BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS DETROIT RED WINGS Saturday, December 23, 2017

BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS DETROIT RED WINGS Saturday, December 23, 2017 BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE On David Backes… He was great – inspirational on the bench, big smile on his face coming in today, and why not? A nice, healthy baby boy and everyone is doing well, so we’re all happy for him. He was really dialed in. These are the type of games – the lower scoring, more grind it out type of games where he really excels, and that is where we need him. On putting Backes with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand late in the game… They have played together before – a little heavier flavor with the goalie out – second center man for draws. That is nothing on Pasta. We just moved him to more of the offensive role with three minutes to go, and if we can extend the lead with him, great. It’s just Backs has a lot of experience doing that. I think he is a valuable guy in those situations, so we want to make sure we use it as much as possible, whether it is with that group or the other night, we had him with Nash and Heinen. They were really going well, but we want to use him in those situations. On taking Zdeno Chara for granted… I think a lot of people do. I don’t – the little things that happen in the room every day, his willingness to mentor younger players and work with the staff in that area. You can’t say enough about his ability to defend. He starts transition; he wants to be involved in that part of the game. He is just a guy with a lot of pride, a lot of character, a lot of heart, knows how to win. I think that permeates throughout our lineup. Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] is the same way up front. I think these young guys are learning lessons every day on this. On the penalty kill… Our PK has been solid all year – a bit of the backbone of our team, the guts of our team play on the PK, and they do a good job. Even though there wasn’t a lot of them tonight, we needed them as you do most nights. We can talk about that pretty much every night – very few off nights they have had. Another solid job, and that starts with the goalie, and usually Zee [Zdeno Chara] and Bergy and Kevan Miller and [Brandon] Carlo does a good job. Guys in the bottom of the lineup have been good on it all year – [Riley] Nash, [Sean] Kuraly now, and [Tim] Schaller. On the team’s veterans… We have talked a lot about the young kids, and rightfully so, they have earned that, but our veterans – we addressed after the game – they are the guys that were dialed in today, were our leaders, and I was asked before the game a bit about that. I think, younger guys this time of the year, they might look ahead a little bit to the Christmas break, seeing their family. They should be excited about that, but I think that’s part of the growing as a pro to make sure you’re focused and then start thinking about that at 4 o’clock. But, they fell in line, did a good job, but it was definitely our older guys that did the lines’ share of the work. On Ryan Spooner… I thought he was good. Ryan got lost a little today at times in these close games. We try to use him on the wing a little bit here. There wasn’t a lot of power play time for him where he usually excels. I think he is committed to trying to play the right way, and help and do his job defensively away from the puck, whether it is backchecking and reloading well, getting in the shooting lane. I see a commitment there, and when we put him on the wing when [David] Krejci was in, he was willing to do that. I think he enjoys the atmosphere right now and wants to be a part of the winning program here. It is just a matter of his health, and now it seems to be he is getting through these games without any reoccurrences, so hopefully it is only better in the second – post-Christmas run here. On Ryan Spooner’s start to the season… I think at the start of the year we were all a little bit out of sorts from game to game. We were really good, then we went away from it. Part of it was the inconsistency of the lineup, part of that was youth coming in and understanding where they fit in. Specifically to Ryan, I think he is a different player. I don’t know if there was a little bit of something going on with him to start health-wise, only he could speak to that. He was definitely hurt at the start, trying to play through it. He is a guy who needs his legs; that is his greatest asset. In the last four, five, six games you have seen a little more of that and I think he has done a good job for us. On the Christmas break… When you are winning, you always want to be out there. Normally I would say yes, but right now after this stretch, we have played a lot of hockey. It showed today; we had to really dig deep. I think being away from the rink for a few days will be good for us, especially when guys are starting to get sick. So now, they get that out of the locker room, and guys kind of take a deep breath, get some rest. I think it comes at a good time for us. We have had a heavy workload. On playing in tight, low-scoring games… The guys that have been here for years, they have won that way. All we’re trying to do is merge some of the youth and skill and speed of the game – the transition part of it – with the hard to play against identity. They are learning on the fly here the details of the game in these close games. They just happen to be low scoring. Clearly, with Tuukka, his play speaks for itself and Anton, the way he finished last year, we knew we were going to get good goaltending – at least we assumed we were going to get good goaltending. We’ve got some heavy defensemen that can play that way, we’ve got bottom of the lineup that can kill penalties well. That is usually one of the ingredients of being a good defensive team is you keep the other team off the scoresheet on the power play. Don’t get them excited to play. I envisioned maybe more offense. On if the team had more veterans in the top six… Hard to play against is still you keep the puck out of your net; every good team keeps it out of their net. I just think we would have a few more goals. We might be able to extend leads a little easier. You can see some plays around the net tonight, there was some bouncing pucks that maybe guys are a little more polished that we could extend it. That is where there is a little bit of work in progress. Some nights, our power play can look scruffy, and I think some of the composure part of that, when you are missing a Krejci and guys that have been around, that shows up. I still thought we would be a good defensive team. I thought we finished that way last year. What was hidden in a bit of our offense was I thought we were keeping it out of our net. I’d have to go back to the stats, but we didn’t lose that part of our game for the most part. It’s just looked a little bit different, because I think, even the schedule, with our injuries, it has been taxing on certain individuals, so they lose a bit of their energy. I don’t want to speak out of turn. When we are winning and we’re playing a good brand of hockey, we are hard to play against. So, if people are mad about that, too bad, I guess is my attitude. I would like us to extend leads a little more and be a little more attack-oriented, but it’s kind of the way it has evolved here, and it has evolved for us. On Tuukka Rask… He has gotten a few more breaks. We talked about that at the start of the year. There were some funny goals going in off our guys, ones rattling around; you don’t see many of those. There were some posts and in, now they are posts and out. He alluded to that, that he thought he was playing fairly consistent hockey, just wasn’t getting a lot of breaks. I think we played well in front of him in stretches when he wasn’t winning. I still think we have played well in front of him, but now, the times we’re not, he has stepped up his game for us. I’ve talked about that the other night, that that is what needs to happen. The nights someone doesn’t have it, someone has to step up in another area.

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