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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LIGHTNING v BRUINSMay 18, 2011Vincent LecavalierTAMPA, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. Vinny, I wanted to ask you kind of a different off-the-ice question first. You've been there for a while and have seen a number of owners come and go. And I wonder if I could get your take on what you've seen from Jeff Vinik from an ownership point of view and how he's running the team and just get your thoughts on that. VINCENT LECAVALIER: Right from the get-go, I mean when he purchased the team, I think it was in March or April last year, and he came in the room and kind of told us his plans, just that he wanted to bring that structure, that chain of command; he was going to hire a CEO and the CEO would hire a GM, and then the coaches and stuff like that. So you want to do everything really with a lot of structure and first-class, and I think all the players and all the employees really respect him. He's a good person. And he knows how to run - well, he's been obviously doing a great job with the organization to make it one of the best organizations in the league. Q. How does that compare with maybe previous owners? I'm not asking you to talk about them directly, but just the kind of way the franchise had gone after the Cup years until Mr. Vinik came in? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Like I said, I think it's just a lot of it is structure. Everything has a plan. Everything - he's got a plan behind everything. He's doing the things the right way. And he's really - he's got the love for the game. He respects everybody. So in return we respect him back. That's really all I can say. I don't want to necessarily talk about previous owners or stuff like that, you know? Q. Talk a little bit about some of the things the Bruins did right last night in terms of being aggressive on the forecheck and putting a lot of pressure on the Lightning D and winning some of the battles in the corners. Did you feel they were a little ultra aggressive last night? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Yeah, they definitely were. I mean, the first period I think - after the first period we came out in between the periods and we said, Guys, we're lucky it's 2-1 right now. They really - in that first period they really came out aggressive. They really came out physical. And they played a lot in our zone. And it didn't help also we had a lot of penalty killing, and I just feel that we grabbed that momentum in that first period, and obviously we were happy to come out with that one up by one. But overall I think they played a great game yesterday. Q. Vinny, so many highs and lows throughout the course of the playoff season. But it's been so long since you guys have experienced a loss. Is it different dealing with it now in this scenario, because it's been so long, or is it still the same old attitude? VINCENT LECAVALIER: No, it's tough. I mean, Playoffs are, like you said - I mean, it's roller coaster rides. But it's how you - I think it's how you come back the next game or it's how you bounce back that shows what type of team you are and the character that you have in a team. And I really think we've been doing well. I mean, obviously with eight wins in a row, it probably is easier to say that. But, I mean, the times that we did - like against Pittsburgh we lost a few big games, but we kept at it. We showed a lot of character. But we realize that it's a series. It's not one game. It's not - it's a series, and, you know, you're not going to win all your games. So you gotta make sure that when you do, when you don't win, then you bounce back and you play solid the next game. Q. And you guys have been able to put nine pucks past Tim Thomas in two games, but do you feel like you could have or should have scored more on him? VINCENT LECAVALIER: I saw him in the third, the last five, six minutes we had a lot of grade A chances. I mean, he made some huge saves there at the end and he kept them from - he gave them the win there the last five minutes. I mean, we really felt we would tie it up, and we were getting our chances, but he made some huge saves. Q. Everybody was talking about a loss of structure last night. But I was curious if you thought there were things that the Bruins were doing that caused that structure to break down, or if it was maybe some decisions on your guys' part that contributed to that? VINCENT LECAVALIER: I think it was more decisions, decision-making. I want to give them credit for the way they played. I mean, it's not - they really came hard last night. And they played a good game. But our structure, I think it was more decision-making that we started doing. And sometimes it kind of snowballs and it snowballed in the second period. We got a few penalties in the first. They kept coming after us. They had that momentum. In the second period I think, yeah, definitely some decisions that - maybe a few turnovers, you know, just maybe mental on where to be on the ice, to be in that structure, we weren't there. And that's what caused a few odd-man rushes and mostly in our zone, the chances that they got in our zone. Q. Roly said that when he was told that he and Boucher talked about it and thought it would give the team a spark, from your end of that, does it give the players up front in front of a goalie a spark: Hey, we're not doing the job here? And what's your psyche when the goalie is pulled, especially in a playoff game like this? VINCENT LECAVALIER: It wasn't - the thing it really wasn't Roly's fault. We kind of really left him out to dry, is that the expression? We really - the mistakes that we made in that second period, they scored five goals, really - there was rebounds and us not getting that second shot to help him out. So, yeah, I mean it was - it was really a tough second period. But, yeah, it definitely sparked us. We wanted to help out Smitty and he hadn't played in a while and make sure we came out in the third. And we knew we had a chance. We've done it in the past, and we knew that we wanted to get back the way we are supposed to play. And we played a lot better in the third and we got a lot more opportunity and we almost came back. So I think definitely for last night, I think it really, I think it got us going. But it wasn't Roly's fault at all in the second period. I think it was just more of a structure, we kind of left him there alone. So it was a tough situation for him. Q. Stamkos was on the phone earlier he mentioned how he thought you guys were physical, you have to be smart sometimes as far as the penalties you guys took. Do you feel you guys didn't have the same kind of composure that you guys showed so much in Game 1? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Can you - you kind of cut out. What did Stamkos say? Q. He said he thought you guys were physical but sometimes you weren't smart at it in terms of the penalties you took. Did you feel you didn't have the same kind of composure as Game 1? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Yeah, for some reason, yeah, a couple of penalties, the roughing penalties and stuff like that. It was definitely penalties we don't want to get, where we want to be a disciplined team. We don't want to retaliate. We don't want to give the other team momentum. And I thought for sure last night a few of the penalties were penalties that we could have avoided. We want to play physical but doing it in the right way. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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