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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BRUINS v BLACKHAWKSJune 20, 2013Brandon SaadJonathan ToewsCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Jonathan, you talked about Brent last night and some of the things that he said to you, and we remember back in Detroit how he helped you out in the penalty box. Does he have maybe more of a leadership, vocal quality with you guys that maybe we don't see so much from our vantage point? JONATHAN TOEWS: Of course, of course. He always has. Probably one of the louder guys before the game in the locker room, in between periods. He's always getting the guys going. I think that's part of his ritual to get himself going, that he wants to be vocally involved and just get that positive feeling, that excited feeling going for the boys. Obviously he's tried to do the same for me. It was a big night for the two of us last night. Q. Jonathan, Chara was on the ice for five of your goals last night. Did that feel like a bit of a breakthrough given all the attention he gets back there, and what did you do against him? And Brandon, if you could talk about seemed like you were really trying to push him wide, make him turn, that kind of thing? BRANDON SAAD: Well, yeah, he's a big guy. That's one of the main goals is to get him to move his feet and try to sustain that pressure. He's a great defenseman but to keep that pressure and have the success that we did, that's always a positive thing. JONATHAN TOEWS: I agree. I think I said last night that he does a lot of good things, and he uses his size and his reach to his advantage, and I think maybe at times in the first couple games we were giving him a little bit too much respect by trying to keep the puck away from him. He's not a guy that we should be afraid of. We should go at him, protect the puck from him, make plays around him and through him. We use our speed. You saw the goal that Marcus Krüger scored, Fro never stopped moving his feet and got around him, and great play by those two guys to finish off that play. It's a small example of the way we can expose him. They've got a handful of solid players that we want to key on every single night, and he's one of those guys, so we'll try and keep that going. Q. Jon, Nick obviously had his minutes reduced a little bit. As a captain and even with a young guy, do you try to make sure his head is straight going forward and that he stays encouraged? JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, absolutely. It's not easy to keep your confidence and then go out there and be prepared for the next shift or to go and do your job when maybe you haven't been on the ice for quite a while. There's some guys that maybe get their minutes or their opportunities reduced here and there, guys like Stally and Leds. You try to talk to those guys just to stay with it because you know when they're out there, they can really make a difference for us. That's a huge sacrifice that guys like that have to make for our team, and we know mentally they're going to be ready, and those sacrifices aren't going unnoticed by their teammates. Q. Jonathan, I don't know if you guys hear all the noise or hear all the talk or panic in the streets or anything like that, but do you have a sense that through your years here as a captain that you have a pretty good sense when it's time to find that extra gear even though you may have put yourself in a bad situation, both from a team standpoint and you personally offensively? JONATHAN TOEWS: I think absolutely we have a really good gauge on that, and we showed it in the series against Detroit. That's something we always go to and compare this series to. We said that Detroit and Boston are two very similar with the experience and the lineup that they have. But for us personally, you know you don't get this far, you don't win a Stanley Cup without being pushed up against the wall and being in a few tight spots. That's where we were last night, and for us it was a must‑win. We put it all out there, and we treated it as a Game 7. We got the result we wanted. I think there's still some things we can do better, but for the guys in that locker room, we all understood how critical that game was last night. We showed up to play for each other. I don't think the importance of the next one is any smaller than Game 4. Q. This is for both you guys. Was that the pace of play that you guys would like to play the rest of the series or was that even more free‑wheeling than you guys want to go? BRANDON SAAD: I think first game we played really well. After Game 3, we didn't have our best game and didn't play with that speed and pace that we have success with. I think going into Game 4, we all bear down and play the way we need to, and we had success doing it. JONATHAN TOEWS: I don't think there was anything free‑wheeling about our game last night. Evidently we made a few mistakes and kept giving up goals right after we scored, and when we got the momentum, we found a way to get right back. That's something we want to change if we can do so in the next game. But as far as our speed and our puck control, I think we were very responsible with it. It's something we want to keep going forward with, and I think we can even build on in the next game. The better you play and the more you have a puck, and when you score a big goal especially in our own building come Saturday night, it's going to give us even more energy. So that's something we're looking for in the next one. Q. Jonathan, a two‑part question: First of all, I'm wondering what it is about Brent and how he communicates with you that seems to be able to get the message through, and the second part of it, when he talked earlier today he said that he was tired of hearing about all the good things that you're doing right, and sort of intimating that it was time for you to get a goal, and I'm wondering if you felt the same way. JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, I definitely did. You know, you play hard, you try and do the little things right, but at a certain point it's not enough. You're considered an offensive player, key player on your team, you've got to find a way to do something. He wasn't trying to get on me, I don't think; he was definitely just trying to spark me a little bit. I don't know if it's something that goes with the relationship and the friendship we've had over the years, rooming with him my rookie year here in Chicago. Goes a way back already. But he's always kind of looked after me that way. It's good. He cares about his teammates and he wants guys to have success, and just as much or more than anybody, he wants to win this thing. He did what he had to do. Obviously with the success that he's had in the overtime periods in some of these big games, he's the guy you want to get the puck to this time of year. Q. Jonathan, you touched on it a little bit but when that puck trickles off your stick, what was the feeling? JONATHAN TOEWS: 'Finally.' Just wanted a lucky one, and that was it. I think it doesn't make much sense when you say that, a puck going off your stick from the point, and you seeing it going in, can liberate you as a player and help you play the rest of the game with less pressure. And just go out there and make plays and let things happen instead of trying to force every single little thing, but it does. That's the difference it makes for you, and I think anyone will tell you the same thing. You know, it's not time to just dwell on that one goal. I have to use that confidence and go find a way to score more. Q. Tuukka Rask last night talked about second chances offensively, which I think was a change between Games 3 and 4. What contributed to getting more second chances against him? BRANDON SAAD: I think just the commitment we had. In Game 3 we had a lot of perimeter and getting shots, and when you can see him at this, level he's a great goaltender, he's going to make the save. Going into Game 4, we had the commitment of getting to the net and taking away his eyes and banging in those rebounds. We had a lot of success doing it, and it's something we've got to stay committed to do in the rest of the series. JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, you can look at Kaner's goal as an example where we have traffic and we have a second guy coming in ready for any sort of rebound. It's like two guys screening the goaltender, and eventually someone's going to find the loose puck. Bicks gets that second chance and throws it on net. Kaner comes in for the next rebound. That's the way we want to score goals and create chances. We talked all series about getting a lot of shots and getting that traffic, but we didn't quite do it well enough until last night, and obviously we want to keep improving. Q. Jon, back to the Seabrook thing and maybe scoring, is the message also if you're going to concentrate more on scoring that you might have to cheat a little bit, cheat the game a little bit and give up something in other areas? JONATHAN TOEWS: No, I don't think so. It just comes down to having that killer instincts when you're around the net, to take the puck there or hang onto it that extra second instead of just making a safe play and cycling it behind their net. Where half the time, if you're on that side of the rink, Chara is going to get his stick on it and next thing you know, you might be back checking against their forward. It's just something that confidence that, Hey, you can go out there, you've got the puck, don't be afraid, take a chance and throw it on net or take it to the net. But I don't think it means to cheat or to get away from your defensive game because that's not something you want to do, especially when you're up against Krejci or Bergeron's line. Q. We talked a lot this year about how Corey Crawford has been able to bounce back from an occasional bad goal here or there. What makes you think it'll be the same after Saturday after a very rare bad game or off game for him? JONATHAN TOEWS: Well, I don't see why it would be different. He's had that maturity and that character all year that he's been able to bounce back. But to be honest with you, I don't really see anything terribly wrong with the way he played last night. Maybe some of the shots from far out that went in overshadowed some of the stops that he did make, and for the most part I think as forwards we can maybe be a little more responsible and getting shooting lanes the way they would against us and some of the shots that we take that maybe don't go through that they ended up scoring on. So we can help them a little bit more in that regard, and sometimes he doesn't see pucks or‑‑ I think there's something to be said about blocking shots and maybe helping our goaltender out a little bit more. I'm not too worried about how he's going to play in the next game. Q. Jonathan, I know it's been four years since that last time you guys were here 2‑2 in the Cup final, but can you talk about how big that game was, that Game 5 against Philly and how much of a lift that gave you guys toward winning the Cup, and will you use that maybe to talk to the guys who weren't there? JONATHAN TOEWS: It was huge. I mean, a little bit different, I think, because we lost two games straight on the road. I think we played good hockey, we just didn't find a way to win in that hostile environment. But I think now we have momentum coming off a huge road win in Boston. It's something we really need to use. We can't wait for the next one. We need to go out there and have a great start and just the excitement and the feeling that we had in the room and on the plane coming home last night, I'm sure it was tough for all the guys to sleep after winning a game like that. That's something we need to carry into this next one and not waste a minute of it because once you get the momentum, like we said in the last game, we need to hang onto it a little bit better than we did in that game. I'd say that's the biggest difference. Q. Hockey players tend to have and use the most nicknames out of pretty much any group of professional athletes. Why do you think that is, and how do you guys feel about them? JONATHAN TOEWS: I'll let the man‑child answer that one. BRANDON SAAD: I'm not really sure to be honest. I guess growing up you always get nicknames with whatever team you're on. There's always someone or a few guys that want to call you different things. I've had a lot growing up, and I guess it's just part of the camaraderie of the sport and the guys being close. So I'm not really sure of the exact science. But we have fun doing it. JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, I just have to say it's a team thing, and it's just a bunch of guys probably acting a little bit younger than they should and goofing around. I always feel I get the worst nicknames, but I guess that's the way it goes. It's all about having fun and enjoying our time together as a team, and I think that chemistry always carries on to how you play on the ice together. Q. Jonathan, I'm wondering at what point last night did you realize that this was probably going to be a different game than the previous couple? JONATHAN TOEWS: Well, I didn't think it was going to be a 6‑5 game. I thought when we went up 4‑2, maybe that's when things would slow down offensively a little bit, but they just kept coming back, and we kept finding a way to go up a goal, as well. I think it was finally 5‑4, if I'm right, I don't even remember to be honest with you, but I thought when Sharpy scored that goal that was it. I thought maybe eight minutes left or something like that, and we were going to find a way to defend and hold them off for the rest of the period. Sure enough, they came back right back and scored again. I guess a series like this can take some unexpected turns sometimes, and you saw that last night. I'm not going to make any predictions for what happens in the next game, but obviously there's a lot of things we want to carry into this game, Game 5, here. Q. Jon, I don't know the tone that Seabrook talked to you with, but since you've established yourself as the captain and the leader of this team, has anybody spoken to you like that in the past where he basically says I'm sick of what you're doing right, you need to start scoring more goals? JONATHAN TOEWS: That was not the tone he used at all. Let's set it straight here. It was‑‑ not a joke, but he'd be sitting in the lounge or whatever at the hotel, and he just looked at me and I answered it wrong one time because he just asked me, "What are you thinking about," and I was like, "Nothing; what are you thinking about?" And he looked at me again and I realized what he wanted me to say, and I snapped back and said, "scoring goals." There you go. That was all it was. I don't think he said anything about that unless that was to someone else and I didn't hear it. I'm glad I didn't until now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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