuukka knew it was coming or not, but I would suspect even if you know a guy like that that shoots it that hard, that you still got your hands full. He had one shot on that one goal he did score. Let’s face it, we were in scramble mode after we lost possession of the puck. I think Tuukka was rock solid, and whether he knows the guys or not, I think he was ready to go tonight. BOSTON BRUINS GOALTENDER TUUKKA RASK On whether guys being out sick changes his thinking going into the game… I’m one of those guys, so a little bit yeah, but sometimes it works, you know? I’m fine. It’s just going around a little bit. On whether he was considering not playing tonight… No. On whether Zdeno Chara is playing some of the best hockey of his career… Ask him, I don’t know. But he’s playing good, yeah. You know, he’s always solid defensively. That’s what he’s been doing for forever. You know, he takes pride in that, and you know, we try to work together on the defensive side, but he wants to go up the ice too. And you know, I was yelling up there the last seconds in regulation to go coast to coast, and you know, he tried it, so that’s good. But he’s playing great yeah. On whether he and Anton Khudobin are feeding off each other… Yeah, I mean you’re always, we’re rooting for each other, but I think the way our team has played in the past month or so, you know, I think it makes our job a lot easier. You know, we’re defending a lot better than we were, you know, the first month and a half or what not. You know, when you do that and you defend as a team, keep most of the shots outside, you know, the chances are that you know the goals against are going to stay down, stay low, so that’s been the case lately, and you know, I think it’s just an overall team effort. On whether this game felt harder from the second period on… It didn’t really feel like it. I mean there was a little, you know, a few minutes in the second when we kind of, we made some mistakes in our own end.