2015 Eastern Conference Final Post Game 1 Transcript Tampa Bay Coach Cooper Our Coverage Sponsored by Martin's Tavern of Georgetown Est. 1933
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An interview with:
COACH COOPER
Q. Coach, did the Rangers matching McDonagh and Girardi against the Johnson line and Boyle mostly against Stamkos, did that surprise you? Did that change in terms of how you wanted to do things tonight?
COACH COOPER: No, not really. I thought the Johnson line was the best line on the ice. They didn't score 5 on 5, but they got the big power-play goal for us. They got us back into it. I thought it's good to match somebody against them. That's what he chose, and I guess they didn't score 5 on 5.
So in their book they probably did a good job, but I thought they were buzzing. They buzz like that and they're going to score some goals.
Q. When they put Hayes with Nash and Brassard, it seemed it changed a little bit size-wise. Do you feel like your "D" in your own zone was cohesive enough tonight?
COACH COOPER: I always love questions like that, because you're basically saying our "D" didn't look cohesive. Here's my take on the game: We'd like to have the first period back, no question. Game 1 I thought we played tight. They were on us. We were probably a little bit fortunate we got to the room tied. After that it was anybody's game.
There were big spurts in the game where we had them hemmed in. I don't think we shot the puck enough. I don't think we attempted enough shots. What got us through the Montreal series is not what we did tonight in some parts of the game. What got Montreal back in the series was what we did for big parts of the game tonight.
I don't know. I've got no answer why in Game 1 of a Conference Final why that happened. But I thought after the second or third period, both teams had chances. It was a pretty good hockey game. At times our "D" could have been a little better, sure. But I think there were times I thought they were exceptional. That game is probably what this series is going to be like. It pretty much was almost an overtime affair. To get the win with two minutes left is a tough one for us to swallow, but now that first one is through, of course we'd like to have had it, but now we've got this one under our belt, and we'll see what we can do in Game 2.
Q. You get the one power-play goal to tie it, then you get two more chances after that. How do you feel? Is that disappointing?
COACH COOPER: You look at them two ways. Our power play was 25%, which is really good, or they had two chances in the third to score and we didn't. Did we have our looks? Did we have our zone time? That we did. So I can't sit here and blame the power play, because if it wasn't for the power play the game is not tied.
We have to look a little more at our five-o-five play and see how we're going to generate more from that, but I was okay with our power play.
It's easy to sit here and say we could have scored. We had our chances. We didn't score, and they got the break at the end.
Q. What is Brian Boyle's injury in practice yesterday, and what is the status going forward?
COACH COOPER: Did our team say anything about it?
Q. Your team?
COACH COOPER: Yeah, did we give a statement? Undisclosed, day-to-day. There you go.
Q. How much did you miss him?
COACH COOPER: He's a big part of our team. He kills penalties for us. He's a big body. He can wear on teams. Of course we miss him. Hopefully he's able to come back at some point. But we've got depth in the organization.
Vladdie stepped in there, and I thought he did a great job. He's not Brian Boyle, and the situations that Boyler takes, our penalty kill was fine, and I thought we did okay in the dot, so he was definitely missed because he's a big part of our team. But everybody misses somebody.
They're missing Zuccarello, big part of their team. I mean, that happens in the playoffs.
Q. The goal at the end, is that the way you anticipate this kind of series going?
COACH COOPER: I don't know. It's the playoffs, isn't it? It's just the way - the beauties that you see in the regular season often times don't show up in the playoffs and that's just because of the attention to detail and playing defense. I think many times that's the goals you're going to see, is something like that.
Give them credit. They drove the net. They had guys buzzing around down there and they got the break. In a game like that, that's how it was going to end up, who was going to get the last one at the end. And unfortunately for us, they got it.
