BRUINS QUOTES vs. Oilers Saturday, January 4, 2020

BOSTON BRUINS BRUCE CASSIDY On when went wrong today... I don’t think we attacked the net enough. Second period started to shift. They started transitioning better, getting their defense up the ice. So that was lack, I think, of o-zone possession time. I think they have some high-end skill that if you let them skate, let their [defense] join, they’ll start turning the tide, and that’s what they did. They got a fortunate goaltend the second, but they had a number of good looks before that where Jaroslav [Halak] had to be sharp. So, I think some of that’s on us, just to be harder on pucks and play more in their end. It’s that type of team. We had good discipline to stay out of the box, and let the power play beat us. So, open ice there in the second tilted it their way, and they got a quick one in the third. I thought we were gonna be okay energy-wise, coming out it seemed like the guys had a little more zip. In the intermission, we knew what we were up against, but we just lost some coverage there.

On the team’s mindset... I think right now we know the goals aren’t coming easily, so you know it’s gonna be, every matters. So, I think that’s in everybody’s head. It’s just the stretch we’re in right now. You go through the opposite where nothing seems to faze you, and we went through that and came back every night it seemed in this building for a stretch. Right now, we’ve got to find a balance where we get the lead and play the right way, protect the lead. I think that’s how we play our best hockey. So, mindset is, I think there’s a little bit of a sickness going around the room, so guys were lacking a bit of energy and it showed on the ice today at times, but I think our mindset is good. At the end of the day we just gotta pull ourselves up. We’re the group that’s got us this far, had some success. We’re the group that’s gotta kinda get back to a little more basics. I think the third period we were a little more attack oriented in terms of putting pucks on the net, going to the net, recovering pucks. I mean, that’s hockey 101 and we’ve gotten away from that.

On what’s lacking in the chemistry between Jake DeBrusk and David Krejci… I don’t know, I’d say everything but I don’t know if that’s fair. But right now, they just haven’t connected for whatever reason. I don’t want to put it on one individual or the other. As a line they’re not — I’ve always talked to David, when he’s going he tends to pull people along. Jake’s also, what now, he’s been in the league for 180-some-odd games? Should be able to look after himself too at this point on a nightly basis, and they should be feeding off of one another. Charlie [Coyle] went in there, didn’t seem to generate much for them so we moved some people around. I mean, that’s clearly a group of players that, it doesn’t matter who they’re with, we need to see a little bit more attack out of them. Some nights it goes in, you go through stretches — everything goes in, something doesn’t — but I just think they’ve been too quiet for how good they are. And I don’t have a great answer for what the reason is, it might just be a stretch of the season we look back and say, ‘Hey, we’re off.’ Or it might be something a little more. But we pulled them apart today, we’ll see how it looks going forward.

On what he means when he says he wants Jake DeBrusk to look after himself more… Anything — just playing the game, attacking. The other day he drew a by chipping a puck behind a guy. His biggest asset is his foot speed, so he has to use that. Be a little bit more tenacious on pucks, create some of his own shots, to take a basketball term. Doesn’t always need Krech [David Krejci] to get him the puck; go chase one down or win a foot race. We chipped a lot of pucks today, the puck was bouncing all over. Would have been a good night for it. Find his own shot one-on-one. Edmonton had a couple of guys do that, beat us a couple times one-on-one. You have to try that a little bit of that stuff, be harder on it. I think that’s how Anders [Bjork] has turned the corner a little bit, that’s what Marchy [Brad Marchand] does, Pasta [David Pastrnak]. Little bit is on Jake to initiate, have some second effort on pucks and some will on it to create some offense.

On if he wants to use any of the lines he tried tonight in the future … We’ll take a look at it after, to be honest with you. [Charlie] Coyle went up, he had never played with Bergy [] and March [Brad Marchand], so that was something we’d always said, ‘Well, I wonder what that would look like.’ [David] Krejci and Pasta [David Pastrnak] we’ve seen, Heino’s [Danton Heinen] been there. We’ll take a closer look at it, see what was generated. This is a very small sample size, so I don’t know how much we’ll use from it.

EDMONTON OILERS HEAD COACH On how the team played on the road… Well we talked about playing a full 60 minutes and working hard for 60 minutes and tried to build on some of the, you know, some of the solid team things that we’re doing right now. And we capitalized on a couple of chances and I thought the compete was there for the full 60 minutes. Smitty [Mike Smith] was excellent in goal and we got ourselves the two points.

On Mike Smith’s game today… Well he’s played the last two games. On this trip he’s played very well. Schwartzy [Dustin Schwartz] have done a lot of work together so hopefully his game keeps coming. But that’s – you come into a place like this, you need your goaltender to be really solid. He was solid in the net, he moved the puck really well, so really good performance by him and we’ve given Kosky [Mikko Koskinen] a couple days off now too so they both – hopefully both get feeling good about themselves again.

On the Leon Draisaitl line’s performance… It was really solid. Yamo’s [Kailer Yamamoto] come in and just – he’s added some of that tenacity. And Nuge [Ryan Nugent-Hopkins] is a really smart player. [Leon] Draisaitl – we need to get him up and skating in that middle and when he can control the middle of the ice, those other guys are pretty good with him. So that’s two games in a row now that line’s been really good for us, so hopefully they can continue that in Toronto.

On Leon Draisaitl’s effort tonight… I like when he’s rambunctious, that’s a good thing, you know? He’s – we’ve been – Leon’s been – had a tough month there but no he’s really taking the steps to build his game back up again and I give him credit. He’s trying to do the right thing all the time, he’s trying to be in defensive position, trying to take care of the puck a little more. So there’s things he’s trying to do in his game that are really trying to move it forward and I think we’re seeing the results of that now.

On how important it was to have this kind of test against a good team… Well Boston’s a good team. They’re one of the better teams in the East so it’s – we’re trying to – we started out real well. December wasn’t very good for us but now we’re trying to get our game back in order so when you come in and play a good road team here and beat a good team in Boston, it can help your team’s confidence. So hopefully we see that going forward. We’ve got three out of four points on a tough road trip so we have to continue to keep playing the way we have and see if we can get the same results.

On the road agreeing with them this year… Yeah, we talked about that before this trip and winning the one game at home before we go on the road trip – it sets up similar to the start of the year when we played very well. So hopefully those fortunes can be attained again.

#01/04/20#