Jeff Blashill on Learning Curve | Chicago Blackhawks

Jeff Blashill on Learning Curve | Chicago Blackhawks

What were your takeaways from Tuesday’s game once you rewatched everything? Um, I thought uh going into the game I was a little bit concerned on uh on how tired we were going to be based on uh not having take a day off before that. So, I think that was our sixth straight day after hard cam. I thought in the second and third period um we were slow to pucks and I would say we were slow to pucks probably two reasons. one, we were thinking a lot, so that makes you slow and we were a little bit tired. So then the game kind of, you know, whatever it starts to go away from you, get away from you a little bit. And I thought Sod was great. Um, I thought in the first period when we had legs, we did some good stuff. It’s a step, you know, and it gave us an opportunity to uh watch some video on some areas and go and practice it today and we’ll do the same thing tomorrow. That’s what you want the exhibition games for. So, I never probably put too much uh weight in, especially in the early ones. You know, as you get closer to real hockey, um they become more important. Talk about the the thinking part of it and that’s getting used to the new systems that you’re implementing. What in in your past, what is the learning curve? Like how long does that usually take where it’s a little more reactionary and not thinking? Yeah, and that’s, you know, I mean, it it really depends probably um you know, we’re going to have to do a really good job in our in these practices to get them to a point where they can just go play and nothing. Um how long I can’t say that for sure. Probably DZone has uh some definite differences. Neutral zone for check is definitely different. We hadn’t really worked on special teams much, so that’s probably not it’s different, but it’s not necessarily part of it. Um, you know, I I think for Czech Ozone, those aren’t way different. Um, you know, in the end, I think we’ll be able to to to, you know, one of the things we try to do in practice is route, do routing drills where guys get to, you know, I think if you watch the beginning of practice today, the second thing we did was come in, stop, stop, go, and it’s just working on getting to the routes and being able to play as a fiveman unit without having to think. So, we’re going to work hard towards getting there. Uh, what do we have two weeks? So, we got to be ready in two weeks. Spencer Knight, I know he’s a young guy, too. Seems a little wise beyond his years. It’s just maybe the way he talks to us, but just how have you seen him progressing here through his first camp with the Blackhawks and also how he’s working with the defense? Yeah, with him so far. Yeah. No, you know, I’ve I’ve had some good conversation with Spencer. He’s uh I agree with you. He’s had uh he he seems to be wise in a sense that uh you know he’s had uh some some experiences um uh certainly with an organization that that has had the most success over the last few years. Um and and he’s he’s great to talk to because I think he has a good perspective on it. I think he saw things with a pretty clear head. So um you know I think he can help bring some of that just to to the table uh with our group. Um you know Spencer’s a guy I think I’ve told you guys this before. or I’d get a chance to see him play a lot as he was kind of coming up and um you know I knew he was a real talented guy but I really really got to enjoy him as a as a person and and that kind of perspective I think um you know Spence with with our D you know I think again it’s just more time getting on the same page um you know in a lot of different areas he handles the puck really well so getting used to him handling the puck and getting the right spots and getting open for him that’s something we have not worked on yet that we’re going to work on but to me it’s probably a secondary thing right now. Um, just learning the reads even systematically is something that that he’ll, you know, kind of get on the same page. But I’m I’m I’ve been a fan of his and he does have a good perspective. Back to the learning curve on the systems. Does that change the way you’re going to approach the preseason and try to get the NHL club more games on the ice than than maybe some of the guys you know are headed to Rockford? Yeah, we’d like to, you know, to a degree. Um the way the games are set up, you have uh two sets of back to back and I’d like to avoid the back to backs for uh as many guys as I can. Um so kind of coming into this, you know, depending on your age, uh you’re playing somewhere between four and three exhibition games, so out of six. So, um which is a pretty good number. Um it gives them, you know, you know, if this was a this was our fourth year together, you know, Nick Fina might only play two, but he’s probably going to play three because everything’s new. Same with Conor Murphy. Guys like that. So, they’re all probably playing one more than maybe in some cases we would just to to give them another game to kind of get to where we can hit the ground and run it against Florida. With the penalty kill, it’s I mean, you want to be pretty aggressive in the zone. It was described to me that if you’re making the reads quick, it’s effective. If you’re a step late, then it can open up holes. I think we saw that on their power play goal. Yeah. Tuesday. How do you feel like kind of how would you describe the mentality of that? Yeah. Well, I think anytime you pressure, if teams beat the pressure, you’re going to be exposed. That’s a that’s uh in hockey, in football, in a blitz, and any sport really. And so, um you know, we want to be able to, you know, I’d like to use the term smart pressure. Um pressure when we’re in the opportunities, uh to to pressure, which means we’ve kind of dictated where the puck’s going and we’re not reacting. We’re on our toes meeting pucks, not late to puck. So, if you see us chasing uh and guy has one,000, two,000, we’re probably late. And those are situations where we should just stop. Um, you know, we got we got we probably missed some an assignment on that goal against certainly there was a couple times in the kill where we were we were exposed. I just think it’s a matter of not honestly, we had walked through it one time. So, I think it’s going to take a little bit to get used to. I think like anything else, when you haven’t done it, it feels like, you know, all this stuff’s going wrong and and and then once you do it, you feel you feel confident about it. So, we just got to get to where guys feel confident with the forche in neutral zone. Last year, they Anders kind of made it to a 212 sort of 113 sort of. It sounds like you haven’t changed that much. What’s uh No, I’d say it’s I think every forche in the league honestly looks something either. I mean, they all kind of look the same to be done. honest with you, I don’t think not many teams anymore really are like a pure 122 where you don’t really jump and meet plays, you know? So, everything kind of looks like a twoman at times depending on the pressure. Um, we’ll will be similar on that. Neutral zone be similar 113. It’s a little uh probably has moments of more aggressive than than what they did at times last year with that, but it’s something that we ran in Tampa that I was actually in charge of and so that we’re just we’re bringing here. Do you have any updates on the injured guys? Um, Spellellisy should be in practice tomorrow, so that’s a a positive for him. Uh, with the potential to to to play in the weekend. Um, Slags, uh, Sein Savoy, I think those guys will, uh, all skate on their own tomorrow. Will not play in the weekend. Um, uh, Joey Anderson has a, uh, kind of he’s going to undergo a procedure for kind of a chronic issue that that’ll take him out of the preseason games. Will will he miss any regular season? I that I can’t answer. I don’t know the timeline yet. You mentioned that um the team was slower to get to know Pug and those other two periods. I guess how important is it for you and the team to kind of find that fine line between because this a system faster than some of these players are used to. So like how um I guess how important to you is find that fine line between like playing consistently fast and having energy for the whole team the whole game. I don’t think we’ll have a problem having energy. Uh to be honest with you, I don’t think it’ll be an issue. you know, you’re not normally going to go six days of what we did and go play a hockey game. Um, so, you know, I don’t think that’ll be an issue at all. Um, I I think there’s times where, you know, when you when you aren’t connected, it feels like you’re just kind of chasing the puck when you’re not five guys connected, and that that’s what it felt like a lot. I thought the biggest issue was that we didn’t break the puck out of our zone uh when we should have had opportunities to break the puck out. And then in our D zone, we had opportunities to get we want to get kills in in quadrants and and we let the puck out of that quadrant. So now you’re into extended Dzones and anytime you get an extended Dzones, I think it gets hard. Seemed like the split in teams today, one was more heavy on NHL guys. Is there anything to take away from that? Like do you feel like you kind of have a sense of who the group already is? Um yes and no. There was definitely I I made a decision. Um I didn’t originally have this. I made a decision to try to ramp it up a little bit to get to to a group of guys that are uh NHL uh you know more guys that are competing for NHL jobs and not necessarily spread the two teams out with the exception that I you know as I said earlier we have probably more good players in spot. So there were some guys in that second group that are still going to be competing for NHL jobs and they may in fact be moved into that uh first group tomorrow. Um I got to go kind of go through the groups right now. Um, so I definitely want to kind of get it to a spot to where it’s guys that that uh are are competing for those NHL spots and we may flip some guys in and out.

Head Coach Jeff Blashill discusses the importance of preseason games and current focus on learning new systems, particularly with defensive zone and neutral zone checks

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