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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: KINGS v BLACKHAWKSJune 7, 2013Niklas HjalmarssonJonathan ToewsCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. What is the next 24 hours going to be like for you guys? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: It's a lot of games. Obviously it's been like that pretty much all season. It's just about to try to get as much food in you as possible, drink a lot of water, just get in the cold tub and get ready for the next game. Q. What did you learn in Game5 about it not being quite over yet? JONATHAN TOEWS: We're going into tomorrow's game with the mindset that we're down 3‑1. What we said the last couple games in L.A., obviously being up 2‑0, 2‑1, you know the other team is going to come at you hard. It's up to you to motivate yourself, try to put yourself in that position that you feel like you're in a seventh game or your back's up against the wall. I think that's when you play with the most desperation. We did that yesterday. We know we have to raise our level of play even more tomorrow. We'll go forward with that mentality. Q. The ability to focus on the next game is what allowed you to have the regular season you had and get to this point in the playoffs? JONATHAN TOEWS: Pretty much. We keep saying in the locker room we need all four lines. No one has to go out there and try to do too much. We want to keep our shifts short. When one line has a good shift, creates momentum, the next line goes out there and tries to continue that. There's never really any use to look too far ahead, no use worrying about that stuff. You take it one shift, one period at a time. You try to outplay the opposition as much as you can, eventually you're going to get the result that you want, and that's winning hockey games. Q. Are you sensing frustration on L.A.'s part? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: I don't know. I don't think so. I think we just played an overall better game yesterday compared to the first game we did there in L.A. No, we know they're going to come out and give it all. They're a great team. It's always the toughest one to win, to close out a series. We expect a tough game tomorrow, but obviously looking forward to playing in the United Center when all the crowd is going to be rocking. Looking forward to that. Q. (No microphone.) NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Huge part of our team and the success so far in this season, the last couple seasons. He's been one of the best D men in the league. Obviously, it's a huge loss for us. At the same time, we have a lot of depth on the defense this year. I think that's one of the biggest parts I think we've been doing so well this year. At the same time, some other guys has to step up and log more minutes when a guy like Dunks is gone. He usually plays 25, 26 minutes. I think we did a good job with that yesterday. Q. (No microphone.) JONATHAN TOEWS: I agree with what Hammer said. We have played without some of our top players before. I think there's always a bit of a mental hurdle there at first when you realize you're going to be without that guy. We got a lot of great players that can step in. Sheldon Brookbank did a great job yesterday. The other guys that got more ice time than they usually do. Everyone is ready for that opportunity to do more, to contribute more. That's what makes us a good team. We're looking forward to getting him back in the lineup tomorrow because we all know how much he can help our team. Q. (Question regarding the power play.) JONATHAN TOEWS: That could be a small thing. Maybe you look at the game yesterday, we trailed for at least half the game there until we tied it up in the second. We feel if you take advantage of a few of your power play chances, maybe you can take the lead, take a little more control of the game, maybe distance yourself a little bit from the other team. But, you know, a series ago, we were asking ourselves the same thing. We were answering the same questions about our power play early in the series against Detroit. We came on strong late in the series, and it helped us a lot in winning that series. So it's something that we're always focused on. We'll keep trying to work on. We know that it can make a difference in the series. We're very aware of that. Q. (No microphone.) NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Yeah, he was pretty pumped up when we came in the locker room there. We were all happy. But he was probably one of the happiest guys. I would say he was jumping around and giving us fist pumps. It was fun to see. I can just imagine. It's always worse watching than actually playing the game. That was probably pretty tough for him, I guess. Q. (No microphone.) NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: I didn't personally talk that much with him after the game. But, yeah, I would guess so. Q. (No microphone.) NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Yeah, when you hear you guys talking about it's always going to be tougher for us, it makes the rest of us that are still playing want to show we can still do a great job. I think we did that yesterday. Q. Will you watch tonight's game with a little more interest tonight at all? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: I haven't really been looking that much actually at the other series. If I've got nothing else to do tonight, I might watch it, yeah. Q. (Question regarding Rozsival.) NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: He's been great this year. I noticed the first practice with him this year, just the small passes he makes makes it so much easier for everyone. You can just see, he's been around for a long time and he knows where to put pucks and he knows where the centermen are in the D zone. He's just a really smart player that I personally can try to learn stuff from, too, just the way he makes situations out there look really easy. He's been great this year. Yeah, he had a good game yesterday, too. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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