Julien upbeat before Game 2

Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien was in an upbeat mood Monday morning after practice. He must have liked what he'd seen of the play of his new lines, adjusted in the wake of Marco Sturm's season-ending surgery.

Q: Game 1 was exciting for the fans, with nine goals and lots of end-to-end action. Is that the kind of game you want your team to play or do want a tighter, defensive game?

Julien: As long as we win, I'm okay with that. No, it's just one of those situations. It is what it is and it's been back and forth. We were down by a couple of goals in the other series and we climbed back into it. It's playoff hockey. I think if we're going to sell this game and sell it right, you got to make it exciting. Doesn't mean that you have to be sloppy or not good in your system, but at the same time, everybody's put it up a notch for the playoffs and it's made for some great comebacks and great games and close games at times, so again, we're here because we're playing well enough and we just got to continue doing that.

Q: What makes the pairing of center David Krejci and right wing Miroslav Satan successful?

Julien: For me, as long as they do well, and they've done well, that's all that matters. They seem to read off each other well. I think that's the thing that I see from Krejci and Satan, and they seem to enjoy playing together and as long as they're giving us results, you keep them together and when they don't, then you'll make that change. You know, [Milan] Lucic has come on that line and he's created some room and he's picked up some like on that line as well. It's been a pretty good line for us, so hopefully that keeps going.

Q: It doesn't seem like home-ice advantage is much of a factor in the playoffs this year. Why is that?
 
Julien: I don't know. Every year it's the same thing. I mean, right now we're standing here 4-0 so it has been a factor for us. We stole a game in Buffalo and made sure that we won our home games, but having said that, you got to be prepared for all kinds of scenarios. When you're at this stage and you got good teams left in the playoffs, those teams, you obviously have opportunities to win at home as well as on the road, so I don't know how much it's an advantage now. Every team likes to have it, but I think when you look around and see a lot of teams winning on the road, I know we are not intimidated going on the road. We don't fear that and I am sure a lot of teams are thinking the same way.