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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLYERS v BLACKHAWKSJune 5, 2010Chris ProngerMike RichardsCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions for Chris or Mike. Q. Mike, is there a little bit of a different feeling, maybe a better feeling coming into this building now after having won the last two games than coming here for Games 1 and 2? MIKE RICHARDS: I don't think it's different. We were confident before coming into the Series. Obviously confident now. I mean, really all we've done is just held serve throughout the two games in Philly and it's 2-2. And made it a three-game Series. So we're playing well right now. We have to keep it up. We can't get too cocky or look too far ahead of what we've got to do tomorrow night. Q. Prongs, there's a lot of talk that Chicago is going to change up some of their line combinations, direct correlation to you. A, do you take that as a compliment personally, and B, how do you expect that to impact the game tomorrow night? CHRIS PRONGER: I don't know. I guess it could go two ways. One, they haven't played together that much. So maybe they're a little out of whack. Or B, it sparks them and fresh line mates and a new look, that gives them a little bit more offensive puck. I don't know. We'll see. But that's really out of our hands. All we can do is continue to get better, play even better defensively and make sure that we're keeping them in the perimeter, and Mike can see all the shots. Q. In that vein, I know you generally don't concern yourselves with what the other team is doing, but it must be encouraging to know that they seem to be you know reacting to what you guys are doing and you guys are setting the tone and the pace. Maybe you've got them on the run a little bit? THE MODERATOR: Who is that for? Q. Either, both. CHRIS PRONGER: Go ahead. MIKE RICHARDS: I don't know. I don't think we have them on the run. I think throughout our Playoff Series you make adjustments. Determining on how things are going and what they see out there, it's nice to see all the different things the teams do to adjust to each other. This is just one of those things. Like you said earlier, they are probably trying to create some chemistry or maybe create a spark for their offense a little bit. We're going to adjust to it when we see fit. But right now we have to worry about what we have to do tomorrow night and not what they're doing. Q. Chris, on the same thread here of their line splitting, they changed -- they split Toews and Kane in the third period when they started to make their push. Did you feel that on the ice? Did you notice? Did you think it was effective by having them split? CHRIS PRONGER: Well, it really wasn't working until they got a 5 on 3 goal. You're observation probably is moot, at best. Q. It's not mine. CHRIS PRONGER: You just made it. Q. Quenneville said it. CHRIS PRONGER: There you go. I guess Joel is wrong too. Q. So you didn't think it was effective at all? CHRIS PRONGER: I didn't say that. You did. Q. Mike, obviously you guys have to win in this building in order to win this Series. Can you draw on any positives from the way you guys played Games 1 and 2, considering how close you were in those games? MIKE RICHARDS: We played well in the games. They were right there just as the two games were in our building too. So we've been a great road team all year long. We've been a great road team in the Playoffs. And to win in difficult buildings, Boston, Montreal, we don't want to change anything up from what we did in the first two games. It's just a matter of execution. I think in the second game we had a lot of chances. We were just a little bit off with the execution and making plays and eventually scoring goals. So hopefully that will come tomorrow night. Like I said, we've played well on the road all year. So we don't want to change too much. Q. Chris, your modesty aside, what is it like to -- it appears to you personally that is the reason for the breaking up or the separating of those guys since you can't play the whole game. For you personally, what is that like to have that kind of impact in a game or Series? CHRIS PRONGER: I don't necessarily think it's that. If you go back and look, our forwards have done a great job. You look at the line that's scoring against them, it's the Briere line. That's done a great job of making them play defense. Which, obviously, they don't want to do. They want to play offense. They want to have the puck. They want to control the pace of the game, control the game that way. That line has done a great job of controlling the tempo of the game and controlling the puck and making them play in the areas where they don't want to. This game is five man units on the ice having chemistry. We've done a pretty good job of that thus far. Q. Mike, in each of those Games 3 and 4, there was a goal right away responding to a Chicago goal, Ville Leino and Claude Giroux. How important are those goals in those two games, and even Quenneville alluded to the fact that they may have played a huge part in the outcome of you guys winning those games. MIKE RICHARDS: For the Game 3, I think, Ville's goal was probably the biggest. In the third period where they've been pretty good at closing out hockey games and to get that right away and to get the crowd back into it on our side. We're an emotional team. We play with a lot of emotion. We feed off the crowd a lot. I feel that's why we're a good home team. But I mean G's goal right after in Game 4, too, kind of swayed it and made us feel a little better going into the intermission too. Q. You spend a lot of time with Matt Carle. I'm just wondering what you like about his game and also with a kind ever guy he is. CHRIS PRONGER: Off the ice or on? Q. Off the ice. CHRIS PRONGER: Great guy. Mike can attest to that. Very quiet. Unassuming guy. Obviously confident in his abilities, and he's getting a chance to kind of show what he can do. Very steadying influence on the ice. Makes a great first pass. Reads a play very well. And is a solid defender. I think a lot of times guys that can make plays and see the ice as well as he does and jumps in the attack, their defensive play gets overlooked a lot. He's obviously playing with me matched up against the top line. Does a great job. Q. Chris, in these Playoffs, each Series as the Flyers have gone along, it seems like you guys are playing better and better as the Series goes on. 9-0 after Game 4 and on. Are you wearing down opponents? Is it toughness? What do you think some of the reasons are for that? CHRIS PRONGER: I don't know. I think you see teams over and over again as do you in the Playoffs and in Playoff Series. You start to figure out what works and what doesn't. You start to feel better as a team. We've obviously gotten better with not only each Series, but in games we get better with each period, or so it seems. I don't really know what the reason for it is, but we've certainly done a good job and hopefully that will continue for us. Q. This is for either of you. Just how much confidence did you take after that Boston Series going down 3-0 and the 2-0 seemed kind of easy by comparison? MIKE RICHARDS: I wouldn't say it was easy. We've kind of put ourselves in tough situations all year, which I think -- I remember early in the season, Chris and I talking about going through the adversity at an early point in the season will just make us better kind of later on when we get to it. We went through a lot of it this year, and we had a lot of ups and downs. I think it really paid off when we got down 0-3 to Boston and plugged away and then 0-2 to Chicago here going home. So when you go through things like that as a group and you come out on top like we did throughout the season, making the Playoffs like we did through the Boston Series, I think it just sets up for having confidence in each other and not panicking and just being aware of what you can do as a group if you kind of stick to the system and stick to the plan. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. End of FastScripts |
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