Boucher happy with win, but not content

Q: Guy, first of all, in the Washington series, the word 'frustration' came up a lot, that you frustrated the other team.  Did you sense that you were doing that tonight?

BOUCHER: We only focus on our emotions, not the other team's emotions.

We were really calm and we stayed calm.

Q: Talk a little bit about taking a 3-0 lead so quick so early, the balance you have to strike in terms of wanting to protect that lead, but at the same time still be aggressive and make plays?

BOUCHER: Are you saying we were or weren't?

Q: You were.

BOUCHER: We were.

Yeah, I think that's the trademark of our team:  we keep pushing.  I think Tim Thomas made some really, really solid saves when we basically had our hands up at the bench thinking that was a sure goal.

We pushed.  But, you know, he kept us back in the second period, beginning of the third period.

No, we're not a team that is waiting to win games.  We like to push to win games.  Obviously, when it's time to play defense, it's time to play defense when we don't have the puck.  When we have the puck, we keep pushing.

Q: Guy, were you surprised it got a little rough there at the end?  Did you like that your guys didn't get sucked into that?

BOUCHER: No, we're expecting.  We know what to expect.  We control what we control.  That's our guys to stay calm.

Q: The legend of Sean Bergenheim continues to be constructed.  What is it about him?

BOUCHER: Well, I think it's like the rest of our team:  it's not about him, it's about his line, it's about team chemistry, it's about players who have gelled.  Certainly he's having success scoring goals.  If you look at how the goals are scored, Moore is always on the plays, Downie is always there, too, so there's always a beginning of a play.

A guy who finishes gets a lot of the glory most of the time.  There's a lot of steps in the process to make that happen.  For me, I don't take Bergenheim out of the mix.  He's part of the mix doing a great job.  He's one of those hustlers.  He's like that all year long.  When we had big games, he was there.  When it was physical, he was there.  I don't think he's any different than during the year.

The thing is they have a line now with Downie that clicks really well.  But Moore and Bergenheim have played most of the year together and they're like two brothers.

Q: Can you talk about the play of your penalty kill tonight.

BOUCHER: Well, I think we had a very good penalty kill all year long.  We're in top five for most of the year, got a little low at some points, then got back.  I think what we're doing is following that up in the playoffs.  We had a really good penalty kill in the first series and second series.

We got to adjust to the other team, but at the same time we have to stay confident in what we're doing.  Obviously our guys pay the price a lot, and I think that's the key to our penalty kill.

Q: Guy, wasn't long ago people were worried whether your team was mentally mature enough or tough enough mentally to compete in the playoffs.  How far has your team come?

BOUCHER: We have progressed.  We know since the beginning of the year that we had a lot of work to do, first of all, to get half the team that wasn't with us last year.  The staff is new, everybody is new.  We knew it was going to be difficult to get the team to gel.  We knew after that it was going to be a question of putting in the culture.  Then part of that is maturing from day one, which means from training camp.

Once you get to the playoffs, even if you've matured all year long, once the playoffs start, you got to figure out a whole new level of maturity for the playoffs.  That happened in the first series.  We've continued, I think.

The thing that we tend to do much better is we reload emotionally, which was harder to do during a portion of the year, especially the first portion of the year, and during the first portion of the first series.  I don't think we're any different than we were in the last series.  Our players stay calm under adversity.  I think that's a mark of maturity.

Having said that, every game, there's things that bother us that we need to do better.  Certainly not going to sit on it.

Q: Guy, could you talk about the fact that a lot of times playoff hockey is about doing the dirty things?

BOUCHER: Well, we knew they were going to come out charging.  That was no secret for anybody.  We knew they were going to be elevated by their crowd.  Everybody was real excited about starting this game, including ourselves.

But we know that when you start a series at home, you want to put in some drive for your fans and show that you're home.  We were expecting that.  We had a game plan for it.  I thought they played well.  But I thought we managed it okay.

It's nothing that you don't expect.  But they're a really good team.  They came out hard.  They're going to come out harder the next game.  I'm expecting Bergeron to be in the lineup.  I know Tim Thomas is going to make miracles.  I'll be shocked if he doesn't come out with his best game of the playoffs.  They got a lot of pride.  They came back in the first series from two games.  I mean, it's only one game.  We've done nothing yet.

Q: You seemed to get away from the 1-3-1.  Was that a conscious effort to catch them off guard?

BOUCHER: There's all kinds of strategies we're going to use, but certainly won't discuss it in detail right now.

As I said before the series started.  Everybody is talking about the 1-3-1.  But we've played in so many different ways.  In the playoffs, we used it, not used it.  We change our stuff from period to period, from game to game depending on the opponent.  Sometimes we use it, we use it a certain way.  Sometimes we don't use it at all.  We didn't use it as much, good observation, in the first period.  Then we used it sometimes in the rest of the game.

We hate to be predictable.  We do change things, change lines and systems.

Q: You said you expect Bergeron to come back.  Would you expect Seguin to remain with the team?  What did you think of him tonight?

BOUCHER: It's not for me to judge him.  Obviously tremendous effort on that goal.  I think it opened up a lot of people's eyes.  It didn't surprise me.  We know he's a great player.  He was drafted that high.  Everyone is expecting great things from him.  Probably expecting him to be nervous coming into that game.

But sometimes, you know, the guys who are nervous and trying, well, they're good guys - not just now but for the future.  That's what I think was projected for him.  So I don't think he disappointed anybody tonight.