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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: KINGS v BLACKHAWKSMay 25, 2014Willie MitchellJustin WilliamsLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions for Justin Williams and Willie Mitchell. Q. (No microphone.) JUSTIN WILLIAMS: A lot of scoring in the playoffs is second effort. Not a lot of pretty plays. It's stripping somebody from behind, a second effort on a blocked shot, a dive to get a puck. That's how most goals are scored. In the playoffs, you seem to have just a little bit extra because every time you're out there it's the most important play of the game. We have a lot of guys who are able to give a little bit extra. Probably feel that's the best way to explain it. Q. Justin, how different is this team right now than it was after a couple games against the Hawks? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: I think even though we played a couple Game 7s, we are relatively healthy, as healthy as you can be this time of year. We still got a couple guys out. For the most part we're getting healthier as we go. I think losing last year makes you drive a little bit harder to win. You don't want anything to take anything from you. Chicago took it from us last year. We're trying to reciprocate. Q. Willie, Slava's game seems to be back on track. What have you said to him the last couple games you've been together? WILLIE MITCHELL: I don't know. He's a great player. Everyone was their ebbs and flows as far as their performance. You know, obviously missed hockey last year. Played with him in our good run a couple years back. We're just trying to find our game together. He's a guy who, as you saw, can shoot the puck really well. He did that last night. I think just played on the right side of the puck. Making good plays against a potent offensive team like Chicago, that's what you have to do, is make them work for it, play through you. Those are the things he was doing, had an excellent game for our club. Q. Can you both talk about Darryl Sutter's coaching style. JUSTIN WILLIAMS: I think as a player, it's obviously a lot easier when you don't have to get on the ice, get off the ice, have a lot of quick changes. That kind of takes away from the flow of the game. I think really his trust with the players that he puts on the ice, regardless of who he puts out there, they're good enough, they're good enough checkers that they're going to get the job done. There were a few times yesterday where you think a line is coming off, but he was like, No, go ahead. That obviously comes with trust. That makes the players feel good, as well, knowing that their coach gives them the opportunity. WILLIE MITCHELL: I guess, yeah, I think he kind of really has maybe three lines and his four D that he feels comfortable about putting out against anyone. I think the strength of our hockey club is down the middle. I think everyone knows that. I think he feels comfortable having those matchups. We have great guys on the draw who can control the game. We have puck possession. That allows him to roll and keep guys fresh. As players, you like that. You kind of stay in the rhythm and flow of the game a little bit better. Everyone does, for that matter. Q. You talked about wanting to reciprocate. Do you smell blood yet with this Blackhawks team? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: No, certainly not yet. Every game gets harder to win the further you go. Just to reiterate what I was saying before, we won in 2012, then we lost last year. I don't know, that might get the fire going a little bit more knowing that someone got the better of you. I know a lot of guys on our team, you know, hate losing just as much as they love winning. We don't want anyone to get the better of us. We feel we owe them something. Q. Has your confidence grown at all with these last two wins? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: Sure, I think it was important to get Game2. We kind of turned it around in Game2. But that game really would have meant nothing if we didn't win last night. I mean, heck, it's a playoff series. It's going to be ups and downs. We need to maintain this up right now and put a little pressure on them. Q. Does Game4 feel particularly crucial because of home ice? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: I suppose. The next game is always the most important game. That's the best I can explain it. Q. How are you working on being more aggressive from the get‑go? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: They've scored the first goal the first three games so far. I'm happy with the way we've been able to respond and come back. We've had a lot of contributions from our whole lineup. But I think obviously getting a better start, getting the first goal would be ideal for our club. Q. Willie, you've been champions, these guys are defending champions. WILLIE MITCHELL: You know, it was probably more the hockey they felt everybody was going to see between the two clubs in Game3. Game1, we played pretty good, Chicago didn't have their legs. Game2, we found our legs in the third period. Game3, it was more up‑and‑down hockey, fast‑paced. You could see it by their captain who came out and led the charge that they wanted that game. We were right there, you know, pushing that game, as well. I expect the level to just keep growing and growing and growing in the series. Like I said, I thought in Game3 you saw that. I think you'll see that in Game4 with the urgency. They've been there before. They've been there in this playoffs. You don't become champions and winners without knowing how to turn the dial up at the right times. We expect that. We're going to have to be a team that matches that. We feel we can with our experiences as well. Q. Can you describe the resiliency factor right now. You seem to be able to push the button when you need to. WILLIE MITCHELL: Yeah, I don't know. I take it all the way back to 2012, we had a lot of adversity as a hockey club. Got our coach fired. We weren't playing good hockey, weren't scoring a ton of goals. A combination of a bunch of things. Team finding some urgency to get in the playoffs, Darryl coming in, having some success. I think going through that adversity, coming out the other end a champion, when you start to push up into those tough areas, you have a quiet sense of confidence within your group. We've always done that, almost to a fault. That's put us in bad situations in this series where we've been down and had to claw back. We always seem to be a team that plays well the bigger the game is, when more is on the line. Against a good hockey club like Chicago, we have to kind of find that sense earlier on because a good team like that will put you away in a hurry. Q. When you first joined the organization, was there a different level of confidence to win than there is now? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: Yeah, I mean, that's a pretty simple answer. It was a non‑playoff team trying to find their way and trying to rebuild. Now we've built ourselves into a team that we want to have the respect of everyone in the NHL. Throughout the past couple years we've done that, we've earned that. We want to continue to do so. Q. What did Darryl fundamentally change? WILLIE MITCHELL: Well, I think Terry deserves a lot of credit, because we're a good defensive hockey club. A lot of that is a testament to the things he was teaching young players on our team. When you look at a guy like Kopitar, how much he learned, one of the best two‑way players in the team. Anyone who knows the Sutters and knows Darryl knows he's all about preparation. Always say he kind of keeps us comfortably uncomfortable before games, and game day is game day. He's a motivator. He's big on preparation. I think maybe as a hockey club at certain times we lacked that. I think he brought that into our dressing room as a whole and we're prepared for every game. There's no game we're not prepared for. I think that's a big reason for a change in our success, is organization. Q. Is he a better communicator than people give him credit for? Direct is better if you're a hockey player. WILLIE MITCHELL: Yeah, he's different how he does it, that's for sure (smiling). He played a few years and he has his own tactful way of getting the message across. Like I've said numerous times, I think the first time you kind of go through it, you're kind of wondering what's going on. Then you kind of try to see it through his eyes, see what he's trying to accomplish. He's just a motivator, he really is. He's a guy that tries to get the best out of his players. He'll do whatever is possible to get it. He does a really good job at it. He kind of reads the tea leaves really well as far as when to push the buttons and when not to. I think that's probably his number one kind of attribute as a coach, master motivator. Q. Justin, when you see suspensions, coaches getting kicked out of practices, what do you think? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: I think most of the time we feel it's not worth it. At times it's tough to be a whistle‑to‑whistle team. Most of that stuff expends energy, most of the time negatively. You want to be a team that has the last laugh, looks away knowing you got the better of somebody. That's kind of what we want to be. We don't want to get into all the mudslinging, this guy is this, this guy is that. We're respectful of each other's team, but we want to kick their butts. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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