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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v DUCKSMay 16, 2015Niklas HjalmarssonBrad RichardsPatrick SharpANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Patrick, what has that layoff been like and are you getting tired of talking about playing? PATRICK SHARP: You know, this time of year, you take the rest when you can, heal the body, get geared up for the next series. I think this was a little longer than we all wished for. Having said that, I think we're prepared. We had a good week of practice. Coaches have been through this before, a lot of the players have. We're healthy and ready to go for Game1. Q. The penalty kill has gotten better as you've gone along. Ducks' penalty kill is pretty strong. What are some of the challenges you have in shutting down the power play? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: You know, they got a couple of really skilled individuals in that team. They're really good at those short passes in front of the net, close to the net, finding good passing lanes. It's going to be a tough challenge. But I think we came up with a couple really big kills against Minnesota, even though the overall total maybe wasn't what we wanted. That's definitely one area in our game that we can improve on, have to improve on if we're going to move forward to the next round. It's going to be tough, but we're definitely going to try to do better on it. Q. Duncan Keith obviously played a lot of minutes in the playoffs. How does that help in the back end, front end? After all these years, do you marvel at how he's able to play forever? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: I know he's pretty much been playing ever since I've been on this team. He's probably been averaging 26 minutes a game. I don't think it's anything new for him. If there's anyone in the league that can play that much without doing a lot of mistakes, it's him. I barely see him tired out there. It's unbelievable. He never takes a deep breath. He can play non‑stop. It's pretty amazing to see actually. I can be gassed after a couple of shifts, but he just keeps going and going. It's huge to have a guy like that on the team that pretty much can play as much as he can. He's a great player. So we're lucky to have him in our team. Q. Brad, you guys haven't lost this year when you had a lead going into the third period. What about this team has been so protecting that lead? BRAD RICHARDS: I think the structure of the team. A lot of guys have been around, know how to play, what the coaching staff wants. The more you go through it, the more patience you can have. It's a mature team that's won a lot. They realize you have to play the score sometimes. A lot of times you get more offense off of that, you can use that to your advantage. That's probably why the record's so good. You can catch teams trying to press too much and build leads other way. You have to do it the right way. The maturity of the group shows. Q. Brad, different teams in different playoff series over the years. Do you recall recent series you've been in that has had this much star power or proven talent? BRAD RICHARDS: No, I mean, there's a lot of, obviously, names and a lot of talent. Still a lot to be played, so you don't know how the series will go. I don't remember many names like that. Sharpie was on the team in Philadelphia. They had a bunch of veteran star players when we played in Tampa. It's hard to think of that when you don't know how it's all going to shape out on the ice. There's a lot of good players that will probably get overlooked because of the big names that are going to be a big part of this series. Q. Patrick, fifth time in seven seasons for the Blackhawks in the Western Conference Finals. In a salary cap era, that's not supposed to happen. There's supposed to be parity. What has enabled this team to power through that, be successful? Do you almost say, Let's do it now because maybe next year we won't be together? PATRICK SHARP: Yeah, that's a good point. I think there's a lot of reasons, a lot of credit to be shared. The core group has been to the Conference Finals the last seven years, same coaching staff for the most part. The organization does a great job of finding players to fill the roster. As you guys know, at this time of year, depth is the most important thing to a successful team. We're glad to be back here in the Conference Finals. We don't take it for granted. We know how hard it is to get here. We'll make sure we take care of our opportunity and hopefully advance. Q. Patrick, you faced Ryan Kesler quite often. What kind of player is he in playoff play? PATRICK SHARP: Yeah, he's a player that you love to compete against. In his younger years, even now, he has a tendency to get under your skin. Competes hard every shift. When the pace is elevated, more competitive, seems to be his liking pretty good. He's a guy that's pretty well‑rounded, plays in all years, a tough guy to match up against. I know our side will take pride in competing against him and we'll see what happens. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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