NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 19, 2006

Jason Smith

Steve Yzerman

STEVE YZERMAN: Well, I have to go back to the lockout. I sat out an entire year and really didn't skate much during the lockout. And then coming back in the camp after having a year off, I suffered a groin injury and missed part of the preseason and a good part of the regular season. Obviously you get off to a slow start from lack of playing, and it takes a while; I'm sure Jason would agree, in the off-season it takes awhile to get used to the pace of play. Having missed a year and having missed part of preseason and part of the regular season, I was really behind, and it took a while to catch up.

I felt the more games that I played in, the more comfortable I got, and just gradually ice time increased. And probably the reason that ice time increased we ran into some injuries and was able to play into some situations that I wasn't playing in earlier and things just got better from that.

STEVE YZERMAN: For a little while I did. It was difficult to get going, late November, early December, it was a struggle for a little while and it was something to consider. But, I'm glad I kind of stuck with it, and felt that I could remain healthy and get in some good work and practice and playing some games that I had hoped to get better.

But, you know, I'm fortunate to be in a pretty good situation here, it wasn't particularly this early in the season, but even so now, that with guys like (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Henrik) Zetterberg and other players taking a more prominent role with our team, my role has decreased, and it's made it easier at my age and this stage of the game to be an effective player.

JASON SMITH: I don't really know a specific reason. I think we've gotten some good breaks against them and obviously enjoyed playing a team of Detroit's caliber. It's a great challenge for a team like ours any time we're playing one of the better teams in the league to come out and play well, because we're not given really much of a chance to get the results that we want, and we look forward to that challenge.

STEVE YZERMAN: Yeah, I think -- there's definitely three different personalities. How they handle situations, I think they all handle them in a different way. I guess in some ways, he communicates more, is around the players a little bit more, similar to the way Dave Lewis was. Scottie generally was more distant from the players and definitely kept the guys at arm's length. But Mike, he's on top of things immediately. If he doesn't like the way the power plays go or he doesn't like the way drills go in practice, he stops it immediately and kind of gets on any issue right away. So I guess I would say he has a little bit of -- I think he talked to both Dave and Scottie to get feedback on our team. He's definitely a different personality and has his own personality out there.

STEVE YZERMAN: No, I think that everyone would say the regular season serves a purpose. It's obvious that finishing first doesn't guarantee anything. But I think it's more important how your team plays or you develop a certain style of play or you become a difficult team to play against or whether that be physically or defensively. You have to be a hard team to play against. I don't think where you finish in the standings is incredibly important. But obviously, I think everybody goes out and tries to win every game you play in, but our team, we finished first overall before and haven't had playoff success. We finished third or so in the conference and have been able to win the Stanley Cup. There's really no guarantee. But the regular season definitely serves a purpose.

JASON SMITH: Well, I think any time you can get a little bit of rest, it's positive. Obviously you want to stay sharp and be able to be ready to play at that high, intense playoff level right away. But got the opportunity to give a few of our guys that logged a lot of minutes some rest, and some guys that are a little bit banged up to get some rest.

I mean, hopefully we'll come out ready and relaxed and focused and play well.

JASON SMITH: Yeah, I don't think many teams throughout the League got a lot of practice time throughout the last stretch of the year since the Olympics. It was nice to get out and work on a few things, and try and improve our game and make sure we're ready.

JASON SMITH: It's obviously going to be very important. I think we, as a team, realized that we can't spend time in the penalty box with a team like Detroit because of their high offensive power and the gifted players and the success their power play has had throughout the season. It's going to be important for us to be physical and be right on that edge and not be spending time in the penalty box.

STEVE YZERMAN: You know, it's really similar I guess to most recent years. Early in my career, you'd be extremely nervous, where I found myself always extremely nervous without a lot of experience, and I found in the last few years I've just gotten much more comfortable and you kind of know what to expect and you know what it's all about. You just feel much more comfortable, so it really has not changed this year from years in the past.

The only difference I think, everybody is kind of curious to see how the games are going to be played and see how the games are going to be officiated. I think everybody is a little, you know, uncertain as to how that's going to play out.

STEVE YZERMAN: No, not really. As far as being vocal, I don't really purposely do anything. I really don't say a whole lot during the course of a regular season, I really never have, even more so in the last few years. We just kind of go out and play and come playoff time, it's more important just to go out and play well, and if there's any problems, we try and deal with them. But I don't have really any plans for being vocal or quiet.

STEVE YZERMAN: Well, I really had a great experience playing hockey. It was for the Raiders in Nepean, I think I went there in 1975 or something. And I played on excellent teams and played for really good coaches from way back, a gentleman named Dick Cordick (ph) to Elwick Johnson (ph) to Mike Goddard (ph), who is still in the Nepean area. And then in my last year in Nepean was with the Tier II Raiders and for Bob Koontz (ph) there. I played on really good teams and received some good coaching. It was a great program to be a part of.

STEVE YZERMAN: You know, at first I was a little uncomfortable. I still go home, my parents live in the area, so I go home occasionally and see the arena. I guess I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about it. I enjoyed and I spent a lot of time in that recent as a young boy, not only playing but hanging around the sportsplex whether it was around the swimming pool or in the gym they had there. I basically grew up in that building, so I was very appreciative of the fact that they put the building in my name. So there's been a lot of very good hockey players play and come through the Nepean organization and it's a strong one. I was fortunate to play there.

STEVE YZERMAN: Well, we don't have any say in our schedule and you go out and you play the games and try and win them. I would have loved the opportunity to play against Ottawa this year, we missed that entire division. Having said that, I think we played enough quality games against top teams and very good teams and we know what to expect. The St. Louis Blues went 4-0 against the Vancouver Canucks this year and I think these teams were better than a lot of people think. There's weak teams in every division, or strong teams and weak teams. When we played the games, we played them, we won them, but there's not much we can do about the schedule.

And so I really don't know how to answer your question other than I think we played well on the road, we played well at home, we went into good teams buildings and won, and we suffered some losses along the way. Again, I don't put too much stock into a record finishing first overall. I'm not going to get caught up on that. I don't think there was a huge difference between the No. 1 seed and the No. 8 ate in either conference. I think all of the series are going to be competitive and looking at us and them, I don't see a huge difference, and I base that on the four games we played over the course of the regular season.

STEVE YZERMAN: Not really. I guess I really think I would like to stay in the game of hockey. I enjoy the game, it's the one thing -- it's obviously something I've done all my life and have a passion for it.

So I'd like to stay within the game. Again, really this year I just focused on playing and haven't put a lot of thought into what I might do next year or the year after or whatnot, but I definitely would like to stay within hockey?

JASON SMITH: I think he's come in and played really well for us. He obviously was under a lot of pressure when he got here because of the focus on our goaltending early on in the year. He stepped in and has played well and played with confidence, and I think he's in a comfortable position with the starting role. He's just looking forward to continuing to step up to the challenge.