On his impression of the Penguins after last night’s offensive outburst:
Build a fence tomorrow. They’re playing well. They have the ability to do that.
On how the Penguins have evolved under their new staff and system:
They’re using guys a little differently, that’s for sure. That’s the biggest thing. I mean, we don’t see them that [much]. If you don’t watch somebody live, you’re not an expert. [Reporter: Who watches the games for you? Who’s your pre-scout? Do you have a guy you send on the road? Like, was there somebody here last night?] No. Probably not, no. But, I mean our pro scouts – as coaches, we don’t send them out to do that. They’re more scouting for management.
On Anze Kopitar not having missed many games in his career:
He and I were talking today, and I thought we hadn’t missed one together, but we had, actually. The first game after the lockout he hurt his knee back home, and he didn’t play ‘til Game 2 after the lockout. He missed the opener when we raised the first banner, he missed that game. So I had forgotten about that. Him and Voynov both. Voynov had never missed a game other than after they called him up when I came here. He had never missed a game, and then Kopi. That was the first one. [Reporter: It was just that one. Didn’t he come back against Colorado the next-] He came in in Colorado, yeah. He reminded me of that, and I couldn’t remember it.
On whether the players are excited to face Pittsburgh, given the “aura” of the team:
No, we don’t have that sort of a deal with our team. We’ll play tomorrow, and then forget about it. That’s the way we go about it. There are no ups and downs with our team. We’ve learned to really keep it right there. We know who our opponent is and we’ll respect our opponent, and we’ll try and beat our opponent. We know that we’re not going to beat ourselves.
On whether there exists a trend in the league that teams are erasing deficits:
Well, we’re only eight-to-10 games in, so to me trends are just for the insiders. Basically it’s gossip and [road apples]. Quite honest, I mean, I have to answer the question, but it’s mostly [road apples].
On whether he watches his nephew Brandon often:
Yeah, I do. I think I’ve seen Pittsburgh play four games, and Brandon’s game doesn’t change. Brandon’s a good player. It’s no different here, because you play behind Sid and Malkin…But Brandon is as good a second centerman on every team there is in the league. [Reporter: It’s interesting. His dad told us he was like a coach. We have a show called In the Room where they mic the players. You could really see with his mic, you could really get a sense of how much he’s actually helping the players on the ice in practice, in games.] He’s a good player.
On whether he’ll catch up with Rob Scuderi:
Yeah, it’ll be good to hopefully touch base with him at some point in the next day or two here. He’ll probably poke in there. [Reporter: Best guy to coach, one of those guys?] No maintenance. You know what you’re getting out of him every day. Same thing. He comes to work, knows the game. He’s an extension of the coaching staff.
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