BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS FLORIDA PANTHERS Thursday, March 7, 2019

BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY On how he would describe tonight’s win from a character standpoint… Again, fall behind, not a good formula. Listen, our guys have a lot of resiliency, a lot of belief in themselves. Again, we lose another player out of our lineup that’s been real good for us scoring wise, but we manage to get four. Grizz [Matt Grzelcyk] is the guy tonight that you probably don’t suspect, gets on the scoresheet. Again, Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] I thought was, you know, leadership off the ice but real good on the ice. He was very good on the bench about keep playing for the next one, and they wanted it. The guys want to win every night. They don’t want to say hey we’ve had a real good run let’s…it’s not our night, let’s get on to the next one. I think that’s a good, positive sign for us that we’ve got a bunch of gamers in there. Like I said, it wasn’t pretty from start to finish but did enough things well. I thought, as a coach, you’re sitting there and the goals that went in, they’re not really Tuukka’s [Rask] fault but they’re not great goals. They’re just kind of fortunate: a tip, one out of the air, some spin around move he’s probably not – you know, and all of a sudden. But again, the guys hung in there. He made saves on the PP. He didn’t stop playing either just because they had some goofy goals go in, so give him credit too at the end for giving us a chance.

On how the guys responded to him switching up the lines during the game… Well, I mean we got a goal in the second period, but listen, we’ve done that before just to mix it up. Moved Charlie [Coyle] to the right wing because we’ve talked about doing that. We wanted him to be a third-line center for us. He’s done a good job with that, so again, we just moved it around. With Jake [DeBrusk] being out, there’s opportunity for other people, so we moved other people beside Krech [David Krejci], see if they could get us going. I thought the goal they scored, Backs [David Backes] did a good job. You know, he doesn’t get on the scoresheet – or he does, he gets an assist, but he’s at the net. He’s at the net on the third goal, six on four, screening the goalie, so he did a good job for us there. So, he’s earned the right, too, lately the way he’s played to see a few more looks.

On Grzelcyk’s goal… Yeah, I mean I watch the D shoot the puck at the end of practice, and I didn’t think he could raise it. I’ve been watching him for two years and bang! It’s bar down. I tease him about that, obviously, but he’s that guy that would rather shoot for tips, rightfully so, and make a pass, but he’s shown he’s worked on his shot. I mean, he blew it by him and said there was traffic, so good for him. He’s a good offensive player, more of a passer than a shooter. But if he can bring that into his game, he can help us on the second PP.

On DeBrusk… Lower body. He tried to skate yesterday and kind of had a tough time. This morning, we didn’t go on the ice – only a couple guys went on, so we were going to see today when he got to the rink how he was. It hadn’t progressed very well, so we weren’t going to push it. I’ve said this before this year, I don’t think it’s anything major. I don’t, and that’s our official reports from the doctors. This isn’t me just making crap up, but it may be a couple days. He might be ready Saturday, it

might be a week, but I don’t believe it’s anything noteworthy that’s going to keep him out for an extended period of time.

On if the Backes screen is more of what he’s looking for from him… Yeah, I think maybe the physicality from recent games has brought out the truculence in his game where he’s getting to the net and winning pucks and maybe it’s snowballing a bit for him. You know, that was his MO years ago. That was his identity. And time goes by, but we’d still like to see some of that. He’d still like to bring some of that, and he did tonight, so I’m happy for him.

On what it’s like coaching a team like this… It’s a lot of fun. There’s stretches in the game where it’s frustrating at times because we kind of fall into a pattern some nights where it’s – I thought first period, right, when we got below their goal line, we made some plays to the slot, you know, we can expose them there. Defensively, they’ve had their issues this year. I don’t know them well enough to say well it’s all goaltending, it’s the d, the forwards, but collectively, they’ve had trouble keeping the puck out of their net. So, we play that way, and then we get away from it. We have some looks, then we get into the line- rush game, maybe, where they’re good. So, that’s the part where you’d like to stay with the same formula all game, but they’re human, and it’s not easy to do that every night. And then we got back to it. And then we win, and it’s like the way we win: different guys contributing, shorthanded goal, so never quit. I love that about the guys. They play for one and other every night. It’s not always perfect, but they’re great that way, and they’re happy for each other. You don’t see that in every team, trust me. Some guys are not happy for others. They want to be the guy, and I think our guys are genuinely happy for each other’s success.

On if he’s superstitious or has a superstition during this point streak… I’m not really superstitious. I have started the same – I think during this whole streak, or most of it – [Noel] Acciari, sort of that line has started. I apologized to Charlie Coyle. First game here back in Boston, I told him I can’t mess with the streak, but that was like two weeks ago, whatever it was. Typically, you want to start a guy in his hometown, but we’ll start him in Minnesota, whether we have a streak or not. We’ll give him that. We’ll give it back to him, but other than that no. Just go to work and enjoy.

On if he’s been part of something like this, perhaps in his junior days… Last year we did for 18 games, and it was fun. It was earlier in the year. In junior, yes, we had a good team my second year we won the Memorial Cup. We had some nice runs.

On if the streak last year felt different than this year… Yeah, you could be right there. Were we healthy during that streak? What’s interesting this year is that we have lost some certain guys. We really thought we’d struggle to get the goals necessary when Pasta [David Pastrnak] goes out, now we got Jake out, and Jojo [Marcus Johansson] comes in, an offensive player. So, that part of it has been nice to see who’s next. You know, who’s going to step up next. Like I said, tonight Grizz gets the big goal. We’ll see, hopefully Saturday it’s the next guy. I think that’s good team building when everybody has their day.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD BRAD MARCHAND On if maybe this wasn’t going to be his night…

Well, it definitely wasn’t our best night. You could feel that, you know when we play well and when we’re not. It may creep in your mind a little here and there, but we have such a good positive energy on the bench right now and in the room that it’s pushed out very quickly. When they got that second one, yeah it was a tough one, but when there’s that much time left in a game, anything could happen. All it takes is for us to get one and, you know, we feel really good about our game so…your mindset kind of changes from shift to shift after a little bit, but the biggest thing is how quick you can get back into that positive attitude and kind of go from there.

On if winning like tonight builds confidence… Yeah, I mean it just shows that we can win in different situations. We know we have a special group, we know we have a good team and a really good atmosphere in the room. Guys get along really well. But, we’re not going to win all those games, we can’t continue to get down two-nothing and expect to win each game, but you do have to be able to come back in games like that – down by a goal with two minutes left, so you know, it’s good, but that’s a losing game so we can’t be doing that too often.

On him and Bergeron looking at being shorthanded like being on the power play… I think you’re seeing it more and more, guys are trying to take advantage. Especially because a lot of guys have four forwards on the ice and your first mindset isn’t to play defense and to backcheck. So you know, when you get that opportunity you can maybe get a shot there, but there’s a fine line too because if you turn it over then it’s a 3-on-2 the other way. But yeah, we definitely have that attack mentality when we get it when we have room and we’re going to go, so it worked out tonight.

On everyone being happy with a lot of different players scoring… Yeah definitely. We’re all very happy for one another. You know, when you look at teams that are good and make good runs, everyone is happy for each other and pushes each other. You know, we’re just as happy if the defense scored or the forwards scored or the goalie scored. Doesn’t matter to us, as long as we win games. I mean when you have team success, everyone has success, so it goes hand in hand, and we just want to win. That’s all we’re about in here and doesn’t matter how we do it.

On if tonight’s game was déjà vu with Luongo in 2011… Um, it’s fun playing against him just because he’s such a character. You know, he’s been around the game a long time, so there’s a lot of respect for him as a goalie and as a player and as a person, so you know, you’ve seen it over the years, his personality come out and everything. Yeah, he’s a fun guy to play against and obviously a little bit of history, but it’s long gone now and we try to play each game in the moment, but you got to respect him, he’s had a phenomenal career.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD PATRICE BERGERON On the team never giving up in tonight’s game... Yeah, I think that’s fair to say. I think we’ve – in this, lately the last few weeks – the way that we’ve been playing is always finding ways and it’s not always going to be perfect, it’s not always going to be your best game, but you’re one shot away from being back in the game. That’s what we talked about in the third. I thought we were better but then giving up that third goal, we could

have crumbled but we stuck with it and we found a way. So, we’re going to definitely take it, but we also know that we’ve got to be better.

On how his shorthanded goal went in... I don’t think it touched the D man. I think it might have deflected off [Roberto] Luongo and went in. so, I don’t think it hit the defenseman, just right through him.

On the team’s depth showing tonight... Yeah, for sure. I think that’s something we’ve talked about all year. We’ve battled through adversity since the beginning of the year and everyone contributes, everyone steps up, and tonight is another example. I thought Karson [Kuhlman] came in and played really well for us, made some good plays, and like I said it’s one of those things where there’s going to be some different line combinations but we always seem to find a way and it’s always the next man up.

On if getting the last minute win reinforces that there’s something special about the team... Well, I think we’re working towards that. That’s definitely the goal, but that being said, I think it’s about realizing that every night you need to be at your best and tonight is a great example, a good learning curve for us. We’re, you know, as you’re going through a stretch like we are, other teams are going to be ready for us and it’s going to be kind of building and getting ready for the playoffs and that’s the type of hockey we’re going to have and we’re going to face. It’s going to be adversity, it’s going to be finding ways even if it’s your B game, and tonight is a good example. So, I think we have to build off it but don’t get ahead of yourself.

On if he felt at any point that the team had accepted a loss in tonight’s game... I think, you know, tonight was a good challenge. Before the game, we talked about – this morning I think you guys have asked the question about facing teams that are out of the playoffs. Obviously they play loose. They want to be spoilers, they want to come in and some are playing for contracts or whatnot, so those are the challenges we’re going to face and I think it’s good for us. I think we have to face them headfirst. I think it’s not by luck that we’ve been playing this way; I think that we’ve been building our game, playing smart, simple hockey, and I think that’s something we can carry on and keep going with. So, we can definitely improve. That being said, you know, it’s not always going to be perfect and if it does happen and it does end, obviously you have to roll your sleeves back up and keep going.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN CHARLIE MCAVOY On the team’s resilience… Oh man, what an exciting game. Kind of felt like it had everything. What an effort by us. Went down two again, and it was kind of like, ‘We’ve been here before,’ and we kind of said it as a joke since it’s been about 48 hours since we were in that same exact position in the second period. It’s just this team, you know. No one ever says die. I mean, Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] and March [Brad Marchand] there to get that — well, Bergy there — scoring that shorthanded goal. I don’t know how those guys do it. It’s like a power play for them almost, it’s crazy. What a great effort by our team. Everybody played their part tonight. No one quit, all the way down to the last buzzer. What an exciting game. Morally, that feels great for us. Just so exciting, I feel like I’m not really off that high right now. That was just all the way down to the end. What a thrilling game, to tie it up there, and then for Bergy to score with 20 seconds, or whatever it was left, was just kind of fitting.

On if there is something special going on with the team… Yeah, I mean, things are going so well right now, but I mean, we’re just playing hockey. Guys are playing well, no one’s trying to do too much, I think. Everyone’s just playing to the best of their ability. You know, guys are playing A-games and B-games. No passengers, everyone’s doing good, from the first line to the fourth line and all six D and both our goalies. Everyone’s just playing well, and confidence is high right now. We’re able to score goals, we’re able to defend hard, so we’ve just got to keep this thing rolling, identify what has allowed us to have success, and make sure that we can continue to replicate it.

On if the team has confidence they can score late goals… Yeah, I think we do. We’ve seen it, you know, we’ve seen it these last two games, specifically, being down. Before that, I think we played a lot of hockey when we were up, and we have the ability, we have the leadership, we have the culture. Our older guys make sure that we’re always on our toes, make sure that we’re always kind of goal-oriented no matter what the score is, no matter how much time is left, so I mean, we just follow their lead. A guy like Bergy — what a game for him and Marchy, and we just follow those guys, you know, and the results kind of take care of themselves.

On the rush of walking around the city and getting recognized… Yeah, I mean, I don’t know, I don’t really get recognized too much when I’m walking around Charlestown. I know what’s going on in here and how we feel as a team, the culture that is created with this group. We’re finding our stride. It’s so fun coming to the rink every day. We really are a family, a brotherhood, and things are going really well right now. I think a great measuring stick is when things aren’t going well. We’ve been on this streak here, but within that, we have 2-nothing against Carolina, 2-nothing against these guys, down 3-2 with 10 minutes left. We have these speed bumps we have to overcome, and I think every time we do overcome a challenge like that, it builds confidence and faith in each other.

BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN MATT GRZELCYK On having rise on his slapshot and his goal… Yeah, they made a great play kind of coming in the zone, and [I] just tried to find a spot where we can be an outlet. Charlie [McAvoy] made a great play not forcing it. You know, Marchy [Brad Marchand] kind of hung high and I knew he wasn’t a one-time threat, so I kind of had a feeling he was just going to one touch it back and try to get it on net, and I think it was Backs [David Backes] in front. Made a great screen and didn’t allow the goalie to get set up.

On how he got so much rise on his shot… I don’t know. I guess I’ve been working on it. Obviously have Zee [Zdeno Chara]. It’s something that we work on mostly after practice, trying to kind of grow our offensive game. Obviously get more involved, and we needed one there at the end, and you know, obviously it was great to get it and followed up by a great play by Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] obviously, and that was huge.

On whether they feel they thrive off the resiliency of the team… Yeah, I mean obviously we’d be more comfortable playing with the lead late in games, but you know, I think obviously teams are kind of aware of the streak we’re on, especially coming into our

building, so got to do a better job of kind of getting off to a better start and establishing a presence early, but you’re going to need to win games like that obviously down the stretch, and it’s going to be tight all the way to the end, so you know, it’s huge to get points there.

On how this streak compares to last year’s 18 game streak… I don’t know. It’s… I don’t want to say it’s a different feel. I think when you’re kind of going through it you’re just trying not to overthink things. It’s really fun obviously playing in games right now and getting wins, especially at home, so yeah, you try not to overthink it. You just want to go out there and play.

On whether winning in a variety of ways feels like something that will benefit them come April and May if they play that far into the season… Yeah, obviously we have one of the best lines in the NHL obviously, but you want to kind of have everyone get involved and you’ve got to find multiple ways to win, like you said. So it’s fun winning games like that obviously, but you know, like I said, it would be nice to kind of get in the lead and not have to rely on that, but it’s something that is going to have to happen late if we want to keep playing obviously.

On what it says about the depth of the team… Yeah, it’s kind of been our MO all season. We’ve had a tough go of things injury-wise. You know, every team has their bumps and bruises obviously, so just trying not to make excuses and go out there and whose ever out there just give your best effort.

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD DAVID BACKES On contributing to the win with an assist tonight... Yeah, it’s a little bit of what I was talking about the other day of asking for more responsibility, getting the opportunity of being on the ice with Krech [David Krejci] at some point and beautiful play from Danton [Heinen] to Krech and the finish is – from a bad angle to the top shelf – was spectacular. A lot of resolve that the guys showed, too, tying it up and then they get one shortly after that and that can be very deflating after you just tied it up and figure you’re in a game and to battle back and get one with the goalie pulled and then for Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] – before overtime, everyone thinks we’re getting set up for the three-on-three – and he had different ideas. He’s a special player; he’s always clutch and today was a great example of that.

On if this is the most exciting game of the streak so far... I think it can be a be a pretty good character builder that we never gave up, we never just folded the tent and said this is the end of – whether it’s a streak or the game is over before the final buzzer goes – and guys showed that they’re willing to play and stick our noses in there and figure out a way to at least give ourselves a chance. Tuukka [Rask] made some huge saves and with guys like Bergy, you’re not expecting him to do it shorthanded, but you never know. Shorthanded works as well. And Grizzy [Matt Grzelcyk] with the goalie pulled, letting a rocket go through some traffic and those are fun to celebrate and that was a pretty big pick me up and those can give you life for a while and hopefully we can get an interjection of continued energy from the effort that we put in and the result we ended up getting.

On Patrice Bergeron’s play and where he would rank him...

You know what, being in the west when he was in the east, there was a little bit of appreciation but you didn’t get to see him as frequently. Being on the same team with him every day to see what he does behind the scenes, the way he works on the ice and the way he produces and he’s been clutch. He’s certainly up there. He’s a guy if you had to start a team, if he’s not the first on your list, I’d be pretty impressed with who else you’re putting in front of him.

On how he feels personally... I’ve felt pretty good the last two weeks – that I’ve had jump and I think I’ve said this before, but playing 10 minutes sometimes can be a lot tougher than 16 or 18 minutes when you’re in a groove and you know your next shift is coming. Being spotted in – I think I might have had three shifts in the first period – and to keep the focus and trying to keep my linemates, saying we’re going to get our opportunity and when we get it, we’ve got to make good on it and show that we deserve maybe a little bit more ice time. And that competition is healthy, but I felt my legs have been – I’ve had some jump and I’ve been able to get in some people’s faces on the forecheck and make them make mistakes kind of like we had tonight where we get the turnover and tonight we were just able to capitalize on it and get us turned in the right direction.

BOSTON BRUINS GOALTENDER TUUKKA RASK On gritty play… A lot, it’s been there all season. We’re pretty relentless and have never given up on anything. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t but I think the biggest thing is that you never give up, it paid off today in a big way.

On not giving up… That’s the easy way out I guess, it’s a slippery slope if you start thinking that way because then it might accumulate and next games over. It’s not going to be pretty every night, we’ve been on a point streak we’ve been playing unbelievable every night. There’s periods in games where we just don’t have it, you can never give up and you just try to find it and battle through it. Like I said it paid off big time today, super happy with the guys and how we played.

On Jonathan Huberdeau’s goal… I guess it wasn’t, they looked at it probably pretty close. I found it a little too late and it just hit my glove and went in, I think they looked at it so good call.

On the special season… Special group for sure, it’s in our DNA now that we just don’t give up. We go about our business and just battle until the end and then like I said sometimes it plays off and sometimes it doesn’t. I think that itself is a special thing when you just don’t give up you keep plugging away and know that the good things are going to happen when you do that, they’ve been lately.

On expecting to win in final seconds… Hoping, just hoping. It’s a bad feeling as a goalie when you’re trying to keep your team in it and then you make a mistake and give them the lead. Just try to keep the focus and hope that somebody’s going to get the tying goal, pretty pumped that Bergeron got the winning goal there so it was awesome.

On Florida’s third goal… I was just cheating, it was an underrated play it was a pretty good play he went almost 360 puck on his stick and whipped it pretty hard. Obviously I was just cheating on that pass for a far side shot.

On the winning streak… When you just stay focused, you focus on the task at hand and go game by game then you can put up these kind of streaks. When you start looking ahead and don’t focus on the moment then you’re going to lose some games so I think that’s been one of the biggest keys for our success, we just stay focused on the moment and the next game ahead.

FLORIDA PANTHERS HEAD COACH BOB BOUGHNER On the tough loss… We played a good team, we played a great road game. It is the most disappointing loss this year I think the way and the fashion it happened. You got a 3-2 lead and they get a harmless shorthanded goal, it wasn’t even a breakdown it was just a shot off the rush they make it 3-3. Pull their goalie made it six on four goes off [Troy] Brouwer’s pants off the crossbar off [Roberto] Luongo in the back, even the last goal with six seconds to go they just flipped it and they came down and got a chance in the top of the circle. I’d love to say it was bad composure, it was breakdowns on our part, it wasn’t that. It’s going to be tough to put this one behind us, obviously that room is very down right now and disappointed. No one has beaten this team in regulation in 17 games, now 18, I feel we should’ve been that team and all that was taken away in less than a couple of minutes, it hurts.

FLORIDA PANTHERS FORWARD JONATHAN HUBERDEAU On his overall thoughts… Yeah, I mean, it obviously sucks. You're up most of the game and then got up at the end, a penalty, and they score on the power play, and after that, they get another goal. I don’t know what it is, I wish I had the answer. I think we’ve just got to manage defensively. You know, we could’ve got it in overtime, tried to get two points. It didn’t happen.

On losing composure… Yeah. I mean, we were playing pretty good all game. We know it’s a good team. I just feel like every time we come here, we just get scored on at the end of the game like that. I don’t know what it is, but obviously, right now, we’re not in a position to lose like that, so I think, you know, it’s tough. Back at it tomorrow, so we’ve just got to adjust.

FLORIDA PANTHERS FORWARD ALEKSANDER BARKOV On his overall thoughts… Yeah, we were 30 seconds away from a perfect, 60-minute game. They’re a really good team, they’re on a really good roll, and we came here and wanted to end that win streak and get the win and move forward, but then those last 30 seconds, they hurt a lot.

On if the team lacks confidence late in games… That goal on the power play was a power play goal, 6-on-4, and then they played really well. They got a good one-timer and good screen for the goalie, and then the second goal, they scored six

seconds before the end. It’s just, we were disappointed to not score in regulation, then they got another chance with six seconds until the end. We just need to learn to play 60 minutes.

#3/7/19#