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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v LIGHTNINGJune 9, 2015Jon CooperCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day Q. You had a couple situations in these playoffs, up 3‑0 against Montréal. Having gone through these situations, has that prepared you to maybe be up 2‑1 in the Stanley Cup Final? COACH COOPER: I'll defer to Stammer's answer (smiling). No, it's kind of remarkable. Every series has been different. I mean, I guess this kind of mirrors the Rangers series we lost Game1, 2 and 3, but we didn't have home ice in that series. I think at some point the ebbs and flows of the playoffs, teams are going to have success and some are going to struggle. It's the ones that consistently have success that are going to move on. I truly believe we've grown as a team through some of our struggles. You just think of last night's game. We're in a pretty hostile environment. It's a 1‑1 game. We go down in the third. There was no hang the head. It was, Okay, now we got to dig the heels in and go get this one. That's what I love about this group. It's just the never say die. In some of these situations we've gone through in the playoffs, maybe early, some of these games, we didn't have the ability to come back. But with every day and every game, this team keeps growing. It's a lot of fun to be behind the bench with them. Q. Two wins from the Stanley Cup, depending on how you look at it. How would you characterize the challenge still ahead? COACH COOPER: I'll be honest. The one thing after every single game is the guys have said that we haven't accomplished anything yet. We really haven't. There's 30 teams in the league, and only one team is fortunate enough to hoist the Stanley Cup. We've put ourselves in a position that I guess now we have a 50% chance. But still it's the race to four, it's not the race to two. We're inching our way along, but we're not there yet. I don't think anybody's looking ahead. We're looking at Game4. That's it. Q. With all the young talent this team has, is it at all surprising that Cedric Paquette is the guy that has stolen the show? COACH COOPER: I don't know if you can sit here and say he's stolen the show. I look at the way our playoffs have gone, the way these series have gone, Johnny's line was a big part of our success early on. Then it was Fil, Stammer, Killer, were a big part of pushing us after that series. Now we're getting to the Final. If we're going to do anything, we needed more than those two lines. It's not just Ceddy, it's Boyle, Morrow, Brown, Cally. These guys have elevated their game. They probably don't get recognized how much they're playing away from the puck defensively. Sometimes you have to score for people to get noticed. But Cedric Paquette is a big, big part of that. Maybe there's a little bit more happiness when those guys score because how much work they put in. Sometimes they go a little unnoticed. You should see the excitement on our bench when those guys score. Everybody's thrilled. It's awesome. Q. Coach, we've heard about Steven Stamkos, the leader, throughout this post‑season. When you look as a player like Cedric Paquette, how much has Steven's leadership helped a player like that get to this stage? COACH COOPER: Well, I think the one thing about Stammer, I'll put Hedy in this group, too, they're the only two guys left from the team that was in the Eastern Conference final four years ago. So this team is young. Everybody thinks Stammer is a little older than he is because he's been in the league seven years, everything he's accomplished. He's still a pretty young guy age‑wise. When guys walk into the locker room, Steven has an aura about himself about what he's accomplished in this league. When he walks in and he's welcoming, he's just a regular guy with the guys, he doesn't walk by guys in the locker room thinking he's better than anybody else. I think that's what makes him a leader. He puts himself in with everybody else. I think that helps the Paquettes and the younger guys who are coming into the league and are nervous. They're fighting for a spot on the team. But everybody recognizes everybody's value. Steven will be the first guy to recognize what Cedric Paquette brings to this team, what Johnson brings to this team, down the list. That's what makes him a leader. Q. Because of the process you've been talking about, the way this team has gone through every series is a little bit different, learned along the way. Right now do you think this team is playing the best hockey of the playoffs? COACH COOPER: Should I defer to Stammer's answer on that one, as well (laughter)? I think we're really consistent, but we're playing consistently well. You need to do that at this time of year. I think one of the things that's really been our focus is we're not really focused on Chicago. We know they're talented and a world class team. But we feel like we're in that group, as well. It's how we're playing that's going to dictate, we feel, how this series is going to go. The way the boys are competing, just that never‑say‑die attitude, as I said before, it's unreal to be behind the bench with these guys. To the earlier question, that consistently well has got us here, but we have a couple more steps to go. Q. When you're dissecting video of the Western Conference Finals, what difference did you notice when they were trailing in that series, if any? COACH COOPER: What do you mean? Q. Did you see maybe a desperation or a difference in how they attacked? COACH COOPER: They're a really good team. They showed us that in Game1. We had the 1‑0 lead. What was it, two minutes? They erased that and won the game. They wouldn't do that if they didn't have that ability. You don't have that ability to come from behind, win on the road, you're not sitting right where we are now. Good teams can do it. Chicago can do it. So like if I noticed anything different, no. I mean, they're a good team. Q. Three games into the series, three of the real elite players in the game, Steven, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, have no goals. How do you explain that? COACH COOPER: Well, I would take those three games out and look at the prior opportunity and see that Stammer has, how many, seven? Kane has 10? If you add up their goals in the playoffs, I think it's close to 30. It's really hard to score every single night. Stammer had 43 during the year. Second most in the league. That's scoring one every other game. In this league, the way teams play defense, the exceptional goaltending, to get a goal every other game is a pretty good accomplishment. I don't look at the fact that those three guys haven't scored. The great thing about our room is we just look to see what team has the most goals at the end of the game. For us it's all team goals. That's the way we're looking at it. Q. Mr. Cooper, I'm going to ask you the same question I asked to some of your players. I repeat myself. COACH COOPER: That's okay. Q. We all know that hockey players are hard‑nosed athletes, they'll play in pain. Everybody saw yesterday that Ben Bishop was playing with pain. We see that through the years. For hockey players I guess it's part of the game. For us it's impressive. For yourself, for a coach, when you see a player like your goalie playing the way he did last night, what does it say? Is it impressive for you? COACH COOPER: Well, I'm not sitting at this podium if we don't have players like that on our team. Just to go on what I said last night, these players, that's how much passion they have to win. That's what's just remarkable about the storied Stanley Cup, is what these guys go through on a daily basis. It doesn't stop with last night. It's six exhibitions game, it's 82 regular‑season games. We're well into the 20s now in the playoff games, well into the hundreds. You look at how these guys compete and sacrifice for each other. To still be standing, when they're not feeling their best, it would be easy to say, Coach, pull me out, I just can't go tonight. But the burning desire to win, the burning desire to hoist that Stanley Cup, it can move mountains. That's what it's doing with our players. It's unreal to watch. Q. The flipside of that question is, you talk about the eye test with Ben Bishop last night, knowing his passion, his competitiveness. Do you trust him to be honest with you if he didn't feel he was fit to play? COACH COOPER: I trust our trainers. Before I do the eye test, you got to walk by them. You don't want guys to play injured. If they're out there, they have an ability to play. I think when you look at the eye test, you're looking to see, Okay, they can play, but are they going to have success? That's kind of what the eye test tells. Q. How is Ben today? Any concerns about tomorrow? COACH COOPER: Actually, I haven't seen Ben today, so I don't know. I'll see when we get back. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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