NHL ALL-STAR WEEKEND

February 1, 2002

Brian Leetch

BRIAN LEETCH: I would say Canada and the Czechs are the two favorites. Canadians have a lot of depth, a lot of skilled players. The Czechs, their success in the last two World Championships, certainly the last Olympics, with Dominik Hasek at net makes them also play well.

BRIAN LEETCH: No. I think it's certainly an emphasis on everyone there, on security. I think they've done everything they can to make it as safe as possible. Certainly an individual that wants to do something negative probably could do that, but I think they probably have eliminated any type of large-scale problem.

BRIAN LEETCH: Yeah, I was playing in a youth hockey team in Connecticut. We were playing in a tournament in Massachusetts. We were all together in a hotel room. I was 12 years old. We watched the game. I remember throwing pillows around. At the time, we were as excited to be in a hotel room at that age as we were to be watching the game. It wasn't until each year passed that I realized what an accomplishment it was.

BRIAN LEETCH: You just try to do your job. The biggest thing is there's always players coming in late. You just try and play. A lot of times there's not a lot you can do. The goaltenders even feel more helpless because there's a lot of offense going up.

BRIAN LEETCH: He's feeling healthy, good year. I think that's a plus. I said all along, I think whoever wins the gold medal, their goaltender would be the MVP of that tournament. We have a goaltender that can be that type of player -- other teams, too, but Mike has had experience, he's done it before, I hope he can do it again.

BRIAN LEETCH: Yes and no. Before, as an amateur, I thought it was a great opportunity to train together for eight months to play. We were younger. I think our average age was 22 at the time. We were also playing some teams that were together, you know, and had professionals there. I figured if you really wanted to have the best of the best out there, and you wanted to do that in the Olympics, you had to shut the NHL down. As a player, it's still just as special and just as good an opportunity to be in that situation. If they went back to keeping it just amateur athletes and they did it from every country, I think that would be fine, too.

BRIAN LEETCH: Not too much. I think if you were lucky enough to have a few of the guys you might put on a line together, that might be something where you could just work on some things. But defense, you know, I hope the Olympics are nothing like it's going to be on Saturday afternoon because there's going to be a lot of offense going on out there. You can't really work on too much as defensemen.

BRIAN LEETCH: He can probably see what combinations might work just for a game. Everybody has had their little camp together. Got a pretty good idea of where everyone is going to fit. It's not just like Pat Quinn hasn't been keeping an eye on the NHL in general. Everyone's going to be pretty prepared going in.

BRIAN LEETCH: No red line, a turn of possession makes a big difference, bouncing puck behind you, the speed that is going to be exhibited there in the Olympics, it can be intimidating. But I think it puts more emphasis on five-man units instead of just forwards trying to get in a forecheck and the defense trying to defend. You really need your forwards to be a part of your five-man unit. I think a lot of the European teams that played have figured that out. You even see them trapping on the big ice where you didn't think that would be possible. We really need to try to eliminate some of that extra space out there.

BRIAN LEETCH: I don't see we lost any reputation. It's a great hockey tournament. There's a lot of great players out there. Basically it's a single elimination once you get through those first three games. It's not a seven-game series where you get to kind of play a few games and figure some things out. If you have a bad period, it pretty much means you're going home. That happened to us pretty quick last time.

BRIAN LEETCH: It's certainly not a burden. It's great to be able to play in the US and represent your country. The emotional level will certainly be higher. I think it's exciting. I think it's exciting to have met a lot of the guys over the years from the 1980 team. We look forward to being on home ice and having a good tournament.

BRIAN LEETCH: If we see them around. There's nothing set up for them to be down with us, for us to really be with them. I'm sure they've got family and people here, too, are enjoying being together. We've been lucky enough over the years to meet quite a few of them. They are always just wishing us luck. We're looking at them like, "I can't believe you guys pulled that off, how great it was." It's fun.