2015 ECF Off-Day Transcripts - (NYR - St. Louis, Moore, McDonagh, Coach Vigneault) Our Coverage Sponsored by Vermont Harvest
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An interview with:
MARTIN ST. LOUIS
Q. How is it being back here during the playoffs vs the regular season?
MARTIN ST. LOUIS: Yeah, coming back here regular season, it was definitely a tough thing, I think, just being here for so long, but I think we're well past that now. You know, I mean, Tampa's always going to be a special place for me and my family, but I'm coming here as a New York Ranger and trying to get through this Conference Final and get to the Stanley Cup Final.
Q. What’s the most important thing going into the next game?
MARTIN ST. LOUIS: I think, you know, first period is a big period. You're trying to get through the first shift, get in the battle, you know, you talk about you need a good start. We need a good start, and we've got to play disciplined, and that's what we're looking to do.
Q. How do you get more goals and increase scoring?
MARTIN ST. LOUIS: We always want to score more as a team, but there are probably a lot of teams that would trade places right now with where we are. It's about winning games. We've found a way to win games and be in position where we're three wins away from the Stanley Cup Final.
Do we want to score more goals? Absolutely. We're playing good teams. It's easier said than done, but we've got to find a way. There is no doubt we've got to score more goals.
Q. Do you guys feel confident if you play five-on-five, you have more control?
MARTIN ST. LOUIS: Yeah, I definitely like our game five-on-five, there is no doubt. You know, I don't think it's a team that you're going to trade chances. I don't think there is any team you want to go trade chances.
Our focus is five-on-five, and as important as special teams are, we've got to do the job on them. But five-on-five game is one of the strongest parts of our game. We'd like to stay out of the box, and like to capitalize when we get power plays. You want to get perfection, but that's not going to happen. You've got to fight through the game. You've got to kill the penalties when you get them. You've got to utilize your power play when you have them. It's tough to play a perfect game.
Q. Is it unique being in a position where the guys on the other side talk so highly of you and how you helped mold them?
MARTIN ST. LOUIS: You know, it's probably the only time that I say I have a lot of friends on the other side. I've never really had that before. And I guess you accumulate friends when you're somewhere for so long, and it's not just the players. Yeah, that is unique, but when the puck drops, people play hockey. I don't think that I have some friends on the other side; I'm trying to help my team win.
Q. With a game like last night what do you? Do you forget it?
MARTIN ST. LOUIS: You correct your mistake and you move on. You talk about your mistake, you address the issues that need to be addressed, but you move on and go play. You can't dwell on the negative. You have to just get ready for the next one, and that's what we're looking to do.
Q. How do you stay positive through the frustration?
MARTIN ST. LOUIS: I mean, you're one goal, one bounce, one shot from feeling good about yourself, I guess. I know as a player, when you have the swagger, any offensive guys, any guys that put up good numbers in this league, they've done it at a time when they've got a lot of swagger. So when you score goals, yeah, you have a lot of swagger, and that really helps your game. It helps your teammates around you. So I'm trying every game to go get that swagger. Not just individually, but as a team, you've got to play with swagger.
DOMINIC MOORE
Q. How do you treat game 2 without overreacting?
DOMINIC MOORE: I think the way that you treat all of these games is the same with the previous game philosophy or each game you're trying to win, and assess honestly what you did well and what you can do better and move on. You have to have a quick way to forget things and move on like we've done in the previous game. That's what we have to do.
Q. Penalty kill has been so good, was it poor penalties last night or frustration?
DOMINIC MOORE: I think they executed well on their chances on the PP. We can do a better job collectively as a group on that. But that's one of the things that we thought we looked at.
Q. Regarding seeing the puck?
DOMINIC MOORE: Yeah, I mean, you're a man down, and all PKs you're trying to figure out the best way to stop certain power plays. Every power play has a little bit of a different set-up, and you're trying to make adjustments to try to give up the least dangerous option that you can.
Like I said, we've got to try to buckle down and try to redirect together, and we've done a good job all season long. Our power penalty kills has been one of the better ones in the league. Our coach has done a great job leading us, and we'll definitely look at it and improve.
Q. Are they better with the tough passes?
DOMINIC MOORE: Yeah, they have good movement on their power play. They can strike from a few different angles, so you have to honor those different vantage points. And when you do, you have to give something up, so we'll just have to do a better job of trying to close off some of those lines that we can.
Q. What bothered you the most about last night’s game?
DOMINIC MOORE: I don't know. I mean, any time you lose a game, you're frustrated. You can be frustrated at any number of things. All of us want to do more. Whenever we lose, the first thing you ask yourself is what could you have done better? What could you yourself have done differently? I think we've just got to, as a group, honestly assess what we can do better collectively as well and forget about it and move on.
RYAN McDONAGH
Q. You were angry after the game last night, Feeling any different today?
RYAN McDONAGH: I think it's a tough loss on a big stage, and it's something that I thought we could control a little bit better. But the way things transpired, it's really just giving an honest assessment of our team's performance and guys understand that. It's, I guess, just realizing what happened, realize it, and learn from it quick because this is a big, important series here.
And as I said, we've got to get back to getting to the strength of our game, and we know how to respond. We've done it before, so it's a matter of getting in focus again.
Q. You’ve responded from bad games before, does your confidence take a hit?
RYAN McDONAGH: I mean, it was such a unique - such an uncharacteristic game. I said it before last night. In that aspect I don't think we do lose much confidence because we didn't stay within our structure, as we talked about. We didn't play the disciplined way that was a foundation for us, didn't defend the way that we need to. So, yeah, it's tough because it's uncharacteristic.
But at the same time, it was pretty clear cut on what was the main reason for it, and stuff that we can really control. But like you said, we responded in these playoffs, which is a good sign, and throughout the regular season, and we'll have to do that really well.
Q. Team’s margin for error has been thin. Is it harder to manage that?
RYAN McDONAGH: Yeah, I mean, we're obviously talking every day about creating more offensive opportunities for us, offensive looks. It wasn't for lack of opportunities or looks the other night. We've got to find a way to take that next step and find a way to put it in the back of the net like they did. So it's a good example of taking advantage of your opportunities and a lesson learned for sure.
Like you said, this team is very good about taking advantage of the opportunities and creating looks for themselves with their speed and their skill. We have to obviously do a little better defending to minimize those chances against and continue to work hard defensively and get good offensive looks for us and take that next step for sure, because this series could wind up going south if we don't find a way to capitalize on our opportunities.
Q. 5 on 5, do you think they made any adjustments?
RYAN McDONAGH: Yeah, they definitely had a little bit better reads in their forechecking pressure. A huge strength of their team is an aggressive mindset, aggressive structure. We knew that going into the series.
In Game 1, we found ourselves getting a few more odd-man looks, and not so much in Game 2 where they had good positioning with their third guy high or whoever it may be. Maybe adjusting and deciding to pinch another time or back off.
So we have to continue to look at ways to continue to get those odd-man looks again. That was a big help for us to get in that offensive zone, get out of our zone clean. There were plenty of opportunities just kind of off the mindset and memory of guys inside our blue line trying to get pucks out or pointing it to an area we could skate on but just didn't connect the dot as much as we did in Game 1.
Credit them too, for sure, with their good speed and good sticks and good defensive.
Q. Describe the mindset of the team on the road?
RYAN McDONAGH: We really don't talk about changing much. Like any team you want to talk about having a good start, regardless if you stay at home. Or maybe on the road, you'll be a little bit simple here early on to kind of take the crowd out of it. But at this stage the crowd is going to be pretty energetic, regardless of what's going on in the game.
So for us, getting ahold of the puck and making good decisions with it and making sure that we don't give it up easily against these guys.
It's a very puck-possession series, as we're finding out quickly here. It seems more often than in the last series for us, we spent some time in the zone and it really makes a difference with your team, and you really want to try to capitalize on those momentum swings. So when we have those, we have the momentum on our side, we try to make them pay.
Q. When did you get the feeling that things were going south last night?
RYAN McDONAGH: It was pretty uncharacteristic to see a breakaway goal on a five-on-three power play. But like I said last night, even after some of the weird things that happened and the sloppiness, we find ourselves only down 3-2 going into the third and one goal away from tying it up. Having a chance with the game up for grabs again and continue to put ourselves down and give ourselves less of a chance to win with those penalties. It kind of transpired right away from the start of that third period.
Q. You were about as honest as you’ve been all year, last night, calling it embarrassing?
RYAN McDONAGH: I've never seen the group play like that. There are just a lot of things that we can control, and just trying to make certain that we realize what happened and focus both individually and as a group, but you can't afford to do that.
Really trying to grasp this opportunity because of where we're at. This is the Eastern Conference Finals. There are only two teams left here vying for a chance to go on and compete for the Cup. We've got to give ourselves a better chance than that to keep this dream alive.
COACH VIGNEAULT
Q. You said you needed more from you top guys, what exactly do you need?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, we've played against good teams prior to Tampa, and those good teams have had great players. Tampa obviously has some great players. By our calculation, Tampa had five scoring chances in the first, and Johnson had all five of them.
So there's no doubt that we need to raise our level here. We've got another challenge in front of us both defensively and offensively. We've been able to do it in the past. The past doesn't necessarily dictate the future, but I've got a lot of confidence in this group that we can raise our level of play. There's no doubt that Tampa has done that, and now we need to do the same.
Q. Is this Tampa team the best you’ve seen so far?
COACH VIGNEAULT: There's no doubt that they're a good team. They're very confident in their goaltending. Their goaltender has been able to, in the first two games and the games I've been able to watch in the past, make some big saves at key moments, which permits probably the rest of their group to go on the offense and go on the attack quite a bit. So he's obviously a big part of their team.
But we've got a very good goaltender also, and we've got a lot of confidence in him. Yesterday, can't take anything away from how well Tampa played. Now we've got to pick up our game at both ends of the rink.
Q. After watching the game again, anything else that stood out to you?
COACH VIGNEAULT: No, I mean, they scored three power-play goals. They scored another goal where a penalty was just expiring. They scored a shorthanded goal where we were five-on-three. So there are definitely points that I haven't had the opportunity to address with our team yet because we've been travelling, but I'll address it with them tomorrow before I address it with you.
But there are definitely areas of our game that we can be better at and we'll work on that.
Q. Last year you said Nash was working really hard buy may not have gotten paid off, what is your assessment of him now?
COACH VIGNEAULT: I mean, again, he's working extremely hard. He's getting physically involved. He's getting some looks. Would I like him to finish on some of those looks? Yes. Do we need him to finish on those looks? Probably, yes. He knows that.
But this is a team game. It's a team concept. We need everyone to be better, from our goaltender out. Our defensive group needs to be better. These guys have got obviously great offensive lines, and our forwards need to meet the challenge of their group also, not just Rick Nash.
Q. Are you surprised how uncharacteristic a game that was at this point in the season?
COACH VIGNEAULT: If it wasn't Game 2, because we've had our issues with Game 2 for whatever reason. I would say I was surprised. But in Game 2 of every series since I've been here, I just don't know. It's just one of those things.
Q. Chance Zucc might skate with the team down here?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Down here, I would say no.
Q. You like Hayes on that line?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Yes.
Q. Any adjustments if Zucc comes back?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Like I've done throughout my time here, regular season and playoffs, I work with the players that are available. I don't worry about the ones that are not. I just love having Zuc around because he smiles a lot, but other than that I'm not thinking about him. He's not ready to play.
Q. What are they doing on the power play that is giving you problems?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Obviously, they've got a great skill level. You can break down each of their goals and say it was a specific thing. But give them credit, they've got a lot of skill level. Thanks, guys.
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