May 18 postgame quotes: Chicago

Joel Quenneville, on the team’s response to the disallowed goal:
I thought we lost a little momentum there. They scored, equalized. Dunc scored a good goal. I thought playing with the lead, I thought we were fine, but still very tight. It was a good hockey team over there.

Quenneville, on the explanation for the disallowed goal:
I didn’t get one right away, but a couple seconds later it was ruled incidental contact. [Reporter: Are you buying that?] No comment.

Quenneville, on the style of play:
I thought we had some that were restricted, but they’re a good off-the-rush team. They create rush chances themselves. Just because you’re going one way doesn’t mean you’re going back the other way. I think we have to respect that knowing we don’t want to get into a complete rush game with them, knowing the quality is going to be higher end with them. It’s all going to be determined by how well we check. We have to do things quick, quick, quick, whether it’s puck movement or indirect play. I think we have to use their speed.

Quenneville, on Nick Leddy’s performance:
He was okay.

Quenneville, on defending Los Angeles’ top line:
It’s going to be a work in progress, a challenge game in, game out. They got three nice players that all complement one another. They’re dangerous. Every time they touch the puck, every time they’re on the ice, you got to be aware.

Quenneville, on whether he saw fatigue in Los Angeles’ game:
I thought we had a good first five minutes or so. They came back on us pretty even most of the way. Had some stretches in the second where they had the play. But they got balance on their four lines. They get energy from everybody. Very active D. Every shift going forward is going to be important in this series.

Quenneville, on establishing a net-front presence:
You’ve got to be there first. There’s a willingness to get there. Probably a price to pay. Sometimes they go off you. I know they’ve had some success by being there, fortunate bounces off our pads or sticks, we don’t even know it hits us. It all makes your power play work by being there first of all, then you get a shooting mentality. If you’re looking for a perfect goal on a power play it’s not going to happen.

Quenneville, on the Blackhawks’ championship experience:
Yeah, well, you got to commend our players for not changing their approach in big games. I think there’s always going to be adversity in the course of a game, you’re always going to lose momentum in the course of a game. Against a good team like that, you want to get it back as quick as you can, which I thought was a big point in today’s win. I think our guys are very resilience and I think our top guys lead the guard in that area.

Quenneville, on whether goaltender interference should be reviewable:
I think the way the standard is, the way the rules are, I think you’ve got to — goalies need protection. I understand that.

Jonathan Toews, on moving past the goaltender interference call:
Yeah, I think that’s what it was all about, was just trying to forget about it, not get too worked up about a call that didn’t go our way. To add insult to injury, they came right back to score to tie it up not too long after. That’s where we did a good job of just forgetting about what happened, moving on, focusing on our game, not getting away from them.

Toews, on Corey Crawford’s postseason play:
I should prepare more for these press conferences and interviews so I’ve got something original and creative to say. I think he keeps getting better and better. As a team, we want to keep raising our level of play as the stage gets bigger and bigger. If there’s anyone that’s doing it, it’s Crow. Whether it’s big penalty kills or us protecting situations late in games, he just seems to get better and better as the pressure mounts. We were talking a few days ago about the crowd chanting his name in Minnesota. Doesn’t matter how much pressure is on him, he just seems to keep playing. It’s an example that I think the rest of us can follow.

Toews, on the goaltender interference call:
I guess I didn’t really see how the puck went in. I just took it to the net, kind of lost it when I got to the short post. Obviously, the puck was in, the guys were celebrating. I’m not sure too much interference. I haven’t seen the play. Obviously, it happened pretty fast. I think when it comes down to it, it was disappointing because of, you know, how the play was called on the ice, the fact it was non-reviewable. I think some of those go against us. We were hoping that one was going to go for us in a way. Like I said, a tough situation, but it’s over now.

Toews, on whether the game was more open than in previous series:
Yeah, I think like someone just said there, it’s a little more comparable to the style we played against St. Louis, a team that plays physical and fast, but at the same time plays offense. If we’re checking well, we’re playing well on our own side of the puck. We can try to create our own chances off of that, try to make them make mistakes. A little different than the Minnesota scores. Like Crow just said, a lot of it is our preparation, knowing exactly what the other team wants to do, knowing how different they are from teams we faced before. I think the more we can make them worry about us, the better situation we’ll be in.

Toews, on the cadence in a game and getting “refocused” in the third period:
I don’t know. I don’t think there’s any rhyme or reason to what happens throughout a game, whether they take it to us at a certain part of the game or trends that you guys might see. I don’t think there’s anything special to that or any hidden meanings or anything like that. Like I said, I think we did a lot of good things on our own side of the puck tonight. Again, similar to the Minnesota series, we can try to generate a little bit more maybe shots coming left and right. Wherever we get those shots from, we have to have more traffic and make things tougher on Quick than we did tonight. I think it’s a better feeling when you look up at the shot clock, it’s a little bit more favorable. You always feel like, you know, you’re dictating the game a little bit more maybe. But we’ll focus on those things and not worry about too much.

Toews, on matching up against the Anze Kopitar line and limiting it offensively:
It’s part of defending against Kopitar’s line, regardless of who he plays with, he’s going to be effective. The best way to do that is just to keep him in his own zone and make him have to worry about playing defense. I’m lucky I got Hossa out there, too. If I make a mistake out there, too, he’s hauling back to make up for it, too. I think with Bicks, as well, we’ve been playing smart defensively, getting pucks out of our zone. We got better and better as the game went along tonight. We know we have a tough job to do if we’re going to be seeing a lot of that line.

Toews, on the timing of the pass in one-timer attempts:
For some guys it doesn’t really matter. They can get ahold of it and get a hard shot off regardless of where the pass comes from. For me, it pretty much has to be a perfect pass. And it was from Johnny. I just kind of got ready for the pass, showed him where I wanted it. It was a great chance to take advantage of that one. You know, like I said, some guys it comes easier than others. For me it was nice to get a good shot off there.

Corey Crawford, on the goaltender interference call:
I think as a goalie in a certain situation like that on a goal, something close, you’re going to get those calls sometimes. Other times it’s going to go against you. I think you just have to let the refs make the call. Hopefully they’re in the right spot to see the right play.

Crawford, on how his confidence compares to that of a year ago:
Confidence has always been there. The first thing is being prepared, having that preparation to play, to try and have my game at the highest level it can be each time I get out there. It’s knowing the other team, their tendencies. After that, it’s just going out there and playing. Also I’m getting a lot of help from our guys in front of me. That third period today was rock solid. I don’t remember too many great chances that they got in the third. We kind of just shut them down there, obviously got a key goal by Tazer. I approach every next game. That’s always the most important. Game 2 is now the most important. I’m going to rest up now and prepare for that.

Crawford, on whether anything changes for him when he faces Jonathan Quick:
No, unless he skates down the ice and starts dangling around our guys. I mean, I’m focused on their players. It really doesn’t affect my game, whatever goes on on the other end.

Crawford, on whether Game 1 felt like the offensive-minded St. Louis series:
The Wild series was high-paced, too, except for one game that was kind of slow, not much going on. This is a team that is pretty physical. They play smart. They’re strong defensively. Got to work for our chances against the Kings. I think we did that tonight. We weren’t forcing things in the middle. We were trying to use our speed to the outside. When it wasn’t there, we were pulling up, looking for late guys. We just got to keep playing our game, keep playing strong. Like I said, those plays where you’re forcing things, try to take care of that.

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