“Make sure we’re not giving away easy chances.” | Jeff Blashill Postgame 10.7.25

“Make sure we’re not giving away easy chances.” | Jeff Blashill Postgame 10.7.25

What did you take away from that tonight? Um, well, you know, I think obviously Spencer was really good. Um, so that was a real positive. Um, I think uh I’m glad we’re in the in the situation uh 22, you know, in the third period. I’d like to be in that situation lots, but now we got to find a way to win those games. Um, you know, there’s certainly a lot of growth that we have to have. Um, you know, I I think coming into this, I I recognize, and I think I’ve talked about it with you guys, we’re going to have peaks and valleys, and we got to do a way better job of those valleys not being so low in terms of uh the types of mistakes that we make where, you know, to me, you’re kind of giving away chances. And so, we just got to continue to grow and work on finding ways to make sure we’re not uh giving away easy chances. They’re going to create enough on their own. Um, we got to make sure we do a better job of that. How would you rate the execution on the new systems in game one? I didn’t think it was a whole lot of system. Like I don’t think we’re going to walk out of the game and have like a big system meeting tomorrow. I think the game will be more on like pure execution probably more on um the careless plays certainly with the puck being harder on the puck. I’ll give them tons of credit. You know, uh it’s a you know, they’re missing two great players. It’s a banner raising night. Sometimes you can kind of sleepwalk through those games and I thought they came out and played really hard. So, it’s a great lesson for us how hard you have to compete on pucks what type of stick battles you got to have. I think it’s going to be more of that than than actual execution and systems. You talked about prior to the game uh and the guys talked about it after the game playing a complete 60 minutes. That seems that was the big takeaway for you guys. Yeah, I thought at times we played good. You know, at times we’re in their zone and you know, second period was good. Um so, yes, you know, there’s going to be push back. there’s going to be es and flows to a hockey game. I I for me it’s it’s more of just the you know the individual mistakes can’t be so big. Um um you know you when you when you turn pucks over you’re going to have you know it’s going to look chaotic. So that can hurt your system play but everybody’s just in scramble mode at that point. I just think finding ways to minimize uh and not give up nearly as many chances in and throughout a course of a game and um you know we got to we got to step by step get better at that. You had a lot of guys who played NHL, young guys who played NHL games but maybe not season openers. Do you think I mean when you look at Renzel and Lechnoff in that first period that maybe some of that was jitters? Yeah, I think so. You know, and you know, we’ve got guys that you come up at the end of the year, you’re playing the last nine 10 games, uh this is a different animal and it’s only going to continue to ramp up, you know, and and so I think understanding uh what the level’s like, how how good you got to be every night. I mean, it is such an every night league. It is such an unforgiving league that you have to be on top of your game every night. You’re not going to be perfect. I get that. But you can’t let the low be so low, you know. And I think certainly uh there’s some guys that need to take that lesson and uh you know, kind of that’s their takeaway. Moving up with Bedar in the third period. What was the thought process there? Uh we did a little bit late in the second. Um you know, I thought I thought Ilia was uh was skating. Uh you know, the the thing that he can do is kind of go win pucks and I think that’s an important piece of that line. Um you know, I think Donald can score on his own. Um, uh, you know, he’s kind of a guy who I think can selfgenerate a little bit. So, we just thought maybe it would give us just a little more, you know, kind of, I guess, I don’t know if spark’s the right word, but like finding ways to win pucks and have the puck a little bit more in that line. What’ you make of how your team responded to after that first period? Yeah, you know, I thought we did a good job. I really did. I mean, you know, I thought obviously that was nowhere near our best. Um, and I thought we did a good job of of kind of individually responding and and and playing better and collectively doing that. And I thought the second was certainly our best period. You know, third was you kind of you kind of start, you know, once that goal, you know, the goal is a little bit of an unlucky break. Um um and then and then from there, we gave up chances the last 10 that we don’t need to give up. You can’t, you know, you can’t win the game or tie the game by giving up another goal necessarily. I know you got to press to score, but you can’t give up easy chances. So again, just lessons for us. Do you put a lot of stock in faceoff numbers or is that I mean, how much influence do you think that is on the game or Yeah, I mean I think it’s a huge thing to be honest with you. Like I wouldn’t say it’s everything, but it’s hard to chase it, you know, all night and and um you know, so we we uh I think I just think it’s something that that is going to be continually important and when you win them and and you know, winning them on special teams, all those things are really important. What are the key positives to take away from this game going toe- to- toe with the Stanley Cup champs? Well, I think, you know, I think first off, I would say Spencer Knight was positive for sure. Um, I would say the fact that, you know, we responded in the second and played uh the type of hockey I think you have to play to be successful. Uh, you know, and and we had chances to tie it late. So, um, we don’t want to be a team that’s close, you know, we want to find a way to win that game. Um, but that’s part of the growth process.

Head Coach Jeff Blashill discusses need for minimizing mistakes and not giving away easy chances as well as performance of Spencer Knight in season opener against Florida Panthers.

Subscribe: https://youtube.com/blackhawks
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nhlblackhawks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nhlblackhawks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nhlblackhawks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nhlblackhawks
Website: https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/