Claude Julien: 'Bring It On'
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Bruins have to wait a while to begin their series with the Pittsburgh Penguins, with a trip to the Stanley Cup final on the line. Despite the long wait, and despite being the underdogs in the upcoming series, head coach Claude Julien said his team is going to be ready.
And they won't be afraid.
"Our whole team's demeanor is going to be, 'Hey, we know it's a big challenge. Bring it on,'" Julien said. "We're ready for it. We'll give it everything we have, and hopefully that'll be enough to win a series."
Julien made the statement when told of Tuukka Rask's assessment of the "favorites" and "underdogs" in the upcoming series.
"You know what? It's different when people look at it from the outside and what we feel inside the dressing room," Rask said. "We try to start every series with a clean sheet and look at it like there's no underdogs or no favorites. So it doesn't really matter to us."
The message was right on with the head coach's mind-set.
"I think he answered it right," Julien said of Rask, "because I'm one of those guys where you gotta relish the challenges. You can't fear them. Bring it on – and that's what he's telling you right now is, 'Bring it on. I'm ready for it.'"
"It," in this case, is the offensive firepower of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who scored 13 goals in the final two games of their series against the Ottawa Senators. In their 11 postseason games, they've averaged 4.3 goals per game and have been held to two or fewer goals just once.
So while the Bruins may not be afraid of what is to come, they're certainly aware of it.
"No doubt, they're a great hockey club. In my mind, they're almost like the Miami Heat of the NHL with all the star power they got," Milan Lucic said after the Bruins finished off the Rangers. "Probably the two best players in the world [Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin] and a 40-goal scorer and the former 50-goal scorer, a future Hall of Famer [Jarome Iginla] and a Norris Trophy candidate [Kris Letang] on their team. So, they definitely have a lot of weapons and in saying all that, I think what makes them successful is they play real well as a team and I think that's what you're going to probably see going into this next series, is two well-rounded teams going at it and for us we've got to be ready and excited for the challenge."
