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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v LIGHTNINGJune 11, 2015Rick BownessTAMPA, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. Upper‑body injury for Coop? COACH BOWNESS: Mental break. Q. Of the game, a couple Blackhawks players were saying they didn't feel neither they nor the Lightning played the best game of the series. Would you agree with that? COACH BOWNESS: I think you're looking at two very equal teams, for starters. Both teams have elite skill, elite speed. What we lack in their Stanley Cup experience and gold medals at the Olympics, we make up for in our youthful enthusiasm and speed. For either one of us to think we're going to go out there and control 60 minutes of the game, this is my opinion, I just don't see it happening. There are moments in each of the four games that we were in control of it, and there are moments, like the second period last night, that they were in control of it. You have to give credit to both teams. We're good hockey clubs. We're not going to let them play their games for 60 minutes. They're not going to let us play our game for 60 minutes. I'm not surprised. Both of us can say we haven't played our full 60 minutes. But give credit where credit is due. We're a good hockey club. We're here because we deserve to be here. They're here because they're an excellent hockey club as well. Neither team is going to dominate a game for 60 minutes. It's just too equally matched. Yeah, they've got the experience, but we're young, we're fast and we have an innate ability to believe in ourselves, each other, the team, the way we play. We're not going away. We're not going to let them control the game for 60 minutes and they're not going to let us control it for 60 minutes. Q. Rick, you're talking about how tight this series is. Maybe small details can make a big difference. They've dominated in the faceoff circle. How much could you help yourselves by trying to get an extra 10% out of your faceoffs and draws? COACH BOWNESS: We were okay in the first couple. We were bad the last couple, no question. You look at our penalty kill last night, we lost all five. Now we're chasing them. They've had a lot of skill. It's not only the centerman that loses the faceoff. There's times in the D zone that our defensemen aren't jumping in there to get control of it. In the neutral zone, our wingers aren't jumping in. It's not just the centermen losing faceoffs, it's the guys that are on the ice. Do we need our centermen to win more draws? Yes. Do our centermen need more help from our defense and wingers to get control of the puck? Yes. Q. You know how competitive Bishop is. He said the other day it would take an awful lot for him to miss a Stanley Cup Final game. By him not playing yesterday, what did that tell you about how hard it is? COACH BOWNESS: Well, I've watched Ben for a long time now. I've never seen him as nervous as he was last night when he wasn't playing. Walked in the trainer's room. He's all wound up. So you know that the injury is that bad, he wasn't going to play. He's a tremendous competitor. When he's playing, he's so focused. There's a guy that has the ability to block out the world, focus at the task at hand. Last night when he wasn't playing, I've never seen him like that. He's edgy, jumpy, anxious to play. He's a great competitor. He knew that he couldn't go in there and give us 100%, so he made the right call. Give himself a couple days to rest up. Got nothing but respect for Ben. For him to play the way he did in Game3 with the injury, give him full marks. He wants it as bad as anybody. He also knows the value of the position, the importance of the position. You have to be 100%. He didn't feel he was. So the right call was made. Q. Any update on his potential status for Saturday? COACH BOWNESS:  How about day‑to‑day (laughter)? He'll come in tomorrow. He'll be looked at by our top‑shelf, top‑notch medical team. It's day‑to‑day. Q. Considering the way you guys did play last night, under the scenario and situation to be able to seize control, is it hard to feel it was sort of not sort of a missed opportunity in some ways? COACH BOWNESS: The same with the two games they lost. Each game has been one goal. They won 2‑1 here. When we beat them at home, they're probably saying the same thing, Geez, we had home ice advantage, now we lost. You're looking at two equal teams, regardless of the experience level. The talent level is there. The compete level of both groups is very high. Both teams deserve to be here. Did we miss out on an opportunity? Give them credit. They played well enough to win. They made most of the opportunities they had. They controlled that second period offensively. That's probably the best most chances we gave up in a period, was the second period last night. Vasi did a great job giving us a chance to win. We controlled the first period in chances against, shots against. The third period is even. Missed opportunity? Yeah. You lose a game by a goal, it's a missed opportunity. They've lost two by a goal. You have both teams sitting here, four games, we could have won all four. Both teams should be saying the same thing because it could have gone either way. Q. The way you defended, especially in the first period, why does man‑to‑man work for your group where a lot of the league prefers the zone defense? COACH BOWNESS: The situation dictates man‑to‑man. We're like every other team. We want to pressure. The way the Blackhawks play, they like to really spread you out. There's times where you can't out number them, you can't contain them. You just have to go with them. If you watch Kane, I've watched him enough, he's always moving. He's hoping you forget about him. That's the way they play. Then they dart in and find him. There comes a point where they force you to do that. We're not trying to play man‑to‑man. We're only playing man‑to‑man because of the way they play and the scenario that develops in our zone. We want to get on them as quick as they can, just like they do us. They want to seal the wall. They want to out number us. Both teams play the same way. Most of the league is playing that way. When you end up playing man‑to‑man with them, it's because they force you to. A lot of times they have four guys between the tops of the circle and their blueline. That's just the way they play. If you want to compact and get in a little zone, they're going to zip around and make a lot of things happen. When we can pin them, out number them, get out of there as quick as we can, that's our objective, much the way we play. Q. What goes into the conversation that you and Jon have when you debate 11‑7 versus 12‑6? Can't give everything away here, but what is the basis of that debate? COACH BOWNESS: Jon is the head coach. Whatever he decides we support 100%. We have these discussions obviously. It's his final call. When he wants to go 12 and 6, full support. When he wants to go 11 and 7, full support. We did a lot of 11 and 7, it's not news to us. It's new to me. But Jon believes in it. When he makes that call, we make it work. There's no question. Does it affect some guy's ice time? Sure, it has to. It's not going to affect the top guys, they're going to keep playing, their minutes won't go down. We have the discussions. Again, whatever he decides, he has my 100% support. Q. Steven Stamkos just said he's expecting more from himself offensively in this series. Would you agree with that? Beyond that, what is he bringing to the team this series beyond the score sheet? COACH BOWNESS: I've always said this about Steve in my time. This kid wants to win. His heart is in the right place. He's become a real solid two‑way player. He works very hard without the puck. Everyone talks about Marian Hossa, I loved watching his whole career, one of my favorite all time players. Hossa back‑checks hard, he works hard without the puck. Stammer is becoming that. Stammer is working very, very hard without the puck. You see him finishing his checks. You see that intensity. All elite players, Kane and Toews are probably the same thing, we expect more, we expect to score. They all expect to score. Again, sometimes you give the opposition credit. The guys are making a lot of money over there, paid to shut you down. We're paying big money, we're trying to shut you down. We got great goaltenders at both ends. The goal‑scorers are not going to dominate the games. Stammer had some great looks last night. Hits the stick, inches away from going in. Again, those elite players, they've got different expectations of themselves than most people, right? That's what makes them very, very special. But I've always admired Stammer's passion for the game and his desire to be a great player both ends of the ice. Yeah, he's not scoring, but watch him work without the puck, watch him back‑check, watch him finish checks. All those little things that everyone needs to do to win. Jonathan Toews has won Cups doing it that way. Stammer is trying to become a complete player. His heart is in the right place and I have nothing but respect for him. Q. There were several games in the Rangers series where you lost your defensive structure. Now you've run off like five very sound defensive games in a row. What's been the difference? COACH BOWNESS: Well, yeah, we had a couple of self‑imposed lapses against the Rangers. If you look at the last three games with the Rangers, we played great in Game5. We come back here, it's 2‑1 going into the third. We played two outstanding periods. They got two goals that deflected and went in. You can't control that. Some of those aren't even scoring chances. They go in, they go in. That's hockey. We imploded in the third period. You go back to those last three games with the Rangers, we played eight out of nine outstanding periods. We really did. We gave up absolutely nothing. That has continued into the Finals. Also when you implode like we did, you learn from that, you grow from that. You're teaching your team, Is this them or us? Sometimes there's a big difference there. This is more us. We're making it too easy for them to play. As a staff you say, Give them credit when they're doing this, but some of these, it's all us. We're making mistakes we normally don't make. As a group you grow from that, which we have done. That's why we're able to rebound from bad games, bad periods as quickly as we can. The guys have a lot of confidence. They know they can get back to structure. Again, just from the game experience, games where we completely imploded, you grow from that. As long as you take a positive out of that, it's not the end of the world. Sometimes the other team is doing a lot of great things, too. Q. You mentioned Bishop's competitiveness, what he was like yesterday.  What is the biggest thing missing when he's not in there? COACH BOWNESS: Listen, we have a ton of confidence in Vasi. What's missing? Maybe the experience Ben has that Vasi doesn't have at this stage. Obviously Ben is a great puck handler. Vasi, he's a great goaltender. Vasi did a wonderful job for us last night. He did the job that he needed to do, give us a chance to win that game. He did that. Now, does Ben get out of the net a little quicker, handle the puck better, snap it up? Yeah, he's got a little more experience. More experience in the North American game than Vasi has. We have as much confidence in Vasi as we do in Bish. I'm not sure there's a whole lot missing other than probably the experience that you only get from playing, clearly, and the puck handling. Q. Victor Hedman for you guys, Duncan Keith for them. There hasn't been a Conn Smythe defenseman since 2007. Any ideas or theories why that is? COACH BOWNESS: We all want number one defensemen. We all want elite players. Victor, I can't answer your question in terms of why defensemen aren't winning that. I don't know. I know in Vancouver when we lost to Boston, Thomas was just outstanding. It was an automatic. Only time recently that I've had a firsthand look at it. But Victor is a dominant player. His growth started last year and it's just continued this year. Now he's on a bigger stage and you're watching him every night. You don't get to this stage without having elite goaltending, elite defensemen and elite forwards. Duncan Keith, again, I love watching him play. I could watch him play all night, like Marian Hossa. Victor Hedman, I've always said this, been around a long time. I've never seen a guy 6'6", 230, skate like he does. He's dominant because of his size, his skating ability. He's definitely number one. We don't worry about the Conn Smythe, we worry about winning the next game. Every team, you don't get to this stage without having elite players. Victor Hedman is an elite defenseman, absolutely no question about that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. COACH BOWNESS: Thanks, ladies and gentlemen. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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