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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v LIGHTNINGJune 7, 2015Patrick KaneTeuvo TeravainenJonathan ToewsCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jonathan, Patrick and Teuvo. Q. Patrick, two games does not make a scoring slump normally. Do you feel more heat to score, the pressure to score, in the playoffs? PATRICK KANE: Yeah, I mean, as an offensive guy, you want to be helping produce, especially at this time of year. But, you know, we said all along with our team, we don't really care where the goals come from, as long as they're coming from our team. You know, I think I can help in that area obviously. I think that's one of the reasons I'm on a team. That's one of my jobs here, is to try to produce offense. Hopefully start that up next game. Q. Jonathan, I know you guys care about winning and nothing else. Can you take a step back the next day and take notice of the aesthetic value of a game like last night? JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, I mean, there's no doubt. I think if I can think back to previous Game1s of the Stanley Cup Final that we've been part of, it's similar in a way where both teams kind of took their time to try to test the waters, get to know each other a little bit. I think they came out flying. Maybe we did a little bit more of that for both teams. I think last night you saw it go both ways, especially in the second period, a lot of scoring. Probably some entertaining hockey to watch. Obviously we want to smarten up and not let them get away with their play‑making skills as much as we did yesterday. I think that's something we can expect. It's going to get better and better as the series goes along. Q. Much is made about you and Patrick playing together, not playing together. It always seems to find a way. Why is it so easy to move in and out with him? JONATHAN TOEWS: Over the years we've had a lot of experience playing together. Whether it's the two of us or any other combination you want to throw around with some of our forwards, there's a lot of talent, a lot of ability there. I think you're always open to new possibilities because you know you can go out there and create some offense. There's a lot of upside regardless of who you're playing with. When they throw Hossa back on my line with Saader and myself, we feel comfortable, especially when we know we have to play smart two‑way hockey, the three of us. Regardless of what Joel decides to do, we'll be ready for the opportunity of trying to mix things up a little bit. Q. Patrick or Jonathan, what sets Duncan Keith apart from other defensemen in the league? PATRICK KANE: We said it all along with Dunks, he's a workhorse back there. He not only logs a lot of minutes, but does so much for us offensively, defensively, power play, penalty kill, plays in all those situations, plays the important minutes. It seems like he is as prepared as anyone to play. He loves playing the game. He's always ready to try to be at his best. He's never satisfied with what he's accomplished. He's a special player, for sure. Q. Jonathan, Brent Seabrook keeps giving you big goal after big goal. I believe he's got the franchise mark for goals post‑season. What does that mean for you to have him out there firing shots? JONATHAN TOEWS: I mean, he's great in the regular season, too. He always has a knack for scoring overtime winners or goals like we scored last night. Obviously we couldn't capitalize and score the next big one after that. I feel like you give him the puck in a great situation where he might have a good shot through traffic, he doesn't miss a whole lot of them. I knew I gave him that puck yesterday, I just had a great feeling he was going to score. Sure enough, he did. He's been playing great hockey all around, but when he gets the opportunities, makes sure he gets his shots through. He has his head up. At the end of the day we're going to get something off of the offense he's getting. He's been dangerous in a lot of ways for us. Q. Jonathan and Patrick, the skill set Teuvo has to score, that's important for you when other guys are not scoring. Talk about what you see in him as a young player. JONATHAN TOEWS: He just keeps getting better and better as he gets more responsibility. Hasn't been easy, I don't imagine, given the fact that he knows what he can do at this level. He has to come in and play behind a lot of guys who have a track record and are going to get the offensive opportunities more often than not. Every chance he's getting, he's making big plays. He's already doing it in the Stanley Cup Final, so it's pretty amazing to watch. A moment for me yesterday when these two guys were on the ice, you saw their similarities. I think they were in our defensive zone, for some reason they were skating circles, passing the puck to each other. You could see the skill and patience. They were in no hurry. There's definitely a lot of skill there. Teuvo just keeps getting better and better. Q. Patrick and Jonathan, you now enjoy home ice for the next couple games. Talk about the effect of having that. PATRICK KANE: Yeah, it's nice. It's definitely comforting coming back home now. We feel great in this building. We've had some big games here in this playoffs. There's nothing like coming back home to play in front of your own fans. We'll try to use that to our advantage. I'm sure if there's a game to be ready for, it's definitely tomorrow. I'm sure our crowd will help us get ready for that. JONATHAN TOEWS: Same way. I think we were in a great situation, not having played our best game in Game1. We wanted to find a way to steal 2. It didn't happen. I think we did a lot of good things yesterday that we can build upon. We can be excited about going into our own building. Like Kaner said, I think our fans will be excited to get back. This is where they've wanted to be all year. You see those signs, Bring back the Cup. Everyone has been waiting for this moment. I'm sure everyone will be excited to be back in that building at this stage tomorrow. Q. Teuvo and Patrick, tomorrow the top prospects will be coming to see the game. Someone like you, who is a young guy, what advice would you give them? And, Patrick, curious about your memory of your day. You had a bit of a celebrity sighting back then. TEUVO TERAVAINEN: Of course, I played for them, come see the best hockey of the world right now, Stanley Cup Final. Just for them maybe keep dreaming, keep working hard to getting better, and someday you might be here as well. PATRICK KANE: I remember I was in Anaheim when the Ducks were playing the Senators, 2007. We actually sat right in front of Snoop Dog. He had a couple kids with him. One was 'Lil Snoop with the apostrophe, and the other was Spanky or something (laughter). They were into the game. It was fun to sit in front of them. They had the George Parros moustaches on and jerseys. They were cheering loud. It was a fun experience. Q. You say hopefully it starts for you next game. What different things do you feel you need to do in order to jump‑start yourself in a series like this? JONATHAN TOEWS: I think throughout these first couple games, they're a good hockey team. They play pretty stingy defensively. I think coming into the series, a lot of people would think it was run‑and‑gun, a lot of goals. There's chances there. There's opportunities. At the same time I think you got to stay positive, stay patient, try not to get too ahead of yourself and start thinking offense all the time. Maybe make a good defensive play, and that helps translate something going into offense. Try not to think about just scoring goals too much. Just, you know, play your game and try to be confident with the puck, make plays. Hopefully something opens up. Q. You're all offensive players. In the event you might have to face Vasilevskiy again, what have you been able to glean from the limited exposure to him? TEUVO TERAVAINEN: Yeah, I guess it's my turn because these guys are talking all the time (laughter). Yeah, I don't know. I don't really care who's going to be in the net. I know they're good goalies both. Especially I've been playing against Vasilevskiy in the international team, so I know him a little bit. I think I've scored on him before, too. We'll see who is in there. I don't really care. Q. Jonathan, your team has a history of measuring your opponent, turning it up when you need to at the end of a series. Is there any indication you've gotten from the first two games that the Lightning are a little bit different animal, you'll have to dig deeper? JONATHAN TOEWS: Of course. This is the Stanley Cup Final at the end of the day. I don't think it matters what team makes it. It could be 1 through 8, at the end of the day they made it this far for a reason. We like to think that we're going to step up our game beyond where we played in previous series. They're doing the same. It's going to be a tough test for both teams either way. So we like to think that, yeah, we've been getting better. It's maybe a trend that we like that we get better and better as the games get bigger and bigger. We want to continue that. But I don't think there's any surprise. We knew they were a good team and they were going to raise their level of play coming into the series. It's not going to get any easier going forward. Q. Teuvo, when you heard Jonathan earlier talk about you the way he did, how does that make you feel? Do you think you're ready for a bigger role with the Hawks? TEUVO TERAVAINEN: Yeah, of course. Actually, I didn't listen, too many great words (laughter). It's just great, of course, being part of this kind of group here. A lot of like experience in our group. I just try to learn from those guys. They're helping me, as well. Q. Jonathan, if tomorrow Trevor Van Riemsdyk gets in the game, he hasn't played in November, coming off injuries, as a captain, will you say anything to him at all about it being the Stanley Cup Final, calm him down a little bit? JONATHAN TOEWS: I think as a group we just try to make sure that everyone feels comfortable, whether it's anyone who doesn't play a lot of minutes, like Trevor might be getting the first opportunity in a while. Just go out there and keep it simple, do your best to phase everything out, play hockey. You're out there with five other guys. If you make a mistake, it's not the end of the world. We can help each other out. If it comes to that, we know he'll be ready. We'll be ready to help him out, ease the pressure a little bit. Q. Jonathan, after last night, Corey said he can't let that happen again. Is he the type of guy that when he demands more from himself, you can expect a good performance the next night? JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, we've seen it early in the playoffs. We've seen it throughout the playoffs up until this point. A lot of people can say he won us the game, he stole us the game in Game1. Maybe let in a few goals he wasn't happy with yesterday. But at the end of the day he's always shown that he's ready to absorb that responsibility. Maybe his unfair share of the losses that our team goes through, but he bounces back. I think more often than not the offense that we give up has a lot to do with sometimes our team getting away from our game and letting a team like Tampa play their rush game, their skill game a little bit too much. It ends up in the back of our net. But Corey is there trying to back us up. Always takes more than his fair share of the blame. Like you said, I don't doubt that he's going to be wanting to bounce back if he's talking that way. Q. Jonathan, you play against a lot of good shutdown players throughout the course of the season. Unknown in Cedric. How would you describe the type of player that you're playing against and how you think the matchup has gone? JONATHAN TOEWS: Well, he scored a big goal for them yesterday. Like I've been saying, regardless of who I find myself up against, I know that part of playing smart defensively is trying to make someone worry about the offense you're creating against them. Obviously his line did that yesterday. So, yeah, I mean, I think regardless of whether Kaner, Hossa are on our line, we need to be smart in our own zone because they're still going to go out there and try to make plays, make us play in our own zone. When we've have the puck, they've been doing a great job of skating on us and not giving us a lot of time. We've just got to keep working, keep that puck down low in their zone as much as we can. At times we had some good shifts but gave up a little possession too easy. Q. Patrick, I don't think you had a shot last night. How often has that happened? What do you think was the cause of that? PATRICK KANE: Yeah, I mean, it's one of those stats that it happens every now and then. At the same time I can't just go out on the ice and worry about shooting the puck. I got to worry about making the right play. If that play is making a pass, and you know, I'll make that play. It's not a stat you like to see, for sure. At the same time going into the next game, I'm not going to go in saying, I need to get a shot here or there. I just go out and try to make the right play and worry about the results from there. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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