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Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Pre-game comments from Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette

Q. Peter, Laperriere just said that one of his jobs tonight is to settle everybody down and make sure that they’ve got their nerves under control. Some of your players said you were too keyed up the last game. Is that part of your message too with these guys, just try to relax them?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think if you’re nervous and you go on the ice, you probably won’t be effective. In saying that, there will be a lot of energy in the building, and we’ll certainly need a lot of energy. I think they had us in the skating and — they’re on their toes a little bit more, a little bit quicker than we were.

We need to harness that energy. It’s a fine line, I think, between energy and nerves. Certainly you don’t want to go out there and be nervous and play that way. You want to grab the energy in your building and play at highest tempo possible.

Q. I understand, I know from talking to some of the players and hearing that you’re big into motivation, and different things, including videos. I understand you may have a video for the guys today. How important are those sorts of elements to get your club prepared?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think motivation is a part of it. You have to — I think guys need to go out on the ice in the right frame of mind, but motivation, I think, is part of the coach’s job.

Q. Coach, you talked about the resiliency of this team since December, all through the playoffs. Have you seen enough from them this morning and today to know that a there’s enough left for them to go down into that well two more times and reach enough for two more wins?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I definitely think there’s enough to go two more. We can go more if we had to. It’s not — it’s not the position that we want to be in. I’m sure everybody would rather be up 3-0 or 3-1 and looking at a game where we could close out in Game 6 in our building.

That’s just not the path we’ve taken this series. We find ourselves with our back against the wall. I say comfortable. I believe that we are comfortable here, because this is our sixth time facing elimination.

Still, you would rather be in a different position, but we’re not. We’ll be ready to play hockey tonight. We have had a lot of success at home here and in our building. That energy that I talked about earlier, we’ve been able to grab it and play a real strong game. That will be needed tonight.

Q. Peter, Simon Gagne said he was excited for tonight’s game. Does that surprise you that emotion, and is that a good sign in your view?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: You know, everybody should be excited. I know it’s hard — like I said, It’s a fine line that you’re walking between grabbing the energy and excitement and nerves. I mean it’s the Finals. There’s only two games left. We got to win a hockey game tonight in order to reach that second game.

So the only objective that we have tonight is to make sure we win one game. You don’t want to — you don’t want to carry that pressure with you, because if you do, you won’t allow yourself to be great. If my players are saying they are excited, then those are good words. Excitement. They should be excited. They worked hard to get to this point. They should be excited.

Q. Peter, the Blackhawks have had to answer questions like how long have you imagined winning the Cup and how close you are and they have had two days to think about it. Is that an advantage for you guys that you can play the game without having to deal with that?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I don’t know how the Blackhawks will — can’t tell what another team is going to do. For us, our objective is, like I said earlier, what we’ve talked about is winning just one hockey game.

If you keep it in the simplest of terms, we’re playing the Blackhawks tonight in our building. We played them here three times this year and we’ve beaten them. Can we beat the Chicago Blackhawks tonight on our ice? It’s that simple for our group.

Q. Peter, can you maybe just describe in your eyes what your leadership group maybe does on a day like today, the different mix of leaders you have like veterans like Laperriere or the younger guys like Richards, the way it all mixes together to prepare for a game like this?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Those guys you are talking about, and Ian mentioned it, I haven’t had a meeting with the players yet. Ian mentioned what he was going to try to do. We have a calm group in there. A group that has experience in big games and played in big situations, and I’m sure it will have that calming influence over the players that will allow us to go out and do our thing.

You’re talking about Mike Richards who has done an excellent job leading this team, Chris Pronger and his experience and Lappy and his experience. Guys that have played a lot of playoff games like Simon and Danny Briere. We’ve got some guys with experience, and I think we’ll be able to handle that pressure tonight.

Q. Coach, the year you won it, you were in a place where the Cup was in the building, you had a chance to win it and you lost that opportunity. Were your players maybe distracted by knowing that opportunity was there, and did you maybe use that to your advantage tonight, because Chicago is in that same situation where they’re focused on winning the Cup?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Again, I don’t know where Chicago will be. We can’t win the Cup tonight. We need to win one hockey game. I think it’s important we keep our eye on the ball. That’s the game, the minutes that are being played, every stride that’s accounted for.
I think what’s really important is our preparation to how we play tonight. And if we focus solely on that, then I like our team. I’m confident in our team’s ability to win a game.

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Pre-Game Comments from Blackhawks Head Coach Joel Quenneville

Q. Coach, do you have any kind of, for lack of a better term, a Knute Rockne speech you’re going to give your guys before the game tonight?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I’m never good at that stuff. I think we keep the same approach going into key games and the big games. It’s basically look at one shift, fine tune our game here and look to play our best game of the year.

Q. Coach, Andrew Ladd wasn’t on the ice. Is he going to play tonight? Any update on him?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: He’s in. He’s playing.

Q. Coach, I just want to know, do you think there’s any reason just beyond being comfortable that the home team has won every game in this series?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, we’re approaching this game that we want to make this our approach like it’s a must-win situation here. I know the two games in here in Philly before we lost in overtime, got it back. We got a chance to tie it up late. We feel we can play better.
I thought we improved off of those levels in the last game, and we want to continue to improve as we go along here.

Q. Coach, can you tell us how — has anything changed from yesterday to today as you get closer to game time?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We just talked about that. And I think the guys have been really good as far as their approach, whether they got a good night’s rest or the morning skate, I thought it was very business-like. Good pace, good tempo. The guys seemed focused. They seemed in tune. I think whether it was jitters going into the morning skate, I didn’t see any signs of that’s an issue. I think going into the game, that’s a concern. Their approach has been exactly how you would like it.

Q. Joel, you have a pretty young team. Is it more difficult to keep those emotions in check given the fact that they’re so young?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, I think that the experience we have had over the last couple of years with them, they played in some big settings and some big stages. Went back to the Winter Classic last year playing in the Conference Finals. A lot of Olympians this year. Playing some big games throughout the season.

As we’ve gone through in these playoff rounds, and I think the guys are just welcome the next challenge and their focus and concentration always seems to be in the right place. Looking and gauging everybody’s demeanor today, it was — it seemed very reassuring.

Q. Coach, I know everybody wants to say this is just another playoff game. But personally, what’s it going to be like for you knowing that the Stanley Cup is going to be in the house?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, it’s exciting. I think it’s a lot of fun knowing that at the start of the year, this is what we set out to do. You know we have a chance to achieve our goal and our objective. I’m thinking like the players are, and that’s our concentration. Working the bench and being excited about getting the right guys out there and making sure that everybody has got a lot of energy.

Q. Joel, at least the first two rounds you’ve always had that one game where it seems everything clicks and you’re able to take off the remainder of the series. How much does that have to do with the series, getting ugly and doing all the dirty things and stuff like that? How much of that goes hand in hand with finding a way to get that one win and close the series out?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, I think we’re better when we’re — whether it’s ugly or nasty or hard to play against kind of complements the speed in our game. The tenacity and the puck quickness, the loose pucks give us a chance to control the puck and maybe have some more offensive zonetime. I thought it was kind of representative of our game last game. But I think playing on the road we know we don’t want to be pretty. We want to make sure that’s the same type of strategy we want to employ tonight. But I think being hard and physical and tough to play against is going to complement being successful.

Q. Obviously, everybody is desperate to get that Cup. But how has this team rallied around a guy like Marian Hossa based on what he’s gone through?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think we’ve got some guys who have been in some situations that we are today. John Madden is a comparable guy who has had a couple of chances to win a Cup. Andrew Ladd, Kopey played in chances to win it as well. I don’t think that will ever happen again where three different teams, a chance to win a Cup for Hoss.

I think that not just Hoss, but I think everybody has the same objective. More so with what we can accomplish as a team. But individually, if we all bring our best individual games, complementing our team game, we’re going to be in good shape. Whether it’s — each guy has their own personal incentives to max out as a player, I’m sure Hoss has a lot himself, and I think that collectively we want to make sure we’re all pushing in the right direction forthright ideas.

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Pre-Game Comments from Blackhawks players Patrick Sharp, Jonathan Toews, John Madden, Tomas Kopecky, and Andrew Ladd, and Head Coach Joel Quenneville

Comments from Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews

 

Q. Patrick, can you talk about what happened here when you were in Philadelphia as a player and the opportunity you got to go from Chicago? Was it just being a fourth line player on a veteran laden team and never getting an opportunity to go into Chicago and getting a chance to play and thriving in that opportunity?

PATRICK SHARP: I guess you could say that. I just think when I got traded to Chicago, they were a team that was developing in all areas and they gave me a great opportunity to play in different situations. And leaving Philadelphia I kind of understood the situation here as well. They were a first-place team. They were pushing for a championship and it was tough to break into that lineup. And I was thankful for the Flyers to trade me to a good place and gave me a chance to play.

Q. Jonathan, there’s going to be a trunk in the rink tomorrow night with a trophy in it. It may or may not be opened. How do you guys keep your mind on just the game and not worrying about the trophy being here?

JONATHAN TOEWS: I just think we need to have that same attitude and mentality we have had all series. We knew coming in it was a long week before Game 1. And it’s exciting every single day. The more time you spend away from the rink, the easier it is to think about how close you are to winning the Cup.

Just by that win the other night, we knew it was just one step closer. We want to take that last and final step tomorrow night. That’s all we need to focus on. Same way we always had leading up to this point.

Q. You can both touch on this. Patrick, can you maybe talk about Duncan Keith, the personality. He seems pretty low-key. Plays a huge game, obviously. Huge minutes. Just personality versus the game and kind of compare them?

PATRICK SHARP: Yeah, I remember being traded to Philadelphia, I’m sorry, to Chicago and thinking about how weird Duncan was the first couple of weeks I met him. He’s definitely a different personality, but one of the guys that keeps the locker room together. He’s a great player. Everyone knows what he can do on the ice. Off the ice he has that personality that he can crack anybody up, especially his boy Seabrook there. We’re lucky to have him on and off the ice.

Q. Same thing the personality and –

JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, he is a different bird. He’s a great guy, and obviously one of those guys that brings so much to our team on and off the ice. He focuses all his energy on the right things and he’s an old-school guy. He loves the game. You know, plays it smart and simple and hard. He’s never been flashy. He’s never had the big name.

But now I think people are finally realizing what this guy can actually do. We all know it in the locker room. Like Sharpy said, we’re very lucky to have him on our side.

Q. Jonathan or either of you, Marian Hossa brings a lot of experience. He’s been here many times before. I wonder did you talk to him with the experience of being with the Cup in this final stage and can you talk about his experience?

JONATHAN TOEWS: I mean, it’s — I mean, you can ask a lot of guys and they’ll all say getting to the Cup Final whether you win or not it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, for the most part.

But it’s not the case with Marian. I think what he can tell us or what he can bring to add an extra kick or desire to go out there and lay it all on the line. I think it’s tough for him to have lost twice. But he’s here now. I’m sure he has it in his heart and he believes just like the rest of us that this is it. He’s been great for us all playoffs and all season. On and off the ice we’ve been happy to have him. He’s again been a big part of our success and the reason we’ve come this far.

Q. Jonathan, this is for you. Chris Pronger has been such a difference-maker in this series. Now he’s coming off one of the worst games of his career. How do you expect him to respond in Game 6?

JONATHAN TOEWS: We know he’s going to come back and be better. That’s what makes him a good player and why he’s had such a successful career. He’s not going to dwell on that game. The series isn’t over. He knows that.
So we worked all series to try to get on him and some of their top players. That doesn’t change for us. We’ll try and be just as hard on him as we were last game. Same thing with the goaltender and some of their best players.

Q. Jonathan, how many times have you been at home watching the Stanley Cup presented to the captain of whatever team it happened to be, and while doing so thinking one day that’s going to be me?

JONATHAN TOEWS: I mean, countless times growing up. Any kid growing up in Canada, anywhere as a hockey player, that’s the dream. That’s the one thing you keep telling yourself, in your heart you kind of know you’re going to do it some day.

I think last year watching the Pittsburgh Penguins come from behind and win that one last year, I think that’s when it really first set in that I felt our team and myself personally — never felt closer thinking that this is an opportunity, this is something that can really become a reality. It’s been a long year, but I think we all knew all along that we can make it this far. Hopefully we can find a way to do it tomorrow.

Q. For both guys, you closed out Nashville on the road at 6. Did the same thing to Vancouver. Is there an urgency playing a Game 6 on the road, knowing that you don’t want to go to 7 and obviously leave a series up to chance?

PATRICK SHARP: Yeah, I don’t think it matters if it’s Game 5, 6 or 7. If you have a chance to close out a team and advance, and in this case it’s something different. We want to make sure we take advantage of it. I think, was it seven playoff series we have had in the last couple of years, we’ve been pretty good in those elimination games.

We want to remain focused and try not to think about with a might happen or what could happen and just play the game that we’re capable of.

Q. Patrick, it’s one thing for a rookie goalie to win in the playoffs. It’s quite another for him to win when there’s a Stanley Cup in the building. What have you seen from Antti Niemi that leads to you believe he’ll be ready and prepared for tomorrow?

PATRICK SHARP: Same thing I’ve seen all year. He doesn’t seem to get too upset about anything. Doesn’t let good or bad games affect his play. He comes to the rink every day with the same attitude that he’s going to be the best goalie that he can. I think that we’ve answered enough questions about Antti. I think he’s answered enough with his play, the way he’s played throughout the season and especially in the playoffs. There’s no questions from the team’s standpoint how he’s going to play tomorrow.

Q. One for each of you. Jonathan, has the image of holding the Cup blast in your head a lot, the last 48 hours, and you try to suppress it? And Pat, for family and friends, in the last 48 hours have they stayed away from talking about it because it would be ahead of themselves? Are they superstitious about it?

JONATHAN TOEWS: It’s been flashing in my head since Game 1 of the playoffs. Every time you win one game, it feels like you’re going all the way to the Cup. I’ve always said when you lose a game it feels like your season is going to be over. It’s just been such a crazy ride.
The last day here, it hasn’t been any different. You just try and get those thoughts out of your head that get you all excited and jacked up in the middle of the afternoon. You try and save your energy, and the time to be focused and ready to go is tomorrow night when that game comes around. That’s when you want to be energetic and ready to play.

Q. Same question?

PATRICK SHARP: As far as the family, I think my family has been enjoying the ride ever since I started playing pro hockey, and especially now in the playoffs. They’ve been to a lot of the games. They’ve been to Chicago for the majority of it. They’re having just as much fun as we are as players.

The Hawks do a great job of taking care of our family members and providing them with the opportunity to come to games and all that and make sure they’re not a distraction. Which they’re not.

Q. Jonathan, can you talk about with so many leaders in the locker room, what’s the difference in the messages that is you guys give pre-game? The difference between your message to the team and what Coach might say and what say a John Madden might say?

JONATHAN TOEWS: It’s always different. I think different guys say different things. But as a team, we’ve always had a pretty good conscious of what we need to do as a team in that moment, whether it’s be smart with penalties or, you know, not get frustrated by calls that we disagree with or this and that.

So it comes down to the individual. If you feel you have to say something, whether it’s Patrick or Duncan or myself, it doesn’t really matter. I think that’s why we get along so well in our locker room.

Guys are stepping up, and it reflects in their play. You see a lot of games we won in this series and in previous series, goal-scoring and big plays from guys all over our lineup. It’s the same way in the locker room.

Q. The Flyers have been pretty cool in terms of who they’re going to start whether or not it’s Leighton or Boucher. How much satisfaction do you guys take knowing you put them in this situation and how do you use this to your advantage coming in to Game 6?

PATRICK SHARP: Don’t take much satisfaction. It doesn’t matter if it’s Leighton or Boucher. Either one is going to give them a good effort and they’re both capable goaltenders. We have to continue to do things that make us successful whoever is in net. That’s getting as many pucks as we can to the net, as many bodies going there and hopefully disrupt the goalie’s vision.
Goalies are so good, if they see the puck they’re going to stop it. We have to stick to what we do best.

Q. You have won those series on the road, you can win this on the road. Is it tough to bounce the emotion of maybe wanting to celebrate one of these series on your home ice with just getting the job done and taking care of business?

JONATHAN TOEWS: Really, I mean, I think that’s just icing on the cake, I think. But really it doesn’t matter to us. We want it more than anything. Whether it’s on the road or at home, to us it doesn’t matter. We know we got to be better in this building especially.
So we’re ready to do that. We know our fans have been great. They’ve helped us in the last three games. But we’re just looking forward to playing our best game of the series tomorrow night.

Q. For either or both of you, Madden was brought here in part because of his experience. What type of leadership has he brought? And how did he fit in right from the beginning up until this point?

PATRICK SHARP: Madden has been great. Right from day one, he’s — I don’t know if accepted is the right word, because he stepped into the locker room and guys flock to him right away. He’s someone that for a young team we all kind of look to. He’s been through the battle a few times. He’s not the type of leader that stands up and barks in the room a whole lot. When he does say something, he’s definitely got our attention.

So you take a look at what he’s done this year. He’s a huge part of the team on and off the ice. To add his leadership in the room and what he can bring to us in different parts of the game. Whether it’s taking a face-off, playing well defensively, killing the penalty. Those aren’t always the things people like to write and talk about, but really valuable to our team.

Q. Jonathan, you have had the chance to play with Tomas Kopecky the last game-and-a-half. He’s a guy who wasn’t in the lineup during the regular season, during the playoffs. He’s gotten a chance and made the most of it. Can you talk about with a he’s brought to the team?

JONATHAN TOEWS: I mean, to us, as a team, I think those are the guys that are making the biggest contributions and the biggest sacrifices. Other guys that are playing low minutes or the guys a like Kopey or Nick Boynton, the guys who all of a sudden have to come into a pressure situation like that. They’ve both played great, the same thing with Tomas, I can’t imagine how tough that is. Playing on a line with him and Marian last game, I think we did a lot of good things. Kopey was right in there in a lot of those offensive plays. Good to see him having that success. We’re happy for him.

Q. Patrick, obviously the Flyers are going to be a desperate team tomorrow. They’ve been resilient all year. How tough will it be to finish them off, especially in this building?

PATRICK SHARP: It’s going to be tough. I think that’s expected. You’ve seen what they’ve done all season long. Especially this series, no lead is safe. Every game is close. It comes right down to the wire. I know we expect no difference going into tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if it’s elimination game or not, it’s going to be a tough game. Especially in this building. That’s what I’m expecting. I’m sure it’s going to be a tough one.

Q. Jonathan, with you and Patrick Kane coming in the same year, do you ever remember a particular time where you talked about the possibility of what’s happening now, and has it come up at all between you now that it’s right there?

JONATHAN TOEWS: Yeah, several times. But you can’t plan on something like this happening so quickly. I mean, since the day we both came in as rookies, so much has gone well for us. And we understand that — the way the opportunities were given, the players we’re playing with, the guys in the locker room we’re surrounded with, everything was set up for us to have success and have fun playing hockey.
You definitely don’t expect to be playing for a Stanley Cup in your third season as a pro. So we’ve been very lucky from day one. It’s one a heck of a ride. We’re just enjoying the moment whatever happens, whether it’s the Winter Classic or — everything that’s been going on in Chicago for our organization has just been a lot of fun, and we’re enjoying this one as well.

Q. Question for Patrick. Jonathan could be the youngest captain ever to raise the Cup. You’ve played with a lot of leaders over your time. How mature is this guy? From where we sit it’s pretty phenomenal. What’s it been like and how mature is he as a captain?

PATRICK SHARP: We still have to check the birth certificate and make sure he’s only 21 or 22, whatever he is. From day one he entered the League, he hasn’t changed until now, on or off the ice. Maybe he’s lightened up a little bit now. Takes things seriously. He prepares to play just as hard as anybody else. He cares about the game and winning. It’s been great to see over the years. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. But he’s a great leader if he wins or not.

 

Comments from John Madden, Tomas Kopecky, and Andrew Ladd

Q. John, you’ve been in this situation before. Yesterday Joel was saying let’s get the guys away from the rink. Let’s get them — not focused on hockey. Is that possible to do when you’re one win away from the Stanley Cup?

JOHN MADDEN: I don’t think it’s entirely possible. There are definitely moments on the day off that you weren’t thinking about hockey. You are doing other things.

For the most part, you think about it. But maybe not until the depth that you would if you were around the arena or being tackled by media or something like that.

Q. Just all three of you. Being Cup winners, and I don’t know if it’s coincidence that you’re all up at the same time, but maybe if you could give us your experience having won the Cup and what it might feel like to win another one possibly tomorrow night.

TOMAS KOPECKY: Obviously, it’s a thrill. That’s why you play hockey growing up, to win the Stanley Cup. When I was with Detroit, the memories that stay with you for the rest of your life. That feeling, it’s unbelievable.

ANDREW LADD: Yeah, I mean, same thing. It’s what we play the game for. The group that we have and the players we have in the room and persons it just makes the whole ride fun. It’s really been fun the whole way. If you can cap it off at the end by winning, it’s just a special feeling you can’t really describe.

JOHN MADDEN: For me, it was no better feeling in hockey. That’s for sure. The look on your teammate’s face when you’ve all come together and accomplished your goals. There have been some trials and tribulations, so to speak. You’ve been able to overcome a lot. It’s a real nice feeling to have.

Q. John, could you talk a little bit about Game 6 and how tricky that game can be? You’ve been through two of them in Colorado. You lost that game, and then Game 7 didn’t work out the way you wanted. I know that was very disappointing. Then it worked out the other way if Anaheim. Can you talk about how tricky this game can be being up 3-2?

JOHN MADDEN: I’ve been in the situation — it is my fourth time being in it. All three times have been different. Different scenarios, different buildings. Obviously, different teams.

But as far as being tricky, you know you want to take care of business when you can. You don’t want to leave the chance for a Game 7. We have an opportunity tomorrow. All I can say is we have to be focused on that opportunity and not look at having another game to go to. You have to take care of business and treat it like it’s an elimination game.

Q. Tomas, you were in and out of the lineup to start the playoffs. But now you’ve got a spot. You’re locked in. Can you talk about what this experience has been like for you not knowing if you were going to be playing every night to now being a contributing factor playing on a key line with Hossa and Toews?

TOMAS KOPECKY: It’s obviously, it’s a dream come true to play in the Stanley Cup Finals. Any other player can tell you it’s something you play hockey for when you were growing up, when you were as a kid. That’s what you were dreaming of. Right now we have a great chance, and for me it was still the same. I had to work hard no matter what and to who much is given much is expected. So I don’t take this opportunity any lightly. I’m in the lineup. I’m going to do my best to help the team to win.

Q. John, what were your impressions, or what did you know about Duncan Keith and the caliber of his game before you got here and played with him regularly? What maybe surprised you or took you about him after you were here for a bit?

JOHN MADDEN: I didn’t know much about Duncan before I got here. Having played against him maybe once or twice that I recall, I remember he was a great skater. He liked to move the puck, liked to join the rush. Real quickly, I found out a lot more about Duncan, obviously, being in the dressing room with him and just talking to him and getting to know him. He’s an unbelievably competitive person. He’s a great hockey player. This season alone he’s been fantastic for us.

Anybody that has watched him play, you would be really impressed with everything he does in the game. So he’s been a pleasure to play with. And we’ve been awful lucky to have him play for our team.

Q. Tomas, after not medaling in the Olympics, does getting this far in the Stanley Cup, is that any kind of consolation, and does one mean more than the other?

TOMAS KOPECKY: Yeah, it’s totally different story. The Olympics went by so fast, and it’s only two weeks and this season, it’s eight to nine months with this group we have right now, you are together for the whole nine months. You just realize how lucky you are, especially coming through the first, second and third round in the playoffs. It’s obviously a thrill.

But Olympics are over. I have a great memories and everything, but it’s past. And right now I’m focused on the next game.

Q. I have a question for all three of you and a follow-up for John if that’s okay. Going back to your memories of clinching the Cup and being on the eve of that experience, how do you handle that mentally and what did you learn from that you might do the same or differently?

TOMAS KOPECKY: I’m just going to prepare the same way I prepare for every other game, and maybe pay a little more attention to the details. The first shift, you have to go shift by shift. You can’t look ahead way too much in front of you. Just focus on the little things and the little battles. That’s when the big things are going to come.

ANDREW LADD: Yeah, I think it’s just not getting ahead of yourself. Staying in the moment. I don’t think you prepare any differently. You played over 100 games this year now. I think you want to stick to your — what you do best and how you prepare for games. Obviously, it’s a big opportunity.

JOHN MADDEN: I think the biggest part is just sticking to our game plan as a team. Even though it’s a game where we can clinch, it doesn’t change anything for us. We have to play the same way we did in Game 5, with the same mentality and be ready to play. Because this game tonight is going to be, or tomorrow night, is going to be a lot faster paced than we have had before.
It just has different ramifications about it. So you have to be more prepared than you were in the last five games.

Q. Coming into the team this year, being new, how did you feel like you would transition into a leadership role? Is it something you embraced right away? How do you feel?

JOHN MADDEN: I think I’m still feeling my way around. There’s so much leadership in the room. The guys are young, but way beyond their years in terms of the way they handle themselves. Speaking from Jonathan Toews and Dunks and Sharpy, those guys are our captains, Seabrook as well. There are lots of leaders in the room that do a lot of things. It’s been easy to come in and play hockey and not worry about all the other things that go on.

Q. Tomas, you’re playing with your countrymen now on the same line. Do you talk about the 2008 Final when you were on different sides and about being in the Cup Final, winning the Cup, and in Marian’s case, not winning the Cup. Do you talk about that?

TOMAS KOPECKY: No, not really. It’s a past and it’s past for him and it’s past for me. I don’t really like to look at the past. Just trying to enjoy the moment right now. With the situation we’re in right now. Not really talking about what happened.

Q. For John, how much of a psychological boost was it that you guys had the success in Game 5 when Chris Pronger was out on the ice scoring the goals when he was out there, and kind of also being on the giving side of some of those hits instead of the receiving side?

JOHN MADDEN: That’s a good question. The one thing about that everybody keeps forgetting is we did that in Game 5. We have to go out and do it in Game 6. I think that’s the part of refocusing and getting ready for our next game. We had a lot of success. We did a lot of good things in Game 5, but it’s over with. We have to start all over. It starts tomorrow night.

Q. A little bit of a follow-up for that, John. You’re a little bit of a coach on the bench. Your line didn’t change from Game 4 to 5. A little bit of a debate since last game. Do you think the line changes energized the team, or did an energized team make the line changes look good?

JOHN MADDEN: I just think it gave everybody, Philly a different look. If they were trying to match lines or against Toews or Kaner, when you split them up, it gives a different look. I think the guys in general were just ready to play. And maybe that was lift we were looking for. Anytime you change lines, it helps a little bit.

Obviously, it looked great because we won the game. But still comes down to the individual and wanting to play.

Q. Andrew, you were in a Cup-clinching situation on the road in Edmonton with Peter Laviolette. What were the feelings after that game when you knew the Cup was in the building? You weren’t able to grab it and just kind of what can you learn from that and take into tomorrow night’s game?

ANDREW LADD: Same kind of — Game 6 in Edmonton. It was probably the longest flight I’ve ever been on heading back to Carolina. I just remember feeling that heading into Game 7 that no one was going to beat us; that we were going to put our best effort out there. I guess having lost that opportunity in Game 6; it just made you want it that much more.

Q. Andrew, kind of a follow-up to that. It sounds like Laviolette is a really good motivator in situations like that. Do you have an idea of what he’s going to do tomorrow — tonight and tomorrow to get his team going?

ANDREW LADD: I don’t know. Like you said, he’s a great motivator. He’s great with words. Seems to get the most out of his players, like he did with us in our run. He sets up a great game plan and gives every opportunity for the guys to succeed. That’s what why we’re expecting them to come out hard tomorrow, and we have to be ready to match that.

Q. John, you played against Patrick Sharp when he was a young player in Philadelphia. Now you’re playing with him. Can you talk about where he’s developed as a player and what he means to this team?

JOHN MADDEN: That’s a good question. I remember Sharpy was — I don’t know, he was really an offensive player when he was in Philadelphia. And I just remember him always on the go and always trying to score goals.

Now that I see him in the role that he’s in now, he’s a great two-way player. He’s still offensive. He’s great like that. But he’s a great leader. He’s grown up a lot in terms of how he approaches the games. I can tell that you already by being around him. It’s fun to play with him. He’s done a lot of good things for our hockey club this year. Like I said before, he’s a great player.

Q. John, since so many people say you’re a coach in the making, two-part question here. Number one, Pat Sharp said when you do speak, you don’t speak very often, but when you do you get everyone’s attention. When you talk to the team, is it more emotional, analytical, technical? And can you compare how Joel Quenneville has handled this quest for the Cup as opposed to the other coaches you’ve had in this situation?

JOHN MADDEN: I think what Sharpy is getting at is, I tend to say things in the dressing room when things aren’t going so well. So I’ve had very little to say this year.

But I think it’s just technical about what’s going on in the game, and what we need to do better. Maybe to relax a little bit. Don’t be so uptight. Let’s loosen the grip on our stick and play some hockey. That’s when I feel our team is at our best.

As far as Joel goes, I think he’s been great. I think he’s handled it no different from the beginning up to this point. He’s handled us the same way. Practices have been great. Our game preparation has been great. Both coaches with PP, PK, I think he’s handled it like he’s been here a few times. It’s very reassuring knowing your coach feels that calm. It’s easy to play when you have faith in him.

Comments from Head Coach Joel Quenneville

Q. Joel, when Byfuglien plays the way he did in Game 5, obviously that’s sort of the best that he brings. Is it possible for a player to play that way consistently, to play that way for 82 games and through the playoffs?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: That’s challenging. I know that it requires a lot of energy and a lot of pace to your game. With Buff, consistency is something we try to instill in him and try to reinforce knowing that’s a level and a standard we would like him to achieve.
I thought he made progress this year, improvement from last year. But I thought this year’s playoff he’s taken it to that level we like to see him at. This series I thought he had a first couple of games maybe not the production we would like, but he was playing the way we wanted him to play and needs to play. That last game was exactly what we’re looking for.

Q. Coach, young players, when Patrick Sharp was here in Philadelphia, it doesn’t always work for them their first stop. Since he’s come to Chicago, he’s kind of emerged into a leadership role, a veteran role. Can you talk about how you’ve seen him develop in the time you’ve been around him and what he means to this team?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Sharpy has been a big part of our team. Leadership, consistency in his game. He’s been a top scorer for us. He plays in all situations, PP, PK, regular shifts, versatility, playing on the wing. Got him back at center. We felt we needed more depth in that area. He moved back in the middle for us this year. I thought that filled a big need for us and created top scoring line for us as well.
He’s been very successful and consistent in the playoffs. We just like his approach and the options he gives us as a coach as well.

Q. Joel, two-parter if I can: Peter Laviolette encourages his players to dream of the Stanley Cup. To dream of that moment. Where do you stand on something like that? And secondly, did you have an opportunity to spend the day, or whatever it was, with the Stanley Cup when you won it in Colorado?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I did have a day and a summer. I had it in Connecticut. I had a great day. Took it to the Children’s Hospital and had a nice party that night. At the same time, you know, the beginning of the question — what was the first part of the question?

Q. Laviolette encouraging his players to dream of the Stanley Cup.

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think everybody has ways of talking with their team and how we go about it. I think this team here has been very professional as we’ve gone about it going into the playoffs. I think we look at the short-term picture and try to present our challenges to win one hockey game. We want to even fine-tune it from shift to shift. I think that’s our mindset. At the end of it, hopefully we accomplish that goal.

Q. Joel, regarding Troy Brouwer, how did you sense he was handling things when his father was ill? He’s playing at the greatest time. Family-wise, things aren’t great. How did he handle it and how did you handle it?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Brouwer has been a big part of our team this year. I thought he really improved his game this year. At the same time, even prior to that, he’s coming off kind of an injury there. I don’t think he had his game back to that level, that pace he was at most of the season.

He missed some games in the playoffs as well. Had to make some decisions as far as lineup changes and some tough decisions we have had to make through this process. Must have been really challenging for him going through — because of what his dad was going through and his own game.

I like how he kept with it. Very diligent in practice and everything. Got his game, pushed his game, pace of his game as well. Scored a couple of key goals in the first game these playoffs. His minutes sometimes fluctuate from significant minutes to sometimes in single digits.
But he’s useful in a lot of ways. We love his size. Watching him today in practice, he looks like whether he’s going to play 8 minutes or 15 minutes, you know he’s going to bring it.

Q. You talk to everybody and they all have different opinions of what John Madden has brought to this team. Whether it’s leadership, face-offs or whatever it is. Can you identify one thing in your mind that’s the most important thing John Madden has brought to this team?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think he brings leadership and character. I think that’s — when I think the thing — the beginning of the season that we’re looking for him to instill was we wanted some improvement in our penalty killing. And we really enhanced that immediately with his presence. Be it key face-offs or play in his own end, that leadership particularly at this time has really been noticeable.

Q. Your demeanor has been pretty cool, calm and collected all year. But how are you going to handle these hours going up to what probably is the biggest game of your life?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: It will certainly be — we try to keep the guys in the same type of focus, knowing that between now and tomorrow, let’s make sure we get as much energy in our system over this time here to try to focus on some things that might get your mind off it and put it at ease, knowing that we’re going to be ready and hungry at that time. And try to focus that when the game starts and look at the fine-tuning basically shift by shift. Not looking at the big picture. And get your mind off of where it has to be. But between now and then, try to relax and stay cool.

Q. Will you be able to sleep tonight?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We hope so.

Q. Joel, two questions: Are you going to hammer home the point that three teams have lost Game 7s at home in this postseason and you don’t want that to slip away. Second question, I know you mentioned status quo for rosters and lineups tomorrow. Do you think about any tweaking because you’re back on the road where you were 0-2 in this building and maybe you want to throw another look at them?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We’ll see. I think as the game goes or going into the game, I like the way we exited the games with the lines and the strategy for that will be we like to improve off of the level and the intensity and the rotation of all four lines bringing it. I think that’s going to be how we want to approach the game. We don’t want to look past tomorrow’s game. That’s our thought process.

Q. Joel, Hossa seemed to have a little difficulty towards the end of the game the other night. I know you kept him off the ice today. What’s his status and how important will it be for him to be a part of this game or next two games?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, we’re looking at one game at a time. He was resting today. He’s fine. I thought he was a big factor. I thought that line was very dangerous last game. I thought he was a big factor why that line had the puck a lot. Maybe not the production that some of the other lines had, but certainly their effectiveness in controlling the play and some offensive zone time was there. I think he adds to that line.

Q. Joel, you’ve been piling some big minutes all year on Duncan Keith, in this series as well. How impressive is it to be able to pile that kind of minutes at this level on one guy and it seems his play stays pretty solid?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I thought Dunks has played throughout these playoffs and series — throughout the whole playoffs he’s been very consistent. Some nights he absorbs over 30 minutes or up to 30 a lot of days. He seems like he doesn’t even get any wear on him. He seems like he doesn’t even blow hard when he comes to the bench after some tough shifts.

We like the pace of his game. We like his speed. The last couple of games I thought he was a big factor in our game. And I think particularly last game, I thought he really influenced the way the game was being played. He still doesn’t look like he’s wearing down or slowing down one bit. That says — it’s a little bit of a testament to his conditioning and how he prepares and takes care of his body.

Q. Kopecky only got into this series because Ladd was hurt. But Ladd came back, and you left Tomas in the lineup. What did he show you in the first two games that said not only he can play, but now he’s playing on a line with Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa, two elite players. What have you seen from him and how has he changed what you thought of him previously?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I liked Kopey all year long, I think he was patient to get a better opportunity. I thought his game improved and enhanced the end of the season. Got some more quality ice time in certain rounds of this playoffs.

He got quality ice time playing with Sharpy and Hoss. Scored the big goal the first game of this round. And all of a sudden he’s — you got a lot of options with Kopey. I think his patience with the puck, he’s got a great shot, he’s annoying to play against. He knows where the front of the net is. He’s effective in a lot of ways.

I thought that line was useful in a lot of ways the last game. I thought they all brought a little something different to the table. Kopey gives us another forward that is useful in a lot of ways.

Q. Joel, who is your coaching mentor? And have you ever picked up anything from a coach that’s in another sport?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Great question. Sitting on the plane with Scotty today, I look up to Scotty every day. It’s nice having him around. Bouncing things off and around Scotty and listening to Scotty in a lot of ways. Roger Neilson was the one coach that I have a lot of fondness and appreciation for, having played for Roger when I broke in with the Leafs in my first head coaching job.

Roger was an assistant with us. I learned a lot from him every day in preparation and the things that go about in this business. I know some of the coaches in other businesses that I know a little bit — Tony La Russa the other day. I got a call from Lovie Smith the other day. And I think everybody is excited about our situation.

Q. Did you happen to see the Chicago Tribune poster of Chris Pronger in a skirt?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I just heard about it.

Q. You didn’t see it?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: No comment.

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Off Day comments from Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, Scott Hartnell, Ville Leino, and Chris Pronger

Comments from Head Coach Peter Laviolette

Q. I detect a smile for a change. What has to be different tomorrow night if you’re going to keep playing?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: We weren’t very good the other night. Players will probably be the first to tell you that. Our game, we were a step behind. We didn’t generate enough offensively. We weren’t physical enough. We weren’t quick enough. We didn’t defend well enough. Specialty teams weren’t good enough.

So there’s a lot of things we can do better that we had been doing better. Out of the playoff run, there’s been probably two games you look back out over 22 where you’re not real happy with the way we played. One of them was Game 3 in Montreal and the last game here.

Q. Pete, have you told your goaltender who is going to start?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: No. I haven’t.

Q. When will you do that?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Do you know who is starting in the net for Chicago? Did they announce that yet?

Q. We assume Antti Niemi.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Oh. But nobody has asked?

Q. They haven’t been here yet.

Q. They get here 4:30.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Our goaltender has the best numbers in the playoffs. I didn’t think I had to announce it.

Q. So that means Michael is starting in the net?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I don’t comment on lineups or goaltenders.

Q. Are you confident in Michael for Game 6?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I’m very confident in Michael. He’s played excellent in the playoffs. His home numbers are terrific. Yeah, I’m very confident in Michael.

Q. Peter, why do you think that Michael’s numbers have been so much better at home, especially here in the Stanley Cup Finals?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think we’ve played better at home. We’ve played good in some road games. A lot of road games, but there’s some road games where we haven’t played — we didn’t play very well — I shouldn’t say that. We didn’t give up a lot of chances in Game 1 to Chicago. That was our first road game versus the Hawks.

But the chances that we did give up they were some really bad ones, he had no chance or point blank or breakaways. Odd-man rushes. It seems that we’ve let our goaltending down at times on the road in a few instances. We seemed to have played a better game at home in front of our goaltender. Like I said, when our game has gone bad, usually we have a bad outing and everybody takes part in that. So our home game, our record is excellent. I don’t think we should have lost a game at home yet in the playoffs.

Q. I don’t expect you’ll tip your hand on any potential line changes. But can you talk as a coach in this situation when your opponent makes the kind of adjustments and the amount of adjustments that they made, the thought process, the pros and cons versus shaking up a lineup that has worked for you versus feeling a need to maybe try and adjust?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I can’t control what Chicago does. I can only control what we do in our room and what we feel comfortable with, in the past and then moving forward in the future and what we need to do. So we’re comfortable with our lineup. I can’t really comment on theirs.

Q. Peter, when they’ve scored goals in this series, it seems like they’ve come in bunches. The biggest shift is the one after they get a goal. What do you guys need to do to change what happens on that next shift after they score so they don’t build momentum and get a couple of quick ones in a short time frame?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: They certainly did that at the end of the — like I said, I thought we had gotten by the worst part of Game 5. It was probably the first six or seven minutes that they just came out swarming. They had us pinned back. They threw a lot of attempts at our net.
And then it settled down in there for probably four or five minutes where it was going back and forth. The game had seemed to calm down a little bit from where it had started. They got some goals at the end of the period. I don’t think that’s happened a lot where they’ve come out and they’ve gone like that. Game 2 was a tight game. Game 1 went back and forth. We actually had the lead a few times.

So that was really the first instance, that first period, the last eight minutes or so where they scored those three goals. That’s not something we really talked about.

Q. Peter, you’ve preached playing with desperation throughout this postseason. But going into Game 6, after seeing the way that Chicago played there in Game 5, do you need to have, I guess, an edge, a chip to your team going into game Game 6?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: We’re going to have to play a good hockey game. I think the guys know that. We have played good hockey games. Like I said, there haven’t been a lot that we haven’t liked. Even some of the ones we’ve lost we’ve competed hard and competed well.
There’s other good teams in these playoffs as well. You’re not going to win every game. You don’t see teams go 16-0 in the playoffs. But there’s been a couple of games we haven’t liked.

I have confidence we’ll show up and we’ll play hard tomorrow and we’ll bring our best game to the table.

Q. Pete, if ever there was time where the fans might expect sort of that Knute Rockne speech, this is it. What’s your style? When do you address your team? Will you address your team? What did you do in Carolina before this kind of game? What do you do?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I got it actually, now. Do you want me to give it to you?

Q. If you wouldn’t mind.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I don’t think a lot like that. Usually whatever is in my gut or in my heart I usually say it. Sometimes it’s — sometimes they like to hear it. And sometimes they don’t. But I don’t think about those things like that.

Q. You mentioned the other day Game 6 in Edmonton with Carolina. Ville was in here talking about the feeling of having the Cup that close and not being able to close it out. Do you think there’s a correlation between how badly you want it on the night that you can clinch it and not being able to do it?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I’m not sure I understand the question. What do you mean is there a feeling?

Q. You know, you are that close to the Cup. You are that close to it –and then not to get it on the night –

COACH LAVIOLETTE: It was nauseating. I went back to the hotel room in Edmonton and I almost threw up. To be close, to have an opportunity — Game 5 wasn’t much better. We were winning, they tied it up late. We went on the power-play in overtime and they scored on a short-handed goal in our building with the Cup being polished out back. So that one wasn’t much better. So, I mean, you keep fighting. You keep fighting for it. One thing this team really has proven is that they’re capable of fighting. We’ll be ready to do that tomorrow.

Q. Back to those — to that Cup team. Are you essentially the same coach, same style, this new team? Or have you changed significantly your approach or the way you treat the players, the press, things like that, or is it same guy, new team?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I really don’t think about those things too much. Like I don’t sit here and wonder if I’m the same guy when I coached the Islanders as I am now. I really don’t know. I think you are who you are in life. You try to be other people or do different things. You probably get lost along the way.

Q. Coach, will you remind your guys, or do you even have to, just how far you’ve come in the situations, the elimination games you have been in and how many has it helped you guys faced elimination five times since the end of the regular season and it prevailed every time?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think our guys know that. They’ve lived it. Our guys are on the ice that have to live in those situations and have answered the bell every time. So I don’t think it needs to be pointed out any more by me. Because they’re actually the ones out there on the ice that have to perform in those situations.

Q. Coach, we see one side of Chris Pronger, that jovial always joking around. From your point of view, what do you see in him,and how does he help control the mood of these players as they kind of get ready for this next game?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think — I think there’s a side that you see that you’re talking about. There’s also a side of professionalism that you get to see as a coach that you probably don’t get to see unless you coach him and work with him. The fact that he’s always on time at the rink. He shows up, he does the right things, he says the right things. He practices as hard as he plays. He’s a professional. He really is.

Q. Peter, your sixth defensemen hasn’t played much in the Finals. Would you consider going with five defensemen in the next game, or is that too risky?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Do you want me to answer lineup questions?

Q. Just general questions.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Generally speaking, all year I’ve gone with — generally speaking, but not for tomorrow, just generally, I’ve gone with 6 and 12, I think, every time since I’ve been here, anyway.

Q. Is it too risky to go with five in the playoffs?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Generally speaking? I think that’s up to the coach and how he feels it would work to benefit his team.

Q. Coach, you’ve talked earlier in the series about Mike Richards and even though he’s not putting up the points, not putting up the numbers, he was still working hard. There were aspects of his game that you like. What do you see in him now? Do you expect him to step up tomorrow? Is that putting too much pressure on him to say you have to do it tomorrow?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think our players know exactly where they’re at as far as tomorrow goes. In speaking about our game or you talk about Mike Richards or our team, because I would rather keep it in general terms than Mike Richards. Game 5 was not a good game for our players. I think we have stated that. We need to be better in a lot of different areas. Before that, we’re coming off of two wins at home where I think our team played well. I think Mike Richards played well. It’s a big game. Mike Richards has proven to be, I think, in everybody’s eyes, a big-time player. I would expect a big game from Mike tomorrow.

Q. Can we? Mine is because they’re always asked this, particularly Jeff Carter, what is your perception of if there was a percentage, how much of Jeff Carter is here right now in terms of dealing with his injury?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: It’s a lot — there’s a lot of time that was missed by Jeff. You think about Simon coming back from his injury, Jeff had come back from the first one. He missed a month. He came back and played a few games for us, and then he was out again. So he might have been back for maybe a total of two weeks after missing a month.

And then he missed another month. Or in that area, anyway. Just three and a half weeks to four and a half weeks, the two injuries. So you’re talking close to two months of time off the ice. He still looks good out there to me. He still looks like he can contribute. There were a couple of games ago where he had 12 attempts at the net. Game 4 he had more attempts at the net. They looked like they were coming. And then Game 5 I’ve already mentioned that game.

I would expect that — he’s probably not at 100%. But I would expect a good game out of Jeff as well.

Q. Get back to what you might say or might not say before the game, Pittsburgh last year was in the exact same situation, got blown out in Game 5 and still won. If not specifically that, do you look for things like that to talk about? Or as you said, is this team responded so well, you don’t look for historical precedence?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I do look for those type of things. Historical precedence. I look at the situation. I think part of your coach is trying to motivate and get your team to believe in things, and there’s no question we talked about that situation. I mentioned the Carolina situation in the past. We’ve talked about what our team has been through. You talk about winning championships. You see them happen year after year.
But our championship that we’re pursuing is special. Maybe more so than others, if you look at how we had to get here and what we had to do to get our hands on that thing. I always think
you’re looking for something to motivate.

Comments from Mike Richards and Jeff Carter

Q. For Mike, Blackhawks came out Game 5, obviously they talked about having kind of an edge and a chip on their shoulder. Do you need to have that same sort of element to your game for Game 6 tomorrow?

MIKE RICHARDS: Yeah, probably. I think the edge that they got was almost us giving it to them and not playing our best hockey and allowing them to come at us and give them all the credit in the world.

They came out hard and played hard and carried that throughout the game. There were times in the game where we played well, but not on a consistent basis enough to have success at this time of year.

Q. If both of you can just take a quick swipe at this. Chicago comes out, they make a bunch of line changes, shuffles things around. I imagine the temptation is there for your coach to try and figure something out. Is it a matter of tactics and line changes and this and that, or as players, to you is it more about trying to execute what you want to do better?

MIKE RICHARDS: I don’t think we’re playing poorly. I think we are getting a lot of great looks at the net. We’re just not scoring goals. Confidence is such a big thing in hockey, where if you have it you’re almost unstoppable. If you don’t, it’s tough to get anything going.
But we’re getting great chances at the net. You have to think sooner than later they’re going to go in. Let’s hope tomorrow night is the night.

Q. The line change, potential changes or not –

JEFF CARTER: Like Mike said, we’ve played some good games this series with the lines we’ve got going. I think last game we basically just didn’t play our game. I don’t think it’s a matter of panicking and going out there and changing our lines up. We have to get back to playing Flyers hockey and playing the way we’ve played to get here at this point.

Q. Jeff, how much has your foot impacted your play in the Finals?

JEFF CARTER: It hasn’t, no.

Q. Jeff, you said you’re not playing your game. You guys have scored four goals in three straight games.

JEFF CARTER: We have. We can score goals. We can score eight goals a game if we played our game for 60 minutes. We have guys that can put the puck in the net. I think we came out last game and they came out fired and we kind of sat back and they pretty much skated all over us. They out-hit us, outworked us.

We got it going a little bit near the end of the game, but we have to come out and be skating on top of our toes and get another forecheck when we’re playing our game.

Q. Danny Briere talked about you won the two games here and you went back to Chicago, and maybe you felt the momentum was on your side a little bit, and that you took that for granted. Is this in a way still a learning process each step of the way in getting that game to even an extra level?

MIKE RICHARDS: It is a process. Not everyone has been in this situation before. We might have been a little bit overconfident or thought the momentum of our two games at home would have carried right into Chicago. Obviously we were awakened pretty early in that game thatit wasn’t.

At the end of the day, you have to look at it as them just winning their home games. We only have to win one there and protect home ice.
So tomorrow night is obviously a big game, but a place where we’ve played well all playoffs long here and feel confident in our game in this building.

Q. For both Mike and Jeff, tomorrow regardless of what happens, it’s your final home game of the season. Talk about A, the opportunity to send the fans out one last time, and on the flip side of that, you obviously don’t want to have to see a team celebrate and raise a Cup on your home ice. Which of those motivates you more?

JEFF CARTER: I think obviously they both do. You never want to see a team come into your building beat you and let alone win the Stanley Cup on your home ice. So a lot of motivation there. Obviously, the fans have been behind us since we began this five years ago, really. It would be nice to come out and get a big win for them in the last home game.

Q. Mike, Danny just said that the way they started the last game, he said we sat back and basically watched them come at us. We didn’t really react until later. Do you expect tomorrow the first period this team is going to send messages to everybody on the ice? Much more physical showing by the Flyers, the first period?

MIKE RICHARDS: Yeah, I expect us to get back to the way we’ve played throughout the series. Last game was obviously just a blip hopefully. We’re going to have to play physical and play hard and relentless and fast-pace if we’re going to have a chance to win tomorrow night.

Q. Mike, when the puck is not going in for you personally, how do you walk that line of saying okay, I need to score, I want to score, change your game, not change your game? How do you avoid pressing and getting away from the things that do you so well and got you — that were so successful for you during the season?

MIKE RICHARDS: It’s not the first time I’ve gone in a streak that I haven’t scored or — I don’t feel like I’m playing bad hockey, doing a lot of good things on the ice, I feel, and looking at the games and tape, getting a lot of opportunities, you’re putting yourself in a lot of great opportunities and getting a lot of good looks at the net. Whereas if you start pressing you might get away from that and might not get the opportunities.

I don’t feel I need to press for goals. I think they’re going to come naturally if I keep working hard and keep going to the net. You’re bearing down as much as you can without squeezing the stick. They’re eventually going to come, hopefully tomorrow night, like I said.

Q. In Vancouver you guys were under the gun and won the quarter final, then obviously the semi-final, the gold medal. Now 3-0 against Boston you ran the table. I don’t know if you get used to it, but do you get comfortable in these situations?

MIKE RICHARDS: Not a situation you want to get used to, but I don’t think it’s panic time. We’ve played well the whole series except for last game. I think it would be a time to be concerned if we weren’t playing good hockey. Like I said, we’re playing well. We’re hitting.
Obviously, except for last game I don’t think we played very well. Their goaltender has made some saves that’s one bounce away from kind of breaking the flood gates open, hopefully. You just keep going at it. You can’t change too much. You can’t get away from what you’re trying to do as a team. Just go out there and play hockey. Relax. Try to enjoy it. When you do that, I think you play little bit looser and you get better opportunities and when you do that, you get more pucks in the net.

Q. Ian Laperriere was saying some guys played 20 something minutes, some of them are soft minutes. He was talking about you, that all of your minutes are hard. Is it reasonable to think that you can play that way through your career? Or are you going to have to do some sort of veteran adjusting about when to go hard?

MIKE RICHARDS: I’m not sure. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes, I guess.

 

Comments from Scotts Hartnell and Simon Gagne

Q. Fair to say tomorrow has to be the most physical game you guys are going to play this season, you’re going to keep playing?

SCOTT HARTNELL: That’s been our motto from Game 1 to wear them down physically on the forecheck, defensive zone. Pinning bodies and stuff. Game 6 at home is going to be a lot of emotion in the crowd, in our dressing room. It’s going to be a big day on the body by everyone in the dressing room.

Q. If you can both touch on this, just watching Chris Pronger and the way he’s handled himself in the media through this process. He’s obviously been here before. He’s a veteran presence. How much does Chris’ demeanor and what seems to be calm impact the way the rest of you guys are handling this pressure situation?

SIMON GAGNE: You know, he’s been here before. He’s a veteran. He won Cups. Been there with Edmonton. So it’s not the first time for him. For guys like even myself, be there for the first time in the Stanley Cup Final. You learn a lot from a guy like that. We lost last game. Now it’s over. Now it’s time to focus on the next one. We all know tomorrow is going to be a big game. Having Prongs in the lineup for us, it’s a plus. He’s a leader. He’s a guy that’s going to play big minutes for us. He’s going to be physical. We all know that. No, doesn’t matter what happened last game. We know he’s going to bounce back from it.

Q. Scott, you are banged up a little bit in Game 5. How are you feeling and how much better do you feel today than you did on Sunday?

SCOTT HARTNELL: Good. I think as the series go on, you get kind of banged up a little bit. Some bruises here and there. Just had a little trouble with my skate there too. I was just trying to get that figured out. Guys are banged up. It’s been a long season. But this time of year, you fight through a lot of nicks and tweaks and all that kind of stuff to come out flying.

Q. If both of you guys can answer this, how much does it help that you guys have been in elimination games before so much down the stretch here from the end of the regular season to the Boston series. How much does it help you guys now going forward in Game 6 and possibly Game 7?

SIMON GAGNE: I think it’s helped a lot. It’s not the first time that we’re going to face elimination or even game 82 of the last game of the season. We had to win this one to be where we are today.

Now we’re a confident group here. We know that coming back for Game 6 at home in front of our fans, we’re a tough team to beat. We’ve been there before. It’s not like it’s the first time, and I think it’s a plus. I’m sure guys are going to be ready to play a big game. We know what to expect those type of situations. And we’re going to be ready for the biggest game of the season.

Q. Can I get Scott to answer that?

SCOTT HARTNELL: Yeah, Game 4 against Boston was pretty incredible. We won that one in overtime. Just gave us a lot of confidence to kind of keep going through that series. I think we got better and better as that series wore on. I think maybe last game, Game 5, we took a step back with our team play, our physical play, our skating ability and stuff, watching the clips this morning and what not, seeing it on the video is more real than just kind of talking about it.

Been in this position before. I don’t expect any less than us to come out flying, banging, shooting, scoring, everything we need to be on tomorrow.

Q. This question is for both players. Obviously, the Blackhawks and the Flyers both have a lot of offensive weapons. But in the Stanley Cup Final, even when it involves good offensive teams, it’s usually difficult to score a lot of goals. Yet both teams have piled up the goals. Can you explain why that’s happening?

SCOTT HARTNELL: Good things happen when you throw pucks at the net and you have some sharp shooters on both teams. Look at Sharp’s goals — the goals he’s gotten in this series off a couple of bars and in the net. It’s tough for any goalie to stop those shots.
When you are getting tap-in goals, when the goalie is kind of out of the play. All the kind of havoc in front that both teams are trying to do to make their team successful and score goals. It’s good things are going to happen.

We have to tighten up obviously defensively. We know they can score goals. We have to protect the net, block shots and sink in the slot, all that kind of stuff.

Q. Simon, Chicago benefited from breaking up their top line. It seemed to work out for them. I wonder if you thought it might benefit you guys with that as well?

SIMON GAGNE: I don’t think we’re going to see any change on their lines. It worked for them last game. I don’t know if they got some energy from it or whatever. Looked like their top guys got a lot of goals from them. For us, I think we like the lines that we have right now. It’s just like we have to find — especially my line with Cartsie and Richie, we need to, I think, create a little bit more offensively. Try to maybe get a lucky goal or something. I don’t know. We just have to keep working a little bit harder, I think, and we know that we could be the difference tomorrow in the game. So our line has to be very big for our team tomorrow. We’re going to try to do that.

Q. Right on top of that, we made so much of you finally getting to the promised land here after all your season. Happy, frustrated, how would you describe personally how you feel about your play right now?

SIMON GAGNE: You know what, we were talking, we’re in the Stanley Cup Final, Game 6. You have to feel good about yourself. But at the same time tomorrow is going to be the biggest game that personally I’m going to have to play. I’m going to be ready for that. It doesn’t matter what happened in that Stanley Cup Final, if our line didn’t produce like we wanted to. We have a chance to make that all behind us tomorrow if we have a big game. I’m sure our line is going to be ready. Me, Richie and Cartsie, going to be ready to play the biggest game of our life. And not only us, but I think the whole team is going to be ready to play the biggest game of the season.

Comments from Ville Leino

Q. Ville, can you talk about playing at home for the final time this season, and not only sending off the fans with something positive, but on the other hand, not having Chicago come in here, win and celebrate on your home ice?

VILLE LEINO: Well, obviously it’s a big game. We’re going to be ready and we have to be ready. Because the last game wasn’t good. And hopefully it was a little bit of a wake-up call. We just got to win tomorrow. That’s all. All we’re going to be thinking.

Q. Along the same lines, is your extra motivation knowing the Stanley Cup is in the building and you don’t want them to hoist it here?

VILLE LEINO: Well, it’s probably same thing to both teams. They probably just want to grab it, and we don’t want to give it away. I think it’s mentally the same for the both teams. It’s just something a little extra there.

Q. Ville, what are your impressions of Chris Pronger, his demeanor? He seems pretty loose with the media. Seems to be having fun even after losses. Does his moods, does that reflect on the team as well?

VILLE LEINO: Well, probably. Probably yes. I don’t think he cares about, or he cares, but I don’t think it matters. He had a rough game yesterday, and everybody else did.

So he’s loose and having fun. I think that’s the way he goes. He’s enjoying. So hopefully everyone else is too.

Q. What is Peter like in the locker room with you guys? Is he more of a big motivational speech kind of a guy before the games? Or is he just an X’s and O’s video type of guy? How would you describe his role in the way you guys have turned the season around?

VILLE LEINO: I think he’s good. He has great speeches. They’re not just speeches. He really motivates people. It’s not just talk. You can feel how he really feels — you can feel the truth in the talk and he’s really caring. Just — I think he’s speaking all the right things to the right person. To us it’s just perfect to our team. I think that’s what he’s best at.

Q. Ville, having been through this situation in Detroit very much the same kind of situation Chicago is in right now, do you have any insight into what that team is feeling with a chance to wrap it up here?

VILLE LEINO: Well, last year — it’s tough time. You just want it to be over with. You want to be winning and raising that Cup. It’s just something you try to block out, but it’s still there. It’s not very easy to shut it out and blank it out. It’s going to be there. Hopefully it’s going to be a little bit advantage to us.

Comments from Chris Pronger

Q. Beside yourself, what else has to be better tomorrow for you guys continue to play to Game 7?

CHRIS PRONGER: We’ll fix your hair first. And then… What do we get with that part?

Q. Do you like that?

CHRIS PRONGER: No. A lot of things. Bounces. We have to be more physical. We have to skate. I’m sure you’ve heard about 15 different things. We obviously have to play a lot better than we did in Game 5. Thanks for that, Tim.

Q. Just wondering if you’ve seen or been alerted to the Chicago Tribune, nice poster of you today in the paper?

CHRIS PRONGER: I don’t read what you guys write. Good or bad.

Q. Do you get motivated by the reaction you get in Chicago? Does that motivate you even more?

CHRIS PRONGER: I really couldn’t care, to be honest with you. I’m worried about playing the game.

Q. Chris, you’ve been in this situation a few times now, a Stanley Cup Final. Is your demeanor any different now than it was in the last two? You’ve always been fairly loose and you seem to have a good time with things. Do you feel that’s important to project that to your teammates to just keep things calm in the face of the pressure you are under?

CHRIS PRONGER: I think you’re on a bigger stage. Obviously a lot more of you fine folks. You’re excluded. And, you know, you have to try to keep things as light as possible in preparation for the game. Obviously, once you come to 4:30, 5 o’clock for an 8 o’clock game, you have to start mentally being prepared and focused and ready to roll.

But prior to that, I think it’s important to stay as relaxed as you can and use the time that’s been allotted to prepare and rest up for what’s going to be a tough game.

Q. Chris, you’ve played three out of five I think it is in the Finals. You’ve often said it’s maintenance, how you can last, how make all those minutes. Was there a moment or a season or a switch click there that you realized I’m going to have to do this, this and this? Or is it just kind of a gradual thing you’ve learned over time?

CHRIS PRONGER: Yeah, I think it’s more gradual. I think it’s — you try little things in the summer. How you train. Things that do you through the course of the season, training and practice and maintenance in the training room after games and practices and things like that. Warming up for practices and games. You try different things and see with a works best. And you try to just keep adding those little things to your repertoire and what you do to be ready to play or practice. And you use that as you continue to go along and use the experience that you have.

Q. Chris, you won a Cup, you lost a Cup. The Cup will be in the building tomorrow night. Is this more of a media thing, or do the players in the back of their mind know it’s in the trunk and obviously you want to keep it in the trunk tonight?

CHRIS PRONGER: Yeah, I think we know what we’re up against. They’re obviously trying to close this out, and we’re trying to get to a Game 7. I think everybody in the locker room understands what’s at stake and what we need to do. We obviously looked at a lot of the different video clips of our last game. Not very many were good. And we use that as a learning experience and what we can do right and things that we can tighten up.

Q. Based on your performance with us, you’re perfectly suited for the banquet circuit. Are you a big speech guy in the room before a big game like tomorrow night?

CHRIS PRONGER: Not really. I think Peter, as I said in past press conferences, Peter has done an excellent job of keeping the guys on point and focused and understanding that we got to worry about one game. Not look at what can be the prize, whether it’s a close-out game or you’re trying to move on to the next series, or a position like this where our backs are against the walls, we have to focus on Game 6 and not worry about what’s going to happen down the pipe.

We have to make sure that we’re worrying about our next shift and not what can happen if you get to a possible Game 7 or whatever.

Q. Chris, Peter just said that when they lost that Game 6 to you guys in Edmonton, that he was nauseated. He said he almost threw up he felt so bad. You’ve lost a Cup, two days later, I guess, and won a Cup. Can you take us through that range of motion emotions and how down you get and how high it is when you win?

CHRIS PRONGER: That was a tough summer on a lot of different fronts. You very well know. But it was tough to start that next season, knowing that you came what was essentially a 2-1 hockey game barring an empty-net goal with 25 seconds left or whatever, but it was tough.
It was tough to get motivated again to get back on the ice. We had just — I think we played to like June 21st or 22nd. It was a quick summer, and obviously all the rest of that stuff with the trade and what not.

But I think going to a new team, you kind of understand what their goals were right off the bat. Obviously I was brought in there for a reason. We had beaten them the year before in the Conference Finals. They felt they had a team that can go far.

That was single-minded belief, not only in Edmonton, but in Anaheim. I think we have that here where we believe we can win on any given night as long as we play up to our capabilities and play to the system that’s in front of us.

Q. Chris, you have alluded to the fact that you kind of grown up and changed over the course of your career. At what point would a Game 5 that you had there in Chicago would have eaten at you mentally to think about it whereas now you probably have more of a short-term memory and you can put it out of mind and focus on Game 6 right away.

CHRIS PRONGER: I’ve already started to focus on Game 6. I’m not really worried about it. Probably in years past I wouldn’t have worried too much about it either. There’s not much you can do about it. It’s in the past. I don’t know if you watched much of the highlights or the video, but I have. There’s really not a whole lot you can do when a puck bounces off your shin pad and goes in the net a couple of times. I’m not too worried about it. Could just have easily went the other way.

Q. Chris, Peter just said that indirectly he said Michael Leighton will be the goalie tomorrow. Can you talk about the team’s confidence level in Leighton after a rough first period?

CHRIS PRONGER: I don’t think we’re too worried about it. We’ve seen this story before. Not only on our team but a lot of other teams during the course of the playoffs, this year and in years past. I think he’s the type of guy that can let things like that roll off him and just go out and be focused and be prepared. I’m not too worried about him. I don’t think anybody else is either.

Q. Just referring to Mark’s earlier question, do you recall the feeling when Carolina came in with a chance to clinch in your building, whether that was a motivating factor for you how you obviously dealt with it pretty darn well, but…

CHRIS PRONGER: Yeah, I think it’s a motivating factor. You’re on home ice. They have a chance to clinch. You don’t want to see that in your building, and you want to get to a Game 7. You want to have an opportunity to win it. That’s the biggest thing. We’re not here just to get to a Game 7. We want to win.

At the end of the day, we’re here to win a Stanley Cup. We need to get two wins to do it. But you have to get one before you get two.

Q. Chris, in terms of — Chicago made a bunch of line adjustments. You had different lines coming at you in that last game. Is it a matter of over thinking, making your own adjustments? Or was it more an issue the way of the team you played whatever lines that were thrown at you?

CHRIS PRONGER: I don’t think it really mattered who they had matched up. We didn’t play very well. They could have had the same lineup going from the line combination, and it wouldn’t have mattered. You’re not very good through the neutral zone. They came with a lot of speed and pretty much did whatever they wanted.

Us as defensemen need to get up and get a better gap. Our forwards need to do a better job of closing gap and finishing through the neutral zone. We’ll do that here in Game 6 tomorrow.

Coach Laviolette,

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Pre-Game Comments from Blackhawks Head Coach Joel Quenneville

 

Q. Joel, I’m sure the fans, and possibly even the League, is happy to see a high-scoring series. How do the coaches feel about it?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I don’t mind when we’re scoring the way we were early in the game. I didn’t like all of a sudden the way they were going in our end. I think there’s been a lot of goals in this series. They just seem to be going in whether they’re deflections or fortunate bounces around the net, they’ve been going to the right guys or wrong guys whichever way you’re looking at it.

I think both teams are capable of scoring. I don’t think we envisioned scoring at the rate we’re scoring at. I think the thing I always try is to stress with our team is defense first in our approach. I still think that’s an area where we can enhance and solidify going into the next game and try to be a little bit airtight around our net.

Q. Joel, we just listened to Peter Laviolette and he discussed the high sticking on Daniel Briere. Couldn’t believe the call was missed. Kind of suggests that maybe it was on purpose, which seems hard to believe. What was your take on that play?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I’m not getting too much into the officiating. I know we looked over the first four games. I think Soupy might have had the same high stick and he was cut too. Apples and oranges. At the end of the day it probably came out in the wash.

Q. Joel, you talk about fast starts all the time. What does it take to actually have a fast start? I know you always wanted one, but what’s the key to days when they don’t have one?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I thought we skated harder or quicker and had more support of the puck. We seemed to be managing it more efficiently and moving it quicker. And I think we had some good zone time in their own end. We had some good possessions, had some dangerous looks at the net.

We had all four lines bringing us energy in the game. Fed off the noise and enthusiasm of the crowd here, and took advantage of it.

Q. Joel, Dustin Byfuglien, Game 4 it seemed like he was a non-factor. Yesterday he was the factor. What was the difference in him?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I thought Buff, his playoffs, have been special a lot of nights. I think the first two games in the series maybe he didn’t have much production, but I still thought he was effective in ways of using his body and his size. Maybe not as busy as we would have liked him in Philly. But rebounded, big effort last night. I thought he was impactful in a lot of the games in the Vancouver series, going into San Jose as well.

But I think last night was the biggest influence in the game he’s had throughout the playoffs. He was a big factor.

Q. Time was a one-goal lead or a two-goal lead in a playoff game was the kind of thing you could put to rest and enjoy. Is there any lead now that’s safe?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I don’t think in this series. I know they had a three-goal lead late in Game 4, and all of a sudden we had three goal leads throughout, and all of a sudden they get it to two and chance to get it to one.

I think both teams are very respectful for the opposition’s offense and the threats they pose. And especially when you’re down all of a sudden you’re just going for it, it can enhance the quality of the offense.

But at the same time, we want to make sure we try to slow it down with any leads we do have. That’s easier said than done right now.

Q. Because if they called off the high stick on Keith last night, that’s a four-minute penalty probably under most circumstances.

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We just mentioned that. We had a four-minute — Soupy got high sticked for four minutes before that happened. So who knows what happens — it’s like — situations like that, we got through some calls and non-calls. You have to play the game that’s out there. And I think we did have to kill a penalty when they almost tied it or had it within one goal in the second period. They had a great chance to score.

Q. Joel, can you come out and dominate early without feeding off the home crowd like did you last night? And do you sort of expect the Flyers to sort of come out in Game 6 the way you did yesterday?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We expect them to come out hard. I think we want to come out the same way we began the game last night. I think we have had some real good road games in these playoffs. I think we’re — I think we get both one-goal games on the road in Philly. Lose in overtime. Not good enough. But I think we have had some great games. Some of our best games in the playoffs in Vancouver and San Jose, even in Nashville.

Q. Coach, Chris Pronger kept to a minus 5 on the penalty box for a big goal. How big was splitting up your lines in minimizing his effectiveness?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think I’m concerned with what we had to do. I like the balance in our lines. I like the speed of our lines. I like the consistency of the rotation. And gives us more options and different looks. I think guys usually seem to get a jolt or some energy after forming new lines or getting to play with different guys.

I just thought they worked well last night. Hopefully we can improve off of those levels.

Q. Chris Pronger has been averaging 30 minutes a game pretty much. They’ve also got to make some adjustments and some decisions on how they’re going to handle your new lines. Does the extra day help them, or does it matter?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think both teams can use it to their advantage to get rest and get excited about the next game. I think some guys would rather play today. I think the extra rest will get us focused knowing it’s a huge game, biggest game of our lives. Channel it properly, and control — we control what we can control and that’s your next shift.

Q. Joel, two power-play goals last night, only one previously in the series. Did you see anything different out of that unit?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, it’s the first time I think we have had consecutive power plays in the same period. Where we kind of get a little bit of flow off what we didn’t do or did right in the first power-play and score on the second one of the game. The second one we did score was off a very nice entry with good puck movement, Buff at the net.

So I think that certain nights they do go in, they don’t go in. But they have a good penalty-killing squad. But it’s nice to see us get some production and give our power-play some confidence, knowing that it could be the differential going forward.

Q. Joel, earlier in the series you discussed how Marian Hossa has made it through 12 rounds without winning a Cup. He’s now along with your team very close to winning. What do you sense he might be going through as he’s kind of been waiting for this? So close the last two years and maybe now finally getting to achieve it?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think he was in the same situation last couple of years. Same exact spot he was in last year in Detroit. So I think that experience can certainly help him. He can channel the energy and the focus. He can help our team as well knowing how to prepare over the next few days as we gear up for Wednesday’s game.

Obviously, he’s got to be chomping at the bit, excited like we all are. I would say he might be the — one of the better guys as far as managing his emotions going into the game, having been there and done that.

Q. Joel, does everybody now use the umbrella power-play? It seems all the other ones people used to use it have gone by the wayside.

COACH QUENNEVILLE: It’s overload on the down-low or the 1-3-1, whatever you want to call it. But it seems like threats off those half walls, they give up certain shots.

But you get some motion off that off-wing flank and I don’t know if Detroit started it, but seems like a lot of teams emulate that type of movement. There’s certain things you can stop. But you can’t stop everything.

I just think that you create some motion as best you can, and you still got to be a threat to shoot. You still need traffic at the net. Good players will always see plays. The thing is you don’t want to look for the pretty ones, because they don’t usually happen.

Q. Joel, you guys have always — you faced a lot of big games, so now, as you just said, the biggest game for them. What do you expect to see from the guys? Nerves? And how will you kind of manage it with them?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We like the response to our biggest game last night. I know whether there’s the expectations of the challenge of facing losing two games in a row, how are we going to respond. Commended the guys how business-like and their concentration, their focus. It was exactly how you would expect it or want it.

I don’t think we want to change off of those levels. We’re going on the road. We don’t want to change our approach, play the same way. Same emotion. One shift at a time. Fine tune it and don’t look at the big picture. Look at the small picture.

Q. A Bob Johnson type might want to take his team to the movies or something tomorrow night or tonight, or to go to a museum or to do some kind of — do you ever do those kind of things? Do you plan to do anything between now with this amount of time off with your team?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We already took them to Alcatraz. Could have locked them up for a couple of days. It was a fun trip when we were out there in San Jose for a couple of extra days. Kind of got away from the rink.

Today we’ve been so busy, and I think it was a day where they’re just going to stay away from each other and get some rest and will practice tomorrow. Fly to Philly and kind of do our routine that we’ve done on the road. I think they got a lot of bonding going on at the hotel, whether they’re playing video games.

They do spend a lot of time on the road. We have had an extensive amount of days together away from Chicago.

Q. Joel, Scotty Bowman has been in this situation many times. He’s had a lot of success. I was wondering if especially when things got tight after Game 4, even now, has he counseled you at all on how to handle this, what to do? I’m not just talking so much about moral support but strategic things or anything that affects play on the ice?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We always talk strategy with Scotty. He always has some good ideas. Things sometimes you don’t think about. I’ll sit with him on the plane — I sat with him on the plane coming back from Philly. I’ll sit with him tomorrow. He’s in the room a lot. He’s always visiting with good ideas, good suggestions.

And his experience of being at this time in the playoffs season, being around and knowing the right things to say or do or to think about. Sometimes I don’t always look at it that way. I think he’s a great guy to have around to keep things in perspective.

Q. As a follow-up to that, was it Scotty’s idea to break up the first line?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I don’t know if it was Scotty’s. We did it in the course of the game last game. I think we all knew that we had to mix them up.

Q. Joel, for you, could you talk about the journey that it’s been since you became Blackhawks head coach and getting to this point of your career?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been very fortunate to come here at the time, receiving a tremendous hockey team with great kids that like being around each other. Have a lot of skill and talent. A lot of the same demographics. Grew up together and grown together over the last two years as a team. It’s a fun team to coach.

We’ve accomplished some things last year that I think have helped us out this year as far as getting in the playoffs, playing three rounds. This year — season was kind of comparable to regular season to last year.

But it certainly — every day we love coming in to work. Got a great staff to work with. Not a bigger thrill in standing out behind the bench when you hear the Anthem and you get chills and goose bumps and you’re ready to start another game.

In the playoffs, it seems to grow to a different level. Being around the city of Chicago, it’s been a great place to live. Our family loves it. We’re happy here. And we have a great situation. The biggest thrill of our lives coming up.

Q. If you don’t have the previous relationship, friendship with Marc Bergevin, are you sitting in your position now?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I have not clue about that. I don’t know whether it’s Dale or Bergevin or whomever in that regard. But I felt very fortunate to get the chance to begin here. I was very happy to maybe take the year off last year in Colorado and watch hockey games and spend some time with my family. Things change rapidly. I was beneficiary of coming in with a great opportunity at the right time. I feel lucky.

Q. Given how well all four lines played last night, is it safe to assume you’re done tweaking them?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Right now. Status quo would probably be the best way to go, go into the next game.

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Off Day comments from Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette

Q. Peter, are you sticking with Michael in goal?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I don’t comment on lineups.

Q. I’m wondering what you remember of Game 5, the Pittsburgh-Detroit series last year, as a partial observer? What you thought at the end of that game in that maybe what happened in those two games? What surprised you?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Let me go back on that first question. As far as that one, I think you’re always familiar with things that you’ve lived more than you’ve watched. For me, I lived it in 2006. We [Carolina] went up to Edmonton in Game 6 and really got outplayed.

It was a similar game to last night. They were quicker than us and had more opportunities at the net. I think what it does is it makes you remember that there’s just one game — they’re just one game parts of a series. And you really have to remember that, whether it’s good or bad. When things are good, you win a couple of games.

You want to try and separate that, so you don’t feel too good about things, you don’t get too high. Because there’s a good chance the other team just got more desperate. They got a little bit more desperate and things didn’t go our way last night.

But, again, you have to make sure that you are ready for the next game, that you put this one behind you. Because they’re all separate. Just from my experience in 2006, we had a lousy game in 6. We had probably the best game of the year in Game 7.

Q. Did you say anything? I’m wondering after Game 6 in ’06, did you get a sense from the room that your guys got it? That it was just one game?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think that when you get to this point there’s a tremendous amount of confidence in your team to win hockey games. They get it and they understand it. If any team gets it, this team gets it, because we’ve been here so many times.

Again, to have our back against the wall, we’ll be comfortable with this tomorrow. I have no question that our team will respond in a manner in which it should so that we can be successful.

Q. The Flyers seem to have the edge when it came to special teams. Coming into last night, a couple of goals on the power-play for the Hawks, can you maybe explain what happened and adjustments that you might make coming into tomorrow night’s game?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: A lot of times you can go to certain aspects of the game and they are a reflection of where your team is at and where the other team is at and how the game is being played. Face-offs is one, specialty teams is another.

When you’re losing those battles, the little parts of the game, there’s a good chance that you’re getting outdone in that game. We’ve been good in specialty teams. I’ve liked the first four games.

I didn’t like the score in the first two, but I thought that we competed well and our chances were better than — and last night was the opposite. Again, so you have to take it as it’s one game, and we’ll be better as a team in our game of hockey. And with that will come better special teams, better face-offs. A lot of times it’s a reflection of your game.

Q. Peter, just wondering what your message is to the guys on a day like today. Do you just have them get away from the rink, spend time with their families?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Our guys are getting away today. We’ll do work tomorrow. We’re meeting for lunch and that’s it.

Q. Can I go back to question number one?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Number one, sure. Absolutely.

Q. What goes into your thinking with this? Have you already decided –

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Yes.

Q. And have you told your goaltender?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I haven’t seen my players.

Q. Is that the reason that you’re deciding –

COACH LAVIOLETTE: A lot of times it is the reason. Yeah, I don’t like to put things out before I talk to my team and talk to my players. I want to make sure I do it at the right time and when I want to do it. I reserve the right to say when and where.

Q. In a case like that, do you think most about the team or the goaltender in a situation like this? In making that decision.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Both. Whatever is best for the team and whatever is going to give us the best chance to win one hockey game.

Q. Wondering if there’s any further update on Danny Briere with the eye? Is there any risk he would possibly miss Game 6?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: All injuries come from Paul Holmgren.

Q. I’m not sure if you were asked this last night. Do you think that was a penalty? And were you ever given an explanation? Usually when there’s a cut like that, that is looked at.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I thought it was a penalty. At first glance, I almost thought it was intentional. The puck wasn’t even around.

Looking at it again, it should have been a four-minute penalty. You have to be in control of your stick out there. Dangerously close to a severe eye injury.

They told me that it was a follow-through on the puck. I’m not sure I understood the call. I thought it should have been a four-minute penalty.

Q. With Chicago splitting up their top couple of lines, what challenge does that pose to you guys defensively?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Again, when you look at the game last night, we need to be better in all aspects of the game. They had the opportunity for the last change. That comes back in our favor this game here.

We can take a look at those things today, the changes that they made, and formulate a game plan on what we want to do against that.

Q. Peter, are you surprised or disappointed in the way your team played? I think a lot of people who have seen your team didn’t expect that kind of a game in that kind of a situation. And if so, how do you get that back again?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I have no question that we’ll respond. It was not a good game for us. Again, you don’t want to make excuses for it. There’s no reason to have a game like that, certainly not under the circumstances. Chicago ramped up their game. It comes down to that first period. They scored three goals. They took advantage of us in the first period, and got on the board. We didn’t respond to it. They came out in their building, they had the home-ice advantage. They had the last change. They had a lot of things going for them. They took advantage of us. I thought we came out in the second period. We scored a goal. I thought we could have tied it up. I really do. There was a couple of opportunities for empty nets and back-door empty nets and we missed them.

Even in the first period, Danny Briere had one on the side of the net on the power-play. It was an empty net. He just shot it off the side. Again, maybe just a reflection of how things were going for us last night.

But it goes back to — you go back to the Montreal series, where in Game 3, I think we have had a couple of tough games in these entire playoffs. I stated such. I haven’t sugarcoated it.

Montreal Game 3 was a tough game for us. So the question is, how could you possibly respond after that game like that? Well, we did. That’s why I have a lot of confidence in our group that we will respond tomorrow night appropriately. And last night, those are the two games out of — wherever we’re at, 22, that as a group none of us are probably happy with the way we played in those two games.

Q. Sort of specific to that, it seems that if there’s a guy who can ride out a minus 5 game, a game that was on the ice for 6, it’s Chris Pronger. He sort of had joked with it a little bit last night. Is he a guy that your guys will look to essentially to establish that tone of moving forward after that?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think if we look just for Chris Pronger to do it, everybody will be in trouble. We are a team, that by all accounts, we win together and usually it’s a team effort. And when we lose, well, we do it as a team. Everybody could have been a little bit better last night.

I’m sure Chris will have a big game and lead the way. But others — we need to make sure that we have all hands on deck.

Q. Peter, obviously Jeff Carter’s play, the fact he’s even back is a testament to what he’s able to accomplish. How restrained is he by injury, and how difficult is it for him, because obviously this series has not been for your leading goal scorer from the regular season what you’ve grown accustomed to seeing from him?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Yeah, it felt like — he has battled a lot. He has had two one-month injuries or more than that in the last two-and-a-half months to three months. He doesn’t have a lot of time under his belt. I think he was taking strides up until last night, and without specifically talking about Jeff in general, we weren’t good enough as a team.

And it didn’t seem like anybody brought their best game. We’ve got to get back as a team and make sure we’re ready to play our brand of hockey, our style of hockey in our building with our fans tomorrow night. We have to make sure we’re ready to win one hockey game.

You have to give the Blackhawks credit. They played a good hockey game last night. They came out. They had the jump on us. Again, it’s one game. If you look at the Final, it’s like a novel. And there could be seven chapters in it, and each chapter is its own story.

Last night in chapter 5, they were probably happy with what they did, and we were not. It moves on to another day and another chapter. Our team will be ready to give it.

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Pre-Game Comments from Blackhawks Head Coach Joel Quenneville

Q. Obviously, lots of talk about switching around lines and who you decide to play with whom. As a coach, do you walk the line between matchups and trying to do what best beats Philly and also try not to mess up a team that got you this far?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, we changed the lines last game going into the game. Everybody had a little bit of a different look than in Game 3. Coming out of the game, we kind of changed them again. So we’ll look at going into the game, maybe tweaking them a little bit.
But certainly we went along, we didn’t change the lineup or the lines based on winning and how we’re playing. I think the last couple of games we’ve always gone along here maybe making some adjustments based on how we’re playing or what we like and what we don’t like.
But I think we have a lot of options as far as moving guys in and out and around in our lineup. I think tonight we’ll look at doing what we think is best.

Q. Joel, just inside the dressing room, Jonathan Toews kind of gave a good assessment of his play, particularly the Final and discussing good and bad games. What’s your assessment of him and whether he’s — he’s had a lot of pressure in his career. As we all know, done really well with it. What do you sense he’s kind of feeling and thinking as he goes further into a series where he would like to be more productive?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Johnny, the bigger the game, the bigger the setting. He seems to rise to the occasion and the challenge. He’s always been a key guy for us. A big leader. He responds to the bigger the stage, the bigger the setting. He doesn’t say too much. I think he just leads by his actions. How he competes. He’s the kind of guy you look for a response.

Q. Joel, Andrew Ladd not out there this morning. What’s his status?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: He’s playing. Him and Dunks were just resting.

Q. Coach, the other day when Hossa scored, you said people thought, okay he’s going to break out. Can you still say that? Is he still close to breaking out, or has he regressed in his offensive game a little bit?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think Hossa has been a big factor. We like his game. Whether he’s scoring or not, he’s a factor as far as his controlling the play, responsibility, defensively, having the puck offensively, seeing plays.

But I think he’s been a threat, and he’s been a danger for them to be concerned with; and I think that he’s one guy I think that always complements the team game.

Q. Coach, the players talk about just getting that lucky bounce. How do you get the lucky bounce? How do you change the momentum? Is it just working harder?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think we have had some fair opportunities around the net. Some pucks have gone in. We’ve been a little more generous around our net than we have probably through any stage in the year. I think that’s where we have to tighten it up. You have to earn your breaks, and you have to earn your bounces. I think we have to be harder in those areas. I think you get rewarded when you do that.

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Pre-game comments from Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette

Q. Peter, I’ve seen a lot of Flyer teams over the years, but this is one of the few that through every round of the playoffs was very loose. Scott Hartnell said one of the reasons he thinks this is a different team is that they play a lot of games in the morning skates and before practices, stuff we don’t see in the dressing room, just to take tension out of the room and keep the atmosphere loose. Can you talk a little bit about that versus teams you have had in the past that got this far?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I’m not sure about the games they are playing. I know they kick a soccer ball around to stay loose. I think it’s important — there’s obviously a lot of intensity and pressure when you get to these situations.

I think it’s really important that you stay loose and do whatever you can to try and hold that pressure at bay, and really that will allow you to perform out on the ice. When you don’t perform, usually the pressure eats you up a little bit. So I think it’s important to stay loose.

Q. Peter, do you have to go back to Games 1 and 2 and figure things out? Or do you play off of what happened in 3 and 4, if you know what I’m saying?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I do know what you’re saying. I said after Games 1 and 2 I like the way we played. I didn’t like the scoreboard. Our chances in Game 1 were almost 2 to 1. They were 2-to 1. A little bit less than that in Game 2. There’s things we can do, I think from Game 1 anyway, we didn’t give up a lot of chances. The ones we did give up, they were too much. They were too point blank.
It hasn’t been like that since the first game. They were probably saying the same thing. Nobody expected 6-5. But I would like to change the scoreboard from Game 1 and Game 2.

Q. Coach, how do you think the team has changed maybe mentally as to when they came in here last week for Games 1 and 2? Do the nerves amp up even more now that it’s a best of three? Or because they have four Cup games under their belt more relaxed in general?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Our group is pretty relaxed. I just mentioned there’s pressure in here. There’s stress just about every turn in this building. You try and deal with that and try and keep it loose, because carrying it around, I don’t think it’s going to do any good for you on the ice.

I think our guys, to answer Tim’s question, I think our guys do a pretty good job of that. We’re not a tight group. We’re a confident group. I think that’s really important.

Q. Peter, if they make some line changes as expected, does that make it more difficult, give you a coaching challenge as far as getting the defensemen out there?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I’ve said this before, we have confidence in all of our players on the ice, whoever goes out there. We’re not going to change too much on what we’re doing. I can’t speak for what may or may not happen, because I’m not sure where they’re going with their changes or with their systems or who is starting in net. Those are answers that I don’t have.

Q. Peter, Toews hasn’t been on the score sheet for them much. He thinks — he’s still contributing in other ways. How do you see it? He hasn’t obviously scored, but…

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I would rather not comment on their team.

Q. What has he done well?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I would still rather not comment on their team, on their players.

Q. From your standpoint, Peter, as a coach, what’s more challenging in a Finals like this? Helping them stay loose, your players, or the X’s and O’s part of the game?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: It’s a little bit of both. The X’s and O’s part, right now I think we’re trying to execute our game to the best of our ability. I think there’s small changes you make based on the opponent, but not drastic wholesale changes.

So there’s always some X’s and O’s that we’re working on. I think staying loose is a big part of it. Like I said, the pressure, if you allow it, it can become crippling. You want to really check that off to the side. It will allow to you play your best hockey out there. I think that is really important for our group. Like I mentioned earlier, I do think we’re trying to do a good job of that. The guys are fairly loose. Even out there this morning, we know it’s a big game tonight, but they’re pretty loose.

Q. Pete, it’s been well documented how tough of a player Chris Pronger is. How tough is Kimmo Timonen?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: Like I said, goes back to the question, I don’t know if that’s where you were going with mixing and matching of the lines and the pairings. Kimmo has been excellent all year. I’ve stated numerous times back in Philly that he plays the game every bit as good as Chris Pronger. Defensively he’s always in position. I think there’s a different physical element when it comes to Chris’s game as opposed to Kimmo’s.

But Kimmo is a good first-pass, always in position, can play against anybody’s best players on any given night and be successful. Coby has been excellent. Matty Carle has been excellent. The other defensemen we have asked to fill in roles, Lukas and Ryan, Oskars, they’ve done a good job as well.

Q. Coach, Lappy was saying how poor the discipline on his team was back in Christmas and how it’s gotten so much better recently. How much of that is mental? How much of that is physical? How much of that is letting you guys play more? Where would you put that?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: We’re definitely in charge of our actions on the ice. I do think we are more disciplined compared to back where we were in December. I think you learn and you need to be disciplined at this time of the year. I think our guys have done a really good job in the playoffs.

Q. Peter, you coached against Chris Pronger in the Finals series, a seven-game series. Now you have him on your side. With your experience in Carolina, do guys get too worried about him during the series?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: He’s on the ice for half the game. It draws attention. There’s probably not many other defensemen you would want on your team in a playoffs series or in a game that meant something than Chris Pronger. He’s a money player.

He plays half the game. So it draws conversations from the other side. It did in Carolina on what to try to do. He’s, I guess a lot would say he’s the best at what he does.

Q. Peter, sorry if this was already asked. Some of the guys were talking about when they first came here for Games 1 and 2, there was some nervousness. It’s the Stanley Cup Finals and didn’t realize all the media hoopla. After the way the series has gone taking the last two, how much more comfortable and confident do you think your guys are come here for this game?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think we have had a lot of conversations just about that trying to stay loose. It’s definitely a change from where you are at the end of the regular season with the media and the hype and being one of the last two teams, as the Finals wear on, Game 5′s, Game 6′s, Game 7′s, that sort of thing, it definitely creates nerves.

That first game was funny. It almost — it was missing the intensity of the battles in front of the net at times. It’s not that Chicago didn’t compete well, or we didn’t compete well. You take four or five days off and then you come in and there’s this hype around the game. Just wasn’t a normal game. And they ended up winning it’s 6-5. The next game, I thought, I didn’t see it as much. I thought it was a good intense hockey game

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Off Day Comments from Head Coach Joel Quenneville Blackhawks players Brent Sopel, Andrew Ladd, Kris Versteeg, Patrick Sharp, and Patrick Kane

Comments from Head Coach Joel Quenneville

Q. Joel, based on your expectations of your team game, where do you think you are for the first four games of the Series?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think we have had stretches in there where we know we can be better. I thought the first game was one of those games where there’s a Finals jittery-type of game.

But I thought we progressed in the second game. Had some good stretches in Games 3 and 4. But not to the level we need to be effective. I think there’s another level for us to get to. And I think it starts more in the battle areas and having the puck more.

Q. Joel, you spent some time in the third period mixing up your lines. It seemed to have some positive effects. You generated some offense and skated well. Will you go that way early in Game 5?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We’ll look at the line combinations as we go into tomorrow’s game. We might make some adjustments as far as who is who.

Q. Coach, would you like to see this team get back to playing with the kind of altitude they had in Game 2, 3, 4 against Vancouver? Kind of more brash in your face type of thing?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think that is kind of what I just said about the battle areas. I think we can be more tenacious in there, and I know we’ve been taking more than our share of penalties. It doesn’t mean we have to be undisciplined by being more competitive in the puck areas and winning more of our puck battles.

I think that goes with why they are a little more effective in having more power-plays than us. But certainly I think we have to draw penalties by how competitive we are in the puck areas.

Q. Joel, Antti Niemi told me he’s actually trying to be the quietest guy in the room. What can you tell me about his demeanor? What’s he like off the ice, and why has he been so successful in these Playoffs?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think that’s his demeanor. He quietly goes about his business, worries about what he has to worry about, stopping the next puck or getting ready for the next game and not bringing too much attention to himself. That’s just the way he is. He’s a very likable teammate. A fun guy to have around the team and as a teammate. It’s a situation where you have to commend him how he’s approached going into these playoffs and how he has progressed and how he’s handling the Finals.

Q. Would it be a mistake to think of a couple of the turnovers by Hjalmarsson or whatever are isolated incidents and flukes? Or there’s reasons behind it because of the way the Flyers play and you have to adjust?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, I think in the first period I thought generous would probably be a way of describing all three goals. You can say all four goals in the game against us were uncharacteristic of the type of goals we give up all year. So it was — you look at those isolated incidents and it’s like a big factor in the way the game is being played and the outcome at the end. It’s things that obviously we have to be stronger in those areas. We have to improve off them and learn off of them as well. But it’s something we haven’t seen.

Q. Coach, did you split up Kane and Toews to try to get one away from Pronger or the other, and did you like how it worked in the end?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I thought there was more pressure in their zone. Whether it’s a difference of them being concerned with a couple of different lines, that might be something we’ll be looking at. But I thought it was a little more effective in the third period.

Q. Joel, do you think going into Game 5, your concern is more strategically or psychologically with the guys in the room?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think technically adjustments we’ll look at. Going into every game there’s some variances in all areas of what we’re trying to do in all zones. But I think the excitement of the game, the motivation that’s in place, the excitement of being in the United Center tomorrow is in place. I don’t think we have to tweak that too much. But I just think we know it’s a battle going forward. And we have to raise that level.

Q. As a coach, making lineup changes, are you a patient guy?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, when things are — when you’re winning, I think I’m very patient. When you come off a couple of games like that, you look at doing different things. I think as we’ve gone along all year we’re not afraid to mix it up. We have a lot of options you are looking at our forward options. A lot of guys can play with each other and it gives you some versatility as well. You always want your top guys being out there in key situations. But I think guys have played with each other at some point throughout the year.

Q. Joel, he’s not the only one struggling right now, but with Kane, what’s your approach with him in terms of sitting down with him today or do you leave him alone? How do you usually deal with him when he’s struggling a bit?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think with Kaner, you have a pretty good sense of him how he’s approaching in between game days and in the morning skates and going into games. I think we have a good rapport as a staff and with him as well making sure he’s ready and getting the most out of him that we can.

I think he’s a competitive guy and he wants to be the best he can be. We expect him to move forward in this Series and welcome the challenge. And we’ll see how the timing and how that plays itself out.

Q. Joel, the start of the series a lot of talk about Byfuglien and Pronger. He’s gone from being the dominant player to looking like a timid guy. I don’t want to say intimidated, but timid compared to the last Series. What advice can you give him? What is he supposed to do differently against a guy like Pronger in the series, because so far it hasn’t gone well.

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Whether it’s Buff against Pronger, whoever is against Pronger, I think that’s something we’ll see if that will be a matchup going forward. I still think we have some versatility as far as who is going to be against him or something they have to consider as well.

But I think we still want to be hard against him. We still want to make him turn and make him play defensive and make him play from the back end. He’s what he is. We have to be more physical and we have to be harder on him and make it tougher.

Q. Joel, can you talk about the decision to play Nick Boynton and why you went there and what he brings to the team?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Nicky, we liked his arrival to our team. He gives us some bite, he gives us some personality. Nick his positioning is strong. His anticipation is high end. I thought he played a very good game in watching several games. Great off the bat in the Finals, he looked like he belongs. I think going forward, Nick took advantage of a great situation and we just like the way he practices and waiting and waiting and all of a sudden he got his chance and did a good job.

Q. Joel, in each of the last two games you gave up a goal shortly after scoring a goal and losing the momentum. Is there anything you can do differently in the way of focus on those shifts?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Well, I think the critical goal yesterday was the third goal. Make it 2-1 last minute of the period. You can’t give up that type of goal at that time in the situation. So certainly it’s something we address, key shifts in games, be it last minute periods, after goals. Especially that type of goal.

Last two games is exactly what you’re talking about. Could have been the factor in winning or losing the game. Certainly in Game 3, last night, you could argue.

Those shifts we should all welcome being out on that ice, take pride in it and getting the job done. Throughout the year that’s something that we’ve been very effective at.

Q. Joel, when you talk to the ref supervisors before games, do you talk about the clutching and grabbing, or you don’t want to go there with them and you prefer to maybe see your team taking a page out of their book?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I don’t want to go there with them with you.

Q. Maybe in French?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think everybody has a job to do, and there’s ways to get our point across. Certainly we just got to have more battle in those areas and maybe we’ll get some power-plays.

Q. Joel, I realize he plays limited minutes, but the team is 13-2 with Burish in the lineup in the Playoffs. 1-4 without him. Is that telling in any way to you? And does that impact you going forward knowing that?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: It’s tough to measure something like that. Burish is a big part of our team. He’s a big part of the group as far as bringing some excitement and energy to our game. He’s a factor. Obviously, you have to make tough decisions. Laddy coming back, I thought he played a good game watching these Finals, all of a sudden he’s up to speed.

You could argue for every single guy, but I think at the end of the day we always make all the considerations what gives us our best chance. We’ll visit with whatever we have to do to get the best lineup.

Q. Getting back to that third goal, do you want your defensemen chasing that high — I know you say it’s a critical goal and all that kind of stuff. Do you want your defenseman chasing that high? Or is that the forwards?

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think it could have started in the offensive zone. Whether we pressure the guy in the neutral zone, pressure him in our zone. I think that’s where it all began. We got caught late in the shift as well. There’s a lot of different things that developed that you could start at with the beginning of it all.

Comments from Brent Sopel

Q. That’s the first time Antti Niemi has lost back-to-back games in these Playoffs. What can you tell us about his demeanor and why you guys have so much confidence going into tomorrow’s game.

BRENT SOPEL: He’s played well for us all year long. He goes out every night, every day in practice. He’s a warrior out there for us. He’s a great individual. Like I said, he’s played well all year and battled hard. So we’re not worried at all. He played well. We left him high and dry as a defenseman.

Q. Were there too many things that need to be better at this stage last night?

BRENT SOPEL: Yeah, we made, obviously, in the first period we had a pretty good period going along. We had a few mistakes. Give them credit. They capitalized on them. Obviously, we don’t make those mistakes. Obviously, it could be a different game. Obviously, look at a lot of things today. We talked about a few things. We have to focus on the way we need to play.

Q. Was the urgency level in the first and second period where it needed to be last night?

BRENT SOPEL: No, there was lot of battles that we lost. This time of year you can’t lose those battles. Going into tomorrow we have to be stronger in that area.

Q. It’s going to be pretty pressure-packed tomorrow night. What do you need from your fans?

BRENT SOPEL: We know they’re going to be here, screaming and yelling. And that’s all we need. It’s always nice to come back to your own building when you have 23,000 screaming for you and not against you.

So we know what they’re going to bring. We’re excited.

Comments from Andrew Ladd

Q. You seemed to have your speed and be able to do a lot more than many expected.

ANDREW LADD: Yeah, it was fun to get back in there, get in that atmosphere and be a part of it. So I just tried to play my game.

Q. Did you feel limited all the?

ANDREW LADD: No, I felt good. I felt more comfortable with the pace as the game went on. Towards the end I think it’s more effective.

Q. Tough at all to get dropped into a series like that?

ANDREW LADD: It was fun. Tough sitting out definitely. It’s never fun watching, especially this time of year. I was glad to get back.

Q. Any major changes for tomorrow?

ANDREW LADD: No, I expect the way we play and the way we’re going to battle and the intensity to be a lot better than it was last game. I think that’s to be our main focus.

Q. Does it matter who you guys play with? You seemed to have success when you juggled things up in the third period yesterday?

ANDREW LADD: Yeah, but I think that message was to get guys going and get that intensity back. I don’t think it matters who you are playing with. You have to — especially this time of year, you’re in the Stanley Cup Final, you have to have that.

Q. If it worked, wouldn’t it make sense to start with it tomorrow?

ANDREW LADD: Yeah, I guess. We’ll see what Joel comes up with tomorrow and go from there.

Q. Is it important at all to split up Toews and Kane to get one of them away from Pronger?

ANDREW LADD: I’m sure that’s an option. We have a lot of guys in Hossa and Sharp, and a lot of weapons they have to contest with. We can split them up and get one of them or two of them away from Pronger that’s a good thing.

Q. How intimidating can he be?

ANDREW LADD: I don’t know if he’s intimidating. He’s a good player. Plays really well. Plays well, hard to play against.

But at the same time, we have to be harder on him and make it tougher on him to get to the areas and go back and get the puck.

Q. You guys had another moment in Game 4 where you gave up a goal quickly after scoring a goal. That’s happened twice now. Can you talk a little about the shift after the goal situation?

ANDREW LADD: Those are big shifts. We always talk about those shifts last minute of a period and first minute of a period as being shifts you want to come out hard and play well. It’s happened a couple of times where they’ve regained the momentum quick. We have to kind of nip that in the bud and have a lot more attention to detail.

Q. Big mental challenge tomorrow night. You lost two in a row. 2-2.

ANDREW LADD: I don’t know if it’s mental challenge. I think it’s a wake-up call for everyone here that we have to be a lot better. We’re confident that we can get back to the way we were playing probably a little more in the last Series where we were skating and battling a lot harder.

Comments from Kris Versteeg

Q. Are you surprised by the number of goals they score in those four games?

KRIS VERSTEEG: No, I think both teams have a lot of offense. Like I said yesterday, two bad bounces and they end up in our net.

That doesn’t work out for us. We deserve a bounce here. We’re going to work hard and we’re going to earn it.

Q. Kris, the penalties what’s the difference between acceptable penalty and the penalty that isn’t?

KRIS VERSTEEG: Well, yeah, there’s — sometimes you go over the line and you don’t mean to. They are calling what they see. We have to go out there and we have to battle and work hard and really move our feet and draw penalties that way.

Q. If Joel was upset about anything after last night’s game, what would it be? Penalties? Something else? Defensive zones?

KRIS VERSTEEG: Maybe the penalties here and there sometimes not trying to be careless, but sometimes it is a careless penalty. We have to be smarter with our sticks and keep them on the ice and have good positioning.

Q. They play on the edge a lot. Do you feel that’s maybe one of the big difference right now is their smart about it or I don’t know if they got the calls more than anybody else? Can your team be smarter about that?

KRIS VERSTEEG: Yeah, I think we can be a bit smarter. We have to go out there and play our game and work the puck down low and draw penalties that way. I think we can bring our intensity level up and we’re going to have to do that tomorrow night.

Comments from Patrick Sharp

Q. Home team — doesn’t matter if you are the home team in these Playoffs. Why all of a sudden in the Finals does it matter?

PATRICK SHARP: I think it always matters. Teams are comfortable playing at home. 105, been a lot of games this year. I think there’s a general feeling that teams are more comfortable playing in their home building and taking advantage of that.

We’ve got at least two more here at the United Center. We want to make sure we play well in Game 5.

Q. You guys juggled a lot in the third period. It seemed to bring more to your group. Do you expect that again?

PATRICK SHARP: Joel has a good feel for the game. He knows at certain times who is playing well and who might not be. He likes to mix and match and find different combinations. I thought last game it brought some energy to the team and it battled back in the third. We’ll leave it up to the coach.

Q. Might it be important to split up Patrick and Jonathan to free one of them up from Chris?

PATRICK SHARP: They’re good players, and Pronger is doing a good job. It’s a decision that he’ll make and we trust he’ll make the right one. They’re going to keep playing hard, Patrick and Jonathan.

Q. Is anything from the other side surprised you in any of the four games?

PATRICK SHARP: Not really. They’re a good team. They’re very deep. They don’t give you much defensively. They seem to plug things up and they do a good job of obstructing and getting in your way in your line with the puck.

Their goaltender has been solid as well, and their special teams are great. They are what we expect them to be. It’s going to be a tough Series.

Q. What was most disappointing, the penalties, shifts after goals? Their forecheck? What’s the main focus?

PATRICK SHARP: Just winning games. We can break it down however you want. They’ve scored some big goals, had some good shifts right after we scored. That’s been a concern. You look at the whole game, every game is a one-goal game. I know they have the empty net there.

It’s going to be close, and it’s going to be a game, a Series that is defined by who wants it more.

Q. How intimidating can Pronger be?

PATRICK SHARP: He’s a good player. He’s one of the best of all time, I guess you can say. He has managed to do it in the old rules before the lock-out. He has changed his game a little bit and is still a dominant defenseman today. As far as intimidating, I don’t know if he’s intimidating anymore. He’s just a good player out there.

Comments from Patrick Kane

Q. Is it kind of important maybe to split you and Johnny up just to force Pronger to pick one or the other?

PATRICK KANE: Yeah, maybe. I’ve said it all along, with our team we have so much depth that if they’re going to key in on any two guys, the other line should be able to have a lot of space and room.

I think sometimes change is healthy. And you can mix things up a bit and hopefully energize guys and get things going with different players. But I think it worked pretty good last game. We will see what happens.

Q. Is it a sign of how tough this series was? Last series you guys broke up Thornton’s line. Now because of Pronger, maybe you guys will have to be broken up.

PATRICK KANE: Yeah, I think they’re doing a pretty good job defensively. I think one of the reasons they’re playing so good defensively is they have the puck a lot against us and they are making some plays.

Sometimes it gets you frustrated and you want to get the puck even more. Yeah, it’s been — I think since Game 1, it’s been a pretty even series. That’s the way it seems like it’s going to finish up. You know, I think home ice is huge, obviously, if we want to put ourselves in really good position to have two games to get a crack at winning the whole thing.

Q. How tough is it to play against Pronger? Can he be intimidating at times?

PATRICK KANE: He’s really good with the puck. He makes good passes. He’s not just strictly defense. That makes it tough on him. When you’re out there against him, he’s pretty big. He has a big reach. And he takes up a lot of time and space.

I’m going to give all that credit to the forwards and the way they’ve been coached as far as how to backcheck and how to play us in the zone off the top. That seems like where we’re struggling a little bit, to be honest with you.

Q. You went to the Olympics and fought through that and ended it on a strong note. Can you use that as motivation?

PATRICK KANE: Yeah. I think that’s something you can look back on. That was another high level that maybe at the time you are trying to do too much and trying to prove too much.

But I think as time went on, I think you get a little more comfortable with the situation, the big stage. To be honest with you, I think here and there the breaks could have went either way in this Series. You still want to work hard. You want to create your own breaks and create your own chances. It’s definitely something I can look back on and try to relate to.

Q. These last two games you have given up a goal right after scoring, and ended up losing. Can you talk about why that happened?

PATRICK KANE: I think it happened twice last game. It’s something where we can really improve on, and make sure the shift after we score and after we get scored on are probably the most important shifts, because that’s where all the momentum comes from. That’s where you can really build yourself.

So it’s something we want to look at and make sure we don’t give them those chances.

Q. Everybody in this room says it’s what we do, why give credit to the other team. How difficult was it — there were a number of things that weren’t quite as good as they needed to be.

PATRICK KANE: It’s tough right now. To be honest with you, I thought we actually played a pretty good game, especially in the first period. And then we gave up a couple of breakdowns defensively, and they ended up capitalizing against a team like this that has a lot of depth, a lot of offense. Some really good offensive players. You really can’t do that.

So it’s something you can improve on. Like we said all year, it’s more about us and more how we want to play. And if we worry about that, it should take care of things.

Transcripts Courtesy of the NHL Communications Department

Off Day Comments from Flyers Players Ian Laperriere, Simon Gagne, Mike Richards and Chris Pronger Head Coach Peter Laviolette

Comments from Ian Laperriere and Simon Gagne

Q. Ian, you were talking a couple of weeks ago about how you waited all your life to get to this point. Now you’re only two wins away. Does each day get harder for you to think about this?

IAN LAPERRIERE: Yes, but we know, and I know that we’re halfway there. It’s on paper and also it’s going to be our toughest challenge, our toughest games. And tomorrow is going to be the toughest game so far. And after that it’s just going to get tougher and tougher. I really try to just think about the next day and go shift by shift, period by period and not try to think — I think everybody is like that. We don’t think too far ahead. We just go game by game.

Q. Simon, can you take any positives from the first two games here?

SIMON GAGNE: I think so. A little bit. Sure the first game, I think both teams were not too happy about their defense play. But the second game I like the way we played, especially the second half of the game. I thought that the third period we played the game we wanted. Good forecheck, put everything at the net, created a lot of chances offensively; and at the same time, played well in our zone. We lost the first two games here, but there was a lot of great things happened in those two games.

Now it’s up to us. It’s 2-2. It’s up to us to try to play a better game here in Chicago for 60 minutes.

Q. For either of you, I’m just wondering, do you see the difference in Chris Pronger now as opposed to during the regular season? He’s been so dominant, it seems, in this Series, the hits, the blocked shots, the ice time. Is there maybe a little bit more intensity to his game, or is he just playing the same?

IAN LAPERRIERE: I think he’s the same. I’m just shocked he’s not up there for Defenseman of the Year. I saw him game in and game out and the way he plays and the minutes he plays. It’s amazing. It’s not like he’s a little guy out there who skates and doesn’t touch anybody. He plays 30 minutes and he runs everybody over, and everybody run into his elbows, I should say.

But he’s amazing. He’s one of a kind. And we’re lucky to have him on our team.

Q. Simon, Chris mentioned that in games you guys seem to get better as the games go along. Get stronger. And then in the Playoffs each of these Series you guys have gotten stronger, and the record shows that Game 4 and on. Why do you think that is that you get stronger as team as these Series go along?

SIMON GAGNE: It’s a good question. Looked like that’s what happened with us the whole Playoffs. We are a team that getting better and better every game, and not that we didn’t play well the first two games. But you saw a our team get more comfortable and more confident on the ice and able to play our game.

We saw team facing a lot of things this year. Being down 3-0 against Boston, be able to come back. Even last game of the season. I’m sure it’s not the first time you guys hear that, but we were in tough situation where we were down 2-0 going to Philly, and we were able to, you know, go in Philly and get those two big wins. That showed a character of the team. And that’s the way it’s been the whole Playoffs. Hopefully it’s just going to get better and better right to the end.

Q. Both of you, would you say that going down 2-0 here brought out better play in Philadelphia? Much like the Boston Series?

SIMON GAGNE: No, we know at that point we had no choice to go in Philly at least to go one game at a time. We’re a confident team in Philly. We’re a tough team, I think, to beat in our building. We know we were able to do it. Yeah, we were down 2-0. I don’t think we got outplayed the first two games. We were right there. It was only one-goal game. We knew we had to come in our building and win those two games and tie the Series. We had no choice. Our team kind of responds a lot with those type of moments.

It was great to see. It was two big wins. Now we’re back in even Series. It’s the best of three. So it will be fun to see what’s going to happen.

 

Comments from Mike Richards and Chris Pronger

Q. Mike, is there a little bit of a different feeling, maybe a better feeling coming into this building now after having won the last two games than coming here for Games 1 and 2?

MIKE RICHARDS: I don’t think it’s different. We were confident before coming into the series. Obviously confident now. I mean, really all we’ve done is just held serve throughout the two games in Philly and it’s 2-2. And made it a three-game series.

So we’re playing well right now. We have to keep it up. We can’t get too cocky or look too far ahead of what we’ve got to do tomorrow night.

Q. Prongs, there’s a lot of talk that Chicago is going to change up some of their line combinations, direct correlation to you. A, do you take that as a compliment personally, and B, how do you expect that to impact the game tomorrow night?

CHRIS PRONGER: I don’t know. I guess it could go two ways. One, they haven’t played together that much. So maybe they’re a little out of whack. Or B, it sparks them and fresh line mates and a new look, that gives them a little bit more offensive puck. I don’t know. We’ll see.
But that’s really out of our hands. All we can do is continue to get better, play even better defensively and make sure that we’re keeping them in the perimeter, and Mike (Leighton) can see all the shots.

Q. In that vein, I know you generally don’t concern yourselves with what the other team is doing, but it must be encouraging to know that they seem to be you know reacting to what you guys are doing and you guys are setting the tone and the pace. Maybe you’ve got them on the run a little bit?

THE MODERATOR: Who is that for?

Q. Either, both.

CHRIS PRONGER: Go ahead.

MIKE RICHARDS: I don’t know. I don’t think we have them on the run. I think throughout our playoff series you make adjustments. Determining how things are going and what they see out there, it’s nice to see all the different things the teams do to adjust to each other. This is just one of those things.

Like you said earlier, they are probably trying to create some chemistry or maybe create a spark for their offense a little bit. We’re going to adjust to it when we see fit. But right now we have to worry about what we have to do tomorrow night and not what they’re doing.

Q. Chris, on the same thread here of their line splitting, they changed — they split Toews and Kane in the third period when they started to make their push. Did you feel that on the ice? Did you notice? Did you think it was effective by having them split?

CHRIS PRONGER: Well, it really wasn’t working until they got a 5 on 3. You’re observation probably is moot, at best.

Q. It’s not mine.

CHRIS PRONGER: You just made it.

Q. Quenneville said it.

CHRIS PRONGER: There you go. I guess Joel is wrong too.

Q. So you didn’t think it was effective at all?

CHRIS PRONGER: I didn’t say that. You did.

Q. Mike, obviously you guys have to win in this building in order to win this Series. Can you draw on any positives from the way you guys played Games 1 and 2, considering how close you were in those games?

MIKE RICHARDS: We played well in the games. They were right there just as the two games were in our building too. So we’ve been a great road team all year long. We’ve been a great road team in the playoffs. And to win in difficult buildings, Boston, Montreal, we don’t want to change anything up from what we did in the first two games. It’s just a matter of execution. I think in the second game we had a lot of chances. We were just a little bit off with the execution and making plays and eventually scoring goals.
So hopefully that will come tomorrow night. Like I said, we’ve played well on the road all year. So we don’t want to change too much.

Q. Chris, your modesty aside, it appears you are the reason for the breaking up or the separating of those guys since you can’t play the whole game. For you personally, what is that like to have that kind of impact in a game or Series?

CHRIS PRONGER: I don’t necessarily think it’s that. If you go back and look, our forwards have done a great job. You look at the line that’s scoring against them, it’s the Briere line. That’s done a great job of making them play defense. Which, obviously, they don’t want to do. They want to play offense. They want to have the puck. They want to control the pace of the game, control the game that way.
That line has done a great job of controlling the tempo of the game and controlling the puck and making them play in the areas where they don’t want to.

This game is five man units on the ice having chemistry. We’ve done a pretty good job of that thus far.

Q. Mike, in each of those Games 3 and 4, there was a goal right away responding to a Chicago goal, Ville Leino and Claude Giroux. How important are those goals in those two games, and even Quenneville alluded to the fact that they may have played a huge part in the outcome of you guys winning those games.

MIKE RICHARDS: For the Game 3, I think, Ville’s goal was probably the biggest. In the third period where they’ve been pretty good at closing out hockey games and to get that right away and to get the crowd back into it on our side. We’re an emotional team. We play with a lot of emotion. We feed off the crowd a lot. I feel that’s why we’re a good home team. But I mean Giroux’s goal right after in Game 4, too, kind of swayed it and made us feel a little better going into the intermission too.

Q. Chris, you spend a lot of time with Matt Carle. I’m just wondering what you like about his game and also with a kind ever guy he is.

CHRIS PRONGER: Off the ice or on?

Q. Off the ice.

CHRIS PRONGER: Great guy. Mike can attest to that. Very quiet. Unassuming guy. Obviously confident in his abilities, and he’s getting a chance to kind of show what he can do. Very steadying influence on the ice. Makes a great first pass. Reads a play very well. And is a solid defender. I think a lot of times guys that can make plays and see the ice as well as he does and jumps in the attack, their defensive play gets overlooked a lot. He’s obviously playing with me matched up against the top line. Does a great job.

Q. Chris, in these playoffs, each series it seems like you guys are playing better and better as the series goes on. 9-0 after Game 4. Are you wearing down opponents? Is it toughness? What do you think some of the reasons are for that?

CHRIS PRONGER: I don’t know. I think you see teams over and over again as do you in the playoffs. You start to figure out what works and what doesn’t. You start to feel better as a team. We’ve obviously gotten better with not only each series, but in games we get better with each period, or so it seems. I don’t really know what the reason for it is, but we’ve certainly done a good job and hopefully that will continue for us.

Q. This is for either of you. Just how much confidence did you take after that Boston series going down 3-0 and the 2-0 seemed kind of easy by comparison?

MIKE RICHARDS: I wouldn’t say it was easy. We’ve kind of put ourselves in tough situations all year, which I think — I remember early in the season, Chris and I talking about going through the adversity at an early point in the season will just make us better kind of later on when we get to it. We went through a lot of it this year, and we had a lot of ups and downs.

I think it really paid off when we got down 0-3 to Boston and plugged away and then 0-2 to Chicago here going home.

So when you go through things like that as a group and you come out on top like we did throughout the season, making the playoffs like we did through the Boston series, I think it just sets up for having confidence in each other and not panicking and just being aware of what you can do as a group if you kind of stick to the system and stick to the plan.

Comments from Head Coach Peter Laviolette

Q. Peter, I don’t know if you had much of a chance when you were doing your media bit to watch Matt Carle and see what he was doing. If you did, maybe what surprised you when you started to coach him, and maybe about his game and things that maybe you didn’t realize he was capable of or whatever?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think sometimes he gets lost when he’s next to Chris Pronger, because Chris is such a dominating player on the ice. I’ve said this all year, Matt has to play against the same players that Chris is playing against, and they’re usually pretty good players.
For somebody that doesn’t have the same stature and size as Chris on the ice, he’s a smaller player, he defends very well. He uses his — he positions himself well in the defensive zone. He never really puts himself in a bad position. He makes it really good first pass. He gets himself out of trouble with his skating. They’ve been a really good pair the entire year. They’ve been together probably 95% of the games, since I’ve been here, anyway.

Q. Pete, obviously you guys have to win in this building if you’re going to win this Series. What do you do differently tomorrow that maybe you didn’t do in Games 1 and 2, and do you draw any positives from those first two games considering how close they were?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I’ve already said that. I liked our games here. They could have went either way. In the second game, I don’t think we took advantage of some of the opportunities that we had to score. We have to bear down when we get some of those chances.
The first game was a wild game. Probably nobody expected it. We certainly didn’t. I’m sure Joel and the Hawks didn’t expect it. You guys didn’t expect it either. It’s hard to say. If we had tightened up a little bit we could have won. But that one is over with.
I think we’re confident on the road and confident with our game right now.

Q. The confidence that this team has now after taking the two at home, coming back here and for the Blackhawks knowing if they lose a Game 5 here at home, you guys can go back home and finish it off, do you think you’ve put some pressure on the Blackhawks now?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: There’s a lot of pressure. I mean, when you lose a game, or you lose a couple of games, you go home and you are wondering if you’ll win the next game. It’s just — it’s human nature more than anything else. Usually desperation kicks in at that point.
So I would expect that Chicago is going to come with a pretty good game tomorrow night. We know that we’ve got to win here. We know we have to put one in the books on the road.

Q. Peter, did you have any issues at all with Campbell’s hit on Leino last night?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: It was — I don’t know. I thought it was a bit dangerous. It was from the blind side. That’s just my opinion.

Q. You talked last night about some of their lineup changes they made going into the game, and then within the game they break up the Toews line. Do you see that as that you’re having an impact or Chris Pronger is having an impact because it’s forcing strategic changes within the game itself and giving you an upper hand?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: There was quite a few changes, I thought. You know, they changed their lines. More than once. They stopped changing for for the match, which they did for Game 3. They didn’t do that in Game 4. I thought their system and their approach to the game had changed. There’s quite a bit of change from Game 3 to Game 4. They are trying to play a more aggressive game.
I’m not sure what other changes. We’ll see.

Q. Peter, is there a concerted effort by your club following a Chicago goal to respond right away? You’ve had two key ones in Game 3 and 4.

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I think those certainly were big goals. You can take an opportunity to grab some momentum and quickly turn it back to our advantage by doing that. It’s not something that we talked about. Although we constantly talk about scoring goals, constantly talk about pressuring the offensive zone, pressure on their goaltender. Just so happened those two opportunities came pretty quick after they had scored.

Q. Peter, it seems like in games you guys get stronger as games go along and all these playoffs you guys have gotten stronger as the Series has gone on. Why do you think that is? Are you wearing teams down?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I can’t speak for the other teams. I know we’re good to go. I think at that speed and that pace for three or more periods if we have to. I’m not sure about the Hawks. I can’t speak for them and what they’re comfortable with and what they’re not comfortable with.

But we’re comfortable with that. Even last night, I think our game was pretty good right up until the time we took that penalty. Then it went five on three and they scored a goal and then they started to press us in a little bit.
There was 12 minutes of really good hockey. I think we had the chances at 5 to 1 in the third period. I was happy with the way we had played up until that point. Then they had probably four or five good quality scoring chances on the power-plays and just after that.

Q. Coach, what has been the key to your success against Kane?

COACH LAVIOLETTE: I don’t know necessarily if — we talked about everybody from Chicago and all their players and their personnel and what they’re doing. We don’t tailor our system to Kane. We play a defensive system and a defensive style. We play certain style offensively, a certain style defensively. We try to play with energy. We try to execute to the best of our ability. We try to look for matchups that we can get at certain times. I don’t know. I don’t really have an answer for that.