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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v LIGHTNINGJune 11, 2015J.T. BrownRyan CallahanSteven StamkosTAMPA, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. Steven, I don't know if you've had a chance to watch the final two minutes of that game last night. Couple of those plays something you play over and over again in your head thinking if you had done it differently? STEVEN STAMKOS: I don't think we would have done anything differently. I mean, we had some great looks. Just didn't go in, so... It's tough at the time. But we're over it now. That was a very good game that we played. That's just the way this series has gone. They had some good looks, too. They hit a couple posts. Could have went either way. If we're in that situation again, obviously we don't want to be, but we'd probably do the same. We had some very, very good looks. Just didn't go in the net for whatever reason. Q. Does it feel for you right now, the puck luck not being there, the way it was in the Detroit series? STEVEN STAMKOS: It feels like last year right now. You know what, I obviously went through it before. For whatever reason, the pucks just weren't going in the net. As long as you're getting the chances. You start worrying when you don't get the chances, you start waiting for bounces. I've said it all along. It's not the first time I've gone a little stretch without scoring. It's tough. You want to help your team. That's the thing you want to do at this time of the year, is help your team. For me, obviously the offense is the thing that people expect and that I expect. Hopefully you just stick with it and it comes. Like I said, I've been through it before. You work through it. It's gone on to go in, so I'm hoping for that. Q. Ryan, we're down to a best‑of‑three. What is your team's approach now going into this situation, knowing you have two games at home? RYAN CALLAHAN: Yeah, I mean, it's a great opportunity. Like you said, best‑of‑three, we have home ice. Went into Chicago, got our home ice advantage back. At the end of the day you look at this road trip, it's a successful one. We got to go home and take advantage of home ice. Q. Ryan, what was the mentality of the team when you found out Bishop wasn't playing? RYAN CALLAHAN: Mentally we didn't change one bit. We have confident in both our goalies. Both of them are very good. Obviously Bish has carried the load for us most of the year and obvious in the playoffs. Our approach to the game, how the guys are in the room, our demeanor doesn't change no matter who is in net. Q. Ryan, considering the way you played last night, hard not to look at it in some ways as a missed opportunity to seize control of the series? RYAN CALLAHAN: No, it's not a missed opportunity. We played a good hockey game. I think it's a missed opportunity if you go in there and don't play the way you want to. We gave ourselves a really good chance to win that hockey game. That game could have went either way. We had some chances at the end to tie it too. That's playoffs. That's how it goes sometimes. Look at it, look at the things you did good, things you can correct, move on. Q. J.T., a lot of talk about how guys played defensively. When did that commitment kick in? J.T. BROWN: I mean, obviously we got to think about our net. That's how we've gotten to this point, keeping pucks out. At the end of the day if you look at the commitment, we're in the Stanley Cup for a reason, that's enough motive right there. Q. Steven, about team defense, the way you've been able to play, has it been overshadowed? Always been part of this team but just not noticed? STEVEN STAMKOS: I think you go back to training camp, the message this year was that we needed to play better defensively as a team. I mean, I know that's a long time ago now. That was the main message when we got here. You look at all the teams that have been successful the past couple years, they've had that commitment to playing well defensively. I think we've grown as a group throughout this season, this post‑season. We've obviously added some guys in that are very good at playing on the defensive side of the puck. It just snowballs. You get to this stage in the playoffs, and every little thing matters. Paying attention to the details on both sides of the puck. I mean, you look at how tight these games are. You score two goals or three goals, that's enough now. Sometimes in the season it's tough to play with that much sacrifice and desperation just because it's such a long season, it's a hard grind. Like Brownie just said, you're here, willing to do whatever it takes. I think that shows with the commitment of both teams defensively. Q. Ryan, the Hawks again last night didn't feel great about their game. Happy with the result, but they're talking about trying to find the A game before the series is over. Do you feel like you should be up in this series? RYAN CALLAHAN: No. I think this is how it goes. I mean, the best team in the game doesn't always win. Sometimes bounces go the other way. I think every game obviously has been close. It's all one‑goal games. You could see all those games, you look at opportunities and chances, could go either way. I don't feel like we should be up the way we played. I think this is how the playoffs are. Q. J.T., heading into Game5 at home, do you think there's going to be much discussion about bringing that same defensive structure, defensive intensity to a game here as you have demonstrated so often on the road? J.T. BROWN: Yeah. I don't think we need to change our mindset. We've played well so far at home and on the road. It's best‑of‑three. We've done well so far and there's not much to change. Q. Stammer, the power play has seemed to have lost a little bit of steam over the last couple games. Not as many chances as you'd like. Something they're doing differently or something you aren't doing to cause some of those struggles? STEVEN STAMKOS: Well, they got a good PK. They pack it in pretty tight. Guys are willing to block shots. I mean, we have to find a way to get just more shots to the net. I think we know we haven't scored on the power play at the clip that we wanted to in these Finals. Sometimes when you're pressing, you're not confident in taking a shot, make that extra pass, trying to get a nice goal. The old cliché, but when things aren't going well, try to get more pucks to the net. I think we're guilty of just trying to make that pretty pass. At this time of the season, you'll take any goal that you can get. So just simplify things a little bit. Maybe we got a day tomorrow where we can work on some things. It's tough with the schedule to really work on specific things when you know you don't have the whole group on the ice as much as you want. Maybe tomorrow we can look at the video and correct some things. Q. Steve, obviously you want to be a game‑breaker in this series. The two games this team has lost, there's only been one goal in those games. How important is it for you, the triplets, the offensive stars on this team, to produce offensively going forward? STEVEN STAMKOS: Well, obviously you want to produce. You ask anyone, they're going to give you the same answer. Right now it's about finding a way to win. Those two losses, you have to score more than once. Obviously it's going to fall on the guys that you expect. It should. I expect more from myself. Like I said, hopefully the chances keep coming. You know eventually they're going to go. Probably can't get two better looks than I had there in the last minute. Just bad, bad bounces, puck luck, whatever you want to call it. No one said this was going to be easy. It's not easy to win the Stanley Cup. You put so much sacrifice, so much time, so much effort, you know, it's really a mental grind and a test of everyone's will, what their sacrifice is at this time of the year. We just got to stick with it. We feel really good about our game. If anything, got some good looks there. That's a good thing. It's not all negative. It's right there. You build some confidence. You're getting the puck on your stick in the right situations, eventually it's going to go in. Q. Steven, are you big on watching replays of stuff like that? STEVEN STAMKOS: I saw the replay. That's the way it goes. I mean, there's nothing you can do about it. I started to celebrate. I think Hedy and Killer almost had their hands up. It's one of those things, it was so close. But there's no use in dwelling on it now. It's the past. We thought we played a good game. Obviously not good enough. That team over there is very experienced. They know what to do in those situations. Like I said all playoff long, we believe in our game. We believe in each other. We believe that we can come in here and continue to play. I mean, that's five games in a row now where we played very solid, the most consistent we played all season. We just have to build on that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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