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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 13, 2009

Mike Richards

JULIE YOUNG: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today's call with Philadelphia Flyers captain Mike Richards. Thanks to Mike for taking the time today to answer your questions and thank you to Zach Hill for arranging the call.
Mike returned to action last night after missing three games and scored his 19th goal of the season in a loss to the Senators. He ranks second on the Flyers in scoring with 51 points in 50 games. He ranks second on the team in plus/minus with +19 and is tied for the league lead in shorthanded goals with four.
Philadelphia visits the New York Rangers on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. eastern time for the NHL on NBC Game of the Week. The Flyers are currently tied with the Rangers in the Atlantic Division standings with two games at hand. They trail the Devils who are in first place in the division with eight points.
Mike, I have a question to start it off for you. We're one year away from the winter Olympic games in Vancouver. You have competed for Canada for many international competitions, the last, of course, winning gold as Team Canada's captain at the world junior championships in 2005 in Grand Forks. What is it like competing for your country on the world stage, and what are your thoughts about the upcoming games in Vancouver?
MIKE RICHARDS: Well, first of all, it's always nice to put the Canadian jersey on. I know myself, as well as a lot of other people, are proud to be Canadian, and whenever I get the opportunity to play for Team Canada it's always a thrill, and with the Olympics coming up I know it's in the back of everyone's mind as they're playing. What more exciting place to have it than in Vancouver. For everyone kind of trying out for the job, I know it's in everyone's mind as they're playing.

Q. I just joined in a bit late during your answer there, but I heard you mention the Olympics. Obviously up here in Canada people already seem quite excited about it. I imagine you're a bit removed from that. But I'm wondering how much does that cross your mind or how much do you wonder what it would be like to have a chance to potentially play?
MIKE RICHARDS: A little bit. It's always in the back of your mind I think when you're playing games, and obviously you want to do your best for your team right now in the present. But at the same time you always want to do your best, and it's almost like a year-and-a-half-, two-year tryout for the team. Right now as the season winds down, you want to do the best for the playoff race and for your team, but at the same time it's always in the back of your head.

Q. Do you ever sit down and try to figure out where you might fit in in the list of players, or is that maybe going too far?
MIKE RICHARDS: I think that's a little bit too far right now. I have never really done that. But I know that there's a lot of great Canadians out there, Canadian players, and I think that that kind of stands tall for Canadian hockey, to have that much depth and have that many tough decisions for Steve Yzerman to make.

Q. I know there's a lot of talk about the Rangers and the rivalry and everything. Who do you feel right now is the team's biggest rival?
MIKE RICHARDS: Well, I think the Rangers is probably one of the biggest -- we've only played them once, and it's been so long ago, but I don't think it's going to take too long for the rivalry to kind of get renewed on Sunday. Whenever we play them it seems to always be good games and fighting for position in the standings and for us trying to get back on a little bit of a winning streak. Right now I think we're having too many ups and downs and being a little too inconsistent right now. With both teams vying for position in the playoffs, I think it's going to be a pretty huge game.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about consistency in a season? How difficult is it to remain consistent in this playoff push?
MIKE RICHARDS: Well, it's always tough throughout the year because you play so many games that you're not going to have good legs, you're not going to play well and get the bounces every single night. It's just putting yourself in position to win the hockey games, and with injury problems and the flu bug going around pretty heavily right now, it's different people stepping up in different situations. We've had that all year. Hopefully we can continue doing that, and hopefully we get healthy pretty soon.

Q. I know your team hasn't lost more than two straight since November 11th. Do you consider that a sign of consistency, or do you still feel the team hasn't really reached its potential? I know you mentioned a little earlier that you feel as though the team could do a little more here.
MIKE RICHARDS: Yeah, it's nice to see that we can bounce back after a loss. With that said, it seems like we can still do a little bit better with consistency in a winning way and not have those let-downs after a big win or two big wins and try to put that behind us and move forward. But it's encouraging to see how the team responds after a loss.
I still think we have a little bit of a ways to go to get better, but we like the team's drive right now.

Q. And how about the team shorthanded? Why so much success this year? This has been going on for several years now. Why the success on shorthanded situations?
MIKE RICHARDS: Well, I think it's just the pressure that we put on the teams. We don't give them too many opportunities to set up, and when they do set up, I think our goaltenders make big saves and we collapse kind of the middle and do a great job of getting in the way of shots and blocking shots for the goaltenders. If you don't give the players time to make plays, they're sometimes going to panic and make plays that they normally wouldn't make.

Q. I know that you talked a little bit, you touched upon the Olympics. Can you kind of break it down for me, which three countries do you feel will be in gold medal contention?
MIKE RICHARDS: I'm not too sure. I've never really looked at or thought about it too much, but I think Sweden with being defending champs and having so many great players. And to tell you the truth, I think with the players with the NHL right now you can look around the league and see superstars on every team from different countries.
I mean, it's going to be hard to name a favorite and going to be hard to kind of say which team you're going to have problems with because pretty much every country has different superstars on it.

Q. How do you feel about having two scoring lines, a checking line and an energy line in the Olympics? Do you feel it should be that way, that lineups should be dealt with that way, or do you feel like maybe the best 20 skaters should be put on the roster for an Olympic team?
MIKE RICHARDS: I'm not too sure. I mean, I think that's a decision that Mr. Yzerman is going to have to make. I think the good thing about the Canadian team is there's going to be so many different players that you can put in different situations, and he's going to have a lot of tough decisions to make because there are a lot of great Canadians out there that play different styles and different types of games.
I think it's just however he feels the need to put different players in different situations. I don't think it's a problem that he's going to have to deal with because there's so many good players and a lot of depth players out there.

Q. And finally, do you feel despite the fact the Olympics require the NHL to shut down for two weeks that it's still a great benefit to compete in the Olympics to promote the sport and the players in the NHL?
MIKE RICHARDS: I think it's great for the NHL to kind the have the world's best on the ice at the same time. I know as a Canadian you always feel honored to put the Canadian jersey on, and talking to people from different countries, they enjoy it, too. It's just a good thing. Everyone gets excited for the Olympics, players and fans, so I think it's a good thing for hockey in general.

Q. I'm wondering, obviously we're talking about the Olympics today. Has it been a question you've had to field very often so far this year?
MIKE RICHARDS: Not much. I actually get a little bit of questions about it, especially when you go to Canada and play the Canadian teams. They're obviously a little bit more aware of it. But as we're getting close to the Olympics, I know we're one year away now, I guess under one year, so it's starting to become a little bit more in the picture and people are starting to ask a little bit more about it.

Q. I guess in the coming year you can only expect it to increase in the coming months before the team is announced, too?
MIKE RICHARDS: Definitely, especially as the year goes on, and then summer comes and then next year is pretty much there. In the time before I guess everyone is going to get more excited about it and we're going to get more questions.

Q. And just finally, at the past Olympic games when the NHLers were there, did you watch quite closely Canada's progress in that?
MIKE RICHARDS: I did, yes. I'm always excited to watch Canadian teams kind of go at it. I watch the world championships whenever I get the opportunity. I grew up on the world junior championships watching that. Whenever you see different countries play against each other, especially Canada, you always want to see your home country do well, and really it's just good hockey to watch as a hockey fan. I enjoy watching it.
JULIE YOUNG: Thanks for your time today.

End of FastScripts

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