Music: {allcanada} Therrien responds to Bruins' comments on Price, refs

Monday, May 5, 2014

{allcanada} Therrien responds to Bruins' comments on Price, refs

BROSSARD, Quebec -- Montreal Canadiens coach Michel Therrien was not the least bit surprised Monday to hear a few Boston Bruins had said they felt they found a weakness in goaltender Carey Price's game.

The best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round series between the Canadiens and Bruins is tied 1-1, with Game 3 on Tuesday at Bell Centre (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS).

Bruins defensemen Torey Krug and Dougie Hamilton said Sunday that the Bruins felt if they shot high on Price with traffic, they could take advantage of his tendency to crouch down in an attempt to look through screens in front of him.

When Therrien was asked about it Monday, he referenced the stories coming out of last season's Stanley Cup Final of the Bruins talking about shooting high to the glove side of Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford, whose goaltending coach at the time was Stephane Waite.

Waite is the Canadiens goaltending coach.

"We all remember last year, and Stephane Waite does remember last year more than anybody else, they made the same comment when they went to the Stanley Cup Final against the Chicago Blackhawks talking about Corey Crawford," Therrien said. "That's part of the way that they're thinking; they try to put pressure on the other team regarding the media."

Waite said when he took the job with the Canadiens that the way he built Crawford's confidence in his glove hand in that series was by showing him a series of highlights of him making glove saves. Once they were through watching the video, Waite asked Crawford if he still felt he had a problem with his glove hand.

The answer was no, and the Blackhawks went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Curiously, Price said it was Waite who informed him of the Bruins' comments when he arrived for practice Monday.

Price wasn't very impressed.

"I've seen a lot of scouting reports on lots of goalies throughout the League, and that's pretty much the scouting report on everybody," Price said. "So it's the same for Tuukka [Rask], it's the same for me, it's the same for Ben Bishop, it's the same for Corey Crawford.

"It's a pretty irrelevant comment, I thought."

Though Therrien was specifically asked about the comments on Price, he didn't stop there.

He also chose to point out Bruins coach Claude Julien complaining about the officiating following Boston's 5-3 win in Game 2 on Sunday.

"I thought they got away with a lot of things, as far as we're concerned," Therrien said. "But they try to influence referees. That's the way they are. That's not going to change. That's the way they like to do their things, but for us we're not paying attention to those things, honestly.

"We all know what they're trying to do, but it doesn't affect us at all."

Later, when asked if he would like his team to avoid masking inflammatory comments in the media, Therrien said he's not interested in talking about the Bruins.

"Whatever comments they make on us, I'm not a coach that's going to start making comments on the other team," he said. "It's never been my philosophy; I don't like that. They can say whatever they want, that's their choice, but we know what we have to do get success."

Therrien sure said a lot Monday.

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