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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: KINGS v BLACKHAWKSMay 19, 2014Niklas HjalmarssonCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day Q. As far as some of the early games, what was it like with communication with the partners and everything? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Yeah, it was pretty tough in the beginning. I'm a guy that usually talks a lot on the ice, especially with my D partner, screaming at him, screaming at my teammates sometimes, too. I think for some of the forwards, I think they were pretty happy with me not being able to talk for some time. As far as Johnny, he's pretty happy I can be able to communicate again. Yeah, I was a little challenged. But playoffs, you got to play through some injuries every now and then. Hopefully it will be better from now on. Q. It may sound silly, but it must have hurt. When it happened, did you worry it was going to be really bad? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: It was pretty scary once it happened. It was tough to breathe there for a couple minutes. I was just glad that I recovered quick. Once I figured out I'm able to breathe, it was a big relief. Yeah, I guess I was pretty lucky. I'm just glad to be able to talk again and can't wait to get rid of the neck guard I'm still wearing. Q. Niklas, what have the last few weeks been like, told you're not able to speak?  Was it hard to restrain yourself? Was there pain at all? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: I really tried my best obviously. A couple sentences here and there I always managed to squeeze in. I think I did a pretty good job. I'm not the guy that talks the most in the locker room. I don't think the guys actually noticed it too much. If it would have happened to a guy like Shawski or something like that, I think it would have been better. I don't talk that much usually, so it wasn't really a big adjustment for me. Q. When were you actually given clearance to speak? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: The doctor just told me that you shouldn't talk for two weeks. You should let it rest, don't talk unless it makes you money. Q. When was the first day you were allowed to talk then? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Today. Q. There's a former Blackhawk named ] Dave Manson whose voice never recovered. Has anybody pointed that out to you or whether you heard him speak? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Yeah, I heard him speak. He was not as lucky as me obviously. It was a little bit worse. As I said, I think I was pretty lucky when it actually happened. I'm just glad to be able to move on now and focus in on playing and communicating with my teammates and screaming again. Q. In the first game you and your partner were given the task of shutting down the Kings' top line. NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Pretty much approaching it as any other team, any other top line. Just have good sticks, try not to give them too much time. Always the first game in a series you feel a little bit of how they are. You're used to a certain line for five or six games. We played Minnesota a lot against their top line. There's always a little adjustment, especially the first game. We let them have a couple too many good chances. Crow made a couple of big saves. I think we can do a better job with not giving him as many scoring chances next game. They're a really good line. Kopitar is a great two‑way player. He's having a great stick. Gaborik, his speed is always dangerous. Brown flying around, hitting people, good in front of net. It's a good combination for them and it's going to be a great challenge for us to try to shut them down. Q. Nik, seems like once a game in the playoffs we're seeing you skate off slowly, shake off some kind of injury after blocking a shot. When did you really add shot blocking as a strength to your game? Was that in Sweden or here? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: I don't really think it's a special skill. I think special skill is like Kaner, he can score special goals like that, that only he can, and Tazer. Every single guy in the team can do that. You just have to get in front of the shooting lane. I don't see it as a special skill. It's just a matter of desperation and trying to do everything you can to prevent the other team to score goals. Every guy in this league can block a shot if they want to. Q. Having won Game1 the way you did, is there even more pressure to hold serve and win Game2? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: It's always a big relief to win Game1, especially when you start at home. We had a couple more days rest than they did, too. I think they did a really good job coming out after flying a long way, coming directly after Game 7. I think they gave us a really good run. It could have gone either way. We're happy with the results. There's a new game here coming up. We're going to try to get that one, as well, obviously, hopefully try to steal one on their home ice. We're going as planned so far. But Game1 is always a huge game, especially when you start at home. Q. Corey Crawford seems so much more confident this year than he has been in the past. Obviously winning has something to do with that. What have you noticed about him and how good he's been? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Well, I played with Crow ever since I got here my first year. Even in the minors I played with him down there a couple years, too. I know exactly how he works. One thing about him that's huge is the way that he approaches big games and big challenges. Always when we have big games, even when we were down in Rockford, he always played his best games when it mattered most. That's what I think is the most important quality with a goalie, is to be able to play the best when it matters the most. In that category I don't think there's a lot of other goalies in this league that are better than Corey. They might have a better saving percentage, but once it comes down to having a big game when it matters most, I think Corey has proven himself to be definitely one of the best goalies in that category. You just notice how much he loves to play those kind of games. He always gives us a good chance to win those kind of games. Gives us a lot of confidence going into those kind of games that we have Corey in the back. I've always had a lot of confidence in him. I think he's been doing his job. It's up to us to score some big goals for him. Q. What do you expect the code of conduct to be around the net? Did it feel more than a usual game after the whistle yesterday? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Say that again. Q. The extracurriculars after the whistles around the net. NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: What is that? Q. Knocking around each other, pushing and punching. What is the code of conduct supposed to be? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: We're just going to try to play hard between the whistles. We're not going to try to get involved in the scrums after whistles and stuff like that. We're going to try to play as hard as we can between the whistles. After that, we're going to go to our bench, change, get new people on the ice and go. Q. When you're on defense, are you looking to protect Corey? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: I didn't really notice too much of that stuff the last game, to be honest with you. So, yeah, I don't know. Q. In a league where it's so close, where parity seems to be the goal, what are the qualities that allow your team to be so consistent year after year? NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Yeah, it's a good question. I think when you have the salary cap as it is now, first of all, all the teams are so even, the goalie plays an even bigger role because there's so many games during the season that's so close. If you have a good goalie, you're going to get a lot of those points at the end of the season. I think that's the number one reason to have a good goalie. I think for our team, I think we have a lot of individual skill that maybe some of the other teams don't have in this league, game‑difference makers, like Kaner, Hossa, guys that can go in and pretty much win a game for us. So there's a couple of different reasons. And we've had pretty much the same team here now for a long time. We set a high standard inside of our locker room. We're not satisfied unless we win games. I think we got a really good atmosphere going on right now in our locker room for the last years. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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