There is not a single good team that does that. You have dips in play throughout a season, but they are not big. Guys can go through slumps of not scoring, but you can’t go through slumps of not skating, moving your feet or competing. Those are the most important parts of any good team. 

If you look across the league, any team that has been consistently good for the last few years they all have a consistent compete level, a real desire to defend and get the puck back. 

Those little things aren’t the highlights of the night, but they are the foundation of the game. The good teams have a consistent dedication to those details. 

There were a lot of strides in the right direction towards that throughout the season, and that’s why this game was so disappointing to see such a huge step back in the second period from all those positives that we’ve been hanging our hat on despite the losses. 

It’s not some magical recipe to win. When I started in Boston, no one those guys had a lot of playoff experience. It is a team sport where it really depends on an individual’s desire to want to do the little details of the game all the time, not just eight out of ten times. It is everybody doing their part to concentrate on those details. 

Those good teams don’t automatically get to win the next year because they’ve done it before. They continually harp on those tiny, little details that will never get the credit with fans or the highlights, but those details win games. 

Winning teams are full of players that really understand the importance of those small details. It’s not a secret. Our guys have taken steps in the right direction, but you can’t do it for one period and then let it slide in the second period or even shift to shift. 

It can’t be acceptable in the room, but most importantly it can’t be acceptable to the player himself. It is a very philosophical thing. You want to have a room full of guys that aren’t doing those little details because the coach tells them to. They are doing it because they want to, and they know that it helps everybody. 

Everybody can learn. That is the one thing everyone can do, but it takes a lot of commitment. 

It is not about one guy taking the team by the horns. It has to be everybody. You can’t rely on one person to grab the team and make an unbelievable play. The game isn’t won like that. 

The game is won by a team full of no passengers with every single guy wanting to be that difference maker, to turn the tide. That is the only way to win, it doesn’t work with just one guy leading.