TAMPA, Florida – After the Tampa Bay Lightning came back from a deficit to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in game two of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, both coaches were asked about some of the interesting moments in the game, particularly the late goaltending changes which led to Tampa Bay Lightning back-up goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy being the winning goaltender.
Lighting coach Jon Cooper began his post-game press conference by saying, “Before we get going, I hate to be that guy, I know I talk way too much when I get up here, but I won’t answer a question about the goaltending and what happened tonight. I apologize for that.”
Cooper was then asked about what he was thinking when he had to make that change, when Bishop came to the bench. He responded, “The one thing about Vasilevskiy — I know we have two unbelievably capable goaltenders. When Bish had to leave, there wasn’t an ounce of stress on anybody on our bench, including myself. I mean, the kid proved it when he went in. He was great.”
When pushed a little more about what is says about this team, “I’ve said this many times, this team, we’re learning the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the job. I think what happened to us the other night was a lesson learned. It’s the first time that it happened to us in the playoffs. So what are we going to do about that? Put in that position again, what do you do? That position happened midway through the game when we had the 1-0 lead. There go the two quick goals, it’s 2-1. Our guys wouldn’t be denied. There was a fire on that bench when that happened. There wasn’t panic, it was pissed. You got to love that in your team, that in 72 short hours, we’re coming back. They did. You got to give those guys a ton of credit.
When asked about the play of Jonathan Drouin who was inserted into the line-up for game two, Cooper replied, “I thought Jo was great. He did everything we wanted him to. He took some short shifts, which cut his ice time down a little bit. But he came into that game, and he’s been prepared to play during our run here. We’ve had some success prior to this, so we’ve kept our lineup together. But I always knew Jo was going to get in. I think he came out flying. The adrenaline, all that stuff, he was really fired up. But he was fine. Like I thought he played really well. As the game went on, you know, everybody comes back to earth a little bit, but he got pucks in, he got them out, he was flying around the ice. He had command of the puck when he had it. I thought that line did very well in the first period. Then special teams and things took over. It was harder to get guys out. I thought he did a heck of a job.
Cooper was asked about match-ups and the role Cedric Paquette has played in neutralizing Chicago captain Jonathan Toews for the second game in a row and scoring the game’s opening goal. He responded, ” Well, this is a team sport. Cedric has been given an assignment to do something for the team. Not looking at, Oh, somebody has been defeated in this. Ceddy is going out there and doing his job for the betterment of the team. It’s been fantastic to watch. There was a big thing last year when we brought him up in the playoffs last year, he played all four games. There’s a reason for that. The kid’s a gamer. You talk about you get this far in the playoffs, you need guys that sacrifice themselves. That’s all that kid’s done. He may not have huge point totals, but he’s done so many good things for us. It’s part of the reason, piece of the puzzle why we’re here. He’s been given an assignment and he’s been doing one heck of a job. I was thrilled when he scored tonight. You could just tell how excited he was. It was just a weight off his shoulders that we were going to get some secondary scoring from some of these guys, then help out on the defensive end. It’s phenomenal what he did.”
He was asked about the comments Tyler Johnson made before the game, feeling his line needed to step up and then went out and did so in game two. He replied, “I don’t know. I would say Johnny is wrong in that. They’ve been outstanding from start to finish. I don’t think that everybody should be judged on your point totals. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Johnny’s leading the league or darn close in scoring in the playoffs. You can’t score every single night. It’s really hard, unless your name’s Gretzky. The way the game’s played today, I mean, what, did only one guy have 50 goals this year in the regular season. Guys play defense. That’s turned up a notch in the playoffs. You have to contribute in other areas. That line has been really good for us, including Johnny. But they’ve carried a lot of the load for us. For them to get going, it’s usually a good sign for our team.”
Cooper was asked if there was anything specifically that he saw behind the bench that you said, This is a little different from Game 1, and he responded, “To be honest, I thought we started the game much like we did Game 1. The difference for me, as I answered earlier, was when we fell behind this time, there was no sitting back, we got to defend the lead. Now that we gave up the lead, we don’t have any push-back. We had push-back tonight. Again, I think we learned from that. We’ve played pretty well in these two games. It’s 1-1. It could easily I guess be 2-0 both ways. I guess 1-1 is probably fair. But we thought we played pretty well in Game 1. We had a tough two-minute stretch that cost us in the end. You have to be in those situations sometimes to grow from them. We did tonight. It’s one of the things about this team, I don’t know, you challenge them and they seem to fight back pretty well. It was great.
Having experience an awkward sequence of events with changing goaltenders twice, Cooper was asked if that situation ever happened to him in his career. “That’s a really good question that I would need a little bit more time to answer (smiling). On this stage, at this time, this was new for me.”
Tyler Johnson was asked about how he wanted to be better and feeling his line should be better, what was it that led to their success in game two. “Well, I thought we were a lot more aggressive today than we were in Game 1. I thought Game 1 we were a little bit hesitant making plays. That kind of added on not being able to execute. So I thought tonight’s game was a lot better from the line.
Jason Garrison was asked what was going through his mind when he saw the goalie carrousel in the third period. “I guess it’s kind of rare you see that, but it does happen. When it happens, you got to make sure you go out there and support the goalie coming in. He made some big saves for us. Goalies are usually very mentally focused, even if they’re on the bench. So, you know, it seemed the same way. He came in there and, you know, did his thing.”
Tyler Johnson chimed in, “Yeah, it’s always tough to have a goalie come in cold like that. But we have a lot of confidence in Vasi. He’s been great all season for us. We see him in practice. He’s a competitor. He works hard. We have the confidence when he gets in. He made some big saves like Garry just said.”
Johnson was then asked to talk about the evolution of his goal. “Yeah, just Kuch got it down low to me. I was taking it to the net. I wanted to get in the air, actually find a corner. I couldn’t quite do that. I got lucky enough that it kind of trickled in. It’s one of those ones that I guess it just goes to the net and good things happen.”
Garrison was asked about the two goals the Lightning allowed in the second period, how they didn’t panic and was there much difference in this game than in Game 1 in terms of how the team responded. “A big difference. Obviously we didn’t sit back. They came in waves of pressure. I think the speed of the game tonight was much quicker than the first game. You know, they’re going to get their chances. They’re most likely going to score goals. It’s how you respond after you get scored on or after you score a goal. Big moments in the game.”
Garrison was asked about who might start in goal for game 3 and that is might be likely that the back-up goaltender would start, “We feel confident. I mean, you know, they’re both here for a reason. We just got to make sure that we communicate with Vasi if that’s the case, support him as much as possible. He’s going to go in there, if he is, he’s going to do a job for us. We’re not worried about it.”
He was then asked about how his coach talked about how the team is learning the Stanley Cup on the job. Two games in, does the stage feel that much bigger? “Yeah, I mean, you can tell walking through the rink, obviously doing press conferences like this. The game hasn’t changed. That’s the biggest thing for us, is to play our way. Even though there’s a lot of stuff going on outside of the game, we got to make sure we focus in on what we’re doing each and every night, not try to change anything just for the sake that there’s a lot going on outside of the rink.”
He was then asked how comfortable the Lightning are with the up and down, back and forth style the Blackhawks play. “I think, you know, we’re comfortable. We have a lot of speed, a lot of guys can skate. It’s our style of hockey, I think. We just add on some defensive structure when we don’t have the puck. But I think moving the puck up as quick as we can, transitioning as quick as we can is definitely a strength for us.”
Tyler Johnson was then asked about a good chance he had early in the game and when they don’t start going in, does he get a little frustrated. “No, not quite. You know, obviously not scoring goals is a tough thing. At the same time there’s a lot more to the game. If you’re getting chances, if you’re working hard, that’s all that really matters. As long as the team wins. It’s tough when you hit the post when you get that close. At the same time it’s bound to go eventually. We just had to keep working.”
Garrison was then asked when at five-on-five, Lightning defensemen were involved in the offense tonight, how that adjustment troubled Chicago. “You know, I mean, for us it’s been all year. As defensemen, we’ve been told to get up the ice, try to be a second wave. There was an emphasis on that tonight going into the game, making sure we were moving our feet, supporting the play as much as possible. We were able to contribute tonight, which was big for us. I think last game we only were able to have four shots as a defensive corps. We wanted to make sure we contributed more defensively tonight.”
yler Johnson was then asked what can be expected for Game 3. Is it kind of the same thing seen in games 5 and 7 against the Rangers, the momentum and everything. Can the same thing we saw in the Lightning’s play in Game 5 and 7 when Tampa Bay won on the road against the Rangers? “I don’t think we like to change our game. I don’t think we like to say that we have a bunch of different game plans regardless of how the series went before. As long as we stick to our structure, stick to the things that work, it’s going to be a lot like tonight. It’s going to be a lot like Game 5 and Game 7. Those are the games we played good in. We don’t have to change our structure, change what we do, and just go from there.”
It was then Chicago coach’s Joel Quenneville turn.
He was asked about Patrick Sharp’s back-to-back penalties and how critical the timing of them were. “Tough timing. I know we just got the big goal then we had to kill four minutes. Maybe a little tired on the kill the latter part of it. We did an outstanding job the first one, almost got through the second one.”
For the second game in a row, Toews and Kane were separated in the third period. Quenneville was asked about making that move. “They had some great looks there. Had a couple really good quality chances in the first period, had some good stuff in the second. They’re dangerous. Just got a little more balance off it. We scored right away. Then we lost some momentum.”
Quenneville was pressed to answer what the Lightning are doing to keep Chicago’s top players at bay. “I think we had some good looks, that line. Johnny put Shawsy in almost on a breakaway. Saader looks like he’s in almost all alone. They had some quality stuff. They’ll generate stuff, too, going forward, whoever’s on that line.”
When asked about his goaltender’s performance tonight, Quenneville was clear. “Just okay.”
Quenneville was then asked about earlier comments in which he called game two a “must-win”. Having lost that game, what the mindset going back to Game 3? “We get to go home, get excited, play in our building. I’m sure everybody will be loud and excited about us coming back. We were tied in the third period, had the right spot for tonight. But didn’t go our way. We’ll be all right. We should be excited about what happened at the end of the game.”
Game 3 is set for Monday night at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. Face-off is set for 8:00 PM ET and is being televised on NBC, CBC, TVA Sports. The schedule for the remaining games in the Stanley Cup Final are listed below.
Game 4 Wed., June 10th at 8 p.m. Tampa Bay at Chicago NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports
Game 5 Sat., June 13th at 8 p.m. Chicago at Tampa Bay NBC, CBC, TVA Sports
*Game 6 Mon., June 15th at 8 p.m. Tampa Bay at Chicago NBC, CBC, TVA Sports
*Game 7 Wed., June 17th at 8 p.m. Chicago at Tampa Bay NBC, CBC, TVA Sports
* if necessary
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