We’ve got some of the highlights of Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer’s press conference following game three of the Stanley Cup Final. He had nice things to say about Joonas Donskoi, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun while crediting the Sharks’ “next man up” mentality.
On Joonas Donskoi
“I met Joonas at our development camp last July, I had heard about his season in Finland and our guys, everyone felt he had a chance to play down the road. I think we foresaw him starting in the American league. He was our best player in development camp, we went on to the main camp and he was the best player in the main camp, exhibitions he just kept jumping over hurdles. He’s the real deal, he’s a real good player for us and we wouldn’t be here without him.
On Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun:
Vlasic and Braun, you’ve got to mention Braun when you mention Vlasic, both ends of the rink. Braunie got a goal, defending, playing big minutes, they were fantastic.
On the four minute power play
Huge, you know. That was our opportunity, the door kind of opened up there…we haven’t had a lot of power plays and we got one and we needed to cash in there. I called the timeout, just trying to keep our first unit out and it’s kind of been the history of our group that the second unit has come up big at different points for us and that’s what happened, they hopped for the last 10 seconds and uh Wardo has been a big game player for us all year and that’s a big goal.
On the Penguins’ chip play
Well I mean that’s a big part of their game, they chip to speed I think you know and some of the icing calls probably helped them, because they, the ones that got waived off allowed them to continue on their momentum., I thought there were a couple questionable ones there, but other than that I think that’s their game and we’re aware of it and you have to respect their speed, it’s a huge part of their game.
On the Sharks stepping up in the absence of Tomas Hertl
Well it’s big to get a win whether he’s out or in, we needed to win this game tonight. Our group all year has been next guy jump in and we wouldn’t have made the playoffs if we didn’t have that attitude. Logan Couture missed have the season and we had guys to step in and fill those holes to keep our head above water. That’s been our mindset all year and it’s just next man up and guys got the job done.
On the fans at SAP Center
It was electric. It was amazing to stand back there and you could tell that these people had been waiting a long time and I think the guys really wanted to play hard for them. I think we were a little jittery early probably because of that but I thought when we settled in they were a big help for us. IT was a grind of a game out there, they were playing hard because they knew they would’ve put us in a deep deep hole tonight had they won so our desperation level was as high as it could be so the fans were a big help for us tonight.
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