John Tortorella only wants to talk about the Rangers. (AP)

Rangers coach John Tortorella grew up around these parts. He went to high school at Concord-Carlisle and played college hockey at Maine. Now the Rangers’ head coach is back in New England to coach against the Bruins in the Eastern Conference semifinals, so how does he –

“Don’t ask me questions about me,” Tortorella said. “Ask me about the team, please.”

And we’re off.

Tortorella is known for his unusual dealings with the media. Like Bill Belichick, he doesn’t have much interest in divulging information or patience for questions he doesn’t like, but unlike Belichick, he can be confrontational about it. That’s not a knock on him; it’s just the way he is with the media.

On Thursday, Claude Julien‘s press conference concluded with Channel 7′s Rhett Lewis asking if the Boston coach had any pointers for getting reporters to answer their questions.

“I’m sure he’s excited about answering your questions,” Juien said with a grin. “Good luck, guys!”

And then Julien, almost in drop-the-mic fashion, got up and left. Then Tortorella came in, and things weren’t so funny.

On both Wednesday and Thursday, Julien had some nice words for Tortorella, saying Thursday that even though he didn’t plan on talking to him during the series, he can appreciate him as a coach.

“I certainly respect him for what he’s done and who he is,” Julien said. “He has his own personality and I’m one of those people that respect people for who they are. I’ve had some good chats with John in the past.”

Tortorella didn’t exactly return the favor.

“I’m not going to talk about him,” he said. “I’ll talk about the Rangers.”

This series could come down to goaltending, as two of the league’s goaltenders in Henrik Lundqvist and Tuukka Rask will face one another. What does Tortorella think of Rask as a player?

“I don’t coach him,” he said. “I’ll answer questions about the Rangers.”

Tortorella was then asked about getting more zone time on the power play as the Rangers’ first-round series against the Capitals went on. The Rangers were 2-for-28 on the man advantage against the Capitals over the seven-game series.

“Eh, it still wasn’t good,” Tortorella said of the power play.

The Rangers’ coach isn’t a man of many words, but this will certainly be an interesting series with him around.

Video NSFW

Claude Julien ready to take his Bruins into battle with the Rangers. (AP)

Claude Julien isn’t apologizing for his team’s miracle in Game 7 Monday night that has them opening an Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Rangers.

He also doesn’t want his team apologizing for being there either.

“For some reason, this last series seems to have been looked upon as negative for some people,” Julien said after Thursday’s pre-game skate at TD Garden, hours before Game 1 with the Rangers.

“For us, it was a great character win, we’re looking forward to moving ahead and we’re not looking at it the way a lot of people are looking at it. It’s not a chance to redeem yourself because we’re in the second round, we don’t have to redeem ourselves for anything. What we have to do here is look forward to this series and do whatever we can to move ahead. The character win that this team showed in Game Seven should be looked upon as a positive. That’s the way I look at it.”

One thing is for certain, no one is going to feel sorry for the Bruins having three injured defenseman heading into the series. With Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg and Wade Redden all missing Thursday’s skate, it’s high likely that Dougie Hamilton, Torey Krug and Matt Bartkowski will all play in Game 1 against the Rangers Thursday night.

The one advantage of it all, though, is the fact that two of the three, Krug and Bartkowski, have played the same defensive system with AHL Providence this year.

“It helps everybody because [Providence Head Coach] Bruce Cassidy and his coaching staff seem to see the game the same way we do,” Julien said. “There’s a good connection there in the way we coach our teams, very much the same approach. I know I’ve talked to Bruce; the things we do, he does as well.

“So it’s an easy transition for the players. That’s important because coaches have their own styles and the one thing you don’t want to do is make them change where they’re comfortable to force them to do something. Sometimes that’s happens in the minors. A coach coaches a certain way, in the NHL they coach a different way. There’s transition there and you have to adapt, but we’re fortunate that both Bruce and I seem to have the same approach and same philosophies, so it makes the transitions of our players a lot easier.”

Are there similarities between the Bruins and Rangers heading into Game 1?

“I think it’s about not getting or feeling out period and just going out there and playing your game,” Julien noted. “I know we’re both gritty teams. We’ll go and grind it out. We don’t have all these so-called superstar players that can dictate the game one way or another. It’s about what we do as a group, and the same thing goes for them, I’m sure. It just makes for a good battle. The team that wins this series is the team that’s going to want to battle it out more than the other, be grittier, and get their noses dirtier than the other team. That’s what I anticipate, anyways.”

One thing Julien’s Bruins will be up against is a Rangers team that is noted for blocking shots, a mandate from their head coach John Tortorella.

“Got to find ways to get pucks to the net. Just got to keep your head up when you’re shooting,” Julien said. “They’re going to block shots no matter what. We just got to do the best we can do get them on net. When they don’t, well, they can block them and what can I do? As a team, you’re going to get some shots blocked because they like doing it. We’re just going to do our best to get them through and make sure they get to the net, and hopefully get some net-front traffic. That’s going to make things a little tougher for their goaltender, that’s not a secret.”

Chris Kelly

You can call what happened in the third period and overtime of Game 7 against the Maple Leafs a lot of things. To some, it was one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the game. To others (including yours truly), it was a monumental collapse from a team that, after storming back from a 3-1 deficit, somehow forgot that desperation works both ways.

For Chris Kelly, it was a case of a team making the best of a bad situation. While he is proud of what the B’s were able to do in the final 20 minutes of the series against the Maple Leafs, he looks at the overall product in Game 7 and sees a lot the Bruins need to fix.

As such, he hopes that the B’s don’t feel too good after advancing past the Leafs. Asked about a potential letdown in Game 1 against the Rangers after Monday’s emotional win, Kelly put things in perspective.

“There had better not be,” Kelly said. “All we did was give ourselves a chance to play in the second round. We put ourselves in that situation being down 4-1. Yeah, it was a great comeback, but — and it’s a big ‘but’ — we put ourselves in that situation in order to comeback and win.”

The Rangers are coming off a seven-game series of their own after coming back from a 3-2 series deficit to eliminate the Rangers in the first round.

Following the Bruins’ morning skate, coach Claude Julien said that Brad Marchand will be alright to play in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Rangers after leaving the skate early with an apparent injury.

Marchand walked through the Bruins’ dressing room following morning skate and seemed to be in good spirits. He was not limping or noticeably encumbered, though he declined to talk to the media.

“He’ll be fine,” Julien said of Marchand. “He’ll be there tonight.”

As for the trio of missing defensemen in Dennis Seidenberg, Wade Redden and Andrew Ference, Julien offered no update but said simply, “doesn’t look good.”