Game 4 key: Hawks must do little things better
Q. Is that Game 3 one you just throw out immediately, or do you use it as motivation heading into Wednesday night’s game?
A. The thing is, they played real well in the first period. If you can come into Boston and be tied at the end of the first period, you’d pretty much take that.
But the first goal of the game changed the whole tone. The crowd got into it, and Boston got energized.
By not taking advantage of two power-play chances in the first period, when you could have started out on a good note, maybe take the lead and change the tone of the game, now you’re fighting an uphill battle.
You take a couple of bad penalties and they score — now you’re down 2-0 and fighting a team that plays extremely well defensively at their home and you weren’t able to find any energy.
Q. Can you take a glimmer of hope from the fact that despite doing poorly on faceoffs and the PP, the Hawks still were in that game until the end?
A. That’s one way to look at it. The other way is you’re probably not going to win unless those two areas get better.
To be dominated like that in the faceoff circle is just unacceptable.
You’re a puck-possession team and you allow Boston to control all areas of the ice, the neutral zone, which leads to pucks in behind your defense, you stop creating offense because you’re chasing pucks in the offensive zone, and defensively, you’re giving Boston opportunities.
You have to be much better.
I thought they did a decent job in the first two games, but with the last line change it looked like the Bruins got a better matchup in the faceoff circle.
Q. You’ve taken a million faceoffs in your career. What is the one thing that is the key to winning a faceoff? Are the Hawks getting outmuscled?
A. You can’t pinpoint one thing. The guys from Boston are good.
You could be quick, you could be strong, you could have technique … everything kind of comes into play. You have to realize what the strengths of your opponent are and where he goes and what kind of a draw he takes in those go-to moments.
You should be able to study those and have a better understanding how you want to counteract that.
Q. What did the loss of Marian Hossa minutes before game time mean?
A. You lose one of your top players — skill-wise — from the lineup. You’re losing a lot because he’s so good in his own end and he’s reliable in all areas.
At this time of year you can’t let that type of thing faze you. You can use it as an excuse if you want, but good teams don’t use those types of things as excuses because it happens to everybody.
Q. Can you give us one key for the Hawks in Game 4?
A. They need to do the little things better than they did in Game 3, put it that way.
ŸTroy Murray is in his 13th year as a member of the Blackhawks broadcast team and his eighth year as the color analyst for the team’s radio broadcasts. The Selke Award winner was a five-time 20-goal scorer and a veteran of 15 years in the NHL, playing in 915 career games.