Ducks coach Joel Quenneville downplays 2nd-round chess match – Orange County Register
LAS VEGAS — The teaching chess match is regularly one of the vital intriguing components of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Matching strains, breaking apart strains or protection pairs and/or placing strains or protection pairs collectively can usually imply the distinction between successful and shedding.
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville and Vegas Golden Knights counterpart John Tortorella will little doubt make strikes and countermoves as their best-of-seven second-round playoff sequence continues. It’s as a lot part of postseason hockey as playoff beards and fibbing concerning the severity of accidents.
Going into Game 1 on Monday nightalthough, Quenneville was cagey when requested how he would possibly alter the make-up of the lineup or how he would possibly alter the Ducks’ model of play when dealing with an opponent they hadn’t confronted since recording a 4-3 victory on Feb. 1 at Honda Center.
“You want to play to your strengths,” he mentioned. “I believed we matched up effectively within the final sequence (whereas defeating the Edmonton Oilers in six video games). It was an enormous problem and I believed we did effectively. As you go, there are extra little particulars you add to your recreation and play them persistently.
“But we don’t want to change the way we play the game.”
When requested about matching wits with Tortorella, the Knights’ well-traveled and infrequently risky coach, Quenneville mentioned, “I’m not worried about the other coach as much as I’m worried about our own team. But we expect (Vegas) to be competitive and to be ready.”
CHESS (PART 2)
A peek at Quenneville’s playoff historical past reveals at the least one strategic transfer that paid huge dividends, propelling the Chicago Blackhawks previous the Ducks and into the Stanley Cup Final in 2015. He paired Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane on their prime line for Game 7.
And it wreaked havoc on the ice for the Ducks.
Quenneville double-shifted Toews and Kane to begin the winner-take-all recreation, forcing Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau to both double-shift Ryan Kesler, who had shadowed Toews all over the place however the group bus through the first six video games, or make a transfer he did not need to make.
Boudreau and Ducks middle Ryan Getzlaf grew antsy on the bench and so Boudreau pulled Kesler off Toews and despatched Getzlaf onto the ice. It was a series-changing mistake. Toews scored two objectives and Kane had three assists to spark the Blackhawks’ 5-3 victory on May 30, 2015.
Chicago went on to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning in six video games for his or her third Cup title in a six-year stretch.
GUDAS SKATES
Ducks captain Radko Gudas skated together with his teammates Monday morning for less than the second time since taking part in in Game 1 of their first-round victory over the Oilers. He additionally skated throughout Saturday’s follow at Honda Center after sitting out the ultimate six video games of the opening spherical.
Quenneville mentioned Gudas, who has been sidelined by a lower-body injurymight rejoin the lineup later within the second spherical.
“He’s doing better,” Quenneville mentioned. “I know that, after talking to him after the skate today, he feels that he’s much better than when he started the last series. He’s in a better place and more than ready to help us at some point.”
