NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 19, 2006

Jarome Iginla

Scott Niedermayer

SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: I think we are getting into a series here, and I have a lot of respect for that team. They have got pretty darned close to a Stanley Cup a couple of years ago, the last year we played. They are an intense team and they are built for the playoffs, and it's going to really give us a great test. And it's going to be intense from the start and that's good for us but you might as well jump right in and right into the fire.

SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: Obviously, the fans in Calgary are loving them right now and giving them a lot of support, and all players feed off that, as well as we do in our rink. But, like I said, they are a very hard-working team, very team-committed to team defense, they play a physical game and obviously have a great goaltender.

SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: Well, there's probably different levels of it, but you start to probably feel comfortable on and off the ice after the new year kind of thing.

Obviously making a big move, I have a young family and whatnot, that all takes time to sort out. Obviously I'm just getting used to how guys play and for our team to really settle in. We had a few changes earlier in the year and different personnel at times around December and we kind of got settled in and figured out the best way to play together. So it was fun. I enjoyed the experience, the challenge of having to adjust and adapt to new surroundings, and obviously we're very excited to be competing in the playoffs.

SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: Well, hey, I agree with you. There are ten good hockey teams that proved themselves this year, and it was tough right down to the last game of the regular season to sort it all out. Even if the point separation was bigger, in past years, there's always once you get into the playoffs, it's all new -- everybody starts with zero wins, and the first couple of wins, upsets happen. And whoever is the team that gets things going the quickest and playing together and plays the right way, is going to have success. I don't think it really matters what you did in the regular season.

SCOTT NIEDERMAYER: Well, I mean, yeah, obviously, the players that we did lose or trade were very talented hockey players, and you know, that's important in having a good team. At the same time, we had some young guys that were ready to step in, talented players in their own right and they were ready to come in and be part of the team. And obviously, you need to have the right mix of players willing to play the same way and feed off each other. That is sort of something that we found, I think we found that and it was able to carry us through the rest of the year and get into position in the playoffs.

JAROME IGINLA: During the regular season there was definitely more expectations on us. It's something that a lot of us, being a younger group and having not been through it before, had to learn and adjust to it.

I think especially during the beginning of the year, we probably felt that, and then as the year went on we kind of adjusted to it. We didn't surprise as many teams, or teams were more ready for us and it was a little bit different.

I think with the playoffs a couple of years ago, we went in there and we didn't really view ourselves as underdogs; or playing, Vancouver we had a lot of respect for them. We knew it would be a tough series but we thought we could win. We still had pressure on us as far as once we were there. They talked about it had been so many years since the Flames had won a first round playoff round; and I think also partly Darryl (Sutter), so I think we feel the pressure. We felt the pressure then, and a good pressure as far as expecting something from ourselves.

I don't think this year, it doesn't feel a lot different going to the playoffs. It's just one round. We want to beat Anaheim. That's our goal, and at the time that was the same goal against Vancouver and we didn't really view ourselves as big underdogs in just one round.

JAROME IGINLA: They have a lot of speed, and you say that about teams, but they really do. You look all the way through their lineup starting with Scott Niedermayer, who really is a tough defenseman. He's a tough guy to play against. He's very smart, he's not as physical as some, but he's so good with his stick, he's so fast, he's hard to beat wide of things. But it's a speed all the way through, and then their forwards with Teemu Selanne and Andy McDonald and their young guys that are very quick and they compete. So I think the first thing that comes to mind is the speed.

JAROME IGINLA: Well, I think, once we're here now, I don't think it's as important. But I guess if you're going to have Game 7's, you never know when those are, you never know if it's first series or not. From our point of view, we would rather have them in our own rink. We do like playing there. The atmosphere, the crowd gets really into it, and I think it can help for sure.

There's a lot of parity, we know that any team can beat any team.

JAROME IGINLA: Well, first of all Kipper (Miikka Kiprusoff) is a huge, huge part of our team. And we didn't score the most goals by any means this year. Our goaltender, he's been awesome, he really has. We have so much confidence in him, but also in front of him, our defense. I thought we were one of the better defense groups a couple years ago. But adding Dion Phaneuf and Roman Hamrlik, I think it's a very good, young D that work very well with Kipper and make it hard on other teams as far as getting scored against.

But, yeah, it's going to be a good series. I was looking at (Jean-Sebastien) Giguere's stats from a couple of years ago, and his playoff stats were unbelievable, because I know Kipper's were great and he was the biggest reason why we got to the 7th game of the Stanley Cup Final. They were both that good. It's going to be fun. And goals, with that good of goaltending on both sides, they might be hard to come by for both teams.