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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: KINGS v BLACKHAWKSMay 29, 2014Jonathan ToewsLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day Q. Talk about the position you're in. JONATHAN TOEWS: Well, we're going to work on getting our first win on the road against this team. We want to stay with mentality, that we're putting all the pressure on them. It's going to be tough for them to close it out and win that fourth game against us. We showed how resilient of a group we are last night. We're going to do it again tomorrow. Q. (Question regarding Brandon Saad.) JONATHAN TOEWS: I think his first season, last year, everyone asked me about him. Biggest thing I saw with Saader was not only his skill and his ability at his age, but also that element that he always wanted to improve and get better and better as the season went along. I think you see that same kind of idea come in in a game like last night where he's never satisfied. He wants to be a difference‑maker. I don't know if I can think of a game that I've seen him play in better than last night. He was unbelievable. That's what it takes. That's basically what we need. To find a way to win against this team is guys like that stepping up. We got it from Saader last night. Q. Do you think he has a natural chemistry with Kane, as well? JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, I mean, Saader, physical presence, he can hang onto the puck, he can score, make plays. I don't think there's a whole lot that can go wrong when you put him with a guy like Kaner. Nice to see the chemistry last night. Q. You talk about how you're not the only one who can lead by example. Was Bryan the perfect example of that? JONATHAN TOEWS: Absolutely. I think Saader is the biggest example. But look across the board throughout our lineup, every single guy stepped up and wanted to win that game last night. If we don't have that, we're not going to survive in this series. I think everyone took it upon themselves to play better, look for that extra notch that we're looking for as a team to have success in this series. Q. How difficult is it to play a hockey game knowing for whatever reason if you don't win you're going home, long summer ahead of you? JONATHAN TOEWS: I guess there's part of that that you want to, I guess, have in the back of your head going into the game. But you can't be thinking about it a whole lot during the game. You have to have that desperation. We showed it last night. At the same time we, like I said, tried to remind ourselves that the pressure's on them. That's the way it's going to be the rest of the series. We're just going to keep fighting to stay alive. Q. You talked about the legacy of this team. You have a chance to win two in a row. Do you ever think about that maybe in the quiet times when you're not on the ice? JONATHAN TOEWS: I think we're going to consider ourselves a team that has a chance to win every year every time we reach the playoffs for a number of years after this year. But it doesn't mean, you know, that we're going to be satisfied with that and say, Okay, maybe this year isn't our year. I think we have a group that understands the opportunity we have. It doesn't make any sense to pass that up. We know what we're capable of in our room. We're not going to throw it away. We're not going to go away easy. We want to take advantage of it. We made it this far. We're going to keep fighting and play as hard as we can. Q. Does the experience of knowing you've been through this a couple times help motivate and drive you to stay calm in the storm? JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think there's times in series where you're up a game or two and everything feels great. It feels like, Okay, this is meant to be, we're going to move on in the next round, things are going our way, we're going to keep it that way. There's other moments where you're down, two games to one against St.Louis, three games to one against L.A., and that thought creeps in your mind that maybe it isn't going to be that way. You have to fight that, kind of overcome it, fight those negative feelings when you're down in a series. Just see the positive in it and find ways to win. We just have to win one game. That game is tomorrow night. We're not worried about more than that. I think the game that we played as a team last night gave us that good feeling again. As far as I'm concerned, we're back on the horse. We're excited to play again tomorrow night. Q. Kane and Saad, Joel made a point of saying the pressure was on them. JONATHAN TOEWS: I think they were probably thinking they were in a great situation last night. I don't think any team, if you have the chance to eliminate somebody, you know, the last thing you want to do is lose that game and have to play another one. So, like I said, we have that good feeling in our room. We need to kind of let that snowball, kind of slide our way, and hopefully it can go the other way against them as well. I think that's part of it, that when you have that momentum, it's pretty much all mental and you have to use it as much as you can. Hopefully it goes the other way against the other team. Q. (No microphone.) JONATHAN TOEWS: I think we played a handful of good periods. When we didn't play so well, it was almost disastrous. I think we've got to avoid that and understand there's going to be moments where they're going to come at us hard. We might get calls against us, or they might score. We need to swallow that pill and move on. I think some of the guys have said already, we need to keep an even keel. We haven't necessarily done that on the road against this team yet. We know we're capable of doing it. We'll just think about that, play a tight game, a patient game, like we did last night. Q. (Question regarding faceoffs.) JONATHAN TOEWS: It's been tough. They understand as much as we do that winning faceoffs is a big part of maintaining puck possession, trying to carry the play in this series. We're focusing on it. I think we improved a little bit last night, but it's something we can still work on. Q. Compared to last year against L.A., does it seem like there's less time and space? JONATHAN TOEWS: I don't know. I think it was a tough series last year. I don't think it necessarily means that we won in five games that there wasn't a whole lot of space. It was still a hard‑fought series. I think we know what type of team they are, how they like to play. At the same time we know they're probably playing a lot better hockey this time around. They want it that much more. So it's been a tough job for us. We got to be equally as difficult to play against as they have. Q. (No microphone.) JONATHAN TOEWS: Not really. Are they making excuses for last year? Q. (No microphone.) JONATHAN TOEWS: Let them say whatever they want to. It was a good series last year. We're in a heck of a series this year. We got a lot of respect for that team. We know it's going to take our best to beat them, as well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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