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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v LIGHTNINGJune 9, 2015Joel QuennevilleCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day Q. How is Johnny Oduya? Any possible lineup changes heading into tomorrow? COACH QUENNEVILLE: We'll see on both. I think he'll be all right. He looked all right today. We'll see how he is tomorrow. Q. A lot has been made about Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews not scoring. Have you proven that they can go off against the best matchups, at any given time have an outburst offensively? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Absolutely. We've had some series that have been close checking, not a lot of scoring. This series has been kind of close in that regard. Top players sometimes get a lot more attention. Some guys that don't get the same either notoriety or fanfare jump up. That can be over the course of a whole series or a couple of games segment. Through three games, they've had their chances, had decent looks. But, you know, we're going to need our top guys to be productive. Like we always say, we don't care who scores for our team. But they usually lead the charge. Q. Were you happy with what Trevor van Riemsdyk brought for you last night? Hadn't played much coming in. COACH QUENNEVILLE: Hadn't played for a long time. I was impressed how well he played, his composure. Kind of like the way he came into training camp for us. Q. You haven't had the lead very much in this series. Is that a concern to you? If it is, is there something that you need to do to make a change there? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, we've had the lead in all the games. Short‑lived. Game1, obviously got through it. Game2 and 3, getting the lead, evaporating as quickly as it did, is not one of our strengths as a team. We've given up timely goals in these playoffs against us that we have to prevent, knowing the importance of those big shifts. Last night was a good illustration of not sustaining the momentum in a situation where we had everything going our way after having a huge goal, building erupted, then you see them get right back in the game. Q. Through the years with you as leader of this team, your Blackhawks Game4 through 7 have been terrific. Tell me why. COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, we got a great core of leaders. They're competitive as heck. They find a way to get better each and every game. They make guys around them better. They have accountability internally. They demonstrate that by how they compete. Guys seem to follow. I think that's the best recipe for a coach to have. These guys come ready to play and find ways to win. Just the opposite as what happened over the last couple of games, when games were on the line, we came out on the short end. Maybe we were fortunate in Game 1. All three games, third periods are tied. That's one of our strengths as a team. Q. Two years ago in the Final, you had Chara that you were able to grind down as the series went on. Is there anything you can take from that going against a guy like Victor Hedman? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Probably not enough history to say how you want to play against him. Their D as a whole, they're very mobile. A big part of their attack. They got good puck‑possession skills, play making ability. He's got a long reach. He's a good defenseman. I think we're better off having him defending than him with the puck in the rush. But, you know, we will have to make him play a little bit more defense is what we want him to be doing. Q. Your oldest forward played almost 24 minutes last night. Do you see Marian Hossa as one of these guys that is going to be the next Jagr or Selanne? COACH QUENNEVILLE: He could be. He loves the game. He does a nice job of taking care of himself, preparing so he can go into games and be great, do the best he can each and every night. He had the puck a lot last night. Had an outstanding chance early. Stayed with it. I thought that line was dangerous at times. But he was very effective last night. He'll be ready tomorrow night as well. Q. You're in the situation against the Ducks and against the Bruins in 2013. Psychologically as you get set for the game tomorrow night, how much is history an asset for this club? COACH QUENNEVILLE: It can help. I think we should be exiting Game2 and Game3 with anger, a lot of emotions. There's got to be purpose behind it. We've had some history of being in situations where we've been in the exact same spot. Won Game1 against Boston. Lost Game2 and 3. Against Anaheim, kept coming back against an excellent hockey team. You can't dwell on that. I think there's confidence in the group that we're able to do it. I'm worried about one game. And we haven't seen our best yet. Q. Those quick goals‑against, you talked about them throughout the playoffs. How do you prevent them? Is there anything you notice from time to time why they're happening? COACH QUENNEVILLE: That one was an innocent play. We win the faceoff, doesn't get behind him, it's in our net. It wasn't anything drawn up. It wasn't fancy. It was just a play, a scramble. But that's got to be preventable. Q. Coach, you put players in and out of the lineup, changed line combinations. What more can a coach do at this point or is it really now on the players? COACH QUENNEVILLE: No, we tried things. I think on a need basis, you know, if we don't like the way the line is playing, you don't like the matchups, sometimes you make some changes, maybe you get results. We usually do things when we don't like the way things are going or we don't like the results. That can lead us to try things. We got a lot of options on our team and that makes us a good team when you're able to try different things. Sometimes they can click. Q. Joel, with Oduya, we're all assuming it's an injury of some sort. Is it upper body, lower body? Can you tell us? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Upper body. Q. You have played a number of teams that have tried to do this same thing, where they take away the middle of the ice, collapse on the goalie, make it difficult. Is this team doing the best job you have seen in a while at that? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, we played some good defensive teams. Minnesota is a team that jumps out when you think about how well they check and play, how they frustrate you. This team is fast and quick, they check well, have a defensive posture. Anaheim was the same way. Getting through the middle of the ice was challenging. But you got to be willing to play that type of game. Whether we're talking about a lot of production, or playing a one‑goal game, low‑scoring, that's what we have to be willing to do, is play what's out in front of us. Q. Have you seen any signs of fatigue in the defensemen? How do you guard against that when you're shorthanded? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Not really. I thought that question came up quite a bit when we were in the Anaheim series. How could they play so many minutes, especially having six periods and five periods in key games. You have four defense playing a lot of those minutes. The guys take care of themselves to a different level. They prepare to the excitement and importance of the next game. They find ways where they're ready to compete. Whatever is in front of them, they feel the more they get, the better they'll play. They don't mind playing big minutes. I haven't seen that type of sign yet. The other team's played equal minutes as far as that goes. Q. With regard to the history of playing better at the end, responding to being down in a series, the way the Lightning are playing, with Hedman, are there things you need to address with regard to what they're doing to overcome this deficit? COACH QUENNEVILLE: There's always things we talk about technically adjusting going into game to game. There's things you can make an awareness to your team. I think that all goes hand‑in‑hand in how we look to progress in games and in series. Our team adapts in a lot of ways. I think we have a little bit more predictability in what their players do, whether it's individually or collectively, and go off of that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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