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chirpingfromthebox · 6 months ago

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My favorite bits from the Minnesota post-game press interviews after PWHL Finals Game 4

You can find the entire interviews here! Be sure to give them some views/likes/nice comments/etc.

At the table were Kendall Coyne Schofield, Kelly Pannek, and coach Ken Klee.

The fact that this only got posted now had led me to earlier speculating that they just hadn't done one (especially since no one had mentioned anything). But apparently there had been some technical issues with this one and they only just got them sorted.

Like the Boston one, I'll refrain from my instincts towards making my life easier and just put in all the questions, so as to make sure that anyone interested won't miss anything they might find interesting.

The transcription and a handful of my thoughts on it after the break.

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REPORTER: Ken, when you started looking at the replay did you think the goalie interference call was the right one?

KEN KLEE: I mean, it’s tough. When it’s in real time it doesn’t look like it, but obviously when you see the replay and slow it down she definitely loses an edge. It’s tough to tell if it’s from Boston player’s stick or she’s just losing an edge. It’s just one of those things that happens. We had lots of chances to win the game. So for us, we get to play another game. That’s the way we gotta look at it. It wasn’t a do-or-die for us, but obviously that one hurt, going from a big high when they’re- the confetti’s going and gloves are coming off. And then you gotta try to refocus real quick. But we get to play another game, so we’re gonna regroup after this one. It hurt and we’ll get back to work.

R: Maybe for Kendall, or Kelly, can you maybe speak to what Ken mentioned? Just the having to collect your stuff and get back ready to go. Just, what’s that like?

KENDALL COYNE SCHOFIELD: Like he mentioned, obviously it’s a high of a high to a alright we’ve gotta balance out this situation, pick up our stuff, and get back to work. You know, it’s not an easy thing to come down from by any means in an instance. But that’s what we had to do. Obviously it is hard, but that was what we had to do.

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REPORTER: Maybe I’ll ask a follow-up for Kelly, your line had several great chances today. It seemed like you guys were really clicking. What’s working with you, Grace, and Denisa [Křížová]?

KELLY PANNEK: Just keeping it simple. Moving off the puck, moving for each other, and trying to keep that puck moving in the offensive zone. Denisa is really scrappy and she finds a way to find pucks in space and create space. She had a few great rushes. Her and Grace- and anytime you get Grace into space she’s a threat. I just think we’ve been keeping it simple and working off each other well.

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REPORTER: For anyone, how would you say that the momentum shifted after the goal was overturned?

KELLY PANNEK: I was out there the shift right after, for that first puck drop. I didn’t feel like there was any really big momentum shift to be honest. Even when they ended up scoring, it wasn’t like they had a bunch of momentum riding into that, it was just a hockey play that happens after two overtimes. Actually, to Kendall’s point earlier, we did a good job of resetting. Sometimes the bounces just don’t go your way, which it wasn’t tonight for us.

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REPORTER: Obviously great goaltending from both teams tonight. To have over 20 shots taken on your goalies and to go scoreless into double overtime. What’s your thoughts on the goaltending tonight?

KENDALL COYNE SCHOFIELD: Well, I don’t think it’s just tonight. [Kendall and Kelly chuckle]. It’s been the whole year. You look at the goaltenders around the league in the regular season, you look at our last series against Toronto, you look at their series against Montréal. You’re not seeing very high scoring games. You kinda just gotta expect that, you gotta be okay winning one-nothing. But this league is obviously the most competitive league in the world and the goaltenders are phenomenal all across the league. So I don’t think it’s a shocker by any means.

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REPORTER: Kelly, how were the legs in that third overtime? And were you guys doing in-between the OTs to try and keep the energy levels up?

KELLY PANNEK: The legs were fine actually. That’s probably the longest game I’ve played in actually. But it felt pretty good. It’s just kinda the same thing you usually do: talk about what’s going well and what you can adjust, staying focused, hydrating, getting a snack. Just all the basics.

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REPORTER: Just wondering, after the game stayed out on the ice and thanked your fans and then it look like the players were talking. Just wondering what the message was in there? And if not there, in the dressing room what you were saying to one another?

KENDALL COYNE SCHOFIELD: Oh, yeah, I think we have the best fans in the league. They showed up tonight, obviously we wish we got a different result for them, but just so much credit and love for our fans here in the state of hockey. It was an awesome atmosphere. So just to be able to soak that in one more time, knowing that no matter what, that’s the last time we’ll leave that ice in front of our home crowd. We know they’ll be cheering on Wednesday from here, wherever they may go. I think A Bar of Their Own is the hot place for them to go and celebrate and watch and cheer us on.

But I think the message is to learn from it and turn the page and be ready to go come Wednesday night and do what you need to do. There’s no secrets. Everyone’s tired. [laughing] We’ve played a lot of hockey. I think a lot more hockey than most of us are used to in this inaugural season. We gotta recognize that we did a lot of great things tonight. A bounce here, a bounce there, we’d maybe be having a different conversation right now for sure. But being able to turn the page and recognizing the last one to win is the hardest one. That’s the reality for anything. I think that was the message. Rest up. [Laughing] some people’s legs feel better than other [looks over at Kelly and Kelly smirks back].

KELLY PANNEK: I think I’d just be lying to myself. We’ll talk about it later.

KCS: It might just be an age thing, Kell.

KP: Hey! Hey. District 21.

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REPORTER: For Ken, last I checked, so forgive me if this is wrong, but Lee Stecklein led all skaters tonight in ice time. Just what does she mean to this group?

KEN KLEE: She’s awesome. She’s a leader. Both on the ice and off. You know, she controls the play. She’s got as good of a stick and gap as anybody in the league. For us she’s paramount. She’s awesome out there for us. I’m not surprised. I haven’t seen the minutes yet, but I’m not surprised for you to tell me that she probably led us in minutes tonight. She often does. She’s just a great player for us. She’s been a great player for us all year. [smiling] We’ll need her to be a great player again on Wednesday.

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REPORTER: The power play opportunities, plentiful, just couldn’t finish the job there. What do you feel like it’s gonna take to crack the code on the power plays?

KEN KLEE: I think we just gotta keep putting pucks on nets. I think we hit four posts. A half-inch off one way or the other and those are in the net. We had some great looks and their power play had some great looks too. It was an exciting game, it was just a matter of inches. The whole game was. For us this one hurts, but we’re going to have to reset and we’ll have a day tomorrow to rest and we’ll travel to Boston and get ready to go on Wednesday.

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You know, I was worried about where Minnesota's head might be at (especially after it was seeming like they hadn't even done a post-game press session). But not anymore! These two were Cool A.F.

WAY different vibes from where Boston was at after Game 3.

Kendall and Kelly had a sort of fun energy I can only describe as the sort you get after pulling an all-nighter where you've pushed past the tiredness and entered a state where all your worries seem lighter. They were joking with one another and seemed to know exactly what they needed to do going forward.

And Pannek must be made out of pure Tough, because you could never never tell that she just did 5 periods of hockey. If you showed me some clips from this and told me it was from a PRE-game press conference I would never doubt you for a second.

It should be noted though that these two are both captains of the team, veteran players, and Olympic gold medalists (and SO much more). So them taking this in stride is exactly what you want to see from your veteran players.

I am curious how the more rookie players are taking it. But if your team's leadership is this calm and focused, I've gotta think that would go a long way to helping get your head back on the right track. And I hope so, because I think Minnesota's rookies are the X-factors in this series. As we've seen so far this series when players like Heise and Jaques get rolling? They are hard to stop.

In any case my worries have been put to bed, and my take away from this is that Game 5 is gonna be EPIC. Boston seems to do their best work when they have everything on the line. And Minnesota has a confidence in its abilities that can't be shaken.

OR one team will finally figure out their power play game and then just absolutely run over the other team.

It's the championship after all.

Anything can happen.

#pwhl minnesota #kendall coyne schofield #kelly pannek #ken klee #pwhl transcriptions

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