BRUINS NOTEBOOK: SECOND PERIOD GAME 5 RANGERS

Bruins hold a 2-1 after 40 minutes

Boston is dominating the  body game, leading 31-18 in hits..Lucic continues to lead with 6

Shawn Thornton (4:36 TOI) and Daniel Paille (6:08 TOI) have made the most of their chances…in TOIBoth are +1, with a hit each. Thornton also won his only face off

Johnny Boychuk leads all Bruins with 18 shifts and 16:09 of TOI….The Rangers’ Dan Girardi leads both teams with 18:02 in TOI..

Patrice Bergeron has won 10 of his 15 face offs…Overall, the Rangers are winning the draws, 20 of 38..

Torey Krug is now 4-1=5 in four of his last 5 games

Gregory Campbell is now 2-1=3 in three of his last four games

Thornton has an assist giving him 3 in two of his last 3 games…

KEVIN HARRIMAN 

 

JULIEN FEELS POSITIVE HEADING TO MSG

 

BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH CLAUDE JULIEN POSTGAME 

On the positive areas of the team’s game that really stood out to him…
When I looked back at the game, I thought we had a good start, a really good start. We gave them that goal in the first period that I thought we could have easily prevented, but second period you’ve got to give Tuukka [Rask] a lot of credit. The turnovers and giveaways we had in the second period weren’t something that we do much, but certainly was something that could’ve been disastrous tonight. He did a great job and in the third period, we came out a much better team and found a way to score some goals here. Again, when you look at the way we’ve been able to get some pucks to the net, they’re a team that likes to block a lot of shots, take the shooting lanes away, and our guys were finding ways to get it through. Again, to me it was a good game on our part, not perfect, but a good game.

On how much he appreciates the way the young defensemen have played to their strengths…
Exactly. At the stage we’re in right now in the season, we’re talking about the playoffs, the one thing you don’t want to do is make a young defensemen come in and be afraid to play. You’ve got to be willing to live with the consequences. The good part about that it I know they’ve got some good upside to them. [Matt] Bartkowski was sent down at the end of the regular season, so he could continue to play because we really liked his game. [Torey] Krug’s been a good player for Providence all year, we liked what we saw in him last year and when he was called up. It was just a matter of bringing those guys in, saying, ‘Continue to do the things that you do well, because that will also give you success at this level.’ It’s about giving them the confidence to do that. We have to trust that they are good enough in those areas that they’re going to help us out. So far, they’ve proven us right.

On telling Torey Krug not to be afraid to make mistakes…
I said, ‘don’t be afraid to make mistakes.’ I don’t want him playing on his heels. In other words, I told him, ‘don’t be afraid to make mistakes and play your game.’ So that was basically what I told him when he first got here. I said, ‘You know, I know how good you are, I know what you can bring to this team, just go out there and do it.’ I think it’s important, but the last thing you want to do is get those guys to play on their heels or play afraid to make a mistake. Confidence goes a long way in this game. When coaches are able to give players confidence, it shows because it makes a big difference. Instead of a guy making a mistake and looking at the bench every time, seeing if the coach is mad at him or will take away some ice time. You’ve got to let him play, and those guys right now, I give them full credit for taking that advice and showing that they’re very capable of playing in the playoffs and on our hockey club.

On the improved play of Brad Marchand…
Well, he seems to be skating better in regards to that. He might’ve seemed a little slow at times, I think sometimes when you’re over-thinking, you put too much pressure on yourself, it just weighs on you. Right now, it’s just a matter of going out there, almost the same thing as the young guys, ‘go out there and play.’ He’s a quick player, he’s a shifty player, and he’s very capable of doing that. He knows defensively tonight there was a couple things, not so much the puck that didn’t make it across on the first goal, but probably how he reacted to coming back. There’s certain things we talk about, but you’ve got to encourage those guys to keep doing the things that they’ve been good at doing. To me, he’s played two solid games for us.

On if he sees the rest of the team getting a lift from the young defensemen…
Absolutely. I think it’s exciting for our guys to see some young players come in and contribute the way they have. It may sound like I’m piping off here after the fact that they played two games, but when those guys were coming in, I really wasn’t worried about the lack of impact they’d have, more than I had confidence in them. It’s always easier when you’re at home, you get the last change, you’re able to put them in the right situations; it may be a little tougher on the road. But at the same time, those guys have done a great job. When you look a [Torey] Krug, he’s playing against their third line a lot of times, which is [Brian] Boyle, and [Taylor] Pyatt, and [Derek] Dorsett, which are all heavy players and he’s handled himself extremely well. [Matt] Bartkowski’s playing against their top lines every once in a while, that [Rick] Nash line, but more so against [Derek] Stepan, and [Carl] Haeglin, and [Ryan] Callahan. But he’s done a good job. Those young guys have done a great job, and what can you say about [Dougie] Hamilton? Most of the time he’s out there against [Rick] Nash, with Zdeno [Chara]. But our young guys have done a good job and I couldn’t be happier for them, and extremely pleased with what they’ve brought to our team.

On playing confidently with a two goal lead in the third period…
Well you know, we talked about it before we went out there in the third period, and we just had to make sure that we played to win. I didn’t want our guys playing on their heels, and you hear me say that a lot. I don’t like our team when we play on our heels and we’re just trying to protect a one goal lead. We’ve got to extend the lead and extend it even more before we even think about protecting it. But our guys are smart, they put pucks at the next, they went to the net hard, we won battles for those loose pucks, and we found a way to score those goals. And a great job by [Milan] Lucic, for example, of putting on the breaks and standing there with a loose puck and banging it in. Those little details are what give us the opportunity to win those important games.

On how going into the series some people said Henrik Lundqvist was the better goalie, but that after two games Tuukka Rask looks steady…
Well we’ve got a lot of confidence in Tuukka [Rask]. And if you compare both there’s no doubt that Henrik Lundqvist has more experience than Tuukka [Rask] does, but that doesn’t change anything. Our guys have done a great job in front of him, and what he showed in the second period – like I said it could have been a totally different game had he not stood tall for us in the second period. So he allowed us to recover and play a much better period in the third. He’s been good for us all year, and our guys have lots of confidence in him. So it’s about having confidence in your goaltender and finding ways to get through the other one.

On Shawn Thornton saying before the game that he thought the fourth line would be able to capitalize on their scoring chances…
Well they create them so they know eventually they will go in. When you look at last game it’s the same thing. They didn’t necessarily score but they created a lot of chances. They’re not afraid to throw pucks at the net, they always have somebody there, and there’s loose pucks that they bang away. Their goals aren’t necessarily highlight goals, but they’re important goals as you saw tonight. And Soupy [Gregory Campbell] did a great job there off the rebound and putting that in. So that line continues to give us some important minutes in the game. And you know, as a coaching staff we trust that line a lot, and we put them in different situations that we know they’re going to get the job done.

On the defense helping offensively…
Well they’ve been really good. I think we’ve seen our team – one of the big things that has helped our game right now is how quickly we’re moving the puck up the ice. And we talked about that after the first round, and instead of slowing the game down we had to pick up the pace a little bit. And our young guys have come in and done exactly that and so have our older guys. We’re moving forward with that puck, and our transition game because of that has been better in this series.

On whether it matters who the Bruins are playing, or that the team just need to play their style of hockey to succeed…
It always has been that way, you know, we had a lot of trust in our game we had a lot of trust in our style of game. And right now it’s about bringing it every night. And it’s been like that for years. You know, we feel that when we do play the game that we want to play there’s some stability in our game and we don’t give much. At the same time we create some chances, and our offense has always come from good defense. We turn pucks over and then we go back on the attack. So certainly that’s been the case lately. We’ve gotten better and the Jekyll and Hyde is, as I mentioned, something that’s been with our team his year during the regular season and a little bit in the first round. But I know that a lot of teams have said the same thing when it comes to their teams in the short schedule. So I don’t think we’re any different, but hopefully we’ve turned the page on that and can bring back a little more consistency in our game like we have in the last two.

 

JULIEN HAPPY WITH TEAM’S PERFORMANCE IN GAME 1

BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH CLAUDE JULIEN POSTGAME

On how confident that the team was building towards this type of effort…
Well, there was some signs. Like I said, the last, probably, four games or so, we seemed to be turning the corner. But, as I’ve often said, when you’re on a winning streak and you keep winning, you start to see some things happening and it takes a while before you start paying the price for it. I think it was the same way, as far as our team is concerned. We were playing better, we weren’t getting rewarded with the wins. But you could see us turning the corner, so I think that’s one of the things. Today, our guys were focused, they were ready, and at the same time, we’ve been here before, there’s some experience behind it. I thought we played a solid game.

On if he is concerned that the league may review a play involving Andrew Ference…
No, I haven’t seen it. I can’t comment on that.

On what he liked about the Patrice Bergeron line matching up against Phil Kessel…
I don’t think we hard matched the whole game, but for the most part we were. I think the one thing that I think we all know here is that Patrice Bergeron is probably one of the best two-way players in the league, he can do that job. I also felt confident with the way our other lines were going tonight, that they could do the job. In the latter part of the game, the one thing is I didn’t want to get caught shortening my bench up. You think about this series ahead, but you also think about what you’ve been through before getting to this series. There’s an opportunity for me to utilize my bench a little bit more. At the same time, I think it was a matter of getting the right D’s  out there against those kind of players.

On how much the team fed off the line of Gregory Campbell, Shawn Thornton, and Daniel Paille…
The one thing about that line, I said that right after the game, they seem to relish that role, they really get excited and pumped about playoff hockey. They really enjoy the role that’s given to them. When we played a couple years ago in Vancouver, they were playing against the Sedin brothers [Daniel and Henrik], that’s how much confidence I had in them. When they’re at the top of their game, and they play a smart game, most of the time they keep the other lines bottled into their D-zone. They certainly helped us, but at the same time, as I mentioned, I thought our others lines did a great job. It was a real good job on our part to have all the lines contributing in a way, I didn’t feel like our team sagged at any time in the game; we kept the tempo and control where we wanted it to be.

On what it does for the team when Wade Redden comes up big like he did…
I was really happy for him, I think I said that this morning, he’s a player that has gone through some rough times. What we’ve tried to do when he came here is make him feel welcome, make him feel appreciated, and give him some confidence that way. So far, it’s paid dividends.

On the play of David Krejci and how he is able to create space…
When David [Krejci] is skating and he’s also, I would say, pretty intense, meaning he’s not afraid to go finish his hits and not afraid to go into the corner and battle for pucks. He’s one of those players that fears nothing, he never has. In other words, when he really gets his mindset to compete hard and get involved, he’s a really great player. He’s been pretty good lately, not just tonight, but before that, so I felt that his game was turning the corner as well, getting better. He proved that again tonight.

On the defense being active offensively tonight…
We’ve been pushing that situation all year. As you know, good teams that score goals are team that have a four-man attack and teams are so good defensively that you need support along the way. I thought our guys did a good job, except for the one time where we allowed them that breakaway. I thought our guys did a great job of supporting and also of getting back. If they were caught deep our forwards did a great job of covering for them.

On extending and protecting the lead in the second and third periods…
Well, all I can say to that is the same thing I said this morning and the day before. We’ve turned the page on that. So that’s what we’ve done. So we did come in in the second and third and say, ‘Are we going to hold this lead; are we going to do this?’ This is a new season, as I mentioned earlier. We’ve got some veteran players that have been through the trenches and certainly know how to react to certain situations like this. And we’re a focused team from start to finish. The first period was over and we were already talking about the second period and how we had to stick with our game plan and everything else. The guys did a great job of that. Same thing with the third period, we didn’t look at the scoreboard we looked at our play in the third period, versus the goals that we scored or goals that we didn’t want to give them. So it was about going out there an finishing the job.

On whether Toronto went too far with the physical play (specifically Orr, Van Riemsdyk, McClaren)…
No. I mean, this is playoff hockey and two tough teams playing each other. You know, whatever happens out there on the ice we’ve been pretty good at being able to handle that stuff – that stuff doesn’t bother us and we’ve been on the other side of it and so on and so forth. There’s nothing whether it was message sending – whatever the case is, it doesn’t really matter because like I said I’m preoccupied with our team. I thought our team reacted well and defended ourselves when we had to and were disciplined when we had to. That’s all that matters right now, and certainly not going to get into this thing about crying about the other team and what they did and what we did. It was a good, hard fought game tonight and I’ll leave it at that.

On whether he sensed a good feeling from the players in the locker room prior to the game…
Yeah, and I said that even after Toronto scored the first goal I really felt that our team was still in good shape and had lots of time. We just had to stick to the game plan, and as I mentioned you know, you get that feeling sometimes and our players were really focused tonight.

On being a “defensive team that can score” and how well the team played defensively…
Well they did, and you know, we’re just one of those teams that we say we are a defensive team that can score. We know when we play good defense that’s what ignites our offense. You know, when we’re sloppy in our own end, we don’t get out the puck, we don’t have a whole line going up the ice. So our offense starts from our defense. That’s what the guys are trying to say and that’s how I try to explain it when people say, ‘Are you a defensive team?’ I don’t think we play anymore defense than anybody else. We hope that we play it as best we can. That’s where our offense stems from – good defense.

On whether he felt like, “Where has this effort been?”…
No because you know, again I explained this morning that the last two months have been hard for us. And the last week and a half with six games in nine days, and when you include what happened in between those days – it hasn’t been an easy stretch for us. It’s been draining; it’s been draining for players to deal with that stuff. I think we’re all sentimental to what happened to this city. And you know, it was just a matter of turning the page right now from the regular season and getting a fresh start. I think mentally I think that was the big difference. And that’s why you probably saw a big difference from our team. And at the same time we’ve been through this before, and you always hope that your experience is going to help you through this. But having said that, you hear coaches say it’s one game. And we’ve got to be prepared to go out and do the same thing again next game.

THORNTON: “A little sick of talking about two years ago. That was a long time ago. It’s a new team

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD SHAWN THORNTON

On how the lines have been getting acclimated to each other…
You’re asking the wrong guy. I don’t put the lines together. I’ve been with Soupy [Gregory Campbell] and Piesy [Daniel Paille] basically for three years. I could speak to us as a group. I feel like we’ve been playing pretty well. We’ve had a lot of chances. We haven’t put the puck in the net, but we’ve been creating a lot of forecheck and chances and a little bit of offensive zone time and I think a little bit of energy and that’s our job so I’m happy with that.

On whether the ice was bad tonight…
Better than I thought it would be, I’m not going to lie to you. They got that thing turned around in an hour and 45 minutes or whatever so they did a pretty good job all things considered.

On the feeling of this team compared to the last couple of years…
We know we’ve been playing pretty well. … We’ve been playing pretty well for the last few weeks. We haven’t gotten the results that we wanted, and it is all about results, but if we start putting some pucks in the net it’s definitely… but everyone’s excited to get going. It’s a fresh start. It’s a new season. It’s exciting. It’s the best time of the year.

On whether they still have confidence from winning the Cup two years ago…
Yes and no. A little sick of talking about two years ago. That was a long time ago. It’s a new team. It’s a new chapter. Just because we accomplished something two years ago doesn’t mean it’s going to be automatic. We should have that anger and hunger that we haven’t been as good as we were, so I’m more focused on trying to prove it again.

On satisfying that hunger…
I can only speak for myself, but I want to win.

On whether not burying their chances has just been bad luck or not following up on rebounds…
Probably a bit of both. I think there’s been some second opportunities that we maybe didn’t bear down as hard as we could. There’s also some posts and some pucks hopping and some of that stuff too, so [we] don’t want to dwell on it too much. Just going to probably sacrifice a chicken or something, a rooster. [Laughing] I love animals, I’m just kidding.

On Tuukka Rask’s chance to be a key player in the postseason…
We’ve been very blessed that we’ve had two starters here pretty much the whole time I’ve been here. He’s hungry. I’m pretty close with him, so I know he wants this opportunity to prove himself and I know our team has all the confidence in the world in him. We have all year and we have ever since he’s been here to tell you the truth. … The more he gets pressed the better he is, so we have a lot of confidence in him between the pipes. His numbers kind of speak for themselves.

On whether they like the idea of an Original Six matchup…
It’s always fun. It’s two of the biggest hockey markets going at it. Maybe not as classic a rivalry as a Montreal-Boston, or Toronto-Montreal I guess, but I think whenever you have two original six teams going at it and they haven’t been in it for a while, so I know they’re going to be pretty jacked up, up there.

PAILLE LOOKING TO BUILD ON TEAMS RECENT EFFORT

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD DANIEL PAILLE

On his goal…
It went in so it was perfect, but I tried to get as much as I could on it. And I’m glad that it went in, I mean it’s probably the reason why it stayed full. But you know, I watched it through the whole time and it went in between his pad and the post. So it was kind of a good shot where I picked there.

On his line stepping up…
That’s what we want. You know, we’ve been talking and talking for so long, and I think it’s nice to have us react and play the way we always wanted to. I think that’s huge for us to building – not only going to the weekend but going to the playoffs. And just to stay confident like we did tonight. And you know, continue to work as hard as we did.

On the energy his line brings…
I mean, we know for our line if we don’t score it’s not a big deal, but the main goal for us is to create as much energy as we can and it felt like we did that today. With Thorty [Shawn Thornton] taking the puck from a couple of guys, and Soupy [Gregory Campbell] as well. You know, I thought we all contributed in a positive way today, even if we didn’t score.

On his thoughts on Tuukka Rask’s play…
He’s been solid all year, and I think that’s five shutouts for him. And he just makes everything look so easy. You know, I think they could have had a few goals there and Tuukka [Rask] was just solid. When he has that mindset – that’s mostly every time when there’s no fatigue in there – he’s one of the best goalies. So he’s been great and I think he’s had that confidence all year. It hasn’t been different for him. We know that’s what we’ll get out of him.

On his save against [Steven] Stamkos…
Yeah he was reaching for it, and it’s like there’s no panic for him. He moved over for that pass, and you think he doesn’t have it but his glove’s right there. He read a lot of plays tonight and he talked all night, and it was good to see.

On chasing down the Tampa’s forecheck…
Yeah you know, that’s how we’re capable of scoring goals – turning the puck over and not giving up on the play. And Thorty [Shawn Thornton] made a great example of that for us on that shift, and that’s exactly what our line is going to be successful to help this team move forward. So I think it was a good step for us.

On finding their way back to each other as a line…
You know what, playing for so long now together we tend to know each other. And I think we just kind of seize the opportunity. We know we’re not going to play a ton of minutes, but we’re happy with who we play with. And I think that’s a big thing going on the last few years that we’ve been here.

On scoring 10 goals…
You know, the puck’s going in and my first year here I had a ton of chances it just wasn’t going in. So I’m trying to be a little more patient around certain plays, and watching a lot of video and tried to work on a lot of things. And you know it’s paying off at the moment right now and I don’t want to stop. I’ve got to working on that in fixing certain aspects of game that still need some work. But overall I’m glad I’m helping out as much as I can.

JULIEN UPBEAT FOLLOWING WIN OVER BOLTS

CLAUDE JULIEN PRESS CONFERENCE

On if he was happy to see that response from his team after the loss in Philadelphia…
Yeah, like I said this morning, we’re going to find out quickly if it was just a little bump in the road or whether it was a step back. I thought our guys played hard tonight. I’m not looking perfection, I’m looking for reaction. Overall, I thought we played hard, we moved the puck quickly, when there was a breakdown Tuukka [Rask] was there to make the big saves. I was pretty happy with the game, I know that if we keep playing that way we’ll only get bet better.

On how much the team feeds of Milan Lucic when he is playing the physical game he was tonight…
Yeah, [Andrew] Ference did the same thing, he stood up. But there’s other guys that threw some big hits, but Milan [Lucic] is know for that, he’s known when he’s at his best, he puts a lot of fear in other  players on other teams just with his forecheck and finishing his checks at the end of that. Also, when being challenge he handled himself pretty well, so there’s no doubt our guys will feed off that kind of stuff. It doesn’t mean he has to go out there and fight every night, he just has to play hard the way he’s been doing lately and things are starting to come around for him.

On what the pairing of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg did well tonight…
Well, again, it was a bout shutting those guys down [Tampa Bay], and there was a couple of breakdowns even, but it’s pretty hard to contain that lien because they’re so good. Two of those guys are in the top scoring in the league and you know they’re going to get some chances, you want to minimize it. Whenever there was a breakdown Tuukka [Rask] made some big saves, but they’re a pair that has done a good job in the past in the playoffs. They hadn’t played together this year, so it’s just about giving them, I guess, a feel, a taste of it again, so if need be, when playoffs come around and depending on who we play, we may have that option, as well.

On how important it is to have Tuukka Rask playing well going into the playoffs…
It’s important for him, obviously, and what we’ve been through, I think a lot of players right now, you still see certain guys fighting the puck a little bit, but at the end of the day, our goaltender plays a big role in your success. A game like tonight, if we don’t have good goaltending, the minute you get a breakdown the puck could be in the back of your net. You need a guy to stand tall and be good and you need a guy to go into the playoffs with confidence, hopefully that’s what Tuukka’s creating here.

On what he means when he says he’s not looking for perfection, but reaction…
Reaction, to play with some emotion, play with some grit, desire, determination. I saw all those things tonight. The identity of our team is as such, we’re a team that prides ourselves on being a physical team, a team that’s hard to play against. We have to create that, the rest of the game will come along. That’s what we’re looking to see from our guys for 60 minutes and I think they did a good job of playing a full 60 tonight.

On tonight’s turnovers…
Well no, I think it’s what I mentioned – there were still some mistakes. I think you know, you look at Brad [Marchand] he’s frustrated, pucks keep jumping over his stick, and you know at some point you start squeezing your stick a little bit more. But those are the things that I thought created some turnovers. And at least it wasn’t like the other night from you know not thinking well or not being like I said focused enough that you made a bad decision. For us tonight those breakdowns sometimes were pucks jumping over sticks, or you know we forced a pass versus shooting. Those are the kind of breakdowns we had. But those things will come around if we stay focused on playing the way we did tonight.

On Wade Redden…
Yeah he’s been pretty solid. And you know, you see the odd mistake from him like everyone else has those little mistakes, but overall he’s been a pretty solid player. He’s been a smart player making good plays. And he’s a guy that certainly helps on our breakouts, because if the walls are taken away he’ll find that centerman and he’ll make a good tape-to-tape pass and I think that’s important.

On the Merlot line’s goal…
Well I thought they played the type of game that we expect that line to play, and I thought they were really good. They were one of our good lines tonight where they created a lot. And then they just kept their game simple they way they have to keep it simple. But there’s some confidence there – you know, Soupy [Gregory Campbell] making that pass and [Daniel] Paille not hesitating, great shot and the goaltender didn’t have much time to get across. So overall making the right plays and keeping pucks in down low and battling. And Thorty [Shawn Thornton] the same thing. Not only that but they’ve had some challenges at times this year where they weren’t making good line changes and leaving the next line I guess hanging is what we would use as a term. But they were sharp in all those areas tonight, so I thought they were good.

On the penalty kill…
Yeah you know, I mean it’s mostly – a lot of the hiccups in the past have been you know, not getting pucks out when you had a chance to and the longer you stay in your own and the more tired you get the more chance there is of getting scored on. But we made some good changes, but we also made sure pucks got out tonight.

On using all of his tools (bench, yell, compliment, show good/bad video) in his coaching toolbox to reach Milan Lucic…
I was going to say, after all of those things you don’t have much left in your toolbox, right?

On if he did all of those things…
Absolutely, we tried everything. But at the end of the day it became Milan’s [Lucic] approach to it. You know, at one point a player kind of realizes – you know listen, I’ve got to get myself going here, this is what they ask. And you know, at one point you have to think that one of those tools got his attention. And he’s become a good player again for us. You know, I thought again tonight he did exactly what ignites our team and what ignites our fans. And you know, when he’s like that he’s at his best. So I certainly like the direction he’s taking, and if he keeps going that way we can’t ask for better timing I guess.

THORNTON FOLLOWING LOSS TO PENGUINS

BOSTON BRUINS FORWARD SHAWN THORNTON

On how they played…
Yeah, I think we’re back to playing with a bit of an edge, but that’s a positive. I think we keep building play in that way, things will start going a little bit better for us. Obviously they capitalized on a couple of power plays, but as far as 5-on-5 and for the majority of the game I thought we played the way we needed to play we just didn’t get the result we wanted.

On coming away impressed with the Penguins after facing them three times…
Yeah, no, they’re a good team. They obviously buy in, everyone’s on the same page you can see over there. They’re finding a way to win games without everyone in it. That’s huge.

On one timer…
It was the only play I had, I think. There was a bit of a lane, I think Soupy [Gregory Campbell] was in front. Just trying to keep it low, hopefully get a tip or a rebound, obviously didn’t get either.

On the entire season the team has had…
Yeah, it’s been a lot of ups and downs. Starting a lot of games and then we’ve jammed a ton in, in the last little bit due to things obviously out of our control. This week’s kind of been here and there and then we’re going to get into the grind here in the next week. So, I guess as a professional athletes we just got to come to the rink every day and focus as it’s a new day and try and worry about that game, think about this one until dinner and then start focusing on tomorrow.

On how that affects a team going into the playoffs, only a week and a half away…
Yeah, I mean good news is we’ve got five games to keep building. Like I said, I think today was a good step in the right direction and take away those power plays goals and I think we played a pretty solid game. Lot of emotion. Good job by Quaider [Adam McQuaid] to get us going. I think that’s the way we need to play. We were banging bodies and getting pucks in for the most part. I think that’s the way we need to play if we’re going to be successful going forward.

On if it is late in the season to be satisfied with the effort or are the points needed…
Well, there was some games that efforts weren’t there and we were getting the points so I kind of, it goes both ways sometimes but the key is, I think not to get frustrated because it’s definitely too late in the year to be getting frustrating and not trying to build on the positive things that we’re doing.

On why the physicality is back and if it has to do with the end of the season approaching or the opponent…
Probably a little bit of both. I think the emotions, the week, a lot of things come together and us just having a chat and saying listen ‘we’ve got to get back to playing the way we used to play.’ So, I thought it was there tonight.

On if the team needs a chat or if it just understood…
I mean it never hurts to mention things, right? Friendly reminder. The old lady friendly remind’s me all the time about the toilet seat.

On the Matt Cooke play with McQuaid…
I didn’t because I was in the middle of the bench and it happened kind of to the left of me and the boards were blocking where it was and I didn’t see the replay so I didn’t get a chance to look at it.

On if there was talk about the hit…
Right away, it was I mean, I think guys wanted to warn penalty but like I said, I can’t comment on it because I haven’t seen it.

On the beginning…
Yeah, not a dry eye again. I’ll probably take my quotes from Wednesday and reuse them because I had the same feeling before the game. Pretty tough week for the city, for the country. A lot of proud Bostonians throughout, having a few last night the emotions definitely carried over into this rink before this game.

On if the beginning of this game was different because it was celebratory…
I had the same feeling before the game. Like I said, it was tough to keep a dry eye watching that stuff, the people that were lost and the crowd going and the anthem and all that stuff. It’s not easy, but I thought the guys did a good job of feeding off of it in the first period. I thought we had a really good first.

On the pregame ‘Boston Strong’ video …
Yeah, I think the Bruins did a great job of giving respect for those people and we got to meet them after the last game and shake their hand, take some pictures and get to talk to them. I think there were 70 or 80 guys and ladies obviously, first responders to get their feel on things and thank them for the job they do and I think you can never say thanks enough to those people.

On if the tragedies give the team something extra to play for…
I think so. I think the guys have fed off what’s going on. We’ve talked about it at length, but if we can show up and give that effort and take people’s minds off of it for, three or four hours, how ever long we’re out there, we should be able to feed off that anyways.

On whose idea it was to where the first responder hats…
I think it was Andy’s [Andrew Ference], I think it was Ference’s.

CHECK OUT BOSTON SPORTS DESK YOUTUBE FOR BRUINS PRE GAME INTERVIEWS

Just posted interviews from Shawn Thornton, Johnny BOYCHUK and Andrew Ference

KEVIN HARRIMAN

LOVE A GOOD MASSHOLE !!!

THANKS SHAWN !