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NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: SHARKS v PENGUINS

June 12, 2016

Sidney Crosby

San Jose, California: Game Six

Pittsburgh – 3
San Jose ‑ 1

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Sidney.

Q. The moment that Gary Bettman hands you the Stanley Cup, do you remember it from '09? Was it different?
SIDNEY CROSBY: I wasn't really thinking about '09 that much. I was just thinking about how hard it was to get to this point, just trying to enjoy every second of it.
It's not easy to get here. Having won seven years ago at a young age, you probably take it for granted a little bit. You don't think you do at the time, but it's not easy to get to this point.
Just try to enjoy it the best I can.

Q. December 12th you guys are out of the playoffs, had a new coach. Six months later to the day, you're a Stanley Cup champion. Take us through a little bit of how this happened. What was the big difference?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Well, obviously after a coaching change, I think everyone takes that personal, puts the responsibility on their shoulders to be better. I think individually and as a group we had high expectations, we knew we needed to be better. I thought we just slowly got better and better.
Mike came in and made it pretty clear how he wanted us to play, what he expected from each individual guy. I think guys just welcomed the opportunity, welcomed the challenge, tried to get back on track.
It took some time. Didn't happen overnight. But March was a big month for us. We knew we had to get a big push to get in the playoffs. We knew once you get in the playoffs, anything can happen. We were playing good at the right time.
We had to go through some really good teams. Every team we played. New York was playing good down the stretch. Washington obviously, top team. Tampa had us on the brink of elimination. Then obviously San Jose, with the way they play, they're physical, fast. Jones was unbelievable through the whole series.
I thought we had a lot of fight. We found a way.

Q. You have a lot of hardware, gold medals, two Cups now. What do you think of that trophy next to you? What do you think you did to win it?
SIDNEY CROSBY: I don't know. There are so many guys who contributed, to be honest. I look at this as a total team effort. I tried to work hard every night, do my job just like everyone else.
I don't know if I did anything different or specific. I think everyone just competed, everyone tried to do what's expected of them, tried to play their role. If you do that every night, we have a pretty good chance of winning.

Q. A long time between Cups. Did it ever feel like the window was starting to close? Did you ever think like that?
SIDNEY CROSBY: When you have so much turnover the last couple years like we had, it's not easy to throw a bunch of guys together and develop that chemistry, that trust. It doesn't happen overnight.
When you look at the group, how many new players we brought in, it was pretty special what we were able to do. We had a core that played together for a while, there was some trust there. When you look at all the guys we added, the young guys, the guys we added through trades, I think it takes a special group to be able to come together that quickly and build that trust basically along the way.
There wasn't past experience really, like I said, besides the core group to kind of fall back on. As we went along, we were building it. That was a huge part. Keeping that momentum.

Q. You handed the Cup to Trevor Daley, Pascal Dupuis, then Marc‑Andre Fleury. Why was it important for you to share it with those three players?
SIDNEY CROSBY: There's so many different things that motivate you obviously to win, but there's other things. Daley had played for such a long time. Hadn't really even had a chance. He had been through some different playoffs, but getting hurt at the time he did, knowing how important it was, he had told me that he went and seen his mom in between series and stuff, she wasn't doing well, she wanted to see him with the Cup. That was important to her. I think that kind of stuck with me after he told me that. We were motivated to get it for him, even though he had to watch.
Duper, obviously what he's been through the last couple years, the type of teammate he's been, just the way he's approached everything. I think he would have loved to have been playing. This is as good as we could have done without him playing. That was special.
And Flower, the teammate he's been, it hasn't been easy getting hurt like he did. Having come in and played the way he did, he just handled it better than you'd expect.
All three guys, Jeff, Flower and Mur, it's about your team. Those guys showed it the best way you can.

Q. Sid, how does the second Cup fit into legacy when you take a look at the arc of your career?
SIDNEY CROSBY: I don't know. I think the best way I can describe it is, like I said, I have a greater appreciation this time around. At a young age, going back‑to‑back like we did, you just think it's going to be an annual thing.
With the core we have, you think everyone's going to stay together, the team's not going to change. But it does. That's kind of the reality of playing hockey. There's turnover, things change, guys move on, different coaches. There's so much change.
So many different things need to happen. You need to have some luck along the way. I think you just appreciate it, you appreciate how hard it is to win it. Just kind of enjoy the feeling when you do.

Q. Sid, to know you didn't have to carry the team, that there was scoring balance, depth, how did that change the way you judged your performance game by game, round by round?
SIDNEY CROSBY: It didn't really change. I felt like every night as a line we wanted to produce and create things offensively. In the playoffs, it's tight. There's not a lot of chances to be had. When there isn't, you can't be one‑dimensional. You have to make sure you're contributing other ways. Whether that is creating momentum, drawing penalties, winning faceoffs, everything that it takes, all those little details go a long way.
There's more to just winning games than scoring goals. It feels great, it's important. That's what our job is. But there's a lot of other things that go into it.
Just making sure that you don't sacrifice all those other things to push for a goal here or there, that was the biggest thing. We had trust and confidence whoever it needed to be was going to make that big play, whether it was a goal, a save, a power play. You see tonight, the other unit goes out there and gets a huge goal for us. We have trust, and that's what you need to win.

Q. 10 years ago, Matt Cullen and Jim Rutherford won the Stanley Cup together. What did Matt Cullen mean to this team? How confident were you that Jim could make the right moves?
SIDNEY CROSBY: I think with Cully, he brings a lot of leadership, a lot of experience. To play the role he did at his age, I think everyone is tired at this point, he was playing a lot of important minutes for us, defensive zone faceoffs, penalty kill. He was doing a lot of things for us. He was scoring some big goals. He had some huge goals throughout the playoffs.
He just brought a lot of leadership. With so many new guys, it's nice to have someone come in like that that takes it upon himself right away. He didn't kind of wait to feel comfortable. You could tell he was comfortable right away. That goes a long way.
With Jim, I think the biggest thing I can say is he had an idea of what he wanted us to play like, what he saw our team as, our identity, if we wanted to win. He put the guys in place to be able to play that way.
We didn't really waiver. Depending on who we played, you make little adjustments, but we didn't change our identity. He's a big reason why. He put all those guys in place. He kind of had, I guess, the vision to be able to see what we looked like at our best. He put us together.

Q. You talked about this team put together on the fly. What was the moment you thought you had something going on?
SIDNEY CROSBY: I think March. We needed to win some big games in March against some really good teams. It wasn't like we had one of those games, then a week where we didn't have big ones. I mean, it felt like every single game was huge and against a team we're competing for in a playoff spot.
When you beat good teams, you do it consistently over the course of a month, at that time of the year when you know everybody is at their best, that builds a lot of confidence in your group. You're playing the right way. You're playing desperate at a time when you need to be.
Going into the playoffs, there was no letdown. We just carried that mentality right into the playoffs. That's probably the best thing that could have happened to us.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
SIDNEY CROSBY: Thanks, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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