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WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY

September 19, 2016

Todd McLellan

Toronto, Ontario

Team Russia – 4
Team North America ‑ 3

Q. A lot of people were curious how your team would respond when facing adversity for the first time. What do you think you learned about your squad tonight?
TODD McLELLAN: I thought we didn't deal with it well when we were in it. Once we got a little breather and could regroup, I thought we handled it appropriately.
We lost our way a little bit in the second period. I think that's obvious, stating the obvious. Couldn't kill the momentum. They came at us real quickly for a series of goals, and it took us a little while to get it back.
But I think it's a good sign for us that we were able to regroup and claw back into the game and have a chance at the end at least.

Q. Coach, when you look at this game, there's obviously the six‑minute period, but do you think about the game at all by the other 54 minutes of the game where you were a dominant team and you did a lot of good things? How do you balance those things in terms of your messaging to the players?
TODD McLELLAN: Well, unfortunately when it goes into the record books, all 60 count. We have to look at the things that we did well and a lot of the things that we liked in the game, but we have to look at the‑‑ we have to figure out the symptoms of what caused the letdown in the second period. I thought we looked unsure out there for the first time as a team.
You know, when you're a group of young players, you're looking for somebody just to take charge and settle it down, maybe get a shift or two under your belt, and we didn't get that quick enough. In all positions, goaltending, back end and forward. That happens when you're young. That happens when you're inexperienced.
But we grew tonight. We learned a lesson, and maybe we'll need that against the Swedes a couple days from now.

Q. Within that period of time when they scored those four goals, you say unsure. What exactly were you seeing in the game, and why was it so opposite from what you guys had been showing us?
TODD McLELLAN: Well, I thought we were hesitant. When we're going well as a team, we're playing as groups of five, there's a relentlessness to us. We're working hard into position, and then we're working to get to our next job. We didn't work that hard into position and we didn't get to the next job.
They were quicker, they were stronger. They stripped us a number of times. We looked slow, and that's not the way we play. Slow reading, slow reacting, and you know, slow to the scoreboard, I guess. It took us a while.

Q. I didn't see much of Drouin in the second half of the game. Was there an injury?
TODD McLELLAN: When you have 81 attempts on goal, you've got to‑‑ and you're an offensive guy, you've got to find a way to get the puck in the net somehow or at least make an attempt at shooting, and Johnny had a tough night in that situation. We shortened up the bench, and I thought that's where we gained some momentum. Unfortunately when you're down that happens. He'll be better the next game.

Q. We're hearing concussion for Ekblad. Do you have any idea how long he'll be out?
TODD McLELLAN: Upper body injury, day‑to‑day, don't know how long he'll be. And it's a big loss, but what we're fortunate to have here is we have‑‑ it's not like we're calling up a young player from the American Hockey League. I thought Jacob Trouba went in and played a hell of a game. We're fortunate to have that. Losing Aaron is a big hit for our club, but gaining Jacob was a real positive one, as well.

Q. Teams like Russia really tried to push your guys around physically. How do you think your team responded to some of the physical play from Markov and Emelin specifically?
TODD McLELLAN: Well, I think there was a couple big hits in the game, but other than that, I thought we competed hard. You know, there's the physicality of a big hit every now and then, and there's the physicality of the play in the paint. We got a number of opportunities in the paint. There's the physicality in the face‑off circle. We did well in that area. There's the physicality of shooting a puck and getting it back and battling in the corners.
I thought we did that really well in the second half of the game. We just lost our way for 10 minutes. I didn't think we got pushed out of the game at all. I just thought they were better at managing the puck, spread us out a little bit, and made us hesitant.

Q. Two days from now, better than 50 percent chance you're going to be up against Team Sweden, a very steady, experienced group in a must‑win game, win or go home. Are you guys ready for it?
TODD McLELLAN: Yep. We need a little rest, but we'll be ready for it. That's a great thing for our team. You know, after being around this group, I wouldn't say this, but thinking in the middle of July when you're sitting there and you're imagining your team and you're thinking about a 1‑1 record with a chance to play against a real good team to get to the Finals, we would have taken that.
Now, we're disappointed that we didn't win tonight, but we'll be ready. They're young guys. They're going to come and play. They're going to have fun doing it.

Q. You mentioned maybe in the moment the team wasn't doing what you wanted to see, but it does seem like over the last couple weeks, this team as a group seems to learn lessons really fast. Would you agree with that, and what lesson do you think they'd learn from this game?
TODD McLELLAN: Well, between periods, I told them that they're a much better team than they think they were. They're sitting in the stalls, they're a little bit down in the dumps, they're not believing anymore. They are a better team than we performed. We came back out, and we played that way.
Just the belief system, we've got to build that as time goes on. The tournament is two games deep already. What could have happened to our belief system is it could have completely crumbled. It didn't. It cracked a little bit, we lost a few little segments of bricks, but we were able to put it back together in the third period, so I'm not concerned about our team. I think that belief system will be there again, and we'll come out and play well.

Q. How do you deliberate on your goaltending situation for two nights from now? Matt Murray is a guy in the Playoffs that always responded, I think 6‑0 following a loss the next game. How do you view his performance tonight and what do you do moving forward?
TODD McLELLAN: Well, his performance tonight there was‑‑ I think we gave up team goals. It would have been nice to get an extra save, and he'll probably tell you that. But we gave up team goals. We have to go look at the symptoms of what allowed them to get into certain situations, and those are team goals.
We'll talk about it as a staff. We've got a number of coaches that are on it and certainly a real strong management group.
The good thing is when John went in he played extremely well. I thought he had to make a couple early saves to get himself going. We have real good options, and if it's Matt Murray, then great. If it's John Gibson, we feel comfortable, and if it's Connor, we feel good. It's just like bringing Jacob Trouba into the game. They all deserve to be here, they're all great players, it's not like we're calling up an inexperienced American League goalie.

Q. Matt Murray said he jammed his thumb there in the second period. How much will that play into‑‑
TODD McLELLAN: Well, we'll have to get an update on our total team health. He jammed his thumb. He's very capable of playing. I'm sure we're going to see him on the ice in practice tomorrow, so if that's any indication, we'll be able to pick from three healthy guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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