MTL@PHI Quotes of the day: Julien

TORONTO -- With Game 1 of the Canadiens best-of-seven First Round series set to take place in the evening, head coach Claude Julien fielded questions from the media via Zoom from the bubble in Toronto on Wednesday morning.

On Jake Evans' recovery progress:

"He's skating right now."

On gaining confidence from beating the Penguins:

"I would say the confidence was there from the start. We really believed we were able to skate with the Penguins. We respected them, but not to the point where we were afraid of losing. It's the same thing with Philadelphia: they're the team that's impressed me the most since we got here. They have a lot of stability across all positions. It's another big challenge for us."

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On what improvements Julien saw in Jesperi Kotkaniemi's development at July's training camp:

"He was skating better right from the get-go. He had knee surgery over the course of last summer, and he came to camp and didn't quite have that step. When you're behind the eight-ball, it's hard to catch up and he never really had a great chance to catch up. This four-month break benefitted certain players, and he's one of those guys who benefitted from it."

On the similarities between Brendan Gallagher and Travis Konecny:

"They're the same kind of player. Lots of energy; he's a guy who competes hard every game. There's a similarity. I don't know if it's a comparison, but there's a resemblance."

On the biggest challenge the Habs face from the Flyers:

"They're just a good team overall. I can't say it enough times: to me, they've been the most balanced team I've seen since we got here for these playoffs. Just watching them play, they're playing with lots of confidence, they seem to be pretty solid in all areas. We're just going to have to play hard like we did against Pittsburgh, and that's how we intend to approach this series."