BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS CAROLINA HURRICANES Saturday, January 6, 2018

BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY POSTGAME On the Bergeron line… You guys write, I coach. You can choose them. They were fun to watch when they got puck possession and they ended up getting it to the net with numbers in the slot. High percentage shots. It’s just amazing to watch Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] get a shot off from there. If you are at Warrior enough, you will see him working on it every morning skate – getting that quick release. Usually Jay is out there feeding him pucks, or Joe. He had four; he might have been able to have six, too. He had some really quality looks. Someone has to get him the puck. Good for that line; told them in the room, they probably got tired of reading about [Sean] Kuraly and [Riley] Nash supplying all of the offense, so they said to heck with that.

On Bergeron assist to Pastrnak… They work on that. If you look back last year there were some plays – I know Tampa for sure. Late in the year, they built that into their game. Teams would start overplaying Bergy in the bumper, so he would have to slide closer and closer to [Ryan] Spooner at the time on the half wall. He is over by the dot, so it becomes a lower-percentage shot, but maybe that D falls asleep a little bit. It’s almost a no-look kind of area play and got him right in the tape, and I am sure Pasta [David Pastrnak] was thankful. I think he had one right before that kind of rolled on him on a tough angle. He is a goal scorer; he wanted to get back on the scoreboard, so good for him. Again, that’s practice. That wasn’t luck.

On players scoring four goals… I am sure over the years. I’ve got to think back now, especially since the playing days, but coaching days – I think [Jaromir] Jagr one year in Washington had about six or seven points, so I don’t know how many goals there were. And Peter Bondra once that year, too. But, not that quick, to be honest with you. Usually it takes you a little while longer.

On Danton Heinen… We talked about this probably this morning. His ability to win pucks is the biggest difference to me this year. Just some strength and confidence and a little more know how to do that. If he doesn’t win the puck, it is down the ice and we are breaking it out. And the support area – that is one of the things Danton is learning too – where is his help when his head is down. He knows Bergy is going to be in that area; Bergy talks a lot. He knows he can probably go behind the net to Marchy [Brad Marchand] into the bumper up high. Sometimes the closest player is in the bumper, and it is only 10, 15 feet away. Probably good communication by Bergy there, as well.

On scoring depth… We have talked about it. We need it, different lines contributing. Some nights, they all do it at once. It seems lately we are getting a lot of those five, tonight seven-goal games. You know that is not going to continue forever, but good for them. I don’t think they’re cheating or it’s dumb luck. They are playing the right way. It is not 7-5; it is one, it is 5-0 Ottawa, 5-1, 7-1, so they are still taking a lot of pride in keeping the puck out of our net, playing the right way, so good for them.

On expanding lead in standings… It is more about us. We want to play our game, and it is working out well for us. I am not going to lie to you; I am a coach; I look at the standings. But, it is early to get preoccupied with that. We just want to play well and win and keep climbing up. We have done that. Some teams, they have their own issues, but for us, that is our goal. It seems like there’s no easy games in this league, but lately we have been able to extend some leads. Again, one of those games back-to-back, we didn’t have to tax anybody. I don’t have the sheet in front of me, but I know the forwards probably – 14, 15 minutes the most for the highest forward tonight. It is always good, especially in situations like this when we have to play again tomorrow.

On the Bruins’ start… I actually felt that our jump was really good yesterday in practice. The practice after the Islanders game, we came back; we were just going to go out and buzz around and probably not go out on the ice Thursday – guys had good jump. We are healthy again; guys are excited to play. I thought we would be fine in that regard. It was just a matter of, hey you have got a team that is coming in here playing well – are we going to have our legs for 60 minutes, and we did.

On power play answering Carolina’s goal… Well, it is our power play, right? It is our time to answer. You talk about timely goals and special teams; that was one. That is a turning point to me. They might have thought they had life. Their goal is out, now they get a goal, they are back in it, and all of a sudden bang, it is a two-goal deficit again. I think teams are aware that we’re pretty stingy, so all of a sudden you need two just to get a point and three to win. I don’t know if psychologically it gets in their head; I can’t speak for them, but I imagine it might. When you are trying to get back to the intermission down one, and all of a sudden it is not that way.

On Ryan Spooner… He went off. He missed probably the last 10 minutes. I have no update. I don’t know if I would keep him out of the lineup tomorrow. That is something I would probably get back to you in the morning on.

BOSTON BRUINS CENTER PATRICE BERGERON On the last time he scored four goals in a game… I was 16 years old I think, so it’s been a while.

On whether he is sick… A little bit yeah, a little deep voice.

On whether the voice has anything to do with the goals… Yeah, the snowstorm actually helped me because I wasn’t feeling so hot that day [Thursday]. I felt better today.

On whether he changed anything or it’s just those shots went in… I think it was one of those nights where puck was going in but also I was finding that slot. It seemed like it was open and Brad [Marchand] kept finding me there. He was doing a good job of making those plays. It seemed like I had a lane so I tried to take it.

On whether he knew he tied the team-record for goals in a game… I didn’t know that, no. I had no idea.

On whether he was aiming for five goals… No I wasn’t. I was trying to play the game, I guess everything was falling in place and it was halfway through the game I had four, so… I didn’t know what to expect for the next half of the game. Once you get a big lead like that you play kind of a different way and it wasn’t the same.

On whether the team felt they needed to establish their presence after not playing for a while… Yeah we did. We talked about them [Carolina] being a really fast team, first on pucks and being strong and playing well. We knew that we needed a big start, we did that with our penalty kill and then our power play.

On how many times he’s scored goals like he did today in practice… I’ve taken those shots many, many times. Obviously I can’t put a number on it but it’s something I work on mostly every practice with Pando [Assistant Coach Jay Pandolfo] taking some shots from the slot. It was nice to get rewarded I guess.

On getting David Pastrnak a goal tonight ending his scoring drought… I think he was playing well. The team’s doing well too so I don’t think it’s anything anyone should be worried about it’s going to happen during the year. He kept putting in the work and helping the team, I’m sure he’s happy with it, it feels good for him. That being said, everyone’s contributing, it’s been pretty fun to be a part of.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD DAVID PASTRNAK On if he felt like the team had one of these great nights coming… Yeah, you know, everything bounced our way and a lot of pucks went in so, you know, I think it helps. You know, every line lately is producing so it is good for our team.

On how it felt to score after a bit of a drought… Yeah, you know, obviously it’s nice. It was a good PP [power play] and good battles there and a nice puck by Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] so it felt nice to get it in. And like I said, overall we had a good game.

On if he found himself pressing at all… No, I mean, you know I went though it last year so I didn’t – like I said many times, you know, we were playing really well this year so it was way easier for me when we’re playing good.

On if he learned of any other ways to break out of the drought… I mean, you know, just keep it simple and don’t think about it too much. To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about it until you guys told me, I had no idea. Obviously it’s been a while, but those things happen and it’s normal. But like I said, it was a lot of help that we were playing really good.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN TOREY KRUG On if it was fun to watch the Patrice Bergeron line go to work… Yeah, it sure is. They’re the best line in hockey and you know, when you have them on your team and they’re feeling it, you just have to sit back and get the puck in their hands and let them do the work. So it’s obviously a lot of fun to watch them play for sure.

On there not being any complacency throughout the team… Yeah, for sure. We always play to our standard. It doesn’t matter what the time or score is, we always want to keep moving up and pushing other teams down. And we had a chance, obviously, to come away with two points tonight and we obviously came out hot and just kept it rolling. So we’re feeling good about our game and definitely not getting complacent.

On if there was an emphasis on coming out and having a good first period… Yeah, I think we were eager to go. We’ve been playing a lot of hockey and to have a few days off in between games when you’re feeling good about your game, you know, it’s tough. So you obviously want to get back out and in to game action and that first period was indicative of that. The guys did a good job.

On if a game like this is as fun to play as it is for the fans to watch… Yeah, it’s great. When things are going your way, you just want to keep moving forward and keep playing. And you have, you know, Bergy’s [Patrice Bergeron] line doing their thing and everyone seems to be contributing, you just continue to work, put your head down and you know, let those guys do their thing. So you know, it’s been a lot of fun for sure.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN ZDENO CHARA On watching the Bergeron line do their thing tonight… It’s not just a night like tonight, it’s every night. He does so much for this hockey club, for this organization and every night he’s working very hard, he plays a 200 foot game and he does all those little things that we ask from him and he goes above and beyond every night. Very happy for him that he had the night that he had and he got rewarded by scoring really nice goals and making great plays so you can only be happy for a player like that that gives so much to the team.

On the team not easing back and continuing to gain some distance in the Atlantic Division… Well I think that it’s nice to obviously play the way we are but you can’t get caught up too much looking at the standings and be like you said complacent or be satisfied. You just have to keep going. There are very good teams in our division that can make a lot of damage if you take it easy or you’re not sharp every night. So we want to make sure that we avoid these kind of bad habits and continue to thrive on the game that we are playing right now and take a lot of pride in it.

On how important it is for the veteran leadership to keep the young guys focused… Yeah I mean that’s always been our goal, to lead by example, whether it’s on the ice or off the ice, to make sure these guys understand what it takes to be professional and what it takes to stay in this league for a long time and play the right way. So obviously we are trying to lead on a daily basis and you know it’s good to have our followers so you know it’s a credit to the young guys.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN KEVAN MILLER On Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand’s shorthanded combo creating offense… Oh, they do a great job. And I was on first and it kind of starts there and you see they’re blocking shots or having a good stick, and they create a little bit of offense from that sometimes, but that starts in our zone for sure.

On watching Patrice Bergeron score a hat trick… It was awesome. He’s a – he deserves it. He’s a hell of a player. Those guys were fighting him and he was fighting the space, and it was a lot of fun to watch.

On Patrice Bergeron’s four goals and his performance not changing from his usual play… They just go in, yeah. I mean he found his spots and he was hot and, like I said, it’s just really cool to see.

On Patrice Bergeron’s performance making it slightly easier on him… Yeah, sure, a little bit. You know, you never want to let your guard down but I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part for all three periods. And we wanted to focus on how to make sure we’re maintaining our game even though there’s [a game] tomorrow, obviously, so make sure you’re creating good habits so I think we did a pretty good job.

On playing to their potential regardless of the score… I think we did a relatively good job of that. It can be hard sometimes, you let that game get away, but we wanted to make sure we focused on doing the right things and I think we did a good job of that.

On if this is the most fun they’ve had this season… Yeah, I think we’re obviously – it’s good to have everyone healthy and I think we’ve kind of been waiting for that. And I think we’ve had a pretty good run so far and I think guys are enjoying themselves on and off the ice. There’s a great group in here, we’ve said that from day one, we’ve had a really tight group and I think it’s showing now how much we enjoy playing for each other and, yeah, it’s a good feeling.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD BRAD MARCHAND On where Bergeron’s four goals tonight ranks for him in terms of his other accomplishments… It’s pretty impressive. Anytime you can get four goals in a game, three is impressive so being part of this one and seeing him have the game he had, it’s definitely up there but you know I think the Olympics and winning the cup and him being Patrice Bergeron is above that.

On how well his line is playing… I think just our team in general. I think with the confidence that we have and the consistency from every line is fun. We know every night that guys are going to be accountable. It allows you to be more confident every time you step on the ice when the whole team is playing like that.

On the team showing no signs of complacency going into the bye week… Yeah no, we don’t seem to have a whole lot of that in this room. Guys seem pretty dedicated to really just taking it day by day and not looking too far ahead. Same as going into the Christmas break so it just seems that guys are focused to doing the job that we’re being asked to do. Obviously it’s not going to go as well as it is right now all year, but we know that. We want to make sure that each and every game we give ourselves an opportunity to win and that seems to be what we’re doing right now. But it’s definitely a lot of fun when things are going the way they are right now.

On the light celebration after Patrice Bergeron’s third goal… Yeah I don’t know, I was pretty excited for him. I was just waiting for the hats to rain down, I didn’t know if it didn’t count of what but yeah it was pretty fun to see.

On if Patrice Bergeron had a chance at five goals… We were hoping to get him to six but it didn’t work out.

On if the team has to remind themselves to stay focused with such a big lead… Yeah we don’t want to let up. No team is going to let up on us if we get ahead like that. We don’t have that built into our game, it’s more about playing the right way and continuing to build. That’s kind of what we’re looking to do in here, is not to worry about other teams, we’re worried about playing our game regardless if we are up by five or down by five, we want to try and play the same way. It’s tough to do sometimes when you’re in a game like that but we did a pretty good job.

CAROLINA HURRICANES HEAD COACH BILL PETERS On if they were still in it after the Hurricane’s first period power play goal… Well it’s 2-1 and there’s a lot of hockey to be played, so yeah. There’s still lots of hockey to be played but we needed to get to a different level.

On not sustaining momentum from the first period goal… Well there’s no real momentum when we scored the goal, we didn’t establish really establish a game. So, there was no real momentum from the goal, but it gets you a chance to get back in it. It was a power play goal. It was good execution by our power play unit. I don’t think we had too many sustaining shifts where we had pressure and we actually won shifts and build a game.

On what they did against Pittsburgh but did not do tonight against the Bruins… Well we just did skate well. We skated real well throughout the lineup in Pittsburgh, but we didn’t skate real well tonight, we never got to our game.

On if they will bounce back next game… Well you’re going to have to. You have to bounce back. This is game 41, so this isn’t the way we wanted to come into the midpoint of the season. The reality is we didn’t play very well.

On if there was an update on Sebastian Aho… We are going to get him evaluated tomorrow by our doctors back in Raleigh and then we will know what we are dealing with.

CAROLINA HURRICANES DEFENSEMAN JUSTIN FALK On what happened tonight after coming off your best game in Pittsburgh… We just didn’t compete. We gave them a lot of chances early and they capitalized on them. We hung our goalies out to dry. We didn’t give them a chance; we were leaving guys wide open and that’s pretty much just a lack of effort on our end, but that can’t happen. You know, we like to take those big wins and those wins in your division and try to build off of it, but you can’t come in on the road and expect the win to be easy. Boston is a good team and they’ve been playing really well too, and we knew they were going to be tough to play against. Their top line has a lot of skill and they work hard, and we just made it easy for them.

The feeling on the bench after the Bruins led 2-1 in the first period… Just an emotionless game. I mean it’s nice when you score that goal obviously when things are not going well at the start to try and slow the momentum and generate…that’s what happens and you can kind of build the game off of that. We just didn’t take anything off that. I guess you can say emotionless – we just kind of were going through the motions, hoping it’d be an easy night. And good for them for jumping all over us, taking advantage of a night that they could’ve.

On bouncing back in Tampa… We’re going to need to. Tampa is another tough team. Similar situation, you know. Tampa is obviously the hottest team in the league right now. They have a lot of similar athletes – a lot of fire power upfront and goalies that are playing well, so it’s going to be another tough night. You know, we’re at the half way mark now, there’s not going to be very many easy nights, there never really is, especially once you get to the back half of the schedule, every game gets tighter, every game gets more competitive. Teams are stretching and clawing for those points, no matter where they are in the standings. Could be the number one team trying to build on their lead and secure home ice or be in the position we’re in and keep beating teams and keep gaining ground to stay in a playoff spot. Every night is going to be tough so we can’t expect to come in like we did tonight and have any fighting chance against any team.

CAROLINA HURRICANES FORWARD JORDAN STAAL On if they were still in it after the Hurricane’s first period power play goal… There was not a whole lot of good. Obviously at 2 to 1, you are still close, so. It was a slow start, a slow finish and a slow middle. It was all of the above. We weren’t good.

On what was missing… Some jump, some execution. A little bit of everything. It just wasn’t there tonight.

On if they can take their period play as a positive going forward… Yeah like I said there wasn’t a whole lot of good. I think even in the third period there was still some mistakes and some stuff going on. We are going to have to figure this one out quickly because we have a great, great team coming up.

On what they will work on at practice Monday… What we have been doing for a while now. Working hard, for one. Skating, executing with the puck, competing, face-offs, all the stuff that we take pride in and they did better tonight.

On getting their legs back… You can always work through stuff like that. It’s not going to happen every night where your legs feel amazing then you have to start working smarter, you got to keep it simpler and just play a smarter game if you don’t have the legs. We didn’t do any of that tonight.

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