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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 4, 2008Marty TurcoDAVID KEON: Good afternoon, everyone, I'm David Keon of the National Hockey League's Public Relations Department. I'd like to welcome you to today's call. With us we have Dallas Stars' goaltender Marty Turco. Thanks to Marty for taking the time today to answer your questions. Earlier today Marty was named Second Star for the past week after backstopping Dallas to three road wins in Western Canada. He stopped 92 of 97 shots faced in victories over Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. In the seven seasons with the Stars, Marty's appeared in 40 games. This season posting a record of 22-11-4, with a 22.35 goals against average, and 9.10% save percentage, he's had one shutout. He's on pace for his fifth consecutive 30-win season. The only goalie with a longer active 30-win streak is New Jersey's Martin Brodeur who has entered this season with 11 straight 30 win seasons. With a record of 31-20-5, the Stars sit on top of the pacific division, and are third in the overall NHL standings. They host Vancouver tomorrow at the American Airlines Center, followed by a meeting with the Wild in Minnesota on Thursday. Thanks to Marty for taking the time today to answer your questions. Q. It's been a while since last year's playoffs, but you were incredible even though the stars lost to the Canucks in the first round. Did you leave that series sort of satisfied personally that you had brought your game to a new playoff level, or was it a long, frustrating summer for you? MARTY TURCO: I play to win. Losing, however it happens, is never -- it's never what you're looking forward to for the summer. For me it's still three first round losses in a row. And really, other than I knew I could always do it, so that wasn't an issue, so it made for a rather long summer. Q. The stars this year look like another solid team. Do you think they're better equipped this season to win in the playoffs than they were a year ago? MARTY TURCO: Just based on experience alone we're better equipped as a team. The hunger factor and all that with losing, the way the parody is in the league it's never going to be easy regardless of who you are or even just getting in for that fact is hard enough. So we had some injuries like we did last year. We kind of go in and feels like our offense is a little more capable this year. Our power play has been bigger and better. But it all comes down to the playoffs. So everything's clicking, and we're just going to worry about getting ourselves in and see what happens then. Q. Other than the sort of brief spell in January, early in the month, since the lockout your team has really been good in the so-called dog days of the season, particularly in February. I was wondering what you might attribute that success to at the middle of the season? MARTY TURCO: If I could be honest and tell you what it was, if it was some secret, then I wouldn't tell you because then everybody else would want to know how we were doing it. Our team has always been consistent with workouts. Which is imperative for our travel schedule being out West. For whatever reason, you know, we don't make any excuses with our travel and the differences we have versus other teams. But we know at the beginning of the year it's going to be a grind no matter what month it's going to be for us. So we continuously put our nose to the grind stone, and you know, work through it. And, obviously, we've always been in positions at this point of the year to be in the playoffs picture. But understanding that we've got a lot of work to do, and, therefore, start turning up a notch and getting to this point. I'm sure everybody wants to, it just happens that we have consistently over the years. Q. How have you benefited, if at all, from having a back-up who is not just a veteran guy sort of resigned or content with his role, but rather a young guy who sort of appears to have a promising future ahead of him? MARTY TURCO: Yeah, first of all, it's just nice to work with a kid that works hard, does have a bright future. He's got a great intellect for the game. He just wants to get better. It's contagious. He wants to learn. We're great friends. He's been to my house twice for many months. And that's something in correlation at the same position, you know, is consistent. It's nice coming to the rink every day where we talk hockey, we can talk about anything that's going on in our lives. But when you can have that open and honest relationship and still at the same time push each other, you can't really, in it my mind, create a better environment for success. It's been something that I've certainly enjoyed and look forward to for many years watching him continue to grow and get a better role in this league and see what he can really do. Q. Has playing the position become any different or more difficult with the free wheeling style and rule changes in today's NHL? MARTY TURCO: There has been certain changes. Still with the defensive minded coaching, positioning out there. At times the game has slowed down and becomes easier and more black and white. But other times you have more high-quality chances against. And with the skill level of guys coming to the net untouched, certainly it is a lot more back door plays that gives guys a chance to hold on to it and find open guys in front of the net for quick extra shots. You certainly have to be on your toes or ready for anything. I don't think anybody prior to these days weren't like that when they were playing the game. Let alone just the game is even close you have to stay loose in case the shootout rolls around your way. I think things have changed but I think for the better. Q. What would it mean for you to win 30 games a fifth straight year? MARTY TURCO: To be honest, I haven't really thought about it. I've left footnotes and stuff about it. If anything, it's just more of a feather in the cap with the consistency and belief in winning and this organization and one that I push on my self. But more than anything, it's just an expectation that I have. Q. Can you explain how you came about your decision early in your career to skip Juniors and instead play four years at Michigan? MARTY TURCO: That's an easy one. I never got drafted to the LHL, since I'm an Ontario kid, wasn't good enough. Was a late bloomer to say the least. And staying in college four years wasn't really an option, because it was my only option when I got there. I'm glad it all went down like that, actually. I've seen the broad spectrum of everybody from [indiscernible] being 18 coming into the league and playing for a long time. And for me, you know, I couldn't have done that. I couldn't even play when I was 21, 22. I needed the experience of the comforting surroundings of college, the background of education. Just to have that nothing-for-granted type attitude which I still carry with me today. I still show up every day on the ice still. The path wasn't quite laid out for me, but I found my way. Q. One follow-up here. Could you talk with this Stick With Reading Program that I know you're a spokesperson for? MARTY TURCO: Yeah, yeah, I would love to. I inherited the program from Brian created it. Blake Sloan a college teammate of mine took over it briefly from him. And ever since I came around, I was helping him out and he was kind and I joined on board and really enjoyed it. The reason I have is both my wife and I went to school to be educators. Now we have children of our own and we understand the importance of education. Not just at a secondary or university level, but from the beginning in the grass roots level of it all. We started our household early, and we just want to give everybody that opportunity to do so. And we have almost 40,000 kids in this program. If I can only encourage one kid a year to read, that would even make me happen happy. But we've had an opportunity to do plenty more than that. We have dynamite pep rallies and incentive-laden programs in this program that just encourage reading. It's been something that touches my heart and certainly my wife's. It's had a positive and great reinforcement feedback from the community, and we'll continue to do it as long as we can. Q. Usually changing the GM doesn't have such dramatic results, But I think you guys won 16 of the next 20 or something like that. Wonder if you could take me back if there were some players only concessions at that time, or sort of feared that Tippett would lose his job? What was the mindset that got you guys to turn around after that change? MARTY TURCO: Maybe you have a better memory than I do. I can't remember too many GM's losing their job in the middle of the season. So I'm not sure what the background on all of that is. But, regardless, what we were saying as players and the general feeling was that we assume the responsibility and the onus of what transpired, the drastic change. It was an unfortunate incident. Nothing anybody wants to see, especially in the course of the season. But whether there was a correlation between the two, we don't know. But we know the focus and intensity was changed directly after that incident. Q. Just a look ahead to tomorrow night. You have the Vancouver Canucks again in your building. Is it extra motivating to you when you have a Luongo at the other end? Do you play that differently in terms of I can't make any mistakes as he may be hard to beat? MARTY TURCO: Well, certainly. You know it's a possibility. I can't control what happens for the most part at the other end. But it's fun. There are special times, you know. Saw Kipper the other night at the other end, tomorrow we'll see Louie. Playing against those guys it's a challenge. We do hope to bring out the best in each other, that just makes for a better game. But more than anything you want to come away victorious, just to keep a little small feather in the cap. We'll have plenty of games against each other, and none is more important than the next. DAVID KEON: Thanks for your time today. MARTY TURCO: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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