On there being a collection of quality centers in tonight’s game:
We’re not worried about Crosby and Malkin. We have good centermen. We’re used to having our centermen playing well.
On whether Pittsburgh provides one of the most challenging match-ups:
I think every team in the league is trying to strengthen themselves down the middle. I thinkevery team that we’ve played has that type of player. That’s why we’re a good team. We have good centermen. I’m sure they’re talking about our centermen.
On how the team treated Wednesday:
It was all maintenance day yesterday. We didn’t get to sleep in. We came here and had a light workout, what we call the flush ride and do some treatments and get ready for today.
On what he looks at –in game with Toffoli to determine whether to give him more minutes:
I don’t look at whether he’s deserving of more minutes. I look at the whole package. We need four lines.
On what he considers a “light” workout:
A lot of times you’ll get a bike ride in after the game or a flush ride, get some of the lactic acid out, get some of the tightness out. When you’re traveling, you don’t get to do that very often. So yesterday was the first day we were able to do that.
On whether it’s a complement that Pittsburgh considers Los Angeles and Boston similar teams:
Not really. We’re not Boston. It doesn’t matter what the other team says…we concentrate on our own game.
On how many actual practices have been held in 2014:
You’ve been here, Jon, for every one of them. Enough to count. [Reporter: One or two.] I don’t know. I mean, as a team, we have top guys that haven’t literally practiced since Christmas because of the minutes they’ve played during a game. Other than the game day, or on the last trip what we did, we didn’t skate gamedays. We’re just trying to back ‘em into the gate, and let ‘em go.[Reporter: Did you see more energy out of it?] We were awesome. Heck, we were great yesterday and great today. I’ve got no problem with that.
On Dustin Brown moving to the right side:
He plays both sides. He’s done that for as long as I’ve been here. He’s quite adept at going to both sides.
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