On how he creates the mindset that each game is an elimination game:
I think we probably do it in the preparation in terms of the day before and putting an emphasis on every shift so that keeps them in the moment instead of looking at series or looking at anything that’s not to do with the game.
On whether he’s concerned that Chicago has scored first in each game:
It doesn’t really concern us. If the only concern was who scored the first goal, then the game would be over. It’s not something you dwell on. Obviously you’re trying to score the first goal. We’ve had really good starts in this building, so we’re just trying to do that again.
On Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson having had questions about their speed, and what he’s seen in their development:
Actually, I’ve never seen that…You’re probably getting that from outside somewhere. But I’ve never seen that as a problem. Tyler’s been an elevated player always, and if you look at it in junior, penalty killing, power play, all that – there was never a skating issue. In fact he’s a big time scorer all the way through, and Tanner, I don’t think skating was a problem with Tanner, either. He wasn’t drafted until he was 19, so there was probably a catch up stage somewhere in there for him, I would bet. But I haven’t seen that since he turned pro. Tyler went right from being a big scorer in junior to being rookie of the year in the American League, and Tanner scored 20-something last year as a first year guiy or whatever it was. Quite honest, I haven’t seen that. I think, again, it goes back to something that was asked yesterday. I think strength and training would be more of an issue for those guys, probably, than skating would have been.
On “anything specific” Los Angeles has done to limit Patrick Kane and Bryan Bickell:
Kane’s a scary guy. We talk about it all the time. You know what? The more you play him, the more you know it’s coming somewhere. We’re very familiar with him, and we’re very respectful of what he brings to the team, and you can say that he’s been ‘kept off,’ that we’ve done a good job against him – he’s had some brilliant opportunities, and those guys like that, they only need those one or two, so we have to be even more aware of him. As much as it’s a Kopitar-Toews thing, we’ve got to really pay attention to him. I think that those guys, if they play together, they’re special players, and we’ve got our hands full – Kane and Sharp. We know that.
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