NHL Peachy: 2015 Eastern Conference Finals Pre-Game 7 Transcript - (TBL - Coach Cooper) Our Coverage Sponsored by Maine Woolens
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An interview with:
COACH COOPER
Q. Coach, you said to ask you again this morning about the flu or whatever was going through your room. How do the guys seem like they're feeling today?
COACH COOPER: Oh, no, we're good, all good today.
Q. How would you rate the mood of the club?
COACH COOPER: I don't know. Pretty excited. I don't know if there are more exciting two words put together than Game 7. So our group is - I don't know. I like our vibe.
Q. This might be a difficult question because it is a Game 7, but do you think with the age of the roster and almost the whole team coming back next year that we should be used to seeing the Tampa Bay Lightning year after year after this?
COACH COOPER: Yeah, that's a tough question to ask right now. Our year is far from over.
Q. Talk about not having home ice or last change, how's that going to affect you?
COACH COOPER: Well, if you've watched the series, what is the record of the road team in this series? 4-2. So last changes really worked out for both coaches.
Q. Not sure if you were a litigator?
COACH COOPER: Litigator, four syllables (laughing).
Q. Going into this game, big speech, little speech? This is obviously a different game. We can say it's not, but it's a different game. But heading into it, what do you expect?
COACH COOPER: So my experience in Game 7s in the National Hockey League has been one, and that was Detroit, and the game kind of played out the way we thought. We wrote up on the board 1-0. You have to win the Game 1-0. It ended up being 2-0. I just - it was one of those, it was both teams kind of felt each other out.
I know we moved on, but Detroit, they were leaning on us a little bit, we didn't break, and then we got the big goal. Once we got that goal, it was just a huge momentum shift. It was a weight off our shoulders, and we kind of rolled after that.
I have no idea how tonight's game is going to go. I don't know. I'll be shocked if we're going to see 7-3, 6-5. Just my feeling is when you get down to these late games where everything's on the line, I think the game sometimes stops being played - I don't want to say - obviously, both teams are trying to win the game, but both teams seem to play not to screw something up and they wait for the other team to make the mistake.
That's how I've viewed - in the limited games I've been to that were elimination games where both teams it's on the line, that's how I viewed the games.
Q. It seems every game in this series, the team that's played better through the middle of the ice has had the advantage. There have been times you haven't been able to score on Lundqvist, but overall why do you think that is? Does it have to do with the speed on both sides?
COACH COOPER: Well, it depends on which way you're looking at it, if you're looking at it from the point of one team is, I guess, defensively playing better or sitting back.
The one thing I find is the games change for us when we turn it over. I look back at these games where the Rangers have lit us up. It wasn't a situation where oh, the Rangers did something unbelievable that we couldn't stop. We just fed their transition. Then when the scramble's on, their instincts take over and good players make great plays. I mean, that's what they do. But it was our inability to get through the neutral zone or turn pucks over or not get them deep that fed the Rangers, that fed us, and that's what happens.
So I don't know if that answers your question. But if we don't get through the neutral zone or we start turning the pucks over, it's going to be a long night. The games we've had success, we got right through them, the pucks went deep, and we went right to work on the forecheck. And the Rangers couldn't sustain any attack against us because we didn't give them the scramble plays where they could just instinctively go.
So we have to - that will be the key to our game. We've got to get through and turn this into a 200-foot game.
Q. A lot of people framing the narrative, the Rangers numbers in Game 7, Lundqvist, everything backs up one way. Your group, whether it's the defiance of youth or brashness of youth, do you get that sense from your group that this is exactly what they want, this kind of opportunity?
COACH COOPER: I think - that's why I love this group because they just find a way to game it out. Other games where you're just pulling your hair out thinking I can't believe this is going on, but it's kind of our youthful exuberance.
But in saying that, I respect what the Rangers have done in their elimination games, or whatever you call them, over the last few years. Well, I think I said this the other day, against us in this place, we're 0-0. But if you go through ?- I mean, I know a lot of it has been centered on the Rangers, but go through a few of our players and add up their Game 7 numbers, which I'm sure a lot of guys will do after this press conference ends, you might be fairly impressed.
Has Anton Stralman ever lost a Game 7? Has Matt Carle? Keep going down the list.
Q. Alain Vigneault talked about making sure that each of his players know that this is just another game. You obviously talked about your lack of experience in Game 7s. How do you portray that to your guys that this is just another game?
COACH COOPER: I don't know. I don't think it's just another game. This is Game 7. You win this game and you're going to go play for the Stanley Cup, so I'm not going to sit here and hide this from our guys saying oh, fellas, this is one of 103 or 104 or whatever we're playing.
Our attitude is we've actually been here before in these playoffs, and we went through Game 6 on the road in Detroit, and played arguably our best game of the playoffs in that game. We were in Game 7 at home, back against the wall. We were in Game 6 against Montreal when we'd given up two games and pressure shifted to us to take them out before we go back up there.
That's how we look at this is we've been through these in this last month and a half, and, yes, the light's shining a little brighter on this game, there is no question. But I know, I guess, if you're talking lack of experience over years as a group, no question. But we've had a lot of guys that have played Game 7s and been in these situations, and we've been in this playoffs just recently.
So I don't want to hide behind the clichés of it's just another game. This is an unreal game to be a part of. You sit back and think - I said this last night, guys don't dream of scoring the winning goal in Game 1. You dream of scoring the winning goal in Game 7, and this is Game 7. I don't know. We're excited to play this game.
Q. As you go through a deep playoff run, you have young guys like Jon Drouin, Vlad Namestnikov, even a guy like (Indiscernible) and Luke Witkowski, just around this sort of atmosphere. What can they gain just by kind of being around it and sensing it and seeing everything that takes place?
COACH COOPER: Well, I'll be honest, I'm going to throw myself in that mix a little bit because I was around, and I was a Black Ace in 2011, and I got to watch their run to the Conference Final, and it was a phenomenal experience for me. I remember every practice game, pregame, everything that went on.
I look back then or now about what happened back then, and I've learned from that of what it was like, what the media was like, what this was like, and the game atmosphere, and how you had to handle situations, and I'm sure it's the same for them.
The experience is unbelievable to be able to be a part of this, because you're hoping one day they're going to be a part of this and say, okay, I've been here before. I may not have been on the ice, but I know what to expect. I've learned from it, and it's helped me to get to where we are now.
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