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NHL STADIUM SERIES: BLACKHAWKS v WILD

February 21, 2016

John Torchetti

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Blackhawks – 1
Minnesota - 6

Q. John, what was the whole experience like, then to top it off with the victory, how meaningful is that?
COACH TORCHETTI: It was great. I thought the fans were unbelievable, pumped up. I thought the players were pumped up to play a great game for the fans, and for them. They did a good job on both sides on the puck and good things happen when you want to play both ways.

Q. I'm sure you drew up the plan when you knew you were coming here score every night, win four straight. Are you at all surprised with how it's come together so quickly since you got here?
COACH TORCHETTI: I think it's up to them. It's not me. That's the bottom line. Once you make a commitment as a teammate and your other teammates see you play at that level, then it's up to myself and then the other players to hold everyone else accountable to that style of play. So it's great to work when you have the puck. It's what you do when you don't have the puck. That's the biggest key for me. That's what I feel for our guys in the locker room. I want to make sure they keep pushing that and having that attitude and then we want to keep attacking that net whatever chance we get.

Q. John, Jason Pominville struggled the first part of the season, well documented. What's gotten into him here the last four games what's he brought to the lineup?
COACH TORCHETTI: You get that first goal in the first game, you get a little belief. Being comfortable on the power play is big. Keeping that dot, when he's on his off side making sure that you don't want him to be too far ahead. You want him always to be in that one‑time position and then always in the situation for two or three plays. If he's up high, then he's just sitting there for one play. We want our guys in three, two or three option plays, meaning being available, is like defensive side of the puck, making sure we can strip it, take the body, just the little details of the game. I think we've just got to keep getting better at. And it's confidence, too. So it's a big part. And he's done a great job.
But we gave them a big task tonight checking that line. And they did a great job.

Q. Thomas Vanek also can fall into the category as being the guy who was having some trouble, and now he's just kind of taken off under you.
COACH TORCHETTI: Vanny, I think the stat's right, but I think he's, since Ovechkin has been in the league, I think he's second overall in power play goals behind Ovechkin. This isn't a secret he can score goals. But for me taking over a team, I think that moving forward is Pominville's scored before, Vanek has scored before. So just work with them a little bit on the side, one‑on‑one, just trying to create that feeling that we're going to count on you. And those are the guys that if they build that confidence moving forward they should be really good quick fixes actually because they've done it before. It's not like I'm taking the guy that's only averaged maybe five goals a year.
These guys have done it before. So we've just got to make sure that we keep talking to them and understanding overall that what their role is, but I still want them to play a two‑way game.

Q. Why has the Haula line continued to click really since you took over?
COACH TORCHETTI: Haulsy is a great kid. He's got great speed. You want him to use those wheels. He should be able to recover on any situation being a great F‑3‑‑ great offensive instincts, skills. I think holding onto the puck a little bit more and building confidence moving forward is big. Like we said, you make twig plays and take what is given. Don't try to force plays. I'll let you know when it's a good chance. But we've got to read numbers. If it's three‑on‑two make your play. If it's three‑on‑three let's try to get it to the net so we're all going the same way.
You build that continuity as players in the line and you know you're going to be attacking the net. Then you keep your cycles alive. But if you're trying these level plays, mean trying to make passes through sticks and they turn it over, now you have to play another 150‑foot game back the other way. It's easy to play from top of the circles to the net. And it's a lot more fun.

Q. What are your goals going forward?
COACH TORCHETTI: Just keep building it and the work ethic. That's number one. We want to be the hardest working team every night. That's always the first and foremost. Special teams, make sure we're disciplined that we don't give teams five power plays. I think they've done a great job. Power play, making sure we gotta keep building that net‑front presence and making sure that we got some speed on the flanks and attacking the net.

Q. You've been talking about the power play and since you've got here it's really taken off in the handful of games. Anything you've seen that's been the key to that?
COACH TORCHETTI: Well, yeah.

Q. Anything you're willing to share with us?
COACH TORCHETTI: No. No. We're buying into it. We're gaining a little bit more speed up top, you know, off our flanks, and we're looking to shoot. But we're looking to get more numbers inside of their numbers. That's the number one thing on the film.
Once your team buys into that concept, that way you can get loose pucks and recover. We want that shooting mentality with a net front presence, and then when the shot is made we can make any play you want. Because you get them out of their structure and now you can make your seam plays and you want to attack the net. That's the sum of it.

Q. John, between the travel, the back‑to‑backs, off day, then you were outdoors yesterday, but you haven't really had a normal typical practice. Are you sort of tempted to just let this go‑‑ I'm not saying not having practice, but not get too technical in practice, whatever‑‑ you are not practicing seems to be working?
COACH TORCHETTI: We did a little technical stuff yesterday on a couple of adjustments. But you're not really going to be‑‑ you're going to have maybe one or two things you want to drive home in your practice. But you want energy now.
This is all about energy. This is where you build off of your training camp. They had a great start. And then we just want to keep putting guys in better positions and keeping everybody in line as we go along. And just keeping, making sure we keep everybody confident and pay attention to the detail of the game.
I think we'll make our adjustments and whatever we have to against certain teams, but just making sure everyone is playing with confidence and just being a tighter team. I want to keep on building on everybody working hard for each other.

Q. Did Zucker stay in the building? Do you have an update on his health?
COACH TORCHETTI: Yeah, he's still in the building. So that's okay. And just upper body for now.

Q. What have you seen out of Justin Fontaine the last four games, especially with the helper tonight?
COACH TORCHETTI: Fonzy, I can tell you, he's just one of my guys. He knows how to play the game the right way. His hockey sense is off the charts for me. Two‑way player. Whatever role you put him in, he does it. If he has to be a fourth‑liner he'll do it. If he has to go into the second line or third line, he's got enough hockey sense and puck possession skills to fill in that void. But and now he's penalty killing, which is great. Willy's done a great job with the penalty kill. Tonight was a great kill.
Our coaches were great. We're prepared. We did our preparation on the little plays. Just on this whole trip and everybody's dialed in and we just want to stay the same way.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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