NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: CAPITALS v RED WINGS

June 16, 1998

Steve Yzerman

STEVE YZERMAN: It is definitely just as good, I think, this year. Winning -- we were able to relax a little more and enjoy it, the whole ride. Really gratifying for us to win, and that we're playing without our best defenseman or one of our two best defensemen -- and Vladi to be in the building here tonight -- we're really -- we're really proud of our team and how we managed to get together and play strong again. After we won last year, I think we all kind of -- you say to yourself, if you never win again, you'll just be happy and then as soon as the Playoffs come around, you can -- you could just tell everybody wanted to win as much as before. You don't lose your desire to win after one. We had a taste and wanted to win again. Really satisfying to come back and do it again.

STEVE YZERMAN: Throughout the year, we never -- constantly we're aware of his progress. There was always inquisitions about how he was doing, he was never forgotten on our team, but he was never used as a motivational player. It wasn't -- we didn't try to exploit the accident as a way of motivating our team. Just -- we just constantly followed he and Sergei, both of their recoveries and they were able to come down do the rink on occasion. And they're really two really special guys for different reasons on our team, but they were different personalities, but really loved by the team and a big part of our organization and they've remained that way. If anything, our team has just grown closer and -- throughout the last year and probably the biggest reason why we're successful is because we're a very close team who when we come to the rink, truly enjoy being together every day and that accident and the past year has just brought our team even closer. And the only thing we really care about is winning and playing well together and guys are incredibly unselfish.

STEVE YZERMAN: Very emotional. I didn't realize that Vladi was come in until actually I ran into his wife at the hotel just before I got on the bus. And then it was about two minutes left in the game, Shanahan leaned over and said, I don't want to -- I've been waiting to ask you this, but who are you going to give the Cup to after you get it, and my first response was I'm giving it to Ozzie. And he said what about Vladi. And I said, if he's on the ice, absolutely. I didn't know what was going to happen, but obviously when he came on the ice, we were going to give it too him. We are not trying to take advantage of the situation, but it was an appropriate thing to do. A year ago at this time, we weren't -- we were told that he and Sergei might not live. So a year later for him to be on the ice with us is pretty significant, and it's a special moment for us that we can have him in the Stanley Cup.

STEVE YZERMAN: After last season I thought about how much longer I wanted to play and that was my 15th season in the League and I want to play 20. So I would like to play five more. I don't know if I will. My goal is to play 20. Right now after winning last year and this year, I'm having the greatest time in hockey in my life. I can't possibly think about not playing again. I'm glad the season is over, but I look forward to coming back and trying again next year. So, like I said, I'm having the most fun I've ever had in my career at the time so there's no way to think about retiring.

STEVE YZERMAN: You know what, it's just been difficult with the Olympic Games in the middle of the season, so many games and I think every player felt the same way. Playing four games a week and it just seemed like once the season started it never stopped and you never got a chance to catch your breath. We had the Olympics, came right back and started playing again. And the Playoffs are just incredibly draining. So just haven't had a chance to just sit at home for a night on the couch and do nothing and watch TV. And that's -- I'm pretty much exhausted, you know, so I'm just looking forward to take if easy for a while because it's just been one day after another, just preparing for a game nonstop since September. It's been a draining year, but obviously a really enjoyable year. Just time to slow down for a little while.

STEVE YZERMAN: The guys, starting with Ozzie, Nikolishin, and Eriksson on defense, we have a few other young defensemen. Few couple of our older guys, I will expect they will look to bring the guys back for another year. The majority of our forwards apart from myself and Igor, they're all within the ages of 22, 23 to 29, so that group is going to be together for a number of years and that will keep the team competitive for a number of years. You know, we didn't really look towards winning the Cup in the Playoffs started this year. Didn't talk about it too much. Went through the regular season and played, enjoyed ourselves and played and we'll try to do the same next year, but I expect this team to be very competitive again for the next year and the years after just because the core of our team and -- is from the ages of like 23 to 28, 29, they're relatively youthful and I expect that they'll stay together -- that's the strength of our team; McCarty, Maltby, Draper, Lapointe, Osgood,Eriksson, Kozlov, those guys are the back bone of our team.

STEVE YZERMAN: Well, I'm thrilled to have my name on a trophy that has some of the greatest names in hockey, when I came into the League, I don't think anybody really knew how to spell my name or pronounce it. So I'm very proud of the fact that the Yzerman name is going on a trophy, that will be part of hockey for a long time. So, it's very gratifying.

STEVE YZERMAN: I would say that the -- this series although we won in four, the games weren't -- today's game we were a little more in control. But the first three games of the series, by no means did we have a dominance or total control the four-game sweep is a little deceiving because it was a difficult series and the first two definitely could have definitely been won by the Caps. The Dallas series was a tough series in the way at that time the Stars played, they are a relentless team that just banks away. Got a big tough defense that really pounds on you. That was a very difficult series as well. Each series got more difficult. We were just able to win a couple of key games in this series which put us in a good position to win. Physically, the Dallas series was probably the toughest one.

STEVE YZERMAN: You know, we're a fairly good defensive team, we base the majority of our games -- based upon really strong defense, trying to cut down on scoring chances against -- I think the depth that we have on our four lines are the ability to put four lines out on the ice effective at both ends with pretty good speed and size. You know, the difference in our team now and three years ago, I think is upfront we're a fairly big team. Not necessarily any giants, but guys that are all Wingers for the most part. We've got a big physical team with good speed up front and that's been the difference in our team and probably the biggest reason for our success that we were able to put four lines out there and one of them is going to have an advantage and get an edge.

STEVE YZERMAN: Well, personally, I hope he comes back for another year. He's in charge of this team, the players have grown extremely fond of him. We know what Scotty and the staff wants us to do. They kind of know what to expect from us, so we have a pretty good relationship, but he's the guy who drives the team and he puts the fire on the team and he doesn't allow the players to get their -- get big egos or get over confident or get too comfortable. He keeps you motivated, he keeps you a little on the edge. So he's really the fire -- he puts it's fire in our team. So I'm not -- he's had a tremendous coaching career. I hope he comes back, to be honest. I hope he comes back. We've got a good thing going and would like to continue it.