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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: KINGS v COYOTESMay 18, 2012Dave TippettLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everyone, for joining us. With us today is Phoenix Coyotes coach Dave Tippett. We'll open up the line for questioning. Q. Dave, two days off now before the next game. Do you think this break can help you or would you rather just get back on the ice and try and win one? COACH TIPPETT: Well, I don't think you look at it one way or another. We'll take a rest day today. We got some players that didn't play last night and a few extra skating today. We'll take the day to evaluate the game last night, have a good practice tomorrow and that will be our prep for Sunday. You know, you manage your schedule accordingly. I don't think it's one way or another.  Good or bad, you know what it is and you plan accordingly. Q. We've talked a lot about the Coyotes overcoming distractions. When you look at what Langkow and Morris have had to deal with with personal issues. Can you talk about their return to the lineup? COACH TIPPETT: Well, I mean, both players are veteran players. It's a combination of obviously, you know, their personal issues are one side, but being strong veterans, the experience they have dealing with different situations in the league, I think both of them handled it very well. There's going to be some ups and downs. But both of them are very good teammates and they put some of that distraction aside. When it's time to play, they come and play well. I think their teammates appreciate that. They're a big part of our team. Both off‑ice challenges aside, they come in and make sure they're prepared and do their job for what we have to do as a team. Q. How frustrating was it when you had a chance on the power play to create some offense. And yet some key players turned the puck over in the areas of the ice that I'm sure you didn't like, and how can that be improved? COACH TIPPETT: We have to find some ways to create some more opportunities whether it's on the power play or five‑on‑five. I thought our first period, we were better, jumping on loose pucks, getting some pucks to the net. As the game went on, you're looking for people that create chances. We're a team that scores by committee. But that being said, the people that play on the power play are the people that get the opportunity in offensive situations. We have to have a little more from them. Q. Last night you talked about embellishing, not just your team, but throughout the playoffs. Some of the media were today critical today, focusing on your team. The criticism was that you should be more focused on your team getting outplayed. How do you respond to that? COACH TIPPETT: I said my piece on embellishment. It wasn't geared toward that game last night. I talked about this from the start of the year. So I've said my piece on that. Obviously there's frustration on our part that we would like to get better results. Our margin for error is very slim when we feel like there's some situations that happen in a game that go against you, we're looking for every little scratch we can find, every little piece of positive we can find to help us get back in the series. When that doesn't happen, you get frustrated with it. But, you know, you give L.A. credit, they've played very well. I don't think we've played as well in this series as we have the two previous. We're down 3‑0 because of it. Q. You found yourself in a similar situation last year against Detroit. Is there anything you can do to draw on that experience to not face the similar fate this year? COACH TIPPETT: Different team. You have different personalities, different setup, different series. Going through experiences, you know, everybody has been through a lot of different experiences. But this challenge for us, we'll focus just on this one, not what happened in the past. Q. What is your take on what Langkow has brought to the team in this post‑season? COACH TIPPETT: Well, he's just a steady player. You watch the way he played last night. We didn't create a lot of chances, but he was involved in a number of them. Obviously got our goal. But he's a player, one of these guys, you don't notice him a lot out there a lot of times, but he does a lot of things right in the game. You know, he doesn't have the hardest shot, yet it's deceiving. He finds opportunities. He's a player that plays in different roles. Two games ago he was the fourth line center, last night our top center. It's a credit to him to adapt to different situations, different roles that he plays, and having the ability to do them all well. Q. You're three games into it, watching Jonathan Quick, how aggressive he was on top of his crease, is there one thing you'd like to see your players do better knowing that first shot doesn't seem to be available to anybody with how well he protects it? COACH TIPPETT: Well, the secret for us is we have to find a way to get more pucks at him. You look at last night. Other than the first period, I thought we had some‑‑ the first time in the series we had any kind of, looked like, sustained pressure down there. Until we continue to test him for an extended period of time, he hasn't had it very tough down there. So we know how Smitty plays, how well he has to play for us. I don't think we've tested Quick enough yet. They've done a good job of protecting him, but I don't think we've created enough around him. Q. If this were a building with more active boards, I imagine they're not active so you can't utilize the back of the boards for a shot wide and use the back of the boards, have a goalie challenge that far out? COACH TIPPETT: There is some situations where you feel like you can get pucks behind him. That's certainly one way to get pucks behind him, whether they're redirections or rebounds behind him. Again, we just haven't had enough opportunities to get the pucks there. That's the thing that I'm more critical of our group about, is finding opportunities to get it there. We just haven't created enough. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Thanks, everyone, for joining us. Particularly, Coach Tippett, thank you for your time. COACH TIPPETT: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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