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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: SHARKS v BLUES

May 21, 2016

Ken Hitchcock

San Jose, California: Game Four

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Happy this day has come so you can get back out there?
COACH HITCHCOCK: Yeah. Well, the off days are long for coaches. Lots of video, lots of evaluation, lots of looking at things.
Game days are good.

Q. Of the cards that a coach has to play during a series, how big is the change‑the‑goaltender card?
COACH HITCHCOCK: Under normal circumstances, it's probably large. But with us, it's business as usual because we've had these two fellas for a long time. They've shared the load.
This is with a different sharing, though, because one guy was left to his own devices so much this year, either guy. They've both gone on long, long runs to help us to get us where we're at right now.
I think the team is used to this. I don't think they're uncomfortable with it. Our feeling is that we've allowed six goals in the last two games, and it's too much. Zero reflection on Brian Elliott, zero. It's a reflection on us.
If we're going to win this series, get back in this series, we can't continue to allow three and four goals and expect to win games, not the way San Jose is playing right now. We have to amp it up defensively.

Q. You talked about the fourth line, thought they played well. What impressed you about them?
COACH HITCHCOCK: Same page, forecheck. Same page, puck placement. Same page, cycle. Really good. Just had the concept of support over structure perfect.
I think the difference for us, we've been through quite a bit to get where we're at right now. You could see their freshness and energy really helped us. You could see the difference with two fresh guys coming in from where some of our players were at. I think it really helped us a lot.
Hopefully we can get the same type of shifts and same type of energy we had from them before because it was very helpful.

Q. Do you stick with that fourth line? Does Scottie Upshall draw in?
COACH HITCHCOCK: No, Scottie's not ready to play.

Q. Not ready to play?
COACH HITCHCOCK: Not a hundred percent, no.

Q. What about your defensive lineup, does it stay the same?
COACH HITCHCOCK: We're going to make a couple of changes, or one change for sure. We'll see. But one for sure. We'll see after warmup.

Q. Does that mean there's an injury concern?
COACH HITCHCOCK: Nope.

Q. For us that don't know Jake Allen real well, how would you describe his personality, the way he prepares for a game like today?
COACH HITCHCOCK: He's from Atlantic Canada. Not a lot bothers him. He doesn't worry about too much. Every day is the same. Very calm. Big in the net. Good puck mover. Can steal games.
That's what he's done for us since I've been here anyway. He's stolen games and he plays big in the net. Not a lot bothers him. Seems to enjoy the moment. He's played in a lot of big games in his life already for a young player.
Like I said, we keep allowing three goals in a game in the playoffs against teams that check well this time of year, it's not going to work. We have to get it better.

Q. I know Allen got hurt, Elliott took off and seized the position. After training camp, was Jake supposed to be your guy? As far as things not bothering him, how has he handled that sort of change?
COACH HITCHCOCK: When we started the season, we had determined that we were going to let the competition at a certain period of time dictate, but then we were going to go with a guy. Then as we started to lean towards a guy, then the injuries came in. They came in in six‑week increments.
Then when we finally had them back in again, Jake got hurt again at the end of the year, so Brian took the ball and ran with it ‑ deservedly so. He got the starts.
We were leaving it up to competition. It was really close because both guys kind of have been and are the story of our team this year. So we weren't really sure. But we were leaning early in the year with one guy based on the way it was going. Then when back‑to‑back injuries happened, everything went out of door. We just went into survival mode.
We're more than comfortable playing either guy, but there's a big difference between the way the two guys play. So there's a big difference for us to play in front of either guy ‑ not so much in stopping the puck, but in moving the puck. There will be a little bit of an adjustment.
We had some communication with it yesterday. There is a significant change between what Brian does and what Jake does as far as our defensemen goes. We'll have to see how that goes early in the game here.
Thank you.

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