November 26 postgame quotes: Chicago

Joel Quenneville, on the Blackhawks getting three of four points without Jonathan Toews:
Yeah we did some good things tonight. Third period everyone was playing it tight and close. After 40 minutes we had it pretty even as well so you gotta kill a penalty in the last minute, just hoping you can get it to overtime and Carts makes a great shot.

Quenneville, on Scott Darling:
I think consistency, he’s been good for us. He’s big in the net, positionally aware and gives us a chance to get points and win hockey games every time he’s been in there so it’s a great tandem. They work well with one another. Made some big saves there.

Quenneville, on whether he has a better sense of his team’s identity:
I think it’s progressed here, I think it’s been better as far as how we’ve played defensively. We’re getting a little bit more predictable in some areas without the puck, and I still think we can be better with it. That’s the area that I think we’ve got room for growth.

Quenneville, on the Blackhawks road trip as a whole:
When we left we said .500 would be nice, .500 or above would be good. We started poorly and I think getting these last three out of four was, we’ll take .500 on this trip.

Quenneville, on playing back-to-back:
We played six in nine nights, it’s a busy schedule and you’re missing your key guy in playing in all situations in Toezer so I thought the guys hung in there and did what they needed to do.

Quenneville, on the slow start in tonight’s game:
But we didn’t give up a ton, I know that they had some shots but the quality wasn’t there and we did some good things. Darling kept us in there as well but it was a great tip and a great shot right off the bat and it’s always nice to score first. Even though it was tilted a little bit it wasn’t like we were giving up on quality.

Quenneville, on what the younger players need to do better:
Well you don’t give up odd-man breaks, or you don’t leave the puck, or playing in your end without it as well. But I still think we can be better.

Quenneville, on the younger players taking on bigger roles:
Yeah well we’re still getting familiar with guys here and we’re giving them some big shifts as we’re going along at the critical stages so they’re learning as well. We don’t have centerman out there too that, coming off a tough day yesterday, you know you’re missing a key faceoff taker in your own end sometimes but you’ve got to learn on the job.

Quenneville, on whether he knew it was goaltender interference on the first goal right away:
No we looked at it, and it was one of those, you know, give it a shot.

Duncan Keith, on tonight’s effort against the Kings:
Yeah, I mean, I think the last couple of games, two or three games we’ve played better than we have for most of the year as far as a team. We’ve played some good teams and it’s come down to a few plays here and there that we need to be better on.

Keith, on the Blackhawks road trip as a whole:
Yeah, like I said the last three games we’ve come out and we’ve played a better game. I think overall there’s still lots to improve on, but having said that it’s a lot better then we’ve had previous and especially early on in the trip.

Keith, on whether he’s happy with the Blackhawks starts:
Yeah, I thought tonight our start probably wasn’t as good as it had been the last couple games, but we’re still doing some better things then we were doing earlier on the trip. I don’t think tonight was as good as the last two.

Keith, on whether they were just trying to get the game to overtime in the third period:
Well I think they’re feeding off the energy of their crowd. I thought we had some chances, too. I don’t know, it just seemed like it came down to a couple plays there and obviously you’ve done a pretty good job killing that penalty off and overtime and then it was a nice shot by them.

Keith, on Scott Darling:
I don’t think we really consider him a backup goalie even though Crow gets most of the starts. Every time Darling’s in net we’re just as confidence with him in there as Crow. He’s a big guy who takes up a lot of net and there’s not a lot of room to shoot the puck in the net.

Scott Darling, on the overtime period:
Obviously I wish I’d made that save. You know we couldn’t figure out a way to get two points, but one is better than zero.

Darling, on the Blackhawks road trip as a whole:
Yeah there were probably two games where we could’ve played better, Winnipeg and Edmonton. But other then that I thought we really brought a good effort every night and tonight especially without the best player in the world Jonathan Toews. Guys stepped up and really filled the gap there.

Darling, on whether he feels good about his game:
I mean yeah, I feel good. It’s obviously not ideal to play once every two or three weeks but that’s what I’m doing and I’m just happy to get in the net.

Marian Hossa, on playing the last two games without Jonathan Toews:
Well obviously missing Johnny it’s a tough loss and lots of guys have to step up to replace or, it’s tough to replace a guy like that. I think we did lots of good things tonight, obviously came up short in overtime but like you said, three out of four is still pretty good.

Hossa, on the Blackhawks road trip as a whole:
I think it was a good test for us. We had some really good games and maybe a couple where nothing went our way but I think the team went together pretty good and I think there’s some really good potential. I like what I see.

Hossa, on whether the Blackhawks have found their identity twenty-three games in:
Yeah I think lots of young guys stepping up. They know the system, they play better with speed, with the puck and like I said I like the way they’re trying.

Hossa, on Scott Darling:
Scotty when he plays these games, he was big in this road trip and even tonight. Obviously he didn’t get a win but I think he made so many great saves there for us and I think he deserves lots of credit.

Hossa, on whether the Blackhawks need to get more shots on goal:
Maybe we would like to see more shots, but our game was different tonight. We had to kill lots of penalties at the beginning, we didn’t have many shots at the beginning. I think as the game went on we started creating more chances, but definitely we’d like to see more shots.

Hossa, on slow first period starts:
Like I said, like tonight, when you’re killing penalties there’s not too many opportunities to shoot the puck. But we definitely have to work on more shots, creating more shots like we did in the second part of the game.

Hossa, on whether it’s harder to defend during overtime:
We tried to kill the penalty, I think we did kill the penalty, but right after I think when Seabsy jumped on the ice it was 4-on-4. I didn’t actually see the goal or see what happened so I’d have to look at it.