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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BRUINS v BLACKHAWKSJune 14, 2013Joel QuennevilleCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How did Seguin change the composition of that first line when he went in the overtime? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Looked like it was pretty well the same. He had some speed. They were a dangerous line. Seemed like they were pretty consistent throughout the night. Q. Most teams have pretty defined lines throughout the playoffs. What is it about your team that allows you to mix and match your lines so much? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, I think most of the guys over the course of the season play with one another. Sometimes it's the matchup. Sometimes it's mixing it up. Guys on a merit basis look like they're playing well. They both go hand‑in‑hand. We feel in games and in playoff series, you don't have enough time to hang around and make that decision. So sometimes we try things. We usually try them when we don't like the way things are going. Q. Is Carcillo out with anything? COACH QUENNEVILLE: He was just sick tonight. Q. When you evaluate Toews over stretches, what are your criteria? COACH QUENNEVILLE: One thing you know, he's the ultimate player as far as in all zones. He plays well without the puck, brings speed to your game, puck possession, awareness to how you want to play technically. Special teams he's out there in all those minutes. Just plays a hard game. Offensively his numbers may be down, but the one thing you get from Johnny, without the puck, they got to be concerned with him. He takes the opponents in their top matchups a lot of times, they're going to see Johnny a lot. He's playing against some guys that know how to play without the puck. Usually gets a top defensive pairing. There's attention that's got to be paid to him. But you know he leaves it out there. Q. Duncan is not the biggest guy going, but he logs a lot of minutes. Can you talk about how he's able to do that. COACH QUENNEVILLE: Dunks is a thoroughbred. I think he's one of those guys, his conditioning level is at a different level than most players. He's able to absorb big minutes. This year is one year we conscientiously tried to cut down his minutes because the scheduling is so tight. As the season has progressed and in the playoffs, he's picked up more minutes. He relishes ice time. He loves to play more. I think the more you play defense, it's easier to play better. Then you get different minutes, that kind of goes away from you. He loves playing more. He's one of those guys, you can't overtax him. Q. Can you talk about Bolland and Shaw's line, the nice effort they had. COACH QUENNEVILLE: Bolly, I think this is the year, looked like he had some responsibility for his line all year long. He's been in the lineup two or three times where it looked like he was starting to go. Took him a while in this playoffs to get up to speed. Late in the last round against L.A. he seemed like he likes that challenge of having more ice time, more responsibility. Got a little quicker. I think that line will give you some responsibility defensively, some skill offensively as well. All those guys, they got a pretty good idea how to play with and without the puck. Sometimes they're hard to play against. Q. With Jonathan, did you get the sense that earlier in these playoffs he might have been frustrated at the lack of offense, now he's let all of that go? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think one thing about Johnny, you look back, our first round, the top guys, wasn't a lot of production either side. One thing with Johnny, he doesn't give up a lot. Sometimes it might be squared off in that area, but Johnny brings a lot to the table besides the production. It's like we said all playoffs, I don't care who really scores, as long as we get some production across the board. You expect he's going to break out one of these days. At the same time the consistency has to be concerned with what he can bring as far as scoring chances, puck possession, still complements our team game. Q. Can you describe a little bit about what you like so much about coaching? What is it like coaching in a city where previous guys like Phil Jackson and Ditka were here. COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, we love it here in Chicago, be it the family or being a part of it, special organization, special place to work as a player, as a coach. As a player, it's way more fun being a player than a coach. But at the same time, really enjoyed coaching in the different places I've been as a coach. I just think I've been fortunate to work with some great people, some great organizations. I've learned from some great people along the way. I was fortunate to play and work for Roger Neilson, started my career in coaching. Been around Kitchener, getting Jamie on this year, a nice fit for all of us. It's a special place, Chicago. It's a great sports city. It's a great environment. People are very passionate about their teams, their sports as well. We love all that aspect of being a part of Chicago sports scene, how fortunate we are to be a part of this place here in Chicago, be a part of the Blackhawk family, as well. You can tell in the building from the national anthem throughout the game, there's something special going on here. I'm just happy to be a part of it. I was very fortunate to come in here at a great time, when the team was taking off. Been very happy since. Q. You mentioned a little bit about Dave Bolland. When he's playing at his top level, what makes him so effective? Moving him to the second line, did that mess him up a little bit? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I look back maybe four or five years ago with Bolly, probably looked upon as our third line. A lot of nights it could have been our first line. I think you can put numbers to what he brings as far as one, two or three. Bolly, you get that predictability defensively. But there's some skill there that he can play against top lines and we still expect him to score, whether he's got a strict matchup or he's got a little bit of variety in his role. I think he likes to relish a strict matchup, a little more responsibility in his role, in his game. But either way, you know, I think he's a predictable player on the defensive side of the puck, but he does have some real nice upside that he can make plays and score as well. Q. I was talking to Mike Babcock this morning. He said either you or Claude Julien will have a second ring in the cap era. I know Claude is your competitor right now. Do you appreciate the symmetry in terms of the last few years, both of you Cup winners, if you believe the rumors, maybe both of you hanging on at one point in terms of job security? COACH QUENNEVILLE: It's a tough business. We all know the tough parts of it. Job security is not the safest career choice in the world. But I think we know going in with the challenges that you can face. We're in a winning business. When we look back, we had to change the whole make up of our team. Basically half the team after winning, it was kind of a new team for a couple years there. I thought we progressed over the course of a few years there. At the same time the challenges this year, we got off to an amazing start, and expectations are probably higher heading into the playoffs. The playoffs started, you know, there's going to be some highs and lows throughout it. I thought we faced as much adversity as you can face being down 3‑1 against Detroit. I like the way the team responded. We progressed from that level where we seem to be getting better and better. We're happy and excited where we're at today. Q. Knowing what you said in the past about the swings, don't score, score on a five‑on‑three, have you watched the video often looking for what happened and what went wrong? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Yeah, we addressed it. We looked at it. We addressed it right after that. You never know if you get another one. But certainly we'll see. We weren't pleased with what went on. Q. These hours dragging for you with the extra day? Is it a sense of your players, in your opinion, ready to go tonight? Is it tough to wait till tomorrow? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think the extra day was probably good for everybody because it was such a taxing game. I think everybody could use what went on yesterday, resting. You can see today in practice, we got better as we got out there. I think everybody will be fresh and excited to go. We had some extra days in other series, as well, in between games. I think once we get the next three games, starting tomorrow, they're bing, bing, bing, so we're back to the normal schedule. Q. NHL awards season. What would it mean for you personally to win the Jack Adams Award? COACH QUENNEVILLE: To me it's a reflection of what the team accomplished all year. The guys should be commended on the season they had. It was a privilege to coach this group all year long. Their success at being a very consistent team, everybody played a part of that, four lines, defense being improved this year, goaltending situation, won the Jennings. It was a real nice group all year long. The consistency was the best part about it. It's a reflection of what the players accomplished. Q. Claude after the game used the term 'embellishing' when talking about Shaw. Do you see that as politicking? Do you have to say anything to Shaw? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I addressed that yesterday, said I wasn't going there. Shaw, he's a competitive kid, plays a hard game. He knows there's rewards by going to the front of the net, hard areas. He's got a relentless attitude, approach to it. We've talked in the past. We always visit different situations. One thing is, he pushes it. Q. Back to the question of the fraternity of coaches here. Does the fraternity continue? Do you have a relationship with the Cubs, Sox, Bears head coaches? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Tom texted me the other day, Tom Thibodeau. I met Mike a few times in town. I met the Sox coach. I haven't seen the new Cubs and new Bears coach. I was familiar with Mike Tice, as well. We've been texting, as well. It's nice knowing the guys. Tom, we bump into each other here at the United Center. He was happy for us. Told him he was doing a good job shoveling the other day (laughter). Q. Given Corey Crawford's body of work, do you think that he's prepared and should be mentioned as a candidate for Canada's Olympic team at this point? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Not knowing all the candidates under consideration. I know he had a nice year this year. I look back to two years ago when he came in as a rookie, played 30‑something games in a row for us, got us in the playoffs, played an outstanding series against Vancouver. Last year we went into the year, it's a different animal having the number one job, expectations changed. I thought he had some real good stretches for us over the course of this season. Playoffs. Had to answer a lot of questions this year going into the season. What about our goaltending? We said we're very comfortable with Corey. Think he's got the capability of being a top goalie in the league. I think a number of top goalies after a strong rookie season, seemed to have an ordinary year the next year. Different challenges. Corey with the expectations this year came in with the right attitude, frame of mind. Loved the consistency of his approach. In net, game in, game out, the predictability has been in place. I think Ray Emery and him are in perfect tandem, complement each other, very supportive in a lot of ways. Q. How about the Olympics? COACH QUENNEVILLE: He's faced all challenges this year, played in some big games, big settings. I don't think he changes his demeanor one iota. Q. Are the expectations for the fourth line being raised given the time on ice in Game1? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think that line, I look at what they've done for us when they've played. It seems like that line, you're comfortable playing them in all situations and against any matchup in all zones. I think it's a compliment to the way they play. They play a lot of offensive zone time. They work the other team. They maybe don't have the finish offensively numbers to reflect it. They can bring momentum to our team, get on the other team in their end, what we're trying to do. So we like the way they played. Their ice time will be rewarded by how they continue to play. The expectation all year long is that line, they do it. Q. When it comes to the Krejci matchup, is it more important to have the right forwards or the right defensemen against him? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Or both? Either way, we'll see. I think that's something that we look at and visit. I think over the course of the season, the back end was something we look at. But I think the one thing this year that we're pleased about all year long is all four lines, we can be comfortable against anybody. Sometimes you prioritize a little bit more. Q. I know you're going to tell me two times was two times too many and there's no excuses. As you get into a double and triple overtime, is it that much more of a challenge trying to get guys their rest, toomanymen calls? COACH QUENNEVILLE: Kind of a weird thing. 48 games, all playoffs game, we had two toomanymenontheice penalties in all those games, and we had two in overtime. One guy came onto the ice, got hit with the puck. The other one, throw it to fatigue, it was late in the period. Something like last year, might have been an epidemic, or two years ago with these toomanymenontheice penalties in the playoffs. Matchups, trying to get on and off the ice. Sometimes you get stuck at the bench playing a puck maybe you shouldn't have. Sometimes you get a guy coming to the bench, goes back in to play. It can happen. But we were fortunate to dodge two bullets at very important times. Q. What have you seen Brandon Saad doing in the latter half of the playoffs to elevate his game? Do you think he looked uncomfortable in the playoffs early? COACH QUENNEVILLE: I thought he was okay at the start of the playoffs. I thought he had an outstanding regular season. I thought he started at a pretty good pace. Almost kind of represented the way he started the regular season. He was fine in the regular season. Didn't have any production to show for his play. Started the playoffs kind of comparable. Now he's getting a little more production. His play has picked up in the latter rounds against L.A., and I like the way he played the last game as well. He's a big player. He can make plays. He's dangerous off the rush. Has a heck of a shot. Nice to see him get that one. Hopefully he's more comfortable in the scoring area going forward. He does a lot of things besides the offensive production like we talked about earlier on Johnny. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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