Game 5 postgame quotes: Michel Therrien

Q.  Talk to us about what your team showed us and you tonight?

COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: They didn't have to show me. I know my team. I know the character of those guys. And we're well prepared. We had a really good start.

We're following our structure. Obviously they really picked up a notch in the third period and ended up scoring the goal when we pulled the goalie. And after that both teams left everything on the ice. And we scored a power play goal.

But you see guys like Ryan Malone receive a shot in the face and come back. And it's pretty amazing, the price and the sacrifice that a lot of those guys have to pay.

Q.  This is a game that was televised across the United States, when people tuned into the local news at 11:00, they were watching this game. Instead of watching Jay Leno, they were watching this game. How much does a game like this help market the game of hockey in the United States?

COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: (Smiling). That was probably one of the best games for a long time. And it's fun. Besides the two first games, I think we saw some quality hockey from both teams. And both teams played really hard and we got a big win here. I think for a young team, we have to be excited about that. But in the meantime, we know that there's still a lot of hockey to be played.

Q.  Couldn't help noticing that for the first time in this series, and maybe for one of the very few times in the playoffs, you ended up with a five-man unit: [Petr] Sykora, [Evgeni] Malkin, Malone and [Sergei] Gonchar and [Ryan] Whitney, on the power play. Also, if you could comment on that and also the fact that Gonchar seemed to be taking his first shift, if we're not mistaken, of the overtime?

COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: He was not ready to play. They worked on it during the third period and the overtime and they came up to us that he was not 100 percent. But we asked if he was okay to play for the power play, and certainly make a big difference. We decided to go because the power play was not clicking really well, we decided to go with two units. Things that we've been working all season long with so many players during the course of the season.

With four minutes, he can't think only about 30 seconds or one minute, I think, it was the decision that we took behind the bench to go for two units. Even if we were not scoring our first unit, we still could be dangerous out there.

Q.  How did you decide on [Maxime] Talbot to be the extra attack when you pulled Marc-Andre [Fleury]?

COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: It's a feeling. Coaches got feelings sometimes. It's rare -- it doesn't work all the time, but I love Talbot's game. He was on the puck. He's got a lot of energy. And one thing you know, you want to put the puck at the net, and he was always around the net. And honestly it was more of a feeling than anything.

Q.  There have been so many questions -- who questioned Marc-Andre Fleury and his ability to win a game. That's been addressed?

COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: That's going to be huge for him. He was outstanding tonight. He was outstanding in overtime, and both goalies obviously played really well. But no doubt Fleury, probably his most important win in his career.