|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLYERS v LIGHTNINGMay 14, 2004Dave AndreychukMartin St. LouisPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day Q. Most, if not all of the players who have enjoyed a long career, they all say they never expected to play that long. DAVE ANDREYCHUK: Yes. Q. What were your thoughts when you began? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: I guess as an 18-year-old, you don't expect to play till you're 40. But, you know, you watch guys, older players that are on your team, my team, it was Craig Ramsay, Gilbert Perreault, Andre Savard, these were guys that were in their 30s that I was just hoping to play that long. Q. So they were an influence on you? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: Oh, definitely, yes. There was a few guys, obviously Mike Modano came in, he was a big influence on me. You know, all of the older guys, I think if you look back in your career and you think of the people that helped you out, your first few years, it got me started out in the right direction. Q. Other than winning the Cup, what keeps a guy playing with the experience, playing so long? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: Well, I think it's the thrill of the competition. It's the desire to be better every day, it's the challenge. You know, the bottom line is winning, making your team win. So that's what keeps me going again. Q. Maybe it's not a good question right now, but are you afraid of life after the game? Do you think about it? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: Yeah, I think about what I'm going to do. I think about being away from the game, I think about not being able to travel, not being able to be around the guys. I don't think it's -- I don't look at it as though I'm scared of it, but I guess it's another start of your life, and I don't know if I'm ready for that yet. Q. With all of the stuff away from the ice with Hitchcock and Tortorella and all of that, Philly comes out afterwards and said that, "We didn't outwork them," that you guys came out early 2-0. Again, do you care about any of that, the war of words away from the ice in? MARTIN ST. LOUIS: Well, we listen to everything that is said and everything, and, you know, we all have different opinions on whatever happens off the ice. But the bottom line is the game is not won off the ice in the papers; the game is won on the ice, and that's really all that matters. Q. You play so many games and there's so much time left in these playoffs, but when you look back at that game last night, is that one of those games where this team turned a corner, took another little growth step, just because of all the emotion around and how big that game was? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: Well, I think as a team, I think we believed that we can play a lot better than we did in Game 2. I think we've done it a few times this year where we've rebounded. We've won some games that maybe we were not expected to win. We've shown some good resilience as a unit. I think last night is an example of that, where we responded. But, you know, going into Game 4, we saw what would happen when they lost, so we have to be ready -- or when they lost Game 1, they were ready in Game 2, and I think it's in the back of our minds already that they are going to play a lot better. They are going to be desperate. Q. Is it getting routine or do you still have a great sense of wonder every night that you're in the Stanley Cup playoffs playing with Eric Perrin again? MARTIN ST. LOUIS: No, just let alone to be in the playoffs and how far we've come, it's a lot of fun. You always sometimes feel like, you know, is this really happening. But obviously, on another note, to be doing this with long life friends that we grew up together and now being able to do this on the same team, I don't think any of us would have thought of that. It's great. Q. For either of you guys, when you put so much emotion into one game and there was so much build-up around it again, to come back and do it just two days later, how do you guard against any kind of letdown, especially when you know Philly is going to come out a lot stronger? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: We've talked about it already. We didn't come here for a split. We came here to win two games. We've got one game already. What's happened, has happened. We have to take the next game and that's the only thing we are worried about is Game 4. We have to be ready to play. We know that they are going to be a lot better. We know that their desperation level is going to go to a new level and we have to be ready for that. Hopefully we've learned our lesson in Game 2, that this team has some veteran players on it that are going to play desperate. They know what the situation is. We have to be ready for that. Q. There's been a lot of talk about the third and fourth line guys contributing in certain areas, you look at the score sheet last night, the top six forward all picked up at least a point; what does that mean when you can get the top two lines producing like that in a game? MARTIN ST. LOUIS: Well, you need some consistent players out of your top two lines. They are not going to be on the score sheet every game. But if they are consistent, I like the chances of them being there more than not being there, I guess. But that's why you need the third and fourth line to chip in every now and then and take the pressure off, and you can't just win expecting your top two lines to score goals, or you can't just win expecting your checking line to just check the hell out of the other top line. They have to -- as offensive lines, we have to play defense, too. The guys that are there on the check-and-roll, they have to chip in offensively, as well. You have to want to do more than just your role. Q. When you look around this post-season, there's been so many road victories, is the home ice advantage in your opinion something that maybe is overrated at this point? DAVE ANDREYCHUK: I think your fans, I think depending on how the game goes, I think your fans can really -- it will get you pumped up. If you get the first goal, you can get some momentum from being at home but also, I think the pressure is on to win at home. You play a lot different game , I know our team does a lot different game on the road. We are a lot simpler team. I think that produces more wins on the road for us. But still, home ice, if you can get some momentum, you'd want to have it.
End of FastScripts... |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|