Consistent message but different strategy for Bruins entering Game 7

Julien/By S. Bradley

VANCOUVER — Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, which will be played here at Rogers Arena tomorrow night, is not time for radical changes from what the Bruins have done most of the season to get this close to ultimate glory.

But that doesn’t mean there can’t be some alterations.

In this series so far, the home team has won every game. That means the Bruins are 0-3 in games played on the Canucks’ home ice. Head coach Claude Julien isn’t afraid to admit his team needs to do things differently in the last game of this series to expect a different result in the opposing building.

“I think we need to alter our game here, that’s what needs to be altered,” said Julien after his team skated off the six-hour flight today. “We’ve already started talking about what we need to do as soon as the game [Monday] was done. I think it was important to set the tone and the stage for Game 7, so we started doing that.

“We’ve talked about it and our guys realize what they didn’t do here well enough and what needs to be done and we’re going to be ready to put that on the ice tomorrow.”

As for the team’s attitude and composure when the puck drops on the biggest game of their lives tomorrow, Julien takes responsibility for what you’re going to see shortly after 8 p.m.

“I think it starts from the coach, starts from the coaches, and comes from upper management. Our general manager said the same thing all along, we’ve taken that approach to come in and make sure that there is an atmosphere in the dressing room of a variety of things: commitment, obviously there is also the focus, there is everything that needs to be done in a game, but there is also a good air in the dressing room that makes the guys enjoy being with each other and enjoying the moment,” said the coach.

“We just try to create that situation, and as you can see, everybody is in there with a smile. It doesn’t guarantee anything tomorrow, but the thing that we’re going to do is do the best we can so that we can have those permanent smiles on our faces.”