NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: AVALANCHE v RED WINGS

May 17, 2002

Nicklas Lidstrom

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: It's impressive, real impressive the way he's been able to come back so quick too from being out pretty much the whole regular season and step it up right away, it's very impressive.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Before we came here we saw him twice a season and now when you have a chance to see him every day how hard he works in practice and how he plays in games too, it's been great to play in front of him. I think it was a little bit of an adjustment time the first few weeks to get used to the way he handles the puck or the way he wants to play the puck. Even when he stops the puck he wants to play it right away, get the play going. It's been great watching Dominik, like I said, how hard he works in practice every day; he doesn't like to get scored on in practice as well.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: He's a tremendous playmaker. He's good at hanging on to the puck and waiting for guys to get open and finding guys too. He's very strong one-on-one. He can beat you one-on-one and protect the puck in the corners. Overall, he's a very good player.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: It will be different than the first part of the series where we're keying on a couple lines. Now they have so much talented players that can make things happen. I think we have four sold lines that can match that, but you can't real key on one line because they've got so many offensive threats out there.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Sometimes it's tough to shoot high from the blue line to get the puck through to the net especially when you're trying to get some tips, you don't want to shoot too high. It's tough for the guy in front of the net, usually Holmstrom. We know he's a very good goaltender. He seems to be seeing the puck all the time too. Even though they have traffic in front of him, he can see the puck all the time. I think the key against any goalie is having a guy screening him or being in front of him and trying to disturb him a bit.