On Boston’s penalty killing:
Penalty killing historically for the Boston Bruins has been pretty high-up, always. I think you have guys who are known to be great penalty killers, starting with the faceoffs and with Patrice, and obviously with Chara. Good penalty killing group.
On the start he’s looking for on the first game before a long trip:
We know we’ve got our hands full coming into Boston, so that’s kind of what we focus or zero in on.
On whether Milan Lucic has been the player the Kings expected:
He’s played really well for us. It’s probably the most asked question we’ve had. 50 games in, it’s probably the most asked question, right from Day 1, that has been asked. Not about anybody else other than Looch, and he’s been a really good player for us.
On how Lucic has handled the trade and his performance in a contract year:
Lots of players are in contract years. What do they say, out of 700, there are 250 that are in contract years, so it’s not unique to Looch, that’s for sure. Getting traded is not unique, changing teams is not unique. If you do it on tonight’s lineup, probably half the players have played on one or two other teams. It’s not special or unique to Looch at all. First of all, you’ve got a great person, personality-wise and care about the game-wise, respect the game-wise, so that’s what’s more important.
On whether he got what he wanted out of three full practice days:
Well, we didn’t practice on Sunday, and we were on the ice 15 minutes yesterday. I know there’s a lot made of what we were doing, but it’s pretty normal what we did.
On players getting younger across the league, and how that affects coaching:
I think the young guys are the staple that pushes teams forward, just because that’s what the salary cap was intended to do, and it’s done that through the league. If you’re an older team you have seven or eight guys in their 30’s. Where everybody is is between age 26 and 28. So if the average age is 26.3 and it’s 28, well that’s what 25 teams are. There’s nobody that’s under that. You might have one player that’s 19, but you night have one guy that’s 35, so that brings it back in. There’s no difference in the teams’ ages. If you’re saying that one team’s younger than the other, it’s like point-six years. So if I’m born in January, you’re born in December. It’s not really much difference. You just can’t be too old, and if your team’s too young, you ain’t making the playoffs. You’re still saying, ‘well, I’m a lottery team,’ or ‘we’re building.’ That seems to be one of the sexy things that everybody says. ‘We’re building.’ You want to make the playoffs. If you make the playoffs in today’s game, you have a chance to win the Cup. Done deal.
On the impact provided by Vincent Lecavalier and Luke Schenn:
I think Luke’s played really well for us, first and foremost. I mean, a lot was made of Vinny because he came in and got off to a good start and there were lots of, quite honest, people in the East that had thrown him under the bus and said he was done and those sorts of things, but he’s fit in well with our team. Luke Schenn’s been really good for our team. That’s probably our biggest addition, when you look at it.
On how special the team’s 50th anniversary is:
Well, the first 40 weren’t that productive for the organization. … Say, since they hit since probably about what, 2009, I think the last 10 years have been pretty productive for them. Everybody has a 50-year anniversary at some point.
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