BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS PHILADELPHIA FLYERS Thursday, September 21, 2017 BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY On the slashing/faceoff penalties… I thought the faceoffs were better tonight. I think the guys are getting used to it and starting to abide by the initiative that the league wants to have cleaner draws. The slashing, I think it’s another good rule to be honest with you, to find that happy medium. There’s a lot of hand injuries now and I think its something they needed to curb. I think eventually players will learn that as well like they adjust to all the rules. On if all the special teams makes it difficult to evaluate players… It gets difficult, if that’s what you’re getting at. Some guys get lost in the shuffle. I think [Zach] Senyshyn is a good example tonight. He’s not on the kill. Second unit that went out a little late, and now you don’t have a center because our second unit is [Danton] Heinen and [Kenny] Agostino. Maybe you throw [Riley] Nash out there to make sure you’re covered. At the end of the day, just off the top of my head, I know he’s a guy that we would have liked to see more of. So yes, it does – and now you’re using your best players a lot in penalty kill situations that you don’t want, necessarily, to get injuries that way. And every team goes through it, you got to balance it. On the team’s defensive depth… I don’t want to be disrespectful to the D-corps, but I think it is deeper up front. We’ve got a lot of first year guys coming into the back end. [Jeremy] Lauzon, [Jakub] Zboril, Emil [Johansson], who hasn’t played yet, Griz [Matt Grzelcyk], and [Rob] O’Gara, second year, but O’Gara missed the end of last year so not quite as much depth. [Paul] Postma is a good add. He’s played in the league and so has Tommy Cross. Losing Torey [Krug], depth or not, he’s our best puck-moving defenseman. He’s a very good offensive defenseman, and a good 200-foot player. I still think there are good players, and we’ll have six of them opening night that are just going to have to get the job done. On Jesse Gabrielle crossing the line… It happened in development camp, so here’s a guy who walks on the edge, and I thought played a very good hockey game tonight. At ice level, he had a few other guys frustrated. If that is what makes him tick and he can stay on the right side of the line, then we’re ok with it. But clearly he crossed it tonight. I think if as a young guy, you try to take on the officials in the National Hockey League, you are going to lose, and he lost tonight. On Tuukka Rask… Yeah, he was excellent. Real good, looked composed, rebound control was good, was square to pucks. A big positive for us. On Rask’s puck handling… I think once in the second period he came out and there was a misread, and part of it is if the goalie is going to come out and play it, the guys coming back into the zone, if he’s going to do them a favor, the D have to do him a favor and return and get available and peel off. I think that was an issue one of the two times. On Anders Bjork… His shift length will get up there, and that is one of the things he will have to learn is that it’s difficult to be an impact player every shift in the National Hockey League so sometimes the puck doesn’t follow you. You do your job, then live to fight another day. I think away from the puck, he’s going to realize how good these players are as well, enough to have a better stick and angles. I’m not surprised, all young forwards go through, for the most part. Obviously, Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] didn’t at 18. He’s one of the rare guys that probably at that young age was able to defend very well. Those are teachable things; very correctable things. On Kenny Agostino… He’s a guy that had success in the American [Hockey] League offensively and a bit in St. Louis in his short kind of stint there last year. Yeah, I mean, it was a big play at a big time for him. He made a few other plays tonight, so maybe this will kind of get the ball rolling for him. He’s another guy we haven’t talked about a lot. I’d still consider him a young player, he just has more pro experience than some of the other guys. But he can help the team. BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD PATRICE BERGERON On his game tonight… It’s nice to get the first one out of the way. It’s tough to get anything going, when the flow of the game is a little stopped. On his takeaways about the faceoffs tonight… I think that the faceoff is definitely an adjustment. I think that the faceoff is a skill and you work your whole career to develop that and you work on your hand-eye and timing and everything and try to take that away. You have to adapt I guess. It’s something that I’ll definitely do, but I don’t think I’m a huge fan. On if he believes that he’s a target with what is being done with faceoffs… I don’t know. I wonder what they’re really trying to get out of it. I understand that it’s feet above those lines and sticks and whatnot. That being said it also kind of sucks. Hockey is a fast game and they’re really slowing it down. On if faceoffs feel awkward for him… It’s like anything. It’s an adjustment. So we’re all going to have to adapt. It seemed like it was the same thing for everyone. Everyone on the other side, they were talking about it. So it’s not like we’re the only one. It’s definitely something that’s drawing a lot of attention. You just have go back and work on it and make sure I adapt. If it’s going to be like that, I need to make sure that I find a way to be good at it and help the team by winning draws. On what’s tough about the faceoffs… Like I said, faceoff is a skill and you work on timing, you work on hand-eye, and you know when the linesman is going to drop the puck. And I was thinking more about him kicking me out than dropping the puck. That’s what makes you second guess. It just makes you hesitate and everyone is just standing there. There’s no battle right now. It’s like faceoffs when I was 12- years old. Everyone is just standing still and no one is really moving. On practicing with Anders Bjork but not getting any 5-on-5 time with him… Did we play with Anders tonight? I remember maybe three shifts with him. There was no flow to the game. It’s unfortunate, but we’ll just have to work on it in practice and get used to that. I think that everyone will get used to it, the refs also. BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD JESSE GABRIELLE On his game misconduct… Obviously, I had guys coming up to me all game. It was a lot of fun. Another guy was on the ice and his stick came across the bench and he gave me a little stick tap. Instinctively, I grabbed for a second. Granted it should be a nothing play, but I got caught and it is what it is. Boys got the win and it’s not going to happen again. On already being in the box for a minor when he got the misconduct… I just tried to defend myself like everyone does when they get a penalty and he kind of had enough of it and it is what it is. On whether or not his comments got him the misconduct… I just tried to explain that the guy stuck me first and I got caught and it’s not going to happen again. That’s something that can’t happen. I can’t let the boys down like that. Especially when it’s a tie game. It’s just stuff you learn from and move past and learn from it. On playing a team like the Philadelphia… It was fun. It was fun up until you get over that line just a little bit. The whole game it was going good. I was getting underneath a lot of their guys’ skin. A lot of NHL guys were coming after me and it was a lot of fun. Like I said, it’s just a learning experience. You live and you learn. It’s not going to happen again. On the preseason being a time to learn where that line is… Yeah, I thought I rode that line really well the entire game up until that point. I just takes one thing like that to get caught and it’s tough. I wish I was out there playing, but the boys got the win and like I said, it’s just something to learn from.