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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: FLYERS v BLACKHAWKSJune 7, 2010Joel QuennevillePHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Okay. Good morning. Questions for Coach. We have people at the Wachovia Center listening in. Q. Joel, I'm sure the fans, and possibly even the League, is happy to see a high-scoring series. How do the coaches feel about it? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I don't mind when we're scoring the way we were early in the game. I didn't like all of a sudden the way they were going in our end. I think there's been a lot of goals in this series. They just seem to be going in whether they're deflections or fortunate bounces around the net, they've been going to the right guys or wrong guys whichever way you're looking at it. I think both teams are capable of scoring. I don't think we envisioned scoring at the rate we're scoring at. I think the thing I always try is to stress with our team is defense first in our approach. I still think that's an area where we can enhance and solidify going into the next game and try to be a little bit airtight around our net. Q. Joel, we just listened to Peter Laviolette and he discussed the high sticking on Daniel Briere. Couldn't believe the call was missed. Kind of suggests that maybe it was on purpose, which seems hard to believe. What was your take on that play? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I'm not getting too much into the officiating. I know we looked over the first four games. I think Soupy might have had the same high stick and he was cut too. Apples and oranges. At the end of the day it probably came out in the wash. Q. Joel, you talk about fast starts all the time. What does it take to actually have a fast start? I know you always wanted one, but what's the key to days when they don't have one? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I thought we skated harder or quicker and had more support of the puck. We seemed to be managing it more efficiently and moving it quicker. And I think we had some good zone time in their own end. We had some good possessions, had some dangerous looks at the net. We had all four lines bringing us energy in the game. Fed off the noise and enthusiasm of the crowd here, and took advantage of it. Q. Joel, Dustin Byfuglien, Game 4 it seemed like he was a non-factor. Yesterday he was the factor. What was the difference in him? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I thought Buff, his playoffs, have been special a lot of nights. I think the first two games in the series maybe he didn't have much production, but I still thought he was effective in ways of using his body and his size. Maybe not as busy as we would have liked him in Philly. But rebounded, big effort last night. I thought he was impactful in a lot of the games in the Vancouver series, going into San Jose as well. But I think last night was the biggest influence in the game he's had throughout the playoffs. He was a big factor. Q. Time was a one-goal lead or a two-goal lead in a playoff game was the kind of thing you could put to rest and enjoy. Is there any lead now that's safe? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I don't think in this series. I know they had a three-goal lead late in Game 4, and all of a sudden we had three goal leads throughout, and all of a sudden they get it to two and chance to get it to one. I think both teams are very respectful for the opposition's offense and the threats they pose. And especially when you're down all of a sudden you're just going for it, it can enhance the quality of the offense. But at the same time, we want to make sure we try to slow it down with any leads we do have. That's easier said than done right now. Q. Because if they called off the high stick on Keith last night, that's a four-minute penalty probably under most circumstances. COACH QUENNEVILLE: We just mentioned that. We had a four-minute -- Soupy got high sticked for four minutes before that happened. So who knows what happens -- it's like -- situations like that, we got through some calls and non-calls. You have to play the game that's out there. And I think we did have to kill a penalty when they almost tied it or had it within one goal in the second period. They had a great chance to score. Q. Joel, can you come out and dominate early without feeding off the home crowd like did you last night? And do you sort of expect the Flyers to sort of come out in Game 6 the way you did yesterday? COACH QUENNEVILLE: We expect them to come out hard. I think we want to come out the same way we began the game last night. I think we have had some real good road games in these playoffs. I think we're -- I think we get both one-goal games on the road in Philly. Lose in overtime. Not good enough. But I think we have had some great games. Some of our best games in the playoffs in Vancouver and San Jose, even in Nashville. Q. Coach, Chris Pronger kept to a minus 5 on the penalty box for a big goal. How big was splitting up your lines in minimizing his effectiveness? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think I'm concerned with what we had to do. I like the balance in our lines. I like the speed of our lines. I like the consistency of the rotation. And gives us more options and different looks. I think guys usually seem to get a jolt or some energy after forming new lines or getting to play with different guys. I just thought they worked well last night. Hopefully we can improve off of those levels. Q. Chris Pronger has been averaging 30 minutes a game pretty much. They've also got to make some adjustments and some decisions on how they're going to handle your new lines. Does the extra day help them, or does it matter? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think both teams can use it to their advantage to get rest and get excited about the next game. I think some guys would rather play today. I think the extra rest will get us focused knowing it's a huge game, biggest game of our lives. Channel it properly, and control -- we control what we can control and that's your next shift. Q. Joel, two power-play goals last night, only one previously in the series. Did you see anything different out of that unit? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, it's the first time I think we have had consecutive power plays in the same period. Where we kind of get a little bit of flow off what we didn't do or did right in the first power-play and score on the second one of the game. The second one we did score was off a very nice entry with good puck movement, Buff at the net. So I think that certain nights they do go in, they don't go in. But they have a good penalty-killing squad. But it's nice to see us get some production and give our power-play some confidence, knowing that it could be the differential going forward. Q. Joel, earlier in the series you discussed how Marian Hossa has made it through 12 rounds without winning a Cup. He's now along with your team very close to winning. What do you sense he might be going through as he's kind of been waiting for this? So close the last two years and maybe now finally getting to achieve it? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think he was in the same situation last couple of years. Same exact spot he was in last year in Detroit. So I think that experience can certainly help him. He can channel the energy and the focus. He can help our team as well knowing how to prepare over the next few days as we gear up for Wednesday's game. Obviously, he's got to be chomping at the bit, excited like we all are. I would say he might be the -- one of the better guys as far as managing his emotions going into the game, having been there and done that. Q. Joel, does everybody now use the umbrella power-play? It seems all the other ones people used to use it have gone by the wayside. COACH QUENNEVILLE: It's overload on the down-low or the 1-3-1, whatever you want to call it. But it seems like threats off those half walls, they give up certain shots. But you get some motion off that off-wing flank and I don't know if Detroit started it, but seems like a lot of teams emulate that type of movement. There's certain things you can stop. But you can't stop everything. I just think that you create some motion as best you can, and you still got to be a threat to shoot. You still need traffic at the net. Good players will always see plays. The thing is you don't want to look for the pretty ones, because they don't usually happen. Q. Joel, you guys have always -- you faced a lot of big games, so now, as you just said, the biggest game for them. What do you expect to see from the guys? Nerves? And how will you kind of manage it with them? COACH QUENNEVILLE: We like the response to our biggest game last night. I know whether there's the expectations of the challenge of facing losing two games in a row, how are we going to respond. Commended the guys how business-like and their concentration, their focus. It was exactly how you would expect it or want it. I don't think we want to change off of those levels. We're going on the road. We don't want to change our approach, play the same way. Same emotion. One shift at a time. Fine tune it and don't look at the big picture. Look at the small picture. Q. A Bob Johnson type might want to take his team to the movies or something tomorrow night or tonight, or to go to a museum or to do some kind of -- do you ever do those kind of things? Do you plan to do anything between now with this amount of time off with your team? COACH QUENNEVILLE: We already took them to Alcatraz. Could have locked them up for a couple of days. It was a fun trip when we were out there in San Jose for a couple of extra days. Kind of got away from the rink. Today we've been so busy, and I think it was a day where they're just going to stay away from each other and get some rest and will practice tomorrow. Fly to Philly and kind of do our routine that we've done on the road. I think they got a lot of bonding going on at the hotel, whether they're playing video games. They do spend a lot of time on the road. We have had an extensive amount of days together away from Chicago. Q. Joel, Scotty Bowman has been in this situation many times. He's had a lot of success. I was wondering if especially when things got tight after Game 4, even now, has he counseled you at all on how to handle this, what to do? I'm not just talking so much about moral support but strategic things or anything that affects play on the ice? COACH QUENNEVILLE: We always talk strategy with Scotty. He always has some good ideas. Things sometimes you don't think about. I'll sit with him on the plane -- I sat with him on the plane coming back from Philly. I'll sit with him tomorrow. He's in the room a lot. He's always visiting with good ideas, good suggestions. And his experience of being at this time in the playoffs season, being around and knowing the right things to say or do or to think about. Sometimes I don't always look at it that way. I think he's a great guy to have around to keep things in perspective. Q. As a follow-up to that, was it Scotty's idea to break up the first line? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I don't know if it was Scotty's. We did it in the course of the game last game. I think we all knew that we had to mix them up. Q. Joel, for you, could you talk about the journey that it's been since you became Blackhawks head coach and getting to this point of your career? COACH QUENNEVILLE: It's been a lot of fun. I've been very fortunate to come here at the time, receiving a tremendous hockey team with great kids that like being around each other. Have a lot of skill and talent. A lot of the same demographics. Grew up together and grown together over the last two years as a team. It's a fun team to coach. We've accomplished some things last year that I think have helped us out this year as far as getting in the playoffs, playing three rounds. This year -- season was kind of comparable to regular season to last year. But it certainly -- every day we love coming in to work. Got a great staff to work with. Not a bigger thrill in standing out behind the bench when you hear the Anthem and you get chills and goose bumps and you're ready to start another game. In the playoffs, it seems to grow to a different level. Being around the city of Chicago, it's been a great place to live. Our family loves it. We're happy here. And we have a great situation. The biggest thrill of our lives coming up. Q. If you don't have the previous relationship with Marc Bergevin? Are you sitting here now -- COACH QUENNEVILLE: Say that again. Q. If you don't have the previous relationship, friendship with Marc Bergevin, are you sitting in your position now? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I have not clue about that. I don't know whether it's Dale or Bergevin or whomever in that regard. But I felt very fortunate to get the chance to begin here. I was very happy to maybe take the year off last year in Colorado and watch hockey games and spend some time with my family. Things change rapidly. I was beneficiary of coming in with a great opportunity at the right time. I feel lucky. Q. Given how well all four lines played last night, is it safe to assume you're done tweaking them? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Right now. Status quo would probably be the best way to go, go into the next game. SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Thank you very much, Coach. COACH QUENNEVILLE: Thanks. End of FastScripts |
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