From TSN.ca Staff,
Pittsburgh centre Maxime Talbot will be in tonight's lineup when the Penguins face the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Fourth line centre Adam Hall is expected to come out in place of Talbot.
Sidelined with a broken foot since Game 3 of the second round against the Rangers, Talbot skated on Saturday for the first time since the injury.
The Lemoyne, Quebec, resident has one goal and one assist with a plus- 1 rating in these playoffs.
Article: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=237368&lid=sublink02&lpos=topRelated_main
ESPNRadio 1250 has confirmed that Talbot will play tonight but MT hasn't disclosed who will sit. According to TSN.ca, Adam Hall will sit but I can't confirm this report.
Q&A w/ MT - KuklasKorner.com
Michel Therrien
Q. You guys have been to be able hold home ice through these first two games. How is your team’s approach going into Game 2? Have you been aware of just that, the opportunity to preserve that home ice?
COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: When you get home ice, there’s no doubt the second game is always crucial. All the teams want to try to win at least one game, when you are on the road. But for us, you know, it’s a crucial game. Every game we go through the series, the next one is always the biggest one, so that’s their approach. We don’t look too far ahead. We look one game at a time, and the second game you always try to bring a bit more of yourself, because the first game it was a good game, we got a good result, we expect the Flyers to be better tonight, and we expect from ourself to be better as well. And we always respond really well in the second game.
Q. What the decision on Max Talbot tonight?
COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: He’s going to play.
Q. What changes will there be then?
COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: We’ll see. He’s a popular guy, eh? (Laughs).
Q. What are some of the ingredients to your success at home, do you think, the way you have been able to run the table at home?
COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: Well, as we all know we got a lot of success at home in the playoff, but I will say in the second half of the season, we have been a dominating team here. We capable of making the match up that we’re looking for. I think that’s a big help. We feed from the crowd. This is a young team, whose focus is there. But when you have the emotion that you need to be had, we’re on top of our game. As we all know, every detail, every emotion it’s really crucial when you get to the playoffs, but one of the things is to get the match up that we’re looking for that always helps the home team.
Q. Has Fleury’s game been any different or a whole lot different than the regular season? Or it is a fact that maybe your skaters in front of him are doing a better job defensively?
COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: I will say it is a combination of both. First of all, Marc Andre he’s really square to the puck. The game slowed down in front of him. That’s normal. Well, he’s only 23, but he has got a few years of experience and you ask any goalie with time and experience, and the game slowed down in front of you so doesn’t have to make those big saves that when he’s out of the position. He’s more square to the puck. He’s more aware of plays going in front of him. That comes with experience. And in the meantime we’ve played a much better defensive game too as well. You put those two together, and you get result that defensively you are better.
Q. It has been six games since you moved some of the defensemen into different pairings. Your thoughts about the Letang Whitney pairing, what are they doing well? Anything they need to do better?
COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: They are pretty sharp. They move the puck really well. This is one thing. They got that the ability to see the ice and move the puck well and putting those two guys together, forces them to make sure that they are committed defensively, and that’s one of the challenge we try to bring with those two young defensemen. You got to give challenge to players, and especially at this time of year so they don’t have to rely always on their partner. And a natural thing would have split those guys up, but I want them to focus really well and playing solid defensively. And you know what, since we said made that change, they are doing a good job.
Q. You talk about matchups and there was talk when we had that 1 2 punch of Malkin and Sid, two different lines that it would be difficult for the other team to decide which pair to put out, who is the top pair on the opposition, that kind of thing. What have you noticed about which of those two players, Sid or Malkin, is getting the advantage by going against maybe the second pair as opposed to the first? Have you noticed that, the teams are trying to figure out who they should play in that situation?
COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: It’s more easier when you are at home. And obviously you can’t put those guys always against the third pairing or the second pairing. There’s time, with the rhythm of the game, they are going to have to play against their top pairing. The loss of Timonen, it’s a huge loss for them. We try to take advantage of it as most as we can. I am not concentrating too much against our forwards to play against their forwards. One of the reasons that they got three balanced lines, that they could score, they got grit, they got speed. That’s one of the reasons why we try to focus more on our defensemen, to make sure we got a lot of speed against some of the guys give us some offense.
Q. Your playoff slogan “sacrifice.” Is it something that you guys have bought into or is it just a word that’s on a T shirt?
COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: (Laughs) You always try to find that extra motivation when you start the playoffs. Like for us “sacrifice,” is we believe that was the right word and we approach it almost every day with that young group. When we talking about sacrifice, not always sacrifice on the ice, there’s sacrifice off the ice as well. You can go on, the list on and on. The players are really buying it. They are disciplined and focused on the ice and off the ice. They’ve got a goal and they want to reach that goal. And with no sacrifice, it’s tough to reach the goal. And it’s demanding at this time of the year. There’s a lot of distractions, but their focus is still there.
Article: http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey/comments/stevens_therrien_talk/
1 comment:
That worked out OK, eh.
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