INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM: Blashill, Bertuzzi & Frondell REACT to Chicago's OT Loss to Winnipeg Jets

0:00Anton Frandell is pretty cool and comfortable for an 18-year-old out there and just how good to see him get that goal tonight. Yeah, it was great. Great for him to get the goal. You know, he's done an excellent job. I mean, to be out against what I think is one of the best lines in the league, which I fully cornered. There was some mistakes, but overall, I thought he did an excellent job. It's kind of a line that kind of gets it in terms of the way they want to play together. So I thought, you know, it's certainly throwing them to the wolves and I thought he did a really good job. You guys are so loose defense in the event, that road trip, that they come out in that first period and then play that third period to what you see defensively. I'm really happy with our guys. Like, we came out in the first, obviously, we were really, really good. Didn't give up a chance until the last, very last couple of seconds. You know, second wasn't good enough. Got our diesel in a little bit too much.

1:01We gave up too many chances and went through a few things, but I just think they answered unreal. And that's a great, great testament to our group. Came out and we were excellent in the third and I think we only gave up one chance in the third, you know. I thought we deserved, you know, I don't want to say deserved a better fate because at the end of the night, I think chances were almost exactly equal. You know, we haven't been good enough in three and three, so that's frustrating for all of us. Sure, it's frustrating for you guys, frustrating for me, frustrating for your players, but I don't think that should take away from the process that we had through lots of that game is really good. On the first goal by Morrissey when Frontelcon peeled off both the D were on the other side of the net. Like, what do you, what needs to happen differently on that? Not that. Frontel actually could have stayed with Morrissey number one, so that's a learned thing that, you know, he's just, again, he's just new to the system. And then, you know, one of Louis or Flash, even on that post, that strong side post and they, whatever they kind of mixed it up. But, you know, also, the, you know, Frontelcon just stayed with him too, so, you know, he came back to the bench and said, should I stay with him?

2:05Yeah, so like, that's a good thing that he understands those situations and will learn from him. And to me, that's the number one thing he's going to make mistakes as I told him. You know, we're out of the bat, but I don't care about mistakes, I don't care about learning from mistakes. And the same thing with Louis and Flash, like, they've done a pretty good job. You know, they were out against, they've been out against a lot of really good players throughout the season. They're both, you know, fairly young players in terms of experience. And, you know, it's probably one of those things where he was really worried about Schifle back door. He should probably just give him a little cross check and got to that front post and blast him over. He has such incredible season. 31 goals. And I'm going to get some of the games up in the season. How far does it take to get guys like that? And I sure, because if you look at your raster, it might be a nice shirt to be off of you. Yeah, you know, I mean, I would leave that for kind of a summer conversation in terms of, you know, those types of things, you know, ultimately, you know, I think we understand internally that for the growth of our team will be internally,

3:06not necessarily from guys that are added, but I'll start with just one. You know, you're talking about Berk's but excellent. You know, but I think Berk's an excellent player. I think he's been excellent for a lot of years in this league. And he was excellent for me when he was in Detroit when I was in Detroit with him. He's been excellent here. He's really done a good job of playing winning hockey. We'll see what the raster looks like in terms of young guys, all their guys had it. He had it guys, you know, certainly many guys that when you guys see either through growth of our young players or whatever might be, you know, guys that play good two-way games and that's what he does. What have you seen from him? Leadership-wise, that seems kind of nice. You know what Berk's done? Berk's been Berk. He hasn't changed in one ounce. And I think that was a conversation. And I hadn't actually tried to say the same thing with Betsy. They've just been themselves. And that's the best way to lead is just who you are. I think all your birds lead great mainly through example, but that's the best way to lead. Talking a whole bunch can get not old, but it just, you know, when you show it by example and you live it,

4:10that's, other guys will follow and I think he's done excellent job of that. So for me, Berk's just been Berk and because of that, he's been a good leader for us. When Frank Elk came in there, so this assumption that he might be kind of a running mate for Berk Dart, and as you decided to give him this look at Center, how much of you kind of had the way where, like how other lines look or what, you know, what beneficial is the most of it, and the data center that I just throw up the line up. Yeah, I mean, I certainly think, you know, we certainly think about, you know, what the lineup looks like with other guys with different spots and certainly, you know, getting, you know, Connor guys that played off him well is important. And I think, you know, I think both Green and Lawrence have the capability to do that. I just think for us, you know, long term, I think Calvin, the center is positioned, so let it fly is a huge, huge thing. And, you know, if you have Connor, if you have Connor and Anton and Frankie, you've got really good one to three punch right there, and then you kind of build it from there.

5:10So, you know, we're looking at what's best for our team long term. We're looking at, you know, I've said this lots, we're not going to, I said this at the beginning of the year, we're not going to take a shortcut to win a game on a Tuesday night that's going to hurt us long term. And it's certainly part of that long term is getting the best study for each of our players. And so putting them in positions to be as successful as possible is important. You mentioned your frustration three and three. Is there a way to practice that defensively, or is that just instinctual? You know, the Game of Hockey is funny, man. Like, the Game of Hockey, there's a lot of happenstance that happens. And when you go three and three, it becomes even more, like, just kind of, you know, situations where some of it probably is a little bit learned. Being in a lot, some of it's just as guys get bigger and stronger, more athletic. You know, our young guys, they'll be guided by it. There's not a ton of, I'm not saying there's no structural thing to it, but it's just, there's not like a huge amount of structural thing. It becomes honestly a game, a man on man, and being your man, you know.

6:12So, I've also seen, you know, the same team go be really poor and three on three for stretches and then also be really good. You know, we had a stretch in Tampa, we were really poor. And we had a lot of really good players, and just the way it went. And so, you know, I don't know that it's, I'm not, like, losing sleep over it, but certainly it's something that, you know, I mean, if you, like, I got a one goal loss this year, not including empty netters, including overtime. It's, you know, it's, it's a huge, it's a whole swing. Like, we were super, you know, we put ourselves in position when a lot of those games including overtime. And so, we're going to have to find ways to win, you know, over time. But some of that's just reps and going through the pain of losing, you know. And, you know, so this lots, man, like failure can be a great thing if you learn from it. You're going to decide to learn from it. It has seemed like Bertuzzi and McCabe both have made whoever's on their line better this year. But it seems like McCabe's offensive contributions have really picked up since the trade deadline. I mean, is that just being in a position to have more, I guess, point production?

7:16Yeah, I mean, I think he's a little bit of a streaky guy that way, you know. I think his game is fairly consistent in terms of what his process looks like. I think, you know, when Bert and McCabe have planned lines that are kind of straight ahead lines, they're at their best. And they front del fits in that and they kind of play straight ahead. You know, so, you know, I can't, again, I think part of it is just, is that he can be a little bit streaky. And part of it is he's just going to reward it for good play. What do you think of the sixth offense tonight? How did the sixth guys play? You know, I thought they did a solid job. But obviously in the second, we probably ground ourselves down a little bit and didn't quite make as many plays as we could have made to have the puck and not spend as much time in our D zone. You know, we're asking a lot out of them, but that's part of it. Again, that goes back to, like, through struggles and being in those spots.

8:17But I thought, overall, they did a solid job. I thought wide cards were excellent. I would definitely single them out is, you know, why it's a bit of a game or many attacks a game, loved the way that he attacks it. And I thought he was excellent to make. So anything you can pinpoint to recently, why second periods? There seems to be a drop off from the effort in the first. You know, we went through this early of the year and we kind of, you know, we dug into it a lot. Some of it, I thought, was we got away with things in the first and third that we didn't get away with in the second. I certainly wouldn't say that tonight, I love tonight. You know, part of it's the pushback probably from them. You know, I think we walked into the room and we had, oh, chance them, seven or one by our chances. And, you know, if you're them, you're not going to be happy with that. So you're going to push back harder. And part of it was we didn't win any face-out. So it just seemed like, you know, they had the puck a lot and we didn't break out clean. I think when we hurt ourselves, this one, we're in those D zone situations and we don't break out clean out of those D zone situations. You just end up kind of in a cycle of playing D zone tire and that's a hard way to play D zone.

9:19So I think, you know, breaking it back down to D zone breakouts is not just your initial retrievals, but once you get a puck from the D zone state, how can you, you know, kind of find a way, either through a flip and really go hard through the D or through tape to tape and find a way to get the puck and get it in the end and get your changes. And we just didn't, we couldn't do that tonight. I'll battle back there and almost pull out too. Yeah, I mean, it was one of our best first periods that we've had all year and definitely in a long time. And then kind of the second, we didn't play the same way, kind of, you know, give them life. And then we battle back in the third and kind of have the same third as their first. But, you know, obviously it's hard in this league when you give them a full period, not playing your best. That's when, you know, you give up too much and it costs you. What do you think of the new kid? He's good. No, I really like playing with him. He's big. He forward checks hard. And I think that's why we had success tonight. You know, just all the way to talk forward checking hard and, you know, he battles.

10:20Do you look like somebody's only playing five in each other? No, he looks right at home. He's just going to keep getting better as he grows and continues to play in play big minutes and play big, big spots and, you know, the future is looking right. Can you see what, I guess, what Blesch was looking to do line-up, why is he, you know, Evan, with Darnays, Aaron Frontel down the middle, and how that may change. So, do you guys look like it's a line-up? Yeah, I think it just gives us more, you know, more depth. You know, there are three really good centers. There are going to be, you know, centers here in this organization, our organization for a long time. It gives us depth and, you know, different line commos to try and create more offense. You put the team on your back there a little bit in the third. Not a chair or captain, you kind of see that as like a captain or responsibility to kind of avoid your team back when they're enough for themselves. I mean, you know, it's Mickey both times, you know, on the four track he created the turnover. I just got the puck and then on the goal he made a great play. So, you know, I thought as a whole group, he played a really good game except for obviously the second and you just got to, you know, build off that and learn from him.

11:24Did you see a 30 goal season for yourself coming into this season? No. But I know I can do what I've done up before. You know, I'm going to keep going to the net, keep doing the same things. Like I said before, you know, my body's been feeling good. It's going to keep me, you know, in games and being able to, you know, compete at the hardest I can and at the highest level I can. Obviously playing with some good players to help. With younger guys around you, do you find this time of year maybe you've got a little more extra energy with the young guys? Yeah, I felt like we exited like our first. We haven't even said so much energy. You know, everyone's playing for the first spots and you know, to show themselves and the young guys are going to be starting to carry this team. But just how do you feel to get to your school? I'm not making a feeling. Green coming true and happy to do it in my first home game. Did you switch your number to 16 in honor of Marcus? He's been a good guy for me for over two seasons back in Sweden.

12:28Like a mentor and it's pretty awesome to play with the same number. What made it? I'm curious to change it today. I couldn't change on the road trip. So as soon as we get back home, they said I can switch. Did you talk to Marcus? Did you tell him in the game? Yeah, I live with. I asked him if I, if he would get angry at me, if I did it. But it was fine with him. It seems happy. You could look pretty comfortable when you first, a couple of games. Just how do you find out there's the first five? I mean, the game is a whole new level from what I'm used to fight back in Sweden. It's everything goes so fast. Everyone is a lot better. So I still have a lot to learn. I guess I'll keep going and get better. Did you feel more comfortable at the center tonight? I don't ask you. Did you feel more comfortable?

13:29I guess so. The second game of the center is getting into it a little bit. I enjoy playing in the middle of the ice. It's fun. It seems like you've developed chemistry pretty quickly with Bertels in the cave. How's it been with them? They both are so good out there. They foreshake a lot. I win the box. I want to see Bertels. He got two nice goals today. I'm a cave who wins every battle. It's fun to play with them and I'm guys too. What was I like playing in this building in front of the box fans with the first time? Incredible. I heard back on the road trip I heard. We played in Madison Square Garden in a different arena. I thought, oh shit, this is pretty good. They say, wait till you get back at home. I know what they mean. But it's pretty good. Good crowd. What was playing in three-and-three over time?

14:29Is that different then? You used to or did you notice anything? I mean, it's a tight game. I love to play in those situations when it's tied and when the game is counter-stake. Now, when they're losing, it sucks. It's hard to be happy right now. I can learn from them all the time. Thank you.