NHL Peachy: 2015 Western Conference Final Off-Day Transcript (Chicago - Saad, Hjalmarsson, Coach Quenneville) Our Coverage Sponsored by Maine Woolens
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An interview with:
BRANDON SAAD
NIKLAS HJALMARSSON
COACH JOEL QUENNEVILLE
Q. Brandon, you know what you have to do. Talk about what lies ahead and your feelings on that.
BRANDON SAAD: Yeah, last night was obviously tough to lose like we did. We did a good job of coming back. We know we got to have a better start and finish strong. We have to take care of our home game here and go back on the road and steal one on the road.
Q. Things start working better after your legs get warmed up. Seemed like that was what was happening. Did you feel like everybody was a little dead-legged at the beginning?
BRANDON SAAD: Yeah. It seemed like, I don't know what it was, but like we were sleeping there at the start. Their goals piled on. Mistake after mistake. They capitalized on it. That's what a good team is going to do. We know we got to start better tomorrow.
Q. What do you take from similar situations in the past, facing eliminations?
BRANDON SAAD: It's something we know we've done before. When we're in tight situations like this, we have a veteran group that has been through it and we know how to win games. We got to take care of tomorrow. It's one game at a time.
Q. Jonathan Toews is the captain and leader of this team. In situations like this, how much do players like yourself look to him for the way to mentally look at this, or is it assumed? Is there anything actively you do as a player to follow him?
BRANDON SAAD: Yeah, different guys say different things. I think Toews leads by example. You saw last night, even if he's not saying anything, the way he battles, obviously scoring the big goals for us, he leads by example. That picks the team up. He does a great job of that.
Q. I don't want to overstate it, but does having him on your side with his record, does that give you any more confidence, that he'll find a way, help your team find a way?
BRANDON SAAD: Yeah. I think we have confidence in our team. Obviously he's a big part of our team, our captain, our leader. He leads the way. I think we're a confident group that we can come back to the same.
Q. It seems like it takes dire circumstances for you to hit your top gear for whatever reason. How frustrating is that? Why do you think that is?
BRANDON SAAD: Yeah, we got to play desperate right off the bat. Now we're in a situation where it's do or die. That's the team you're going to see. For some reason we started slow yesterday and it was a big game for us. We need to steal one on the road. We didn't do it last night. We got to do it in the future.
Q. Niklas, teams have scored in bunches. Can you pinpoint why that's happening so consistently?
NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: It's tough to say. We obviously have to be better in big moments of the games like that. It's always important to keep the momentum on our team, especially after scoring a goal, if the other team scores a goal, you have to have big shifts right after. I think that's something we can improve on going forward.
We all know tomorrow is a fun, huge game for us. We all going to bring our best, for sure. We definitely will have to do a better job.
Q. Is it still fun even though you face the end of the season if you lose?
NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: It's more fun to play these games than the normal games. When it's all on the line, I think that's what you want to play. You want to play at this time of year. You want to play elimination games, obviously come up on the winning side. That's the most fun games to play.
Q. These games are fun to watch for all of us. Do you have any perspective of that while you're playing? Do you realize how entertaining this series is for somebody watching?
BRANDON SAAD: Yeah. I think it's been a good series. As a fan, especially. It's emotional on the bench when you have goals and swings like that, comebacks. We've been through it before, and it's exciting for fans and for the game of hockey. We obviously want to be on the winning end.
Q. Game 7 last year, how you lost to the Kings, is that motivation?
BRANDON SAAD: That's an experience we can go back and look upon where we had a lead. You always see bounces like that in overtime. That's how the bounces go. That's how hockey games are won. That's something we can look back on and use our experience for.
Q. You've taken more hits than about anybody on the team. Are you starting to feel that adding up?
NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: No. I feel great. I can't really say that I'm banged up at all. I'm just looking forward to tomorrow's game. They hit hard, but they hit pretty clean. It's just a matter of getting back up and focusing on the next shift. At the same time maybe I can do a better job not to put myself in a situation to allow to get hit.
They're a big team. They like to play physical. But, you know, I'm feeling good and I'm excited for tomorrow's game.
Q. Brandon, after Freddie Andersen allowed those two late goals, he admitted he was rattled. How important will it be to test him early and often tomorrow?
BRANDON SAAD: Yeah, that's something we talked about even going into overtime. We get two quick goals like that, we want to test him as much as possible.
Unfortunately it ended fairly quickly on their side. That's something where momentum can carry over to a game. We want to keep testing him tomorrow.
Q. Do you feel you turned a 3-0 game into an overtime game? Do you think you planted any kind of seed of doubt in the Ducks' minds?
NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: Yeah, sure. It's obviously never good to lose. But maybe it's better to lose like we did than get a blow-out loss, five or six to nothing. It shows character in our team. We never stop fighting, being down 3-0 and two goals in the end, still coming back. I don't know, it's just a feeling we have in our team that they can never count us out, we always have a chance to come back.
Same thing now. We're down 3-2 here in the series. But we have a lot of confidence. We are confident we can turn this around.
Q. Do you see that same attitude in them, as well, in this series?
NIKLAS HJALMARSSON: They're a really good team, definitely. Playing against them in the regular season, too, we knew they were one of the best teams in the league. Obviously they won the conference. They're a pretty complete team, really good depth on the defense and forwards, goalie.
We knew coming into this, that this was going to be a good challenge. It's going to be a good challenge to turn this around. We're going to bring our best.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys.
Questions for coach.
COACH JOEL QUENNEVILLE
Q. Question about starting the game better than in Game 5.
COACH QUENNEVILLE: We have to be playing our best from the outset. You look at Game 5, you say for four games we started the right way. You knew they were going to start on time. We were late. Made a difference in the game.
We had 40 straight minutes of pretty good hockey, playing the right way. Got ourselves back, almost, in an unbelievable fashion.
At the end of the day the series has been very tight. We got to know that we can't have the lulls that we've had in the last couple games.
Q. Did they catch you by surprise in overtime, how aggressive they came out? Other overtimes, seemed like they were feeling their way out.
COACH QUENNEVILLE: Tough to say. We had the puck a couple of times. I don't know. I don't know. Tough to measure. Wasn't enough time to get a good handicap on it.
Q. What Bickell did on that play, seems like he was going to hit the puck in the zone. Anything he could have done differently?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: Get it past them.
Q. With your lineup, any changes?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: We'll see how everybody looks tomorrow.
Q. Any chance that TVR gets in?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: We'll see. Look forward to talking to him. He skated today, we’ll se how he is. He's going to skate with us in the morning.
Q. Anything you do differently as a coach in an elimination game as opposed to having a lead in a series?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think we've been behind the eight ball a few times. I think back to being down 3-1 in Detroit. We've been in some tough spots before and put ourselves back. In this series we've been behind for the third time. Putting ourselves in the spot of trying to have to win one game. That's our mindset.
We know that they got a pretty good hockey team there, but we have to play our best game. We can talk about different things going into games, you can visit history, you can look at past games, big games, big moments. There's a lot of history here that we've collected over seven years. A lot of positive things.
I think we all came out of last night's game with an anger and a real sour taste in our mouth. Sometimes that can be better than a history lesson.
Q. You had the two-goal lead with 12 and a half minutes to play in Game 4. If you held onto that, you would have avoided the grueling minutes. Do you think about that?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: No. When the game's over, they're over. You gather, you learn, you move forward. 'What ifs' after the fact, I don't know if that's a good process.
Q. Do you have any issue with Corey? Seems to have an issue with how physical the Ducks have been with him. Are you concerned at all?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: You got to stay focused knowing that there's a line there, they're going to basically impede his space inside the blue. He's got to be willing to hold his ground, but at the same time referees can make their calls. But you can't get distracted.
Kind of like what we talk about, the physicality of the game overall. He's in the same boat as we all are as a team. Stay focused and stay out of the box.
Q. How fair is the criticism on Bickell? he is taking a lot of heat for that play last night.
COACH QUENNEVILLE: It's a play. We talk about getting the pucks behind them and in deep. I'm sure he feels bad. They had to make a couple plays after that to put it in the net.
It's one of those things we saw basically another hockey game, nothing happened. Another almost 40 minutes of nothing happening. When I say 'nothing,' there was a lot between that nothing.
Then, basically the puck drops, now you're focusing on one play. That's how close it is. We've seen some pretty crazy endings the last couple of games, so...
Q. In terms of resiliency, we know you have it. Are you starting to see maybe a bit of yourselves in the other team?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: You look at their record this year, I don't think they got beat in regulation in the playoffs. That shows they're a pretty good hockey team.
We have to be our best in knowing that's our challenge, that's our task. Last couple years, regular seasons, they've been there as well. We know they've got some talent, some depth. They have a pretty mobile defense as well. We have to be ready to play our A game tomorrow night.
Q. Are you reaching a breaking point with Timonen? I know you believe in him. He's struggling in general. Seems like the series is wearing him down.
COACH QUENNEVILLE: We'll see. I know that every game is different with him. Some games he gets a few more minutes. He doesn't play a lot. I know it's not easy on him. But we'll look at options.
Q. With Timonen and Cumiskey, what have you seen?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: Cumiskey, I think he gives us some quickness and some pace, makes a lot of direct plays in the middle of the ice. He had a good stick. Sustained some offensive zone time. Made some nice decisions with the puck. So I didn't mind his game.
Kimmo, his situation, has been fine. Last night, okay. He's steady. Does his thing.
Q. Could you look at putting Kane and Toews together going forward?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: We'll see all our options. Over the course of a game, you never know.
Q. You're 14-0 when Hossa scores in the playoffs. He hasn't been scoring. You kind of figure he's a veteran?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: He had some nice looks. Made a nice play to Johnny. He is around the puck. That line had some good zone time as well. Defensively, he's always in the right area. Always does good things if he doesn't score.
Q. This is two years now where his shooting percentage has been low. Something you seeing? Is it bad luck that the puck is not going in for him?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: He gets a lot of good looks. That line gets a lot of good looks. Probably how well they check that they get the puck. Has strength in the puck area. Protects it well. The scoring area, that's where we've got to find a way. Some guys it goes in a lot easier than other guys. Some guys have that patience, they see the options quicker, or they can pick that option quicker.
But him, he scored in the past. We expect him to be scoring going forward.
Q. The way they came back, what does that say about your team?
COACH QUENNEVILLE: Tons of character. Tremendous leadership. Never die. Never quit. Find ways. It's all about moving forward, dealing with the situation that faces you. Puts us into tomorrow night's game.
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