Chris Pronger
Chris Pronger
Christopher Robert Prongeris a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who is currently under contract with the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League. He has not played since November 2011 due to post-concussion syndrome related to three separate hits suffered during his career; he also suffers from vision impairment due to being hit in the eyeby the blade of another player's stick. Though not officially retired, he is not expected to play again. In October 2014, Pronger signed a contract...
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth10 October 1974
CityDryden, Canada
They're a team you can't fall behind on. They play that defensive system. If you fall behind early it's an uphill battle and you exert a lot of energy trying to claw your way back.
You have to close quickly, you have to eliminate time and space and you have to try to deny them the puck. When you're playing with it, it forces them out of their rhythm and forces them to play defense, which they obviously don't want to do.
I don't like having noise swirling around me. Loud noises bother me, so I try to stick to the outside of a room.
I was still very invested in the team, very invested in how we were doing. I realized I needed to take a step back and start focusing on myself, my head and my eye, try to get my health back.
It's tough chasing from behind when you're on the road. It's a matter of us bearing down and trying to play a more disciplined game.
If you look at the last couple compared to today, there's a tremendous amount of improvement on a lot of different fronts. Our tracking back through the neutral zone, and just trying to get the pucks in deep and trying to play smart Canadian hockey, getting in and being physical, we did it to a tee in the first period.
I think anything is a realistic option at this stage, We can't rule anything out in the future.
I think it was bound to happen. I mean, you're eventually going to lose. What's important is how we respond to the loss. That's going to be critical for us. The makings of winning teams are how they return from a loss.
I think everybody wants to end their career the way they want it to end. For people in Al's position, a high-level player who had a lot left in the tank, to have your career end that way is ... very difficult.
When you play six games in eight days, there's not a lot of time to practice and get that cohesiveness. If you look around at a lot of the countries, they are so familiar with each other and the ice. It's tough to make that adjustment in eight days.
When you don't win, obviously people are going to look and point fingers. Looking at the teams we had and looking at the teams Detroit had, there's a reason they were winning those Stanley Cups and we were losing to them.
We kind of got thrown under the bus after the first game. But we really stuck together. We saw our team evolve and develop into the team you saw at the end. Everybody was on the same page and playing great.
To let it slip like that is disappointing.
When you're taking control of a game, you lose a lot of momentum killing penalties. Granted, you can kill them off and you're good.