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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: DUCKS VS PREDATORS

May 18, 2017

Randy Carlyle

Anaheim, California - Pregame

Q. Randy, how has the comeback gene, Playoffs, in games, in series, gotten into your team's DNA this season?
COACH CARLYLE: I guess you would have to credit your players. We've tried to always sell that we feel comfortable we can play in any building, first. And we try to establish that early in the season, that we're going to go in and impose our will on the teams that we played against.

And we found that when we took on the mantra that we had to be better than we were in the last game, it just kind of relieves the focus of the outcome versus the process: What did you have to do to achieve success? What did you have to do in the game within the game? Was it the forecheck that made the difference? Was it your defensive zone faceoffs? Was it your power play or was it your penalty killing? And look at the game that way versus looking at the result.

And that's what we've tried to stay with that we're always going to focus on the process first and then the results should take care of themselves. So as you go deeper into the Playoffs, there's a lot more intensity or pressure. But if you've done it for 82 games it's not such as a drastic change. And in situations you have to have your big players make big plays.

Q. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that you guys didn't skate Monday. Then yesterday you didn't skate. Today it's listed as optional. I'm wondering how you walk that line between trying to keep what you did during the regular season and the fact that you're playing in the Playoffs, the travel and fatigue, how do you decide when to skate and not to skate?
COACH CARLYLE: I try to take the temperature of our group and look at -- I don't think we've had the emotional level we've had previously in the game the other night.

And it can be as simple as no hold-up off of defensive zone faceoff, not engaging physically on a player after he shoots the puck and drives towards your net. Those little things are signs that I try to utilize and try to take back from where your group is at.

And there were too many check points from my perspective that I felt the number one thing that we needed to prepare ourselves for tonight was rest.

Q. Gibby in the last game obviously got bumped around a pretty fair amount.
COACH CARLYLE: You think?

Q. To jump off that, and it looks like the defense back there was maybe getting pushed around a little bit as well. Is tonight a game where, say, like a Kevin Bieksa and his makeup and skill set would be someone to kind of play against that?
COACH CARLYLE: Well, again, Kevin's a hard-nosed, veteran player that's been in those types of wars and in these situations before. But he's an option for us, as is Clayton Stoner, as is Korbinian Holzer. We have three defensemen that at our disposal.

And if we feel that's what's necessary to give us a best chance at success, we'll utilize the people that we feel are best suited for the environment that we're going into.

Q. Your first answer about turning some things around that will end up in the result. Does it start with Ryan Getzlaf? Is he the guy that keys this thing?
COACH CARLYLE: No, I think your big players and your big-time players are your go-to guys, and I don't think Getzy has disappointed us in many areas. There's a lot of check points on what he's been able to accomplish and not only in the Playoffs but for the last half of the season.

So I would say it starts but it doesn't end there. I think there's more people that have to get on board to a level of work ethic and commitment to what we need to get to to get the job done. And I think that that's on display daily, and that's our job as a coaching staff to provide and present the things that we think are necessary to give us the best chance for success.

Q. With Kesler and his conditioning level, how much of a luxury is that for you as a coach, knowing that he can double shift at different times in the game when you really want that presence on the ice?
COACH CARLYLE: I guess you look at Kes and you look at his body of work, and it's the one thing that you're never really ever question is the level of conditioning, because as I stated before previously, I thought he would be a great example for our younger players to grasp on to and what he does to prepare himself day in, day out, and the time and effort that he spends on keeping his body at a maximum peak level to perform in a lot of different situations and to perform more minutes than a lot of people can. And he's done it for a long time and he relishes in that role.

Q. When Nashville tries to dictate the pace and the tempo, what more can you guys do to try to combat that?
COACH CARLYLE: Again, I didn't think that, you know, for the start of the game, I thought we managed the first period well. And that was one of the goals that we had set out for ourselves is to stay tight, to stay with it.

And we know that they're going to come hard with an early flurry and I thought we weathered that. And I think that we didn't continued to play with the emotion and the commitment that was required from the second period.

We took a couple of penalties. We stalled through the neutral ice where we've been good against this hockey club of getting through there and getting pucks into areas where we could recover. We didn't do a very good job of that after the second period -- or after the first period, excuse me.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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