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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v DUCKSMay 26, 2015Bruce BoudreauCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach. Q. You said last night that you had pretty full confidence that Freddie would come back and be himself in Game 6. What makes you feel that way? COACH BOUDREAU: Past experience. You know, I mean, he's given everybody confidence in our room that he can bounce back if he has a subpar performance. We expect him to be great tomorrow. Q. In looking at the game, do you agree he let some real tough ones get past him? What's your best explanation for why you think that happened? COACH BOUDREAU: I mean, there's some that he'd like to have back, I think, of Chicago's goals. But at the same time, you know, that happens. I mean, he might have looked left when he should have looked right. He might have thought something. But, I mean, it doesn't matter. Nobody's perfect. Freddie's really good. He's not perfect. None of our players are perfect. They make mistakes. We have the faith and confidence in him that he's going to be great again tomorrow. Q. This is a lot of games for him. This is probably more games than he's used to playing in a season. Does the fatigue factor start to creep in? COACH BOUDREAU: You know what, I don't know if it is or not. He's a big, strong guy. I ask him every day if he's feeling good. He says he is. But it is a lot of games in a row for him, as it is for Crawford. I don't think the overtimes help anybody as far as, you know, continuing to play. But we're not changing anything. We're going with Freddie. He's our guy. Q. Bruce, knowing Game 7 can be somewhat of a coin flip, do you think your guys will feel extra motivation? COACH BOUDREAU: I don't think extra. I think you get a chance to close out a series, two things are going to happen: one, they're going to give you their best game, and two, you're going to give them your best game. You'd certainly like to close it sooner than later. You're do what you have to do. It goes seven, it goes seven. Let's understand that this series has been pretty close. Even the 4‑1 game was a lot closer than a 4‑1 game. Everything else has been a one‑goal game. The right team that gets the right bounce I think will be successful. Q. Bruce, what does this feel like just to be so close at this moment here? COACH BOUDREAU: Yeah, I mean, I give my head a shake sometimes. It is close. Sometimes you don't realize. You say you're one game away to playing for the Stanley Cup. I try not to think about that. It's difficult, but you got to stay in the moment. You got to stay focused at what's at hand. If you start thinking ahead, usually bad things happen. So we'll try to stay focused on what's going to happen tomorrow. Whatever happens after that, then we'll either have to worry about the seventh game or we'll be elated about going to play one of the teams that are playing tonight. Q. Your defensemen scoring, you had big contributions last night. You're continuing to get a lot of production from the blueline. I imagine it's been essential for you. COACH BOUDREAU: It's been really essential. But it's happened all year. No one knew about it all year because nobody knew who Sami Vatanen or Hampus Lindholm. They had an inkling of who Cam Fowler was. None of these guys were really on the radar as far offensive defensemen. But they're good puck moving guys and they create offense. If you look at their numbers, they're all up there. Five out of the six, anyway, are always up there in the scoring for defensemen. Q. Bruce, with a series that's this close, how much does this challenge you as a coach to try to find that extra separation from Chicago? COACH BOUDREAU: Well, I mean, it's challenging. It's stressful. There's no doubt that you don't get a chance to take time off on the bench. I mean, you're always trying to think what the other guy's doing, what lines are up, who is going on your team, should we make a change in the lines, am I overreacting, underreacting. The commercials, do we call a timeout? Maybe the next whistle. Do we wait? All these things go into play for three hours, and that's not including the before and after. You really have to be on top of your game. Q. You mentioned the lines. Obviously you tinkered with them last night. Was that just looking for that extra something? Are you still open to doing that? COACH BOUDREAU: I'm just trying to think of what gives us the best chance to win. Sometimes you look at the previous games and you go, Geez, maybe this would work. You try it. If it doesn't work, there's always the ability to change it back. It's not an experiment gone bad. You keep it going right to the end, and sometimes it costs you in the end. Q. As you go into the locker room at the end of regulation, how much of it is you talking to the team or the leaders talking to the guys or relying on veteran guys to bounce back from something like that? COACH BOUDREAU: I mean, I don't say too much when I went in there. You can hear the guys talking. You can hear that they know. I'm sure they want to hear my voice echoing their sentiments. It's pretty well all I did. You know, the biggest thing I probably said was, Don't hang your head. You can sit and pout all day long. If you do that, they're going to get the next one. You can change all of that by going out there, getting angry, and doing what you do best. Q. 14 playoff games without losing a regulation game. What does that say about your team? How much pride do you have about that? COACH BOUDREAU: I think it says the consistency of coming to play every night is really good. It's something we haven't talked about at all. We haven't mentioned one word about it. Q. You had Fleischmann come in off the bench. How do you feel about them coming in cold? COACH BOUDREAU: I think they've done great. Every time we put somebody in, they're ready. I think they're ready, because the guys that don't play practice really hard. It's not like they're out there golfing and waiting for their chance. They're working really hard to get into the game. Wiz was asking the other day, I need more one‑on‑ones just in case he gets in. I mean, they're all prepared to play when called upon. That's what makes it an easy decision sometimes. You know the guys are ready and they're going to do a good job. Q. Bruce, what you said to the team during that intermission, I'm curious, before you went in, how much concern did you have that your team might have been destroyed by that moment? COACH BOUDREAU: I wasn't really worried about them being destroyed. You know, big word. I was worried about their mindset. Sometimes it takes a little bit to get over. But at the same time, you've followed this team all year, they let it go. I read where Getzy said, Just focus on the next shot, the next shift. I think that's what we did. From experience, when you dwell on something long enough, something bad happens right after it. We tried to get over it. Q. What does that say, that they're able to do that? COACH BOUDREAU: Just that they're mentally stronger than people think. They're focused on what's at hand. They know what their ultimate goal is. It's a situation where they put it behind them. It is what it is. All those clichés. You just got to go forward. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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