Lou Lamoriello joined TSN Overdrive Tuesday evening to discuss his team’s upcoming playoff series against the Washington Capitals.
We were talking about playoff boards, and just the idea that Mitch Marner can grow a playoff beard. How many of your guys do you think can actually do it?
Lamoriello: We’re going to find out quick. I wouldn’t even want to venture to answer that. The most important thing is the playoffs right now and not what the beards look like.
Not too many people out there are picking your side to win this series. Do you enjoy that? Do you like that? Do you relish being such a big underdog?
Lamoriello: I don’t know if you relish it, but it is what it is. I understand why. There is every right for someone to feel that way, whether it’s the media or the fans, but what we have to do is not think or worry about that. History shows that it really means nothing. It’s how you play, who’s ready, and how quickly you get control of the style with the assets that you have. I’ve been there before, where I’ve had teams that were underdogs without question. In ’95 versus Detroit, it was supposed to be four the one way and it went four the other way. You never know in this game. The most important thing is you can’t get wrapped up in any of that. You’ve got to stay focused on what has to be done and let the end result take care of itself.
Has there been a time in the last couple of days that you’ve tried to share some of that experience with the guys who are going to go at this for the first time?
Lamoriello: First of all, whether it be Brendan or Mike or myself, between the three of us there is a tremendous amount of experience in all of these situations that have happened. You have to be careful with how you handle that. What I am impressed by with this group that we have here — although you can tag the word inexperience to them – they’ve accepted any challenge given to them. They’ve been able to respond to obstacles that got in the way. They’ve recovered from situations that you wondered whether they could. Right now, all you can do with experience is guide them, allow them to be themselves, and allow them to respect what they’ve done and feel good about what they’ve done, and just continue to do that. You can’t give too much, and yet you can’t give too little. You’ve got to allow them to keep going.
As a team, what do you have to achieve? Is there one primary focus that you have in mind that you believe your team has got to get or has got to achieve in this series in order to win it?
Lamoriello: First of all, you don’t think about winning it. You think about each individual shift. What each player has to realize is the regular season is over. In other words, it’s like going to training camp. It’s a new slate right now. Each and every one of them has a role. Accept that role — accept it collectively — and allow the end result to take care of itself, but realize that every shift you take, every turnover, every completed pass, every box out, every check is important. Each and every one of them could be the game. That focus has to be there. Just worry about the responsibilities you have. When you say, “is there one thing you need to get done?” You just need to play right.
How confident are you in having a full, healthy lineup for game one with the injury situations to Frederik Andersen, Nikita Zaitsev, and Roman Polak?
Lamoriello: We certainly look forward to that. We’ll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings. Freddy practiced today and there is no question he should be ready. Tyler had sort of a maintenance day. We’ll just see where Polie and Zaitsev are. We’re hopeful, but we’ll just [play it by ear]. You can’t allow anything to get in the way. You can’t get upset about anything. This is all part of the game. You can’t let it distract you. If they’re ready, that’s great. If they’re not, someone else will be.
You’ve been remarkably healthy this season on the whole. Have you ever experienced a season like this, where you were this healthy from start to finish?
Lamoriello: No, I don’t think so. When you have some depth, sometimes that doesn’t get in the way. Sometimes when you’ve had certain injuries during the year, the right people get rested indirectly. I never look at it like that. Here we are today. You shouldn’t waste any time or any energy on what you don’t control. We’ll find out tomorrow. Certainly, we’ll go in with the best lineup we can, the healthiest lineup. We’ll just get everyone focused to do what they have to do.
In terms of evaluating your players in the playoffs, how much value will you place in their performance in terms of believing in them long-term, in terms of building this team? How much value, as a GM with the long-term vision in mind, comes with this kind of playoff experience and this kind of data you’re going to have in front of you?
Lamoriello: It’s invaluable. The playoffs are different. Everyone raises themselves to a different level. Whether you had a team that is experienced or has been there before, you always go in with some anticipation of, “do they think they’re okay? Do they think it’s going to be easy? Do they think it’s going to be difficult? What are they worried about?” I think what we’ll find out is just how our players are thinking. We know what they’re capable of doing. We know what we expect. Hopefully we’ll feel good about that throughout the playoffs, but there are unknowns. That’s obvious, both with some veterans as well as younger players. The most important thing is we’ve given ourselves an opportunity to be here. These players deserve to be here. The coaching staff has done a tremendous job – Mike and his group – getting them ready, taking it one game at a time, not letting anyone get ahead of themselves, staying with the plan as far as giving the experience and making sure not to take away the ice time that was needed for players to gain experience and to be better. All of that has stayed the same. The answer to your question is simplistic: It’s invaluable. We’ll find out a lot.
With that being the case – what you just said about using this season as an opportunity to gain experience – how does that apply to the playoffs, where I would think your head coach is thinking, “all I want to do is win”? If that means that maybe Matthews doesn’t play as much or Nylander or Brown, or whoever, do you approach it as if it’s, “hey, we’re all in this together, we’re all vets, and it’s only about winning the series?” Or do you approach this in the big picture, thinking, “We want our younger guys to gain experience, so maybe we’ll play them in situations where normally we wouldn’t”?
Lamoriello: Once you get in the playoffs, you play to win. Any thinking otherwise, we’re not giving the right message.
