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NHL HERITAGE CLASSIC MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 15, 2011

DAVID KEON: Good afternoon, my name is David Keon from the National Hockey League's public relations department, and I would like to welcome you to today's call. Today we have with us Alex Tanguay and David Moss from the Calgary Flames. Thanks to Alex and David for taking the time today to join us and answer your questions. Thanks to Peter Hanlon of the Flames' public relations staff for arranging this call.
This coming Sunday February 20th at 4:00 PM Mountain Time the 2011 Tim Horton's NHL Heritage Classic between the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames on CBC, RDS and VERSUS will take place at McMahon Stadium in Calgary in Calgary.
The a native of Ste-Justine, Quebec, Alex will be suiting up against a number of former teammates when the Flames meet the Canadiens having played in MontrÃ©al 2008 and 2009. An 11-year veteran he is currently second in team scoring with 43 points on 15 goals and 28 assists playing in 56 games.
David will be participating in his second major outdoor game having taken part in the Cold War between Michigan, Michigan State on October 6, 2001 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, he has appeared for 46 games for the Flames this season, posting 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points, and is coming off a career-high single four-point game in last night's 9-1 win in Denver.
Thanks again to Alex and David for joining us to answer your questions. Operator, we'll open it up now.

Q. For both of you, when it comes to playing in an outdoor game like this, are your preparations any different? NHL players have habits; wonder if the outdoor game changes that. Also, since you're playing in front of a home crowd, do you stop and take in the atmosphere of the home events or is this just another game where you're fighting for two points?
ALEX TANGUAY: Well, I think as far as the habits and stuff like that, the preparation, it stays pretty much the same where you're just playing on the road in different rinks and different atmospheres and different dressing rooms and stuff like that. But as far as that's concerned, I don't think that's going to make a difference in our preparation.
But as players, we are definitely going to try to feed off the crowd and we know it's going to be a very unique experience for us. Not too many guys get to experience this in the NHL playing in front of 40,000 people in your home, with your home crowd on your side.
So it's going to be fun. We are looking forward to it.
DAVID MOSS: Same thing, just try to take in the experience, something that doesn't happen every day, and to have it in your home city and in front of your home fans, I think all of the guys will be taking in the experience.

Q. Not sure if you've had a chance to poke your head out the door this morning but the wind is just howling from the west, which is often does when a football game is being played. If conditions are like that on Sunday, how do you play when you've got that headwind that you have to skate into for half the game and when you've got a tailwind behind you for the other half?
ALEX TANGUAY: I think that the first thing we are going to do. We are going to talk to the rink crew so we get the wind in our back first.
No, I think that we are not too sure about the conditions. I looked last night when we landed from Colorado, so they were expecting minus five with very low winds. That's what we are expecting. I don't know, I've never played outside that much -- well, I played outside as a kid, but I haven't played in a long time so. I don't know how the wind can affect; if it's going to really have an effect.
With the fans being close with us and the boards and stuff like that, I don't know how much wind we'll get on the ice, so we are hoping that, you know, as far as I'm concerned, I'm just hoping that the weather is going to be decent and that the ice is going to be good.
DAVID MOSS: Yeah, I'd just say the same thing. I hope we get the wind at our back for a few periods. You know, it's the elements, and I don't think you can really, you know, think about it too much until the day of the game.

Q. David, you've played in the two outdoor games, the one in college and the World Championships last year; were the conditions similar or different? Can you talk about how outdoor is different than indoor, based on those two experiences.
DAVID MOSS: Well, the outdoor game at Michigan, the conditions were pretty good. Despite being pretty cold outside, there was not much wind and not any snow or anything like that. So for an outdoor game, conditions were pretty good. Hopefully it can be the same in Calgary.
The outdoor game that I played in Germany, was in a soccer stadium, so it wasn't quite totally outdoors. Conditions there were great.

Q. This game couldn't come at a better time for Calgary considering only Vancouver has scored more points since Christmastime than you guys. Can you give some reasons why you've been able to turn it around in the last 20 or so games?
DAVID MOSS: Yeah, I think it's probably been more than 20 games where we started to play some pretty good hockey and be more consistent. Right now we are getting the results and I think maybe earlier on, a little bit before, we were on that run, and we were just trying to find games to win and now I think guys are playing more consistent and we are getting some breaks.
ALEX TANGUAY: I would say similar to what David said. I think that, you know, we believed from day one that we had a better team than what we showed in the first 40 or so games, and when we finally started getting a balance here and there, we started believing in ourselves. And right now we feel that we can play and we can match up against any of the other teams.
I think that once you get that confidence, certainly with the team we have, we are certainly going to be a tough team to beat and we are just going to try to work as hard as possible to keep that confidence level high. And right now, we know that we are a long way from where we want to be, but our objective is to get ourselves in the playoffs and right now we've put ourselves in position to do that.

Q. Given that you guys are playing so well now, how does that change maybe how this experience is going to be for you, just thinking, you know, that you're fighting for a playoff spot now instead of being down towards the bottom of the standings, is it going to be a better experience?
DAVID MOSS: Yeah, I think it adds to the experience. The game is going to be, you know, a fun game anyways, and with the importance of us playing for a playoff spot and MontrÃ©al already being in this spot and they are fighting for position, too, I think that adds to the atmosphere and probably will add to the intensity of the game.

Q. I wanted to follow up on when you said something earlier y you said you had not played in an outdoor game in a long time; what was your last memory of playing outdoors?
ALEX TANGUAY: The last time I played outdoors was actually a fun story. I was playing in Colorado at the time, my second year in Colorado and my family came out for Christmas. And my younger brother, who was about nine years younger than me, was about 12 at the time. We went out to Evergreen on Christmas Day and he brought his skates. And obviously when you're a young kid and your brother in the NHL, it's always nice to skate to go out and skate with your brother.
So we go out and we get to the pond, and there's about four guys playing hockey. And I said, do you mind if we play. And the guys are like, okay, you want to spread the team? And I said, no, we'll take us two against you four. And they were four older guys that did not really know who we were and stuff like that.
So I started playing and I was getting my brother to score every goal outside. That was quite an experience for me, and after a while, the guys finally picked up that I was playing in the NHL. So they asked -- it was really nice. We had so much fun playing outside.
You always have the weather and you get -- it's very unique experience, and as a Canadian kid, and most of the American kids that grow up in the north, had a chance at one time or another to play outside. It makes the experience that much more fun; the ice is usually very good, and it's something that as far as now being the NHL and getting the chance to play that game outside, it's going to be fun. And I'm really looking forward to it.

Q. Do you remember what year that was that you had that game?
ALEX TANGUAY: That I played with my brother outside? I think the year that we won the Stanley Cup. So it must have been 2001.

Q. Do you have any family coming to the game in Calgary?
ALEX TANGUAY: No, unfortunately the family can't make it. That would be very nice, but you know, we are not going to be able to have them down for this one.

Q. When we were looking at this game at Christmas, it looked like it would not mean a lot in the standings, and now it looks like this could be the difference between a playoff berth or not. How does this change things when the puck drops on Sunday?
DAVID MOSS: Like I said, the implications of the playoffs are there. And I think, you know, no matter what game it is from here on out, we know that all of these points are huge. And I think the guys will take in the experience, too. But I think once you are on the ice and once the puck drops, we are fighting for those two points.
ALEX TANGUAY: Exactly like David said. I think that we are very well aware that it's going to be a fun experience and very unique. But we have to be professional about it. And we know that those two points might be the difference for us getting in and us getting out. So we have to make sure that we don't give away games.
Our fans are certainly going to help us a lot more on that one. It's going to be very loud outside with 40-plus thousand fans. So it's going to be, you know -- for sure, we are not forgetting the task at hand.

Q. Just to follow up, watching the game last night, 9-1 against your former team, what was that like for you to see the Avalanche in that kind of disarray?
ALEX TANGUAY: You know, it's unique. From the time they moved to Colorado to maybe two, three years ago, they had a tradition of winning and now they are pretty much, I wouldn't say they are in a rebuilding process, but they are going through tougher times and right now I think that it's a process that they have to go through. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm a Calgary Flame now and I'll take those 9-1 results any day.

Q. How did the neck hold up last night?
ALEX TANGUAY: Felt good. Obviously I'm still going to go through some treatments for the next few weeks to try to get better and stuff like that but at the start of the season, you play with injuries and you play with little problems and at this time of year, I don't think you'd find too many players that don't have bumps and bruises. And for me at this point, it happens to be my neck, but I'm okay to play and I'll do my best to help the team.

Q. It seems that when they put Brendan Morrison on the line with you and Jarome and all of the lines were shuffled, it was at that moment that every line started to contribute. What has that move, putting Morrison, an experienced guy like that who has played with good players before, how much has that really helped bring everything together and how much does that help your line come together, as well?
ALEX TANGUAY: Well, I don't know if it's the move from the lines or just the desperation in our game from a full-time perspective that improved. If you look at what Olli is doing with David right now and Curtis Glencross, they are playing great hockey. I think the way that we are playing now, it doesn't really matter who is playing with who. The lines shuffle sometimes during the game and stuff like that, but we always find ways to perform more.
And with our lines, playing with Brendan and Jarome, Brendan, he's played a lot of years in Vancouver with Marcus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi, he knows how to utilize the guys around him. He's a smart player and makes good decisions with the puck and he makes things simple for us.
We have been, as a team, you look at our team, everybody is going now and at this time of the year, it's a good time. If you get different guys scoring at different times, it's going to make it a lot easier for your team to be a success.

Q. In last night's game, like earlier in the year, Colorado looked relaxed and you looked tight and last night you looks like you were just playing and they looked tight. How did it change like that?
ALEX TANGUAY: Well, a lot has to do with confidence. When you win, you squeeze the stick a little bit less. We know right now that if we are in the position that if we just work, we are going to give ourselves a position to win the game. Nobody is tight about it; if you miss a shot or if you a pass, you miss something, you don't worry about it because you know you're going to work hard at it and the next one is going to go in for us. I think a lot of it has to do with that.
Like a lot of people like to mention about what happened with Darryl; I think that as far as we are concerned, we just found a way now to play up to our potential and we want to keep that going. We are having fun while we are doing it, and that's really where the focus is at, having fun and trying to win some games.
DAVID KEON: Thank you very much, Alex and David. Thanks very much for joining us.

End of FastScripts

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