INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM: Jeff Blashill and Kevin Korchinski REACT to NHL Call-Up with the Blackhawks

So you talked about changing the DZM system and it looked like this strong side

winger is pushing out more. I got some help with this. Whatever you saw, just

all we're doing is tweaking a little bit to just get a little more pressure.

I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of it though.

When you make tweaks up here, do you talk to Diane Gayle and

and tweak down there as well or? We actually had them kind of test drive it last

week and a little bit to be honest with you. So they kind of they kind of changed

ahead of time, just a little tweak and work through it. So we actually had

some clips that we could use up there. There's always a little bit, I don't

want to say lost in translation, but as much as you want the systems to be

totally the same as you start coaching your team and in 90 starts coaching

his team, you're invariably going to make little subtle changes. You go

to correct problems and correct the issues and so they never end up being

exactly the same, but yes, those conversations him and I had, I don't

personally think that they need to play the exact same system all the time.

I think habits are the most important, but in this particular case,

he wanted to take a look at tweaking something too.

Are you taking any inspiration from the penalty kill and how

effective the pressure has been in that situation? Yeah, I mean, I would say,

you know, yeah, yeah, yes, I am. Our penalty kill has been good. I think our

guys, you know, I've said it lots of times, we've got really good killers, but

those sitting guys are on the ice, 5 on 5, you know, to, you know, not all of them,

but a lot of them. So, you know, I think there's areas where we can try to create.

The thing with pressure for me is if you can dictate where the puck's going to

get a better chance of pressure. If you can't dictate where the puck's going,

you can't pressure it. So, you know, on our penalty kill, I think we've done a good

job of dictating and reading those pressure points and

I think we've done a good job on the penalty kill is knowing when to reset and

protect middle. And so that's those two things I think are going to be

important for us in these zones as well.

Well, right now, you know, with, with, with Kai's out, we're at six with already, no,

five with already, right? Six with already. Six with already? No, five with already.

Yeah, five with already. Then you call up into six. Then you call up

the quarter to seven. I don't know when, when, when Kai's will be back. So, you know,

I want them to make sure if they're going to play games down the stretch here that they're

ingrained and everything we're doing and and and that type of stuff. I think it's important.

You know, it's hard to run a practice with with six D. So this gives us seven plus that when

we move last back there, who's played D before that gives us eight and it can run a little bit of

easier practice. Do you have you thought about going back to 70? I mean, zero decisions on what

we're going to do for lineup next Thursday to be dead honest with you and really no conversations

have been had. So zero decisions, I would certainly not not do it. I mean, if I thought it was the

right thing for for both our teams chance to win and in the development of our players, but,

you know, there's a lot of things that go into that lineup wise. I'm going to look at it.

Just to clarify, Lafferty isn't going to play D in the game is he or is he? No, no, probably not,

you know, not probably not, but I would say like I've actually coached Laffer and had him play D

for us at the World Championships to be honest with you. So he does have, you know, if if something

happened and we were in on had six D and he was our seventh and somebody had sick and he went

in and he could play D, you know, and but he's a he's a big time team guy and he's willing to go

out and do that in practice and just speaks volumes to what he is as a person and what he is as a team

What have you seen from Courtschinsk since the last time you was here?

You know, I thought I thought he left the last time but playing better that second night than

the first night and he had he had confidence. I've, you know, talked a lot with with Nighty and I

think he's done a solid job. You know, so he's just got to keep, you know, put himself in a position

that if he gets an opportunity to play, that he plays well and that's just what this league is.

You know, the very few guys just, you know, get handed jobs over and over and over and you've got

to keep earning it and proven it and he'll get a chance to or he'll potentially, I don't know if

he will or won't but if he gets a chance to go and he's got to go and play well.

With Conor taking draws again in Frank on his own line, does that help you balance out the lines

a little bit more like you did the first couple months of the season? They were playing separately?

Yeah, I do think so. You know, I think it helps us, you know, I think, you know, the most

success we've had this year has been Conor and Berkowski and either, you know, green or a bird and

then Frank in another line. And obviously, Frank, he had real success in the early part of the year

with Turbo and in birds. Well, we'll kind of play that out. I wouldn't read too much in there.

We have six, you know, five more practices before we play. So I wouldn't read too much into our

lens. This will be a boring stretch for you guys because there's nothing that's

concrete to ask or answer.

The team kind of lived into the Olympic break-up to that, lost to Columbus. Yeah.

Um, I didn't like our game in Columbus. They didn't like their game in Columbus. The players

meaning that. Listen, we got a chance to reset, you know, and I think if you look throughout the

league, you know, it's a pretty good opportunity for us. We don't have guys playing very few guys

playing in the lives of everyone. So a bunch of guys got the chance to kind of reset and rest.

We've got a whole bunch of guys playing really important minutes that have never really been through

this schedule. It worked. They have maybe one time, you know what I mean? And this was even more

condensed. So, you know, it was like I was talking about a philosophy over the break and he was just

talking about, you know, the, after last year and when the break came, he was, he was tired and

needed the break. And this year it doesn't feel that as much because he's been through it. Well,

this, now we got all those guys that haven't been through it as much as him, you know, go through

especially on that decore. But even up front that I thought guys probably needed a break and needed

a reset opportunity. That's what this is. And then we also get six practices to try to hit the

ground running. Does that guarantee success? No, but, you know, every team probably hits that

break at different points. I thought we needed it. When Hazard was really clicking there in the

few weeks, it seemed like every game he was getting on for equal air and hot, met and rushed.

Is there anything that you guys can do to get, I guess, to get those opportunities generated again?

That's a good question because it's, that's factual. I think, you know, he was on a consistent basis.

I think it comes down to breaking the puck out good. You know, when you break the puck out good,

you can, you can attack up the ice of speed. And I think, you know, he was putting himself in

support positions to not beat the puck up but kind of be underneath it and then, and then jump into

those holes instead of kind of sprinting those holes before you're ready. And then you don't get the

puck. So, you know, it's probably a little bit on, on the group he's out there with and a little

bit on him. They try to just make sure we do a good job. And then it's on the coaching staff to

make sure the guys know their breakout plan and that they're, they're executing the breakout plan.

But, you know, again, generally when you break the puck out well, you get those chances for

those rushes and we'll have to keep working that to make sure we do a good job.

Did you know the score of the Canada check yet again when you called in practice?

I had no idea, actually, to be honest with you. I had no idea until I walked in, I walked in

right as the Canada tied it. So, good for them. How would you assess the practice day?

I liked it. I thought, you know, our guys, a number of our guys skated yesterday and I was

impressed actually with how they did. You know, today we did a lot of puck touch stuff early and

it wasn't the cleanest puck touches ever but I certainly had patience for that. Guys have been

off for quite a bit of time and but I thought our energy was good. I thought our attention to detail

was good. So, those are the two things that, you know, our work ethic was good. Those are

important things. With this figure for those two games, we're quick in January but to get a

little bit more extended opportunity to get back out here. What are you hoping to do?

Yeah, obviously exciting. I got a bit of practice, get my just back to the pace and learn

the systems and just hope to go out there and play my game and do anything I can do to help

the team win. It looked like you guys tweaked it with the D-Zone system a bit so I guess

helpful to get that practice. Yeah, yeah, actually when you learn new systems, it helps take

the thinking out of it, learning and practice so that when game time thumbs kind of automatically

up with things, you just kind of react. So, it's getting the reps under me and yeah, it's good.

No, not really. Obviously, every time you call it up, you get opportunity and you just try

and prove yourself. Yeah, it's exciting. Obviously getting the call and call up and yeah,

it's a good chance to prove yourself and try and help the team win. I feel like I'm not saying

maybe we're closer to game speed than some of the other guys after they had two or so.

Yeah, yeah, we practiced yesterday and played some games and obviously we had our all-star break,

but yeah, it's kind of nice getting called up and having my legs under me from just practicing

playing games and playing a lot of minutes down our offer. So, it's good. It's a nice thing.

The number of recent ice hogs up here now to have, I think, more familiar with you too.

Yeah, yeah, we got a lot of guys who have either played in the past couple of years and the hogs

or played at the start of the year. So, obviously we're all friends hanging out outside the

rank, joke around at the rank and all the guys who want to help this team make that next step

and next ride and help push each other and win some games.

Yeah, I just a lot of defensive stuff. There's quite a lot of minutes and I'm trying to be

going to quiet. Obviously, just like your D-zone changes, you want to be on a pounce when there's

guys and you're kind of quadrant that you want to take the pounce around, but if you're kind of just

in good ice, sometimes it's better than skiing yourself out of bad ice. So, just stuff like that,

defensive stuff, just being a bit simpler at times so that you can play more minutes, you can just

let the game come to you and be more efficient. We talked in a poll about how you are trying to,

you know, view this as a process to be your best self years from now when you reach your peak.

Is that something you keep in mind to not put too much pressure in yourself when you do get the

seasonally so cold? Yeah, like I've seen you got to take a day by hand. It can't look too far

into the future or be too much in the presence, but I think like I said, like each day we got some

week of practice trying to get better, trying to learn all the systems, get to game pace and

just be put my best foot forward for the next game.