POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS Thursday, December 15, 2016

BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH CLAUDE JULIEN POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE On it being not easy to win when you give up four goals… Never is. It’s our third game in four nights, and it showed in some of the kind of goals we gave up, mistakes and giving the lead. So, I thought we had a decent start, and I thought our third period, we at least gave it a good push. We couldn’t get that , but I think the guys tried for three tough games in four nights. I appreciated the effort that the guys gave in third period to try and get ourselves back into it. So, it’s not easy when you come back home and you have to face a team that’s been well-rested. It’s two weeks in a row, so it’s disappointing for everybody. We know our fans want to see us win, and we’re certainly disappointed with that, but at the same time, it’s a tough schedule this year, and we have to learn to persevere through it, and try and find ways to win hockey games.

On not capitalizing on the power play late in the second period… I don’t think it was a deflator, because we came out in the third and played pretty well, but we could’ve certainly used that goal, and that’s what we talked about before the power play, to see if we could get ourselves back into a tie game here before the end of the period, and we didn’t score. But as you all know, I think it’s pretty obvious right now, our power play is hurting us more than it’s helping us, and that’s got to get better.

On Colin Miller having one of the better games he’s had… Played well tonight. I thought he was assertive, moved the puck well. He shot pucks at the net there. I liked his game tonight.

On if this game was a glimpse of the upside Colin Miller can bring… Well that’s what we’ve been looking at for a long time, and those young players have their ups and downs as far as consistency, but tonight was a good game.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN ZDENO CHARA On how to overcome the tight schedule and back-to-back games… Yeah, scheduling is tough on everybody. These back to backs are not easy. But, at the same time, we have to find a way to play them better. Not that we didn’t have the effort or the push to get at least a point out of it. But, sometimes, the games are decided earlier than the second half of that game.

On why they couldn’t hold on to their two-goal lead… Yeah. Little things, managing the puck, being a little stronger on the breakouts, on the entries; you lose speed and momentum and position, and usually, the other team is on the go because it’s a long change and they start out changing you and putting pucks deep. Then, you’re getting caught in your own zone and it makes it hard for the guys on the ice to get going again and it slows that pace of the game.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN MATT GRZELCYK On how he managed his nerves tonight… I think just to treat it like any other hockey game. You see the game plan before and you’re just trying to go out there and execute with the rest of the guys. So, I was just excited for puck drop.

On if he was nervous… I think I was more comfortable today. I got to play in this building a couple of times in college. So, I think just playing in those big game scenarios kind of helped me.

On if it was different wearing a Bruins jersey… Yeah, for sure. Especially when you look at the other side of the ice and see all those great players they have on their side. Obviously, it’s still a challenge. It’s a huge challenge every night. But, I think I was able to shake the nerves a bit to start.

On if he could see his father in the crowd… No. I didn’t see him up there.

On what it was like playing in front of his family and friends… Yeah. It was really cool. Obviously, got a chance to do it in college. But, now with the Bruins sweater, it means a little bit more. I just tried to keep it in the back of my mind. Not tonight. Maybe I’ll think about it when I get home.

On the chance he got towards the end of the game… Yeah, it was pretty cool. We were searching for a goal there at the end. The D-core, we were having trouble getting pucks through from the start. So, we were just trying to throw everything at them and, obviously, they defended it pretty well at the end there.

On what happened on the breakaway goal when the scorer came out of the box… Yeah, I think I wasn’t expecting it to take as crazy a hop as it did. But, that’s something that is kind of a teaching point to me. I have to recognize the guy is coming out of the box there. At that point in the game, you can’t be too risky. I try to make plays all the time and I’ve just got to stay back there and man in there.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD DAVID BACKES On the style of tonight’s game and the back and forth chances... Yeah, a little more back and forth and you know, we get a two-nothing lead and I think that was a promising sign for me at least, knowing that we’re able to get the lead and come right back the next shift and score another one. The downside is that we end that period tied again two-two and you’ve got a two-nothing lead on the back-to-back coming home and you maybe, you know, you need to clamp down and make sure that you’re not necessarily playing on your heels and playing prevent but you’re being smart with the puck, making sure it’s in every time and make them come 200 feet to score. And, you know, they’re able to get one where they throw it from the corner and they’ve got a guy – Johnny-on-the-spot putting it in the empty net – and we’ve just got to be better when we’ve got the lead there and find that killer instinct that every team needs. You get a team where you’ve got a little momentum, you’ve got the ebb and flow and you’re

feeling it, that you bury a couple more and put them to sleep rather than give them a little life and let them roar back and it’s three-two and then we’re fighting to try to chase the game again.

On if exchanging chances wasn’t the type of game they wanted to play... Well once you have a two-nothing lead – even so, I think we’re a team that trading chances isn’t – you know, we’ve got a few guys that can fly and score on the rush, but our goals have mostly been ugly, banging around the net screens, you know, like with Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] has a great screen on Zee’s [Zdeno Chara] goal, you know, rebound goal on the power play, and Czarny [Austin Czarnik] is able to find a nice little feed there from Spoons [Ryan Spooner] I believe. But, they’re all in tight or somebody is standing on the top of the crease taking the goalie’s eyes away and we’re just – trading chances is a coin flip and we’re getting the wrong side of the coin flip. We’ve got to play our game where we like the percentages and how we’re going to win games – pucks deep, taking care of it, and eliminating the opponent’s chances is certainly a good portion of that.

On why the team sometimes gets away from playing their game and if it’s a mental thing... I think so. It’s time and score and realizing what’s required to get back on the page. It’s not going to be a perfect 60 minutes. I don’t think anyone ever believes that you’re going to play a perfect 60 minutes; it’s a game of mistakes, but limit the quality of mistakes, pick each other up when mistakes are made and know that there’s times when it’s not going the right way and it’s not necessarily go out there and score a goal, but there’s shifts where it’s just – let’s get the puck, get it in their zone, forecheck it, get it stopped, and spend some time in their end and take some pressure off of our goalie and our defensemen that have been spending too much time in our zone. Anaheim’s got a few very good, very big boys that it’s tough to knock them off the puck and steal it from them and get going the other way, but when we get that opportunity we need to do it, get out of there and make them play in their zone and defend where they’re not just setting up camp in our end. Realizing that and doing it time after time is – we did a pretty good job against two good teams on the road, that mentality has got to stick with us when we come back into this place and not give other teams life when they had no reason to have life.

On dropping the last three games at home and making this a tough place to play... Yeah, certainly that’s our goal and our fans deserve a more solid game and to have plenty to cheer for and leave here happy with a good win that the Bruins put on the ice, and that’s on us to get our game in order and know that what works on the road works at home and it doesn’t have to be pretty, it doesn’t have to make the top 10, but we’ve got to get pucks to the net and get ugly and put a crooked number up on the board and play well in front of our goalies to give them a chance to make big saves and just play better all around and I think we can make a couple more notches in the right direction we’re going to be right where we need to be, but for now it hasn’t been good enough and that’s on us in this room.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD RILEY NASH On what they can do to recover on the second half of back-to-back games… It’s tough. You always look for those practice days to fix up the X’s and O’s. But, right now, I don’t really think it’s a whole lot of that. It’s a lack of scoring. It puts pressure on your D and magnifies every mistake that you make. I mean, we’re in every game. It’s just a matter of getting over that hump and being on the plus-one instead of trying to battle back every night.

On if guys know the chances they missed or didn’t take advantage of… Well, speaking for myself, yeah. When you get chances and you miss them, you think about it pretty much all night. So, it’s always nice right now that you can get back on the horse. We have so many games that you tend to forget about it pretty quick. But, just try to learn from it as much as possible.

On what it was like playing on a line with Ryan Spooner and Austin Czarnik... I thought they were great. Two pretty fast, skilled guys so I was just trying to get on the forecheck and be physical as much as possible. I’m not an overly bearing guy so I was just trying to create turnovers in their zone and make their D think about going back for pucks. They seem to do the rest.

On what the busy schedule has been like for them and how they take this week… Yeah, two days is going to feel like a week off right now. I don’t think we’ve had this for a long time. It’ll be nice to get away from the rink, refresh mentally, come back, have a good practice day on Saturday, and then get back at it. I’ve been through this before. I think it was the Olympic year, we had, like, the last 30 games were in 55 days or something. It was pretty crazy then. You just try to put your head down and play as well as possible each and every night.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD DAVID KREJCI On Anaheim responding quickly to the Bruins after they called a timeout… Yeah, until then we had momentum. You know, first shift after timeout they come hard. Kind of tough break. It was me who put it in, so kind of… we had our coverage. We had our guys. Just unfortunate that it ends up in our net, and then, you know, they got back into the game and we had ourselves a hockey game. You know, I didn’t think we played that bad, but we just came up short today.

On what some of the key positives they can take away from this game are… I don’t think we, like I said, I don’t think we played that bad, you know. Just, got a 2-0 lead. Even though they still got three goals before the first period was over, I thought we played decent second period. Same, you know, in third period. We came out hard. We had some good chances. Just came up short.

On whether he liked their energy tonight considering their recent schedule… Yeah… we talked about we didn’t want to get too cute and try to kind of dangle on blue lines and make turnovers, so I thought we did good job at this. Just keeping it simple, you know, create some turnovers on forecheck and stuff like that, you know. So energy was there. I think the guys dug deep, but, like I said, we just came up short.

On having a two-day break without games and what the schedule has been like… Well yeah, it’s been a while since we had two days before the next game, so just kind of… yeah, we’ve just had a tough stretch, you know. Montreal, Pittsburgh and Anaheim back to back, so it wasn’t easy, but this break is going to be nice. We’re going to have to, you know, take care of our bodies, get some rest and come back in three days and get an important two points.

On how much faith the team has in Anton Khudobin… We believe in every single guy, you know. It’s just, like I said, tough break. First goal was all me. Everyone had their guy, I just couldn’t put the stick on it, tried to clear it, but things are going to happen. Dobby had zero chance on that, and, you know, I felt like we should have done a little better job in front of him. They had always two guys crashing the net, and they got a couple bad goals, so we’ve got to do better job at this and help him out a little bit better.

On what they could have done differently tonight… Yeah, I thought energy was there. Just came up short, you know. Games like that, back to back, against good teams you’ve got to keep it simple. Just came up short today.

On Anaheim being a big, physical team… Yeah, but we knew that going in. Like I said, I thought we had some good energy and just came up short.

On it being uncharacteristic of the team to give up four goals a game as often as they have this season and whether that concerns him… No, we always believe in our system. We just had two games on the road. We just have to find a way to play the same way as we do on the road against good teams.

On how different the opponent is on the road versus at home… Like I said, we have to talk better. I don’t think it’s about the opponent. I think it’s about our game. Stick to the game plan, play the, you know, our game shouldn’t change. We don’t have two game plans, on the road and at home. We have the same one and we have to buy in. For some reason, we’re doing a better job on the road than at home.

On the game being very back and forth… Yeah, that’s not our game to, you know, go back and forth. We like to play tight in neutral zone and the D zone and capitalize on their mistakes, so this is not our game. We have to clean up some things in our game and be better next game.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN ADAM MCQUAID On why the Bruins were unable to hold a two-goal lead… I don’t know. I mean, obviously they came right back and scored. It’s obvious that next shift is always that important one that you want to at least contain the momentum that you have going. I mean, they had lots of opportunities in the first period. We were sloppy at times, and then I think we got better as the game went along, but it’s too bad that we, a two-goal lead you want to play a little better and hold on better than we did for sure.

On if the Bruins are playing different when Anton Khudobin is in net… I don’t think so. I mean, he made some saves for us, especially in the first period. We had some breakdowns, some odd-man rushes, and it’s more on us to play better in front of him, and I mean, you’ve got guys putting in rebounds in tight, and those are areas where we’ve got to be stronger. So, we’ve got to be stronger for him.

On the grind of playing three games in four days…

Yeah, well, like you said, it’s no excuses, but I mean it’s been a busy schedule, and it’s been a grind, not only for us, I mean every team has a busy schedule. It just is what it is, and it’s that much more gratifying when you can get points and get wins. So, to leave two points on the table tonight, it’s disappointing. It would’ve been a really good feeling to close out this little stretch here against some really good teams playing some good hockey, and getting points.

On how concerning the team’s play at home is becoming… Yeah, well it just goes without saying that you want to be tough to play against at home, and you want this to be a place that teams don’t look forward to coming in and playing. So yeah, I mean, we have great fans that deserve to come see a winning product. So, I guess it goes without saying, but we would like to be better at home, and improve our record here.

On if it’s frustrating to have to finish a back-to-back against a fresh team again… Probably not frustrating, it just is what it is. Like I said, it’s part of the schedule I think. I don’t know every other team’s schedule, and I’m sure they all go through the same thing at some point in time.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN COLIN MILLER On if there was more room tonight to make plays and generate offense... Yeah, I don’t know –they’re a Western Conference team, they’re a pretty solid, heavy team but, I don’t know, maybe there was a bit more of that this game. But, I’m not sure.

On if he hasn’t shown everything he’s capable of so far... Yeah, I guess so. I mean, with opportunity I think you’ve got to take advantage of it, so that’s just what I’m trying to do.

On the back-to-back games and what lessons can be learned from tonight’s play... Well I think after that timeout that they called, they definitely came at us pretty quick there. So, I think if we can just be more ready, that the team’s going to come out flying after that. That might have been a turning point in the game.

On the Ducks style of play... Yeah, they’re a Western Conference team. I think that’s kind of the M.O. of that conference, but I mean, I don’t know. I thought we played pretty well; I thought we did a good job, especially the back end of moving the puck forward and stuff like that. So, it’s going to be the same thing come Sunday, so we’ll have to be ready.

On the back-to-backs this year... Yeah, definitely, I think everybody has them. I think everybody is trying to deal with the schedule this year, which is really hectic. Yeah, I mean, there’s really not much can do about that, just kind of play it out.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD AUSTIN CZARNIK On the different style of game tonight and if it was fun to play in... Yeah, it was a lot more fun, it’s a lot more offense, you know, so it was nice to score a couple goals and I think it was a lot – a bit – a lot of back and forth between both teams. So, I think it

was a good game; I think we had a good effort after playing last night; I think the guys wanted it, you know, but it just didn’t work out that way tonight.

On if the hockey fan in him wished there were more high scoring games... Well, yeah, I think that’s everyone’s goal, you like the offense and that type of thing but it is what it is so you just go with it and if you win you win, if you lose you lose.

On how big of an issue the fatigue was tonight... I don’t think it was a big problem at all. I think everyone hung in there pretty well, didn’t really show any signs of giving up, I don’t think, and I think we just battled through and I think we finished the game really strong. I thought we were in their zone a lot and we just couldn’t get a goal.

On Colin Miller’s play in tonight’s game... Yeah, I think he did well tonight, too. He was able to make a couple moves up the blue line and get around guys like that and I think he had a couple good shot attempts, but you know, it just didn’t go in tonight. But I think everyone had a pretty good game, so I thought it was – very happy with the effort.

BOSTON BRUINS GOALTENDER ANTON KHUDOBIN On if it’s been tough for him to only have one win… Yeah, it’s real tough.

On how he felt tonight… Yeah, I felt good. I thought the first period was pretty good. The second, a couple of unlucky bounces. The third goal went through my five-hole, went behind, and then came back.

On what he does to turn this around… Go in for the practice, talk to Coach Goalie Bob [Essensa], see what we can do better, and keep moving forward. Nothing can kill me right now. Obviously, it’s disappointing. I’m not really happy. But, I’m not going to put my head down and say that I’m done.

On if it’s tough when he doesn’t play as often and have fewer chances to redeem himself… Yeah, it is. It’s tough when you’re playing once in a while. You want to get a bright result, but, I didn’t get it, again. So, really, just more probably angry than disappointed.

ANAHEIM DUCKS HEAD COACH RANDY CARLYLE On how they were able to pull a win in the third, especially after Dallas… Well you know we did… we were down two so, you know we got ourselves back in the hockey game. That was a gratifying point where we could dig ourselves out of the hole that we created, and you know we knew that if we continued to play a more aggressive forecheck, a more stronger cycled game, that we will create chances. Not saying we will score all the time, but will create chances because we have enough skill on our lineup to score. And then, you know we got a lead and they came back and tied it on a power play goal, which kind of deflated us a little bit, but we kept going and then we got the fourth one and we just… kind of went into a defensive shell I would say in the third period. We were down the three lines, and they went to three lines.

So it was kind of like back and forth and you know we would change, dump it in, and then change and they would come back and attack. Then we dump it out and change and it was that kind of a period for us. So it was not ideal way to protect a lead, we would like to be more aggressive and do more with the puck, but hey we won the hockey game so we are not going to criticize it.

On how they were able to hold them off the board in the third… Yeah those are positives, and we have to… again I think every team in the league understands that a lot of games are going to be the two-one, three-two, four-three type of one-goal hockey games and they’re hard games to play. When you go out on the road, it’s never easy to win on the road.

On what he thought on the two goals scored 13 seconds apart by the Bruins… Yeah there were other things I could have done. I could have pulled the goalie. But I didn’t think it was really warranted in the situation. You know the first goal was a puck that we should have had blocked out, and then the goal in the slot that – is it [Austin] Czarnik – yeah he made a big time shot, went short side. I just felt, you know at that time a timeout would be a better option because I think Berny’s [] earned the opportunity with the last time he was in there. One of the times where we hit our funk in Calgary and we gave up eight and he had to be left in because the other goaltender was ill. So I couldn’t pull him and put the other one in so he kind of was hung out to dry and I just felt that a timeout was warranted for this situation.

On if he always is quick to call a timeout… Oh yeah, to me I think I’ve been negligent to call it in a couple of situations. So it’s kind of like, two goals in 13 seconds, hey we have to settle this thing down. It’s all we tried to do, was just hey have the guys stop what’s going on, reset ourselves, go back and do what we do, you know do our thing.

On the swing of momentum after taking a goal away… Well it does a tremendous amount because it gives us life to some degree. It should have a negative effect on them, but I’m not saying it’s going to happen like that all the time, I don’t think it was really a negative for their group. We just worked and found ways to get the second goal to tie it up, and those are always positives.

On coming back to win after the early timeout… Well we hope it does, sometimes you do it and it doesn’t have any effect. You look like a dummy, why did you do it? But again you are always trying to think of ways to motivate and stall the opposition when the momentum is all in their favor.

ANAHEIM DUCKS FORWARD RICKARD RAKELL On the puck just kind of finding him… Yeah. What can I say? I don’t know what it is, but I’m just trying to get to open space to give myself time, if the puck would come there, to put it in, and yeah, that’s all I’m trying to stay with right now.

On his goal tonight being one of the easier ones he’s scored…

Yeah, he almost took it though. It was close. He had his stick on it, but it was nice to see it go in.

On if Sami Vatanen’s shot that led to his goal got deflected… Yeah, I think so. I don’t remember. I haven’t seen a replay or anything, but I think it got deflected off of somebody in front.

On if playing on the wing gives him an opportunity to put in rebounds more… Yeah, obviously, like, I can be close to the net, and try to find pucks, and if you’re a centerman, you’re more in the slot and trying to read off situations. But I’m trying to put myself in the best positions to always score. So, it’s a little bit different, but it’s working right now, so I’m just going to stick with it.

On how difficult it is to play in TD Garden… I mean, they’re a great team. They came at us for 60 minutes, and I mean, it even feels better for us to come up with two points, and I think it’s huge for us going forward.

On if what happened against Dallas came to mind when the Ducks went down by two… Not really. I mean, we try to stay positive on the bench, and we got two huge to come back. We got the one goal pretty early after their second goal, so it was nice for us to feel a little bit of confidence and momentum going forward.

ANAHEIM DUCKS GOALIE JONATHAN BERNIER On what was different from the third period tonight, as opposed to the third period against Dallas… Well I thought we… we just executed. We didn’t really panic, if we had no play we just chipped it out and we took the ice, and that’s what you got to do in the third. When you have the lead, you keep that middle tight, you let them shoot from the outside if you have to give up something and that’s what we did, we pretty much cleared everything up front, too.

On if it was a ‘learning lesson’ from the Dallas game… Yeah I mean, we are can older team, mature, and I think we knew we… we made some mistakes last game in Dallas. You know you just got to turn the page and refocus for the next one. Obviously it’s a tough building to play here and they came at us. You know that shows a lot of character of our team to you know bounce back with a two-nothing… you know after a few minutes they scored back to back goals so, you know get that timeout and go out there and score a goal. That was big.

On how they wanted to make sure to get a win on this road trip… Yeah definitely, I mean you obviously always wanted the first one but I thought we did a great job getting that two points tonight.

On how their defense played… Yeah they did a really good job. It’s just that first one I couldn’t really pick up on [Zdeno] Chara but other than that I thought we did a hell of a job cleaning bad rebounds, or cleaning the players in front so that I can see the point shots. They are a tough team, they go in front of the net, they

battle hard, they want to get in front of you and screen you. It was a tough game for me tonight just to really try to work hard to find that puck.

ANAHEIM DUCKS FORWARD ANDREW COGLIANO On scoring after the Bruins’ back to back goals… Yeah, I think it obviously, probably played a pretty good role in us making a comeback. I think we were… Obviously they scored two goals and they were just much better than us in the early going of the game, and it seemed like the first goal just got us back on track and let us settle in a little bit. So, lucky for myself to get it and it was a lucky goal, but sometimes those happen when you get pucks on net.

On the timeout and if Randy Carlyle told them to settle down… Yeah, I think the goals that were scored early we were just running around their defensive zone coverage goals that we’ve been pretty good at lately, so I think it was just more of take it easy here and get back to structure, and just relax. You know, I think we were running around a little bit in the first period early and they made us pay. So, it worked and it ended up being a perfect time to call it and we were able to get a goal right away.

On their last losses where the game spiraled out and if they took anything away from those… Yeah, I think so. I think we’ve maybe learned, especially from last game, we were in control of the game and they scored five goals in the third period, so tonight was a good response. After going down two-nothing the game could have gone the other way in a hurry, especially with how they were playing. So it’s a big kind of comeback for us. We sat a little back in the third, but at the end of the day it’s a tough building to play in and it’s a good team, so we were lucky. We’ll take the win.

BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH CLAUDE JULIEN PREGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY On the status of Kevan Miller… Yeah. He’s not playing tonight. He’s going to be out. He’s seeing the doctor today. They’ve kind of discovered he’s got some sort of flu bug or virus of some sort. So, we’re going to have to wait and see how that turns out. Day-to-day. Hopefully 24-48 hours.

On what he has liked from this team after shuffling the forward lines… You have to give it a chance. You just can’t keep switching and switching all the time. So, we are always moving players here or there at times during the game, but that's just the way the team is constructed this year. You have to be open to being able to or want to do that. It’s as simple as that.

On if he is happy to see five different goal scorers over the last two games… Well, it’s nice to have it spread out. I think we talked about that for a long time; stop relying on the same people all the time. If we can spread it out a little bit, it’ll make us, maybe, a harder team to play against as far as trying to figure out who to shut down. At the same time, it will certainly help guys who feel the pressure of having to score goals. If they don’t then we don’t win. So, other players have stepped up and helped out in regards to that.

On if he thinks one-goal games will be the norm… I don’t know if I’ve resorted myself to that. I still think that, once certain guys find their groove again, we’re going to score more. But, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. The win is what matters. If it means they’re one goal games all the time as far as 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, if we’re going to be on the winning side of it, it’s still the same two points as winning 10-1. This is what it is and you work with what you can and what you have and try and improve it as you go along. I think we can certainly be a team that can score a little bit more from here until the end of the year.

On his impression of Matt Grzelcyk… I thought he skated well last night. I thought he moved the puck well. He was what he was advertised as – a good puck-moving defenseman. When you play your first game in the NHL and it happens to be against the Champions, when you look at the way he played, I was happy with his performance.

On how well the Metropolitan Division has played and how that will impact the availability of playoff spots… Well, you can’t start worrying about that at this point. You have to start putting your focus on your team. We just have to keep trying to be in the top three, that’s the main goal right now, in our division. That’s what you try and do. You try to win as many games as you can. But, to sit there and wish other people to do your job is simply not the right way to approach things. To me, when I say it’s still early, it’s never too late to recognize what’s going on. But, at the same time, we’ve just got to focus on our jobs. We can’t worry about how many games they’re going to win more than when we play them. Hopefully, we play those.

On if Anton Bildh will play and if he matches up well against Anaheim… Yes, he will play. Yeah. It’s more suited for him I think. It’s going to be a heavy game tonight. They’re a big team that plays a heavy game, so he’s probably more suited for that type of game, so we brought him up and hopefully he’ll help him in that area.

On Danton Heinen getting sent to Providence… He’s a first year player. It doesn’t hurt him to play, he’s better off to play than to sit. Right now, I think that’s what he’s gong to do. Continue to improve his game and maybe we’ll see him down the road.

On if Anton Khudobin will play tonight… That’s a tough one, eh? That’s a tough one.

ANAHEIM DUCKS HEAD COACH RANDY CARLYLE PREGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY On how they can execute better tonight… Well, again, if you revisit our game that we lost in Dallas, I thought we had two real solid periods. I think we’d only given up 11 shots after two periods. We were executing, we were transferring the puck out of our defensive zone in through the neutral ice into the offensive zone, created some offensive zone time, did a lot of good things in the hockey game. We had a lot of two-on-one’s, we had a bunch of scoring chances off our power play, but we just didn’t finish.

So, I think that is an area we should focus on, A. The B-side of it is, how does it get away from us after we have such a dominating couple of periods? So, those are the concerns and that to me is about execution and being strong and staying focused on what we can control. We didn’t do a good enough job of that. We did it for two periods; we didn’t do it for three.

On how much pressure they feel being on the road trip and needing to win on the road… It’s a hockey game, there’s always pressure; pressure to win just because it’s a road trip. Everybody has to play a certain number of games on the road; you play half at home and half on the road. Our road record is, I think we’re one game below .500 now, or close to .500. We think that we have a team that is capable of going into any building and having success if we play our game.

On what he has liked about his team’s last 10 games… Well, I think our group has to adopt a model that the 2-1 hockey game, the 1-0 hockey game, the 3-2 hockey game is what is winning in the NHL right now. If you can do that consistently; if you can limit the number of opportunities the opposition has and keep their scoring chances under 10 in a game, usually, you’re going to have an opportunity for success, no matter if you’re home or on the road. And then, your special teams definitely have to have an impact. Right now, our penalty kill has let us down in some of these situations and it’s given other teams momentum. We’ve said right from the beginning of the season, if you have a power play that is unsuccessful, you can still have success. But, if you have a penalty killing that’s not successful, you have no chance for success.

On giving up a lot of goals in the last 30 seconds of power plays… Well, again, it’s the full two minutes. They don’t give a minute and thirty-second penalties out anymore. Or, they never did, I don’t know. So, again, it’s about getting the full two minutes, getting the commitment from the four guys out there. There are some areas that we’re lax in. We do an evaluation of the goals we gave up. Were they off the rush? Off-cycle? Were they seam passes? Did we have a chance to clear? Did we lose a faceoff? All those things; did we get in a lane to block the shot? Did we force them to make a good play? Does your goaltender make a stop when he needs to? There’s a bunch of points that you always refer to and we’ve got to hit all of them. There are some areas we have to sure up for sure.

On if there is one big flaw with the penalty kill… Well, I think there are some trends that we’d like to get away from. Again, for us, it’s about our ability to outwork the opposition.

On giving up back-to-back goals a lot lately and if that is a mental issue… Again, we gave up the power play goal to [Dan] Hamhuis, and then we turned the puck over twice for the next two goals, it was in our net. Those happened in a sequence of under two minutes. Is it correctable? For sure, it’s correctable. It’s just managing the puck and knowing the situation, specifically on the road. We had a 2-1 lead in the third period. Even if we got to 2-2, I don’t know if there’s a team in the league that wouldn’t go into a building and say that there’s 18 minutes of hockey to play and it’s tied, we’ll take that. We’ve got to win 20 minutes and win on the road. That’s the mentality we have to have.

On Rickard Rakell’s goal scoring uptick and why he has scored so many goals… I think, again, he came in with a bang. He didn’t join us. I think, his first couple of games, he had the freedom out there. Now that teams are starting to tighten up, we’re going to try and give him a little bit more offensive opportunities, being that he is leading our team I think he’s got 10 goals or so. He’s a talented individual. We’re playing him with [Ryan] Getzlaf and [Corey] Perry. So, that should be somewhat of a force in our minds, and be a top line in the league. We just have to get the ball going in the same direction in the same night, consistently.

On if playing on the wing has freed up Rickard Rakell… Well, we haven’t played him in the middle yet this year. We did that last year. That’s always an option. But, we’ve felt that the [Antoine] Vermette line has given us some solid minutes. Looking at that, with Vermette, [Nick] Ritchie, and [Ondrej] Kase, and then we loaded up with the Getzlaf, Perry, and Rakell, we feel that we’ve got two pretty strong offensive lines, then we have a checking line that has also provided us offense. We’re not a bad hockey club. They’re talking a lot of gloom and doom here, but we’re not a bad team. We’ve worked hard to get where we are, but again, we’re going to have to find another gear and tighten up defensively.

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