|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLYERS v BLACKHAWKSJune 4, 2010Peter LaviolettePHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Game Four JAMEY HORAN: First question down here, Coach. Q. Coach, is James Van Riemsdyk back in the lineup tonight? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Good try. We don't talk about any lineups. You guys know that. Q. Coach, I know you guys are very locked into your day-to-day schedule and what you do. Is it interesting to think that no matter what happens in one week from today, no matter how far this thing goes, somebody is going to be the champion? Somebody is going to have that Cup? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Yeah, certainly you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, both teams. You don't know how many games it's going to go. There's a lot of work that the players have to do to get to this point. There's still a lot of work left to be done. You want to make sure you finish. Q. Peter, the Philadelphia Flyers obviously had success in Game 3 with Antti Niemi. That being said, success in all areas, traffic, maybe rattling him a little bit? COACH LAVIOLETTE: Well, I said before that we feel like there's some weaknesses we can exploit there. We feel like we got to some of them. A couple of pucks went through him. I still think we can do a better job. We have a couple more areas I think we can exploit. I mentioned it before, it's tough. The pressure of sports. It's a tough position, and all of a sudden it gets harder to breathe. Things start slipping away. We got to continue to press on. I thought we did a better job of getting to the net. But I still think there's room for improvement for us on our attack and trying to exploit some other areas. Q. Peter, you guys are perfect in this postseason from Game 4 on. Is that a product of you guys getting better throughout a Series or kind of winning that war of attrition and wearing down an opponent? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think when you get to this point, I don't know if you're going to wear anybody down. Chicago plays a fast-paced game. The hockey the other night was very good hockey both ways. Certainly we feel like we're capable of going the distance based on our confidence and our conditioning. We can play that physical game. We can play it for a long time. But they play that same style as well. So I think that's what's leading to great hockey. Q. Peter, what are your thoughts on the Carter-Gagne-Richards line and how long will you stay with them without thinking of maybe sort of busting them up or doing something different with them? Are you inclined just to assume they're going to get where you want them to get to? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think they had 20 attempts at the net the other night. You're talking about really three of our top goal scorers on the team, there's others as well. But those three guys are capable of putting the puck in the net. Their opportunities are there. Their chances are there. And I think that's what I look for anyway in a line is are they getting looks? Are they getting opportunities? And they are. Some of them are hitting the net. Some are getting blocked. Some attempts are missing the net. But the chances are there. So we'll continue with that line. Q. Peter, throughout the Playoffs your guys have seemed like a fairly loose bunch. Can you talk about their ability to deal with the pressure they're under on a daily basis here? COACH LAVIOLETTE: We've tried to -- say it again? Q. Can you talk about the way your players are able to deal with the pressure? COACH LAVIOLETTE: There's obviously pressure. I just mentioned it a couple of questions ago. There's pressure. We're in a position where the pressure for us it's almost like we're on borrowed time. Like I said before, at Christmastime we were 29th in the League. It comes down to the last game of the season. We are just a resilient group. We keep pushing. The pressure, I think, is more for teams that are expected to win, as the Blackhawks are, and everybody picked them before the Series. We don't concede anything. We feel like we've got a confident group that's capable of winning hockey games. But I don't know if we feel the pressure as much. We're trying to keep it light. We're trying to have a whole bunch of fun. Q. Peter, you've obviously switched up your lines. But you've kept Briere and Hartnell and Leino intact. These are three guys who obviously did not have the regular seasons they wanted and they've redeemed themselves in the postseason. Do you get that -- do you sense that with guys like them that they obviously want to make up for maybe a bad season by having a great postseason like they have had? COACH LAVIOLETTE: I definitely think you can right some wrongs in the Playoffs. If you weren't happy with your regular season, the Playoffs is an opportunity to write a new script for how your year went. It will probably be the script that's remembered, not the tougher times. Those guys are playing terrific hockey right now for us. Their line has been excellent. I do think Playoffs are a different opportunity. That's the only thing people are going to remember at the end of the day. JAMEY HORAN: Thank you. COACH LAVIOLETTE: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|