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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LIGHTNING v BRUINS


May 17, 2011


Guy Boucher


BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Two

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Guy Boucher. Questions?

Q. I know you've talked about this. How have you seen some of these players grow and adjust to the Playoff situations and maintaining the right attitude in a postseason series?
COACH BOUCHER: Well, I think every game we've learned a lot from ourselves. We've also learned from the other team. Learned about the situation, the circumstances. We talked about it in the last days. Some individuals have learned faster than others. But I think all around we've got a group of players who don't get too excited now and stay calm. That's probably I think what we've been able to change probably from the first games of the Playoffs where we said we looked like deers in headlights, and we were expecting that.
But you never know when you're going to learn. We needed to learn fast and we've learned. But it's a whole new series in this one. New team, new atmosphere. So we have to adapt to this one.

Q. Guy, you dealt with this last time with Kubina and Gagne. Is there an advantage of not disclosing a player's status pregame?
COACH BOUCHER: If there's an advantage?

Q. Yeah, for an injured player, injured player coming back, is there an advantage, disadvantage?
COACH BOUCHER: I don't know. We're planning to -- every time we play, we're planning for the other team to have their best players on the ice. So we're never surprised or disappointed. So I'm sure the other teams are the same.
Our guys are not playing. When we can say they're not playing, we'll say it. When it's day to day, sometimes it's minute to minute, and you'll know it just after the warm-up.
And obviously we don't want to state the extent of the injuries, for obvious reasons. But it's pretty clear with Gagne and Kubina, we told everybody they weren't playing the day before because we knew they weren't going to be playing. And after that we weren't sure about Gagne. But then it became obvious.
So really I think it's a case-by-case, really, because there's a matter of who is the guy injured and when did he get injured, what type of injury does he have, and how far away are we from the game. So I think it's case-by-case.

Q. Head Coach Claude Julien said that he thought the physicality of his team and the physical play of his team slid a little bit in Game 1. What are you expecting from them in terms of that physicality perhaps coming into Game 2 tonight?
COACH BOUCHER: We were expecting for the entire series to be a very physical series. They play physical. They've got some big guys, and they finish their checks.
So we're expecting it to be present in every game. So they're going to be better all around. And we have to be better all around. And so if they're going to be more physical, it's just going to look like what we're expecting.

Q. It's been a few days. Is there any update on Pavel Kubina?
COACH BOUCHER: Yes. He's not with us. He's not even here, so the update is not very good. Every day when there seems to be a little progression, it kind of slips back a bit. So it's kind of an injury that you never know.
You wake up the next day and everything's great or just keeps on going the same way so it's very hard to monitor what's going on with him. But obviously we're missing him. He's got size. He's got some offensive abilities on our second power play, he made a big difference on it.
But right now we've adapted. Bergeron's kind of taken the lead on that power play with Purcell. And we had to adapt because he was doing very well for us.

Q. Guy, we know the game plan comes from you and your coaching staff, but do you ever consult Steve Yzerman, maybe bounce some game ideas off of him?
COACH BOUCHER: I bounce everything off of Steve. We bounce everything with the staff and not just Steve. Pat Verbeek, Tom Kurvers, anybody that's around the team, we try to get information from. And I think what's good about our group is that it's not about who is going to be right; it's just trying to get it right. And there's a big difference between those two approaches.
And I think we've got a great group of people that can rely on each other, because we've got all kinds of different experiences. And we do try to learn from each other.
And we've done that all year long. So there's no difference in the Playoffs. I think there's a mutual respect amongst all of us. We're all there because we bring something to the table. It's important that we tap into each other's experience, absolutely.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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