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WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 2, 2016Stan BowmanPete ChiarelliTHE MODERATOR: We'll take questions at this time. Q. For both of you. Seems like there was an attempt to balance some of the older, being relative, versus some of the teenagers. How important was that in putting this team together? STAN BOWMAN: It was definitely a factor as we looked at it, for a couple reasons. Number one, we're playing against all other teams that have experienced guys, not too many young guys. We're going to be a team full of young guys. I think the other thing is looking at our group of forwards in particular, in talking to our coaching staff, you have to have some guys there who you have confidence in that can do things beyond just scoring goals. We had a lot of meetings initially. Once we brought the coaches into play, it added another level or dynamic, in a positive way. I think you talk to any coach, they realize we got lots of guys I think confident that they can score some goals, but we probably are going to take a penalty or two. As the tournament goes on, someone is going to do that. That's clearly where Couturier comes in. Sean has an important role on his team. So looking at that, that definitely played a factor. I think we have a lot of youth, obviously excitement. Going to play a high‑tempo game. But you have to balance that with some experience. We've got a few guys that bring that to the table. Q. You have a lot of high‑end talent. Do you feel you have a group that can put a bit of a scare into some of the older teams? PETER CHIARELLI: Absolutely. We've got young legs. We're going to have a little bit of an advantage just because those younger guys are usually a little more ready when you start earlier in the year. We're going to play up‑tempo. You saw a couple really nice plays last night in the Edmonton‑Buffalo game by two of our players we named today. We're going to be able to back off the D. What is important, too, in my experience at Sochi, you have to be able to do that, you have to be able to come back and make the proper play without the puck in the defensive zone and respect the system, too. Hockey sense was a big thing, too. All of our guys can skate and we're going to push the pace. Q. You're going to have lots of centermen here, young guys who maybe haven't played the wing at the NHL level at all. How big an issue is that? It's one thing teaching an older player. Is it a bigger issue to move centermen to the wing? STAN BOWMAN: I think it's a lot easier to go to the wing from center than the other way around. Like if we were short on centers, that might be more of a concern. I think that's something certainly you can learn in short order. A lot of these guys have played different positions growing up. Typically the best offensive players tend to be centermen, but that's not always the case. Sometimes they played wing and got moved to center. That's not a big concern from our perspective. I would much rather have a lot of centers than to be looking for guys who can play in the middle. It's an important position. Having multiple centers I think is a strength for the group. Q. Peter, you're far from the only one among the GMs of the various teams. You wear two hats here. Ryan Nugent‑Hopkins is one of the players left off. How do you balance the loyalty to the Oilers and your loyalty to this team? PETER CHIARELLI: That was a difficult one. Ryan is an important part of our team in Edmonton. He's been hurt. We've got a management group. There's certain assessments we have of certain players. I spoke with Ryan a week or so ago. We talked about this situation. I told him, I said, You're an important part of the Oilers, and you're going to be an important part of this team when you start playing, so just go and play and things will sort themselves out. Ryan was really good about it. He knows what he has to do. I would expect him to be part of this team at the end of the day. But he's got to come back and play, and I expect that he will. Q. Peter, you mentioned a couple minutes ago the play of Eichel and McDavid last night. Do you have a sense of how unique and special this is going to be to have those two guys on the same team for this tournament for what may be the only time ever? It so rarely happens among generational players that will go on to be rivals for a long time. PETER CHIARELLI: You're right. I probably don't fully appreciate it. I'm observant, the other GMs. Dean and Doug are jealous. They've told me such. Those two would probably be on the big teams. Two really special players. I've been fortunate to be part of Connor's rookie season. You saw a great show last night. When I spoke with Jack after the game last night, he was PO'd because they had lost. I was basically telling him, You're going to be on the squad tomorrow. I think it went in one ear and out the other, which is good, because he's a really competitive kid. Probably don't fully appreciate it. I think in 10 years we'll look back and truly appreciate it. Q. What has been the interaction for both of you with USA Hockey and Hockey Canada in terms of finding kids from two countries and feedback you're getting from the federations? STAN BOWMAN: Well, we want to win. We're here to win. In a lot of ways, there hasn't been a lot of interaction that way. This is our group. The players that are eligible to be on our team are not eligible to be on their team thankfully. We get to keep McDavid, Eichel and Saad. Those are guys that I think would definitely be on their respective country teams. I'm glad that's the way it worked out. We had those young, talented players incorporated in our group. I don't know, Peter can speak to that, but I've been fortunate enough to work with USA Hockey. But in this regard, we're committed fully to this team, and there hasn't been any dialogue the other way. PETER CHIARELLI: There hasn't been a lot of dialogue. There's been a lot of support. I'm hearing it from the NHL and the PA and from Tom, Randy and Jimmy Johannson even. But they've left us alone. While there's been a little bit of input, not from the federation, but some other parties, it's been good. They're going to be benefactors at the end of the day going forward. So I think they recognize that. They've been great. Q. Peter, by my count there's seven guys, five Americans and two Canadians, that would either be locks or very close to making their national teams if it weren't for the age restriction here. Do you believe in your heart of hearts that you can actually win this tournament? Do you think with these players you can win this tournament? PETER CHIARELLI: Yes, I think we can. We've got to win two of the three of the round robin and then we're in a best‑of‑three. It's anybody's series after that. It's important that our goaltending is there because the margins are going to be very thin. But absolutely. You have to make three or four plays in a game at this level to win the game, and you got to prevent three or four plays. We're capable of doing that. We're capable of doing that with the defense. We're capable of doing that with the forwards on both sides of the puck. Yeah, we can win. Q. I think both you admitted when this process began that goaltending was going to be one of the difficulties in putting together a roster. How do you feel about it now with what John Gibson has done and Connor and why you decide to go with three goaltenders right off the bat? STAN BOWMAN: Peter mentioned this a little ago. We feel much better about it now than we did back in September when a lot of these guys hadn't emerged as legitimate NHL goaltenders. As we sit here today, it's great that all three of them have had NHL experience. I think looking ahead, the reason that we named all three was that clearly this is a group of three that really had differentiated themselves. There obviously were some other names we discussed early on. But it became evident a few months ago that these three were clearly in their own grouping. So at that point when it was evident that these were going to be the three, we felt it made sense, gave us a chance to make the final decisions. We still have some important ones to make. Now we can focus on those bubble players. Q. We've seen Team Europe, a bit of an exception, you guys as well with the under 23. How exciting is it to be able to undertake something like this in this tournament and potentially grow it forth? PETER CHIARELLI: It's very exciting. We've talked about how fun it is. You're working with people that you respect, like Stan, the rest of the guys in our group. We've had other people that have helped us. Stan's father has been part of our calls and has made a lot of input. Chris Pronger has helped, Pang has helped. We have a great coaching staff. You learn more. You become a better manager. What you were saying earlier, you may not have the certain matchups of nationalities, you'll always have the U.S. and Canada in this format, but the personalities that are involved. I feel fortunate. I'm sure Stan feels fortunate to be part of this. As I said earlier, I think we still have a good chance to win. Q. Peter, you said in the past you did want some physicality on this roster. Could you speak to J.T. Miller, what you have seen from him to get in this first group? PETER CHIARELLI: He's really come along. We've watched him quite a bit. He might have been the player of most discussion in the last few weeks because his up‑tick has been so good. He's getting stronger. He's making more plays, protecting the puck. He's driving the net. He's doing things without the puck that he hadn't been doing. We've all liked what he's been doing. I think the biggest thing with him is that he's getting stronger and making plays using his strength. Q. Peter, you talked about this a few months ago, but how difficult is this process for you guys, especially with younger players, to have to try to project how these players are going to grow six months from now? PETER CHIARELLI: It's quite difficult. It's the next phase of I call it a hybrid of amateur scouting and pro scouting. There's been a lot of players, J.T. has been one of them, that have bubbled up in a relative hurry. You have to be careful you don't jump the gun on it. What allowed us the flexibility, we both mentioned it, we named three goalies, so it gives us more spots with the players. Gysbers, he's another one that has been bubbling up. Hanifin showed a lot of promise. Some other D in Carolina that are bubbling up. There's Max Domi at the forward side. We have five or six or seven names of D candidates for the final spots, maybe even ten. We don't know. We need the time. We need the time and we need the playoffs and we need the World Championships. We need as much time as we can get. Q. Jones and Murray have played quite a bit together for the Blue Jackets. Do you think having two guys familiar with each other gives you somewhat of an advantage, especially considering the fact that they've developed pretty well and next year seems to be kind of a year that a lot of people think they would take the next step? STAN BOWMAN: That's a great question and a good observation. We have talked a lot about that. Ultimately Todd is going to decide what the best mixture on the defense is. I think knowing that they've played together is going to be something we can always go back to if they don't start with it. It does give you some comfort. We always talk about familiarity. There's not a lot of time for these guys to be able to come together and for there to be chemistry. Similar thing up front when you have Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, they've played a lot of hockey together. Whether we decide to leave them as a pair or split them up, we know there is some chemistry there. It did play a factor as we go along. We're not going to take players only because they're teammates of current members. When we're coming down the stretch, we'll evaluate whether there's something to be said for the chemistry. Q. Your goaltending, seems like goaltenders take awhile to develop. Do you think that is reflected in some of the choices that you had to make? STAN BOWMAN: We've referenced a couple times, these three goalies really were in a different category than the other candidates. They've taken the step where they've made it to the NHL, maybe not full‑time, but they've at least played in the NHL. I think there's a big difference between playing in the American League and playing in the NHL. There's going to be growth even between now and when the tournament begins. But the great thing about this arrangement, it's a short tournament. Anyone can get hot for a short amount of time. We've even seen John Gibson play in the NHL playoffs and he had some special games already. I think the fact that that is there, this isn't a three‑month tournament, it's a very short one, and I think one of these goalies can get hot and boost us up quite a bit. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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