NHL Peachy: 2015 Stanley Cup Final Pre-Game 4 Transcript - (TBL - Coach Cooper) Our Coverage Sponsored by Stribling and Associates
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COACH JON COOPER
Q. Coach, can you talk about your behind-the-bench demeanor. Hard to tell from your expression if you're up a goal, down a goal. Do you keep your emotions in check because you know your younger players are going to feed off that one way or the other?
COACH COOPER: These questions get tougher the deeper you go (laughter).
For me, I guess my belief is I've grown as a coach. This is from high school all the way up. I think a team, I wouldn't say they take on the personality of the coach. I think their emotions, the way they act, I think there's a little bit of a correlation.
So I try and keep my emotions down. Inside everything's churning, there's no question. But outwardly I feel if I was storming up and down the bench, getting excited, saying things, talking to the refs, all those different things that happen in a game, I think your team may end up doing it. I don't want that to happen.
We try and stay as focused as we can. I try and stay as focused as I can. But I've never been one of those guys that runs up and down the bench. It's just my personality, I guess.
Q. (No microphone.)
COACH COOPER: I don't know if those are the right words to use. These guys have a burning desire to win the game. We've grown together in two years. This team hasn't just come together. It's been a two-year process.
I think our battle-tested moments have come in the playoffs, though. I look at trigger moments. Maybe Game 4 in Detroit where there's five minutes to go, we're down by two, we pull that game out.
When you start doing those things, it's that snowball effect. Now we've reached a point where we think we can win every single game. Doesn't matter who goes out there. That's slowly built through the playoffs.
I think that's where that comes from. I can't sit here and say 'naïve' is the word. They're a really confident group in there.
Q. Coming into the Final, there may be some questions about the depth of the forwards. Do you think your bottom guys have outplayed the Hawks so far? If so, why have they been so successful?
COACH COOPER: It depends what you say is 'outplayed.' If we're going statistically based, our guys have had a pretty good couple games here in the Finals.
I can't sit here and say if they've outplayed them. We're more worried about our guys than them.
It's two pretty well-balanced teams that are very comparable to each other. I guess trying to answer your question, if we want to have any chance of hoisting the Stanley Cup, we need more guys to score than just Johnny's line and Fil's line. And they are providing that. Not only are they providing that, they're being a little bit of a pain in the butt on the defensive side of things for Chicago.
So the more we get out of them, the better off we are. But I can't sit here and compare them to the other team.
Q. Jon, on the lighter side. Kind of enjoying the hospitality in Chicago? Barkley, Vince Vaughn?
COACH COOPER: They're all just random. We've added a little tradition. We've gone out as a staff. Other people in the restaurant that we see, those are just random meetings.
But we've gone out as a staff together in every single series. Maybe there's a little more notoriety because we're in the Finals. Those are all just staff dinners.
Q. Paquette said after the game that he thought midway through the game, you basically abandoned where you want the line matchups. Is that the case?
COACH COOPER: I wouldn't say 'abandoned.' Depending on how your team is playing...
The first period was a little dicey, that last 12 minutes. We sneak out of that with a tie. That second period got going, we were rolling. When your team is rolling, you don't want to disrupt the apple cart. Things were going well.
Every line was clicking. Didn't matter which line they were going against, everybody was working.
If you noticed, they started putting different lines out. There was no more line matching going on in the game. They switched their line. Can't sit here -- believe me, I'm the last one to sit here and overthink the game. Boys are rolling, you let them go. I thought that's what happened in periods two and three.
Q. Any change in Ben Bishop's status vis-Ã -vis being able to go tonight in Game 4?
COACH COOPER: I think we're in the same holding pattern as we were 48 hours ago.
Q. Given if he holds in the same pattern, are you looking at the same lineup as Game 3?
COACH COOPER: 7:20 puck drop. You'll get to see then.
Q. Did Ondrej Palat show up as a two-way player? Was there a process to get him to where he is now?
COACH COOPER: I would say of all the players that I've watched develop that are on this team now over the years, he's the one you had to worry about the least. It's just his whole game is played properly.
Put a video on him -- I'm screwing this up. Put a camera on him, he can make an instructional video on how to play the game by following Palat. Not always flashy. Not going to show up on the score sheet near as often as other guys will. Those other guys will tell you they want him on their line.
Have there been ups and downs for him? Sure. You have to figure out the league. There's a lot more to it than just playing the game. Guys study who they're on the ice against, what are players' tendencies, how much time and space you have. You can't do that till you're in the game.
Is there a growing process there for him? For sure. He gets it a lot quicker than a lot of the other guys.
Q. You mentioned early in the playoffs Joel was a coach you looked up to, reached out to. Babcock as well. What did you learn in those moments that you apply still as a coach today?
COACH COOPER: Oh, gosh, I don't know if I'm going to sit here and pick one singular moment.
First of all, it's like learning the NHL, what it's about. This, for instance. You lean on guys like that, of how to deal with certain situations.
I don't think Joel and I have ever sat down and talked X's and O's or anything like that. It's more the life, different situations, teams he's coached. But you learn from guys like that, guys that have won in this league, have had longevity, had success. I'd be remiss if I didn't try to pick those guys' brains.
Q. Back to Palat, he said early in the series you taught him how to play big boy hockey. Just wondering exactly what that means and how you go about doing that.
COACH COOPER: Well, we joke about that a little bit. The NHL, it's big boy hockey now. Everybody's out there competing so hard. They're bigger, stronger, faster. Their jobs are on the line. The second you get to this league, somebody else is coming right behind you to take your spot.
With some of these players that they're going up against, if that's the term, 'big boy,' you can use it two different ways. But you want to stay in the league, you got to be a man. That's kind of what it means. Palat's definitely taken that to heart.
Q. Obviously hockey is a bit unique in having one timeout. Do you have a specific strategy or what makes a good timeout for you versus maybe one you would regret?
COACH COOPER: It's funny how the timeout has evolved. The timeout was probably never instituted to become something used to rest players. But that's really how it's kind of evolved.
I think the timeout was initially put in for the last two minutes of a game. That's how it was supposed to be used. Now it's used for completely different reasons. Basically that's why I use it.
Sometimes it's used to stop the momentum of a game. So it's really evolved. Why it was put in, what it's come in to today. Now you hear, I don't know, the rumors of coach's challenges, things like that, you have to burn your timeout. I think the league is trying to take it out of your hands a little bit to say, a player has been caught out in a long shift, there's an icing, I'm sure the players don't want to get the rest. They want to see what happens after that. The timeout now, that affords you to give the players that break.
I mean, I don't know if I answered your question or not, but that's how I use it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
COACH COOPER: Thank you.
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