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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 29, 2007

Mark Recchi

OPERATOR: Good day, everyone, and welcome to this NHL Star of the Week press conference. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time I'll turn the call over to Mr. David Keon. Please go ahead.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm David Keon of the National Hockey League Public Relations Department. I'd like to welcome you to our call. Our guest is Pittsburgh Penguins Forward Mark Recchi. Thanks to Mark for taking the time today to answer your questions and thanks to Frank Buonomo for arranging the call. Early today Mark was named the NHL's first Star of the Week after recording three goals and three assists in Penguin victories over Dallas and Phoenix. Mark, who celebrates his 39th birthday Thursday became the 38th player in NHL history to record 500 goals, when he notched his second goal of the game in Pittsburgh's fourth reshoot out win over Dallas on January 26th. For his career, he's tallied 501 goals, 812 assists for 1313 points in 1,304 games played, which is good for 28th on the All-Time NHL Points List. With a record of 23-17-8 for 54 points, Pittsburgh is second in the tight Atlantic Division and seventh overall in the Eastern Conference. Penguins host Florida Panthers tomorrow in the first of the three-game home stand, sees them play the Montreal Canadiens Thursday and have Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals visit them on Saturday. Thanks to Mark for taking the time to answer your questions. Operator, we'll open it up now.
OPERATOR: The question and answer session will be conducted electronically. If you would like to ask a question, please do so by pressing the star key followed by the digit 1 on your touch tone telephone. If you're using a speaker phone, please be sure your mute function has been turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Once again that's star 1.

Q. Hello, Mark, how are you?
MARK RECCHI: Good, John. How are you doing?

Q. Good. Thanks for taking the time. Mark, I know we'll all want to talk about the Penguins and how well they're doing this year. But I'm looking here at 1313 points in 1304 games. You're one of the few NHL players who, over a long career, have produced at better than a point a game. Can you talk about at age 39 your satisfaction with a career that includes a couple of Stanley Cups and a record of steady production?
MARK RECCHI: Yes, it's been pretty awesome. And I have to thank Dave for telling everybody my age. I was trying to hide that.
It's obviously been great. Winning in '91 and getting an opportunity with Carolina last year to win. And that's what keeps me going. I look at our team right now and I don't see -- I see a contender in the not too far distance here. That's what I play for. Ultimately that's what we all play for. You get a taste of it and you want to keep going and. I'd like to take another run at it again.

Q. Thanks, Mark.
MARK RECCHI: No problem.

Q. Mark, congratulations on 500 goals.
MARK RECCHI: Thank you.

Q. I want to ask you, a 23-point difference this year compared to last year, 23 points ahead of last year's pace. What's the difference between the Penguins of this season and the Penguins of last season, you think?
MARK RECCHI: Well, I think one thing we've got a little bit more depth, but I think the biggest thing is the attitude right from the training camp. I think it was terrific. I think the guys came in there very unhappy about the way things went last year, and, you know, I think our training camp was great. We just kind of built from there.
And obviously when you get skill level like Malkin and Jordan Staal and obviously Sid is a year older and Whitney is a year older and obviously Fleury, the pieces are there. These guys are winners.
They want to win and they have a great attitude of coming to the rink every day and working and trying to get better. And I just think that's the biggest reason why I think we've continued to get better here.

Q. Mark, we talked a little bit about what's good about the team this year. So obviously a young team. Pitfalls could be in front of you. What are the things you're telling the younger players that coming down the stretch they maybe have never seen before and you feel it's necessary to talk about?
MARK RECCHI: We've talked about being more consistent. I think that's the biggest thing we've been relaying is to get more consistent, get rest. You know, this is definitely going to get tough for the last 34 games we've got. It's going to be tougher every night. We are fighting for a playoff spot.
It's not like there's three or four teams out of it in our division. I mean there's 13 or 14 teams fighting for a playoff spot, and tonight is just going to be a playoff game and you're not going to have anybody that's really going to quit.
So I think that's the biggest message we can send right now.

Q. Tell me a little bit about Coach Terry. He's only been in there a couple of years. And obviously he's got some better talent to work with than in past years, but he's had a real effect. I'd like you to describe how he addresses your team and how you guys look at him.
MARK RECCHI: He's been terrific all year. And I think he's -- from last year to this year I think he's learned a tremendous amount about the league. He was in Montreal, and I think he learned a lot there and coming back in last year and getting his feet back wet back in it. He's been terrific from day one. And he's been great at handling the message and he's been really good about communicating with the leaders on the team about what he expects. And obviously we've got a responsibility as well.
So I think he's done a great job. He teaches well. Great systems. And obviously he prides -- he really rewards people that compete every night. And he holds people accountable if you don't.
So it's pretty neat.

Q. Hi, Mark. Congratulations.
MARK RECCHI: Thank you.

Q. Talk a bit about some of the things maybe that you brought over from your run with Carolina last year. Obviously a team like this, very young, a lot of guys coming up, haven't had the experience of the playoff pressure cooker. Given your experience in playoffs and especially last year, what are some of the things that you've brought over to the players and especially some of the younger guys like Sydney?
MARK RECCHI: Well, I think the biggest thing is the way they process the [inaudible]. They practice like they were trying to get better every day and they were trying to work on stuff. And the biggest thing for me was to lead that by example. To be honest with you, it hasn't been that hard with these young guys, especially obviously Sydney. He has a great work ethic and wants to get better every day.
When you have that, everybody falls into place and everybody sees that and they have that tempo in practice. And when we don't have good tempos and don't have good work ethic we seem to fight a little bit. And the guys are mature and realizing that.
That's the neat thing from coming from Carolina and seeing that and also being in Phili, you know obviously we had good teams there in how we practice and how hard we practice. You went on the ice knowing you were trying to get better.

Q. One final question: You're 39 now. It's been leaked. How are you feeling and is the team's performance going to play any role in any decision you might make? I know it's a little early. But you obviously have another decision to make. Came over for a year. Your contract expires in July. Is how the team performs going to have any impact on decisions you make going forward into possibly coming back for another year?
MARK RECCHI: No. I obviously love what I see here. And I think this team is like I said not too far from being a contender. I'd like to be part of that again. And I think Ray Shero has done a terrific job of getting these young guys in here and letting them grow and he's a smart guy and he'll figure some things out.
So I'd definitely like to be a part of this. Obviously you never know come summertime whether the organization wants to go a different direction. But obviously I like it here and I like these young guys and I like where they're going.
Hopefully I can be a part of this for another year or two.

Q. Thanks a bunch, Mark.
MARK RECCHI: You're welcome.
MODERATOR: Thanks very much, Mark, for your time today. Good luck.

End of FastScripts

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