2015 WCF Practice Day Transcript (Anaheim - Coach Boudreau) Our Coverage Sponsored by Bergen Linen
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An interview with:
COACH BRUCE BOUDREAU
THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach.
Q. Bruce, with Palmieri, in the Calgary series, you stuck with him throughout. What was behind staying with him and did you think at some point he's going to do something big?
COACH BOUDREAU: The belief in the player? I think the coach's belief in the player, you know there's more to give. It's a matter of time.
But to win and be successful, I mean, sometimes every series now a different guy has stepped up, whether it's Kyle going to do it for the rest of the series or the third line or the fourth line, you know, it's too early to tell.
To be successful it's usually somebody different, some line different or some defense pairing different that makes you successful series to series, and it's usually not the same guys.
Q. Why did you stick with him?
COACH BOUDREAU: Because I have faith in him and I believe in him and I knew that it was just a matter of time. You could see in the Calgary series how he was progressing. He wasn't getting the results he wanted to, but he was progressing and doing the right things. Eventually those right things will turn into successful things on the scoreboard.
Q. Bruce, how much credit do you take for Frederik Andersen's evolution as a goalie? Where do you see a difference from him last year?
COACH BOUDREAU: First of all, I take no credit. Dwayne Roloson works with him and talks to him every day. He's been great with him. They watch video together. The goalie coach and the goalie are always very close, I think. They have to be.
Sometimes you never see it, but experience is a huge factor, I think. Last year for everything, it was his first year basically on the big stage being in the NHL. Now he's been through it. You go through a series, whether you're watching or playing, you know, like the L.A. series last year, you learn things.
I think the Dallas series was a big learning experience for him. He saw what it was like. I think he's embraced it and he's come a long way.
He's another year older. He now knows what to expect from himself. He's not afraid of the league.
Q. The Getzlaf line getting held in check a little bit, was that a matter of matchups or some sloppiness on their part?
COACH BOUDREAU: Well, if you talked to Ryan or Corey or Patty, they didn't have their best game. I think it's more to do with them than it was to the other team. The team's good. But I think when those three are on their game, they're pretty hard to stop.
I thought they were a little below what they were. Their expectations are so high, especially when you have a week off before the first game. There's not a lot of different people you're talking to yet, because there's no other players that have sort of come to the forefront. You talk about the Keslers, the Getzlafs, the Perrys. Their expectations for themselves are very high and they probably didn't exceed their expectations last game.
Q. What has it been like for you to kind of gain the trust of all of these young defensemen? Also, are you even surprised that Simon has been the trade acquisition that's played so much compared to James?
COACH BOUDREAU: Initially I was. We thought we got all these guys and Simon would be the seventh D. He came right in, and we were hurt at the time of the trade, so they all played. Wiz was hurt. He never let up. He kept playing better and better and better.
Now it would be pretty hard arguably to take him out. Bob did a tremendous job acquiring him. I think Trent's done a tremendous job as far as handling all six defensemen. I think with their minutes, with their responsibilities, now there's not a fear of putting any one of them into any situation that comes to the front.
Q. Bruce, obviously we've talked about the faceoffs a lot, how they've improved. Are faceoff guys born or made? How can a guy who is sort of average at that get better?
COACH BOUDREAU: It's like everything else: you practice it, you work it, you take pride in it, you have more will than the other guy. And, you know what, you take all that into consideration, and then your wingers have got to help out. There's so many times there's 50/50 battles. If their winger gets it, they win the draw. If your winger gets it, you win the draw. Sometimes it's unfair.
The one thing I think every coach knows is who they have faith in, putting into the faceoff circle at a certain time in the game.
Some guys don't try as hard at some faceoffs, but when it comes down to crunch time, they bear down and they very rarely get beaten.
It's a tough call on who's good all the time, but it's easy to read on who's good on crunch time.
Q. Bruce, Cogliano comes in the league, first-round pick, big scorer. You were also a guy that scored but didn't get a lot of NHL time. Is he an example of that player that's found his niche, found his role, that's allowed him to play almost 700 games now?
COACH BOUDREAU: Don't compare me with him. I couldn't skate half as good as him, nor did I defend like he can. But he's found his niche. It's a good thing. Andrew likes responsibility. You just throw him out there and play, that's one thing. But if you give him an assignment, he really takes a lot of pride in accomplishing the assignment.
I found over the couple years here that the bigger the assignment you give him, the better he plays.
Q. Bruce, you talked about your young defensemen, how they've developed. How important has Francois Beauchemin been in bringing these other guys along?
COACH BOUDREAU: He's the voice. Everybody else is so young. Beauch is the voice back there. You can hear him talking all the time. The other one that's helping, but not playing, is Wiz. He's helping the defensemen out there. Obviously he wants to play, but he's been so professional about all of this.
He'll take Sami aside, he'll take the young guys aside and say, “This is what Chicago is doing, this is this, this is that.” Those two older guys are great teachers and the guys look up to them an awful lot.
Q. Bruce, keeping that fourth line together, how much did they contribute in terms of giving you guys some puck possession there with their shifts when you didn't have a whole lot of it at the time early in the game?
COACH BOUDREAU: Well, they really gave us good energy at the proper time, before we scored our second goal. They were on the ice before Nate Thompson's line. They created the buzz in their zone. We followed that up with that shift. We ended up scoring the goal. I mean, I got to believe they'll be together at least tomorrow. Beyond that, I don't know what's going to happen.
Q. When a team like the Blackhawks makes it clear they want to establish more of a net front presence in Game 2 than Game 1, do you coach to respond that way or do you tell your guys to do what they've been doing? How do you handle that battle of wills?
COACH BOUDREAU: I thought they were pretty good at net play -- if it wasn't for Freddie... They were surrounding is pretty good. They attacked the net as well as any team in the league.
But, you know, it's something that we have to acknowledge and we have to get better at. I mean, we weren't very good in our net play. We've got to get better at it because, I mean, we gave up way too many opportunities in the blue paint. If you watched practice, we were working on it a little bit out there today.
Q. Coach, I didn't see Kesler today in practice. Anything going on there or just a maintenance day?
COACH BOUDREAU: Just the old maintenance day.
Q. Bruce, the fourth line, Emerson, he was disappointed in his Game 3 in Calgary. How important was it for him to come back and have a good playoff game?
COACH BOUDREAU: I think for him mentally it was good. I asked him before the series started, I said, “You refocused, ready to get back in?” He said yes. He went through all his things that he thought he didn't do very well. I thought his skating, size, physical strength yesterday was a difference.
Q. Coach, Cam and Corey were talking about if the Hawks are going to play their top four defensemen as much as they did in the first game, you want to make them pay. Do you agree with that? How tough is it to play a team like yours 28 minutes for the top defensemen?
COACH BOUDREAU: Well, it's tough to play any team if you're going to finish and have 45 to 50 hits a night. You know, I mean, it's not just those top four defensemen, it's whoever we play. That's our goal, is to finish checks, finish checks, make it tough on them.
Whether it's Duncan Keith or Hjalmarsson or any of them, I mean, it doesn't matter. Whoever's back there, it's our job to make it tough for them to get into the play. So we're going to do what we do.
Q. Bruce, when Freddie says yesterday after the game that they know they can beat Chicago, how much do you like hearing that? How much confidence from those guys in the locker room stems down from you?
COACH BOUDREAU: Well, I think you have to believe you can do the job before you do the job or you're not going to accomplish it.
When Freddie says he believes it, what do you expect him to say? “I don't know, I think they're too good, we're not going to win.” I don't think that's going to elicit a lot of confidence in the teammates in front of him. So he says that.
I'm sure he believes it because we believe. Like I say, we have to believe things before they happen. If you don't believe you're going to succeed, when do you succeed? We try to be positive in the room, show an awful lot of good things as well as the bad things.
My job is to make them believe they're capable of beating anybody.
Thank you.
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