Here are some post-game reactions following the Boston Bruins 8-1 shellacking of the Vancouver Canucks in Game 3 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals Monday night in Boston.
Boston coach Claude Julien
Q. Before the series you heard a lot about how good the Canucks were. You go to Vancouver and lose two games after playing relatively strong. How nice is it to beat this team the way you did?
COACH JULIEN: Well, what I can say to you in the playoffs, we’ve mentioned that throughout the whole playoffs since day one, whether you lose a game in overtime or you lose a game 10-0, it’s only a loss, in the loss column. So we won by a big score tonight, but it’s only a win, and we’re still down 2-1. That’s the way I’ve approached it. That’s the way I’ve seen it.
What’s maybe encouraging is we had our issues on scoring on Luongo. And tonight we managed to find a way to score a lot of goals on him. Certainly good confidence-wise, but I don’t think it’s any reason for us to think that all of a sudden things have turned around.
We expect a tough game next game. I’m sure they’re going to want to rebound back the way we did from those two tough losses.
Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault
Q. Given what was at stake today, the opportunity to go up 3-0 in the Stanley Cup, were you surprised at the way your team played tonight?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, I really liked our first period. Obviously we had to kill off a five-minute penalty. We did a pretty good job. We had a couple of great scoring chances that, you know, I thought their goaltender made some real good saves on.
Then the game, you know, shifted in the second. On the first play or the first period we were in the draw, Alex breaks a stick, the puck seems to have eyes and finds the back of the net. Then we lost a little bit of momentum. We on their power-play, we put the puck in our own net. Then they scored on our power-play.
Obviously they took the momentum in the second and they kept it.
Q. What was your opinion of Rome’s hit on Horton?
COACH VIGNEAULT: You know, obviously you never want to see any player leave in that situation. I think our whole team and myself and the whole organization hopes that he’s all right.
The hit obviously seemed to be a little bit late, so…
He got five minutes for interference and was kicked out of the game.
Q. The hit on Horton is one of the types of hits they’ve been trying to outlaw a bit. If there is a suspension of Rome, will you have a major issue with that?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Well, we’ll let the League deal with that.
I mean, that hit was head-on hit, player looking at his pass. It was a little bit late. I don’t think that’s the hit that the League is trying to take out of the game. This is a physical game, you have big guys. Fraction of a second to decide what’s happening out there.
It’s very unfortunate. Again, like I said, you never want to see that. But this is a physical game.
Tim Thomas, Boston goaltender
Q. The series is now 2-1. Do you feel like you’re right back in it?
TIM THOMAS: We’re more back in it than we were before the game tonight (smiling). I didn’t even mean that to be funny.
No. I mean, it’s baby steps. We needed to win this game to start turning some momentum, you know, to start to get us back in this series. We’re still down 2-1 in this series. I wouldn’t consider that right back in the series, but I wouldn’t consider us out of the series now either.
Next game is another important game. We need to approach it the same way that we did the game tonight, have the same effort from all 20 players. If we win next game, then I’d be comfortable saying we’re right back in it.