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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v RED WINGS

May 24, 2009

Joel Quenneville

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Game Four

Detroit Â– 6
Chicago - 1

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Joel Quenneville.

Q. It seemed like there was a lot of composure there today. How come?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Well, I think we witnessed probably the worst call in the history of sports today at the end of the second period there, nothing play. You know, they score, it's 3-0, they ruin a good hockey game. They absolutely destroyed what was going on on the ice.
Whatever happened after that, you know, our guys were battling and competing and doing what we had to do to get ourselves back into it.
You know, we'll find a way to fight through it. But it was that call that you could -- never seen anything like it.

Q. Did you see that as taking a run at Kane and the retaliation was the penalty?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: I couldn't find the penalties. I think you could argue along the way. But they ruined the whole game. I think that's basically the gist of what I'm trying to say.

Q. Joel, it seemed like their early goals for one reason or another, back-breaker goals, a shorty, last minute of a period, right after you guys score, all ones that really hurt?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Yeah, they're tough ones to give up. I know shorties, you lose a lot of momentum on plays like that. We had a good start. Liked the way things are going. Both team had a few chances. Not a ton. But we had the momentum. You lose it on the shorty. The one at the end of the first was a tough one, 2-0. Come out to start the third, and find out you're shorthanded. I still can't figure it out.

Q. Not a lot of miracles happen in history, but the U.S. beat the Russian team. It was just the student hockey players. In Chicago, it's also the youngest team in the league. Detroit has experience, everything that they need to have, lineups. They get a chance to go forward. Do you still think we can hope on this miracle?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Yeah, we're looking at just the one game. I think we played two pretty good games in Detroit to come out with nothing. So I think building off that game, those two games, you know, I think three games going into today were all competitive and close.
So, you know, we got to get there knowing that we got to be better than we were today. But fight our way right back into this, and who knows. Going in there with the one-game attitude.

Q. Can you talk about Marty Havlat, the decision to have him play, and what happened to him in the second period, his status right now?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Well, Marty was fine. He was ready to go. He was flying out there. I thought he had a good start to the game. And, you know, I think he really progressed last two days, and actually after the game that night.
So, you know, we did what we could, and he did what he had to do. You know, so we'll see -- he's doing all right, too, right now. So we'll see how he is going into Wednesday.

Q. Assess the play of your goaltenders, bringing Cristo back after.
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: He hasn't played much, was a part of it. I wanted to change the momentum in the second. We went about it that way. Then we wanted to get him some playing time, too, because he hasn't played much. You know, I thought going forward, that can help.

Q. Is Khabi still a big loss for you? Is it day to day?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Yeah, day to day. He's progressing all right. You know, we'll see, you know, we're off tomorrow, practice Tuesday. We'll get a better indication of how close he is.

Q. All the other penalties, did you feel your team did get frustrated?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: You're down 3-0, you know, I don't think we had one penalty in the first period. Put a short. You know, they had two four-on-four calls you could argue about right there. But that was 3-0. Then the five-on-three, you could argue those calls, too.
But their big goal to me tonight was their second goal at the end of the first period and their fourth goal right after we scored. So those were the goals that we got to be better at.

Q. You've been in difficult situations through the playoffs. You guys have gotten out of it. Can you dig back on those things and go forward?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: We have a lot of history in these playoffs. We're learning on the job. This is obviously a huge hole we haven't faced or seen yet. We'll try to look at it in the short-term and look at the good things we've accomplished this year and try to get some positive in a lot of the time we played against them in this series.
You know, it's a tough task. But we'll look at the short-term, which is shift to shift and one game.

Q. Havlat, he only played a minute after the second period. What happened along the boards there in that check? Is he all right?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Yeah, he seemed fine after the game. So we'll see how he progresses over the next couple of days. You know, he handled it well coming out of Friday. We'll see.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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