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AMP ENERGY NHL WINTER CLASSICDecember 31, 2007Sidney CrosbyMichel TherrienORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: Questions for Sidney. Q. Have you given any thought to how this is really the big stage for you this early in your career, short of the Stanley Cup final, not getting much bigger than the spotlight tomorrow? SIDNEY CROSBY: I don't know if I'd put it that way. I mean, no, I'm looking forward to it. Obviously it's a big stage, but you have to have fun with this. This is a unique experience. It's a regular-season game. I don't think you have to put the weight of the season on our shoulders here. We want to play well. It's a big stage; you want to play well. But I don't know if we'd go as far as to say that. Q. Did you play a significant amount of games outdoors? SIDNEY CROSBY: Oh, yeah. I grew up in the wintertime playing on ponds or lakes. Where I played in Québec in juniors, they had a lot of outdoor rinks that were built and flooded in the winter. Definitely ready for this game. Q. Did you notice that the guys are having a little more fun with this, playing a little more loose, more playful out there? SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, definitely. I think that's natural. We've all played outside at some point and had a great time doing it. I think it brings you back a bit when you're out there. You know, someone said before, it is a big stage. You know, it's a big game. It's a regular-season game. But at the same time, you don't get this chance very often, so you want to enjoy it. Q. You were one of the last guys off. Was it just because you were enjoying the moment, taking it all in? SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah. Whether I'm outside, in Pittsburgh or anywhere else, that's usually the way it is. Definitely you want to enjoy it. Like I said, it's a fun experience. Who knows if we'll ever get the chance to do this again. You know, it's a beautiful day. It's perfect weather. It's not like it's too cold to stay out. So it's something I think we're all enjoying. Q. You may or may not have heard of Dan Craig, the NHL specialist for the ice. They've been working tirelessly to make sure the ice is ready. I guess they're probably waiting to see if you're giving it the thumbs up. How was it? SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, it was pretty good. Probably right at the end started to get a little bit chunky, but I think that's normal with the weather. I think they've done a pretty good job. I mean, practice was pretty smooth. There wasn't a lot of holes or anything like that. They still have some time here to adjust if they need to. All in all, I think it's been pretty smooth. They've done a great job. I can't imagine what it takes to put all that together, but they've done a great job. Q. Are you changing any of your gear or adding anything different, extra layers, for the weather? SIDNEY CROSBY: Probably just something to cover my ears and my neck. Besides that, everything pretty much the same. Maybe a thicker shirt underneath. But we'll have to see tomorrow. I think today we were kind of spoiled with the weather. Everything seemed pretty perfect. Have to see tomorrow how it is. If it's a little bit colder maybe you adjust. But I don't see it having to be too different. Q. The tuques and the throw-back jerseys, tough to make a hockey team look good. What did you think of that attire for the picture? SIDNEY CROSBY: No, it's nice. A lot of guys were commenting they'd like to wear that jersey more. It's a pretty sharp jersey. It's fun for us to switch it up a bit, get some new clothing, things like that. We all look forward to that. It's nice. Q. What do you think about Buffalo and playing a big game here? SIDNEY CROSBY: It's nice. Great hockey fans here. It's close to Canada. You're going to get some Canadian fans. It's close enough to Pittsburgh that a lot of people will come down to see the game. It's a great location with a great fan base. I think two teams that like to play a pretty good style of hockey. I think it's a great matchup. Q. Did it feel taller, bigger out there? SIDNEY CROSBY: Felt tiny. Really felt small when you put it in a football stadium. You really see how big this venue is. It felt a little smaller. It's a little elevated, too, which feels a little weird. You'll have to ask the goalies, too. I'm not sure how it is with all the seating, the stadium. I'm not sure how they see it. There wasn't really too strong of a sun. Not much of a glare. It was pretty good. Q. I've seen a lot of Steelers/Bills game. The Steelers fans are all over the place. They travel well. SIDNEY CROSBY: I hope we have Penguin Nation here. It's going to be fun to see that. No, like you said, when you watch games on TV, sometimes there's more Steelers fans than there is any other fans. But, you know, hopefully we have a lot of people that will travel. I don't know if there's tons and tons of tickets that we got, but I know that there were some that were allotted to Pittsburgh fans. Hopefully they're taken up and hopefully they make some noise out there. Q. When the league announced the change in the rules to the third period and potential overtime Saturday, we thought it was going to be the first stoppage after that time. They told us it would be a hard whistle. We realized you could be on a breakaway and be out of luck if you don't get the puck in there. How much does that change strategy? Do you think that's kind of bogus to do that? What's your thought on that? SIDNEY CROSBY: I think it makes sense. You go five minutes of play without a whistle, then it's going to be tough to explain that. With the hard whistle being there at 10 minutes, it's luck of the draw. That's the way it is. Hopefully that's not the case. That would be awful. Hopefully it's a loose puck in the neutral zone. It's an easy whistle and we'll move on, but I think that's probably the most fair way to do it. Q. What kind of game are you expecting tomorrow? Faster, slower? SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, it's tough to say. I'd say if it's a little bit colder it's probably not going to be quite as quick. You know, when it's colder you're probably not going to see as many hits or things like that. It will be more of a skating game. Depending on the ice, too, how it reacts with a full game. There's a lot of factors. But if you just look at the teams, it should be a pretty good game as far as chances and opportunities back and forth with the way the two teams play. So hopefully that's the case. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Sidney. Questions for coach. Q. The conditions out there match what you expected? COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: You know what, they did a great job to build that rink. The ice was pretty good. Seems to be good. From a coaching standpoint, the guys were skating really well. Maybe at the end you could see that it was getting (slushy?) a little bit. From our standpoint, it was pretty good. Q. The players on both teams have talked about their excitement for this game. How about for you? Are you excited, looking toward to coaching in this game? COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: There's no doubt it's going to be fun to be part of that. We're privileged to be part of that. But in the meantime we've got to understand this is a regular-season game, and I'm sure Lindy Ruff the same thing. He wants to have those two points and we want to have those two points. It should be a really interesting game, a lot of emotion, a lot of excitement. But in the meantime we've got to be sure we're focused to do what we have to do to win the hockey game. Q. How much do you think your guys have used Conklin and Laraque based on the fact they played in the game in Edmonton four years ago? COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: Not much. Honestly, not much. I just talked with Conklin after practice and asked him if he saw the puck pretty well, because this is a different -- the vision could be different at times. He said he is seeing the puck really well. But on the other hand, because it's only one game, you know, it's like something, those guys even, they're not used to it. Just one game. The experience is not such a big factor, I believe. Q. Does a game like this create momentum either way, a victory or a loss? Montréal played very well after that game in Edmonton. COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: Time will tell, you know (laughter). But the Sabres are playing really well lately, and we're playing really well lately, too. We played those guys not too long ago and it was a tight checking game with a lot of speed. That was a good hockey game that we played in Pittsburgh. This is two teams who likes to play a high-tempo game, like to control the puck, like to use their skills. So that should be a very interesting game to play tomorrow. Q. Ty Conklin played in the Heritage Classic. Can we expect to see him there tomorrow because of the experience factor? COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: No, not only because of the experience factor, but because he deserves to play. He's been playing well for us since we called him up. He's got the hot hand right now, and that's the reason why that he's going to play. It's not because he played in Edmonton, in that game three or four years ago. There's nothing to do with it. Because he's playing well, he deserves to play, and he's going to be the guy. Q. The game on Saturday night, is that about as well as your team can play defense? I can't remember an out-numbered situation they had. They had very few scoring chances. Is that about as well as your team can play? COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: We try to focus about -- managing well the puck, first of all, playing really well when we don't have the puck. We want to play a tight checking game. Right now we start to get reward about playing that type of checking hockey. We're a young team. It's a learning process for a lot of those young guys. Last game, we break down the game, like you said, we didn't give up a lot of scoring chances against. That's a good sign. Q. Do you do anything differently because it's an outdoors game? Do you change the way you forecheck? Do you do anything differently? COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: No. The only thing probably our shifts should be shorter, but not the way you're supposed to play. It's so tough to try to sell one system. So you come in the day of the game like this and you try to change the way you're supposed to play and you could end up to be in trouble pretty quickly. We're going to concentrate on doing the things that we've been preaching since day one: Playing our system. We got to make sure we've got to be disciplined. We got to play to win the hockey game. I know there's a lot of attention to that game, but on our standpoint we got to win this game. Q. What is your opinion of the league's decision to go to the hard whistle at the 10-minute mark? COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: I think it's fair. I think it's fair. Depends on the wind. If there's a wind factor, I think it's fair. Q. What is the defense rotation where Orpik sat out a game, and Darryl Sydor sat out a game? Do you have an excess of NHL-quality defensemen? COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: Right now we don't, because we miss Mark Eaton, who was the partner of Sergei Gonchar. He's got responsibility to play against top players, so that's a huge loss for us. But at that time we got seven guys that got NHL experience. As long as they played well, as long as they played their game, there's going to be a rotation. But on the other hand, when we see one of the guy's game slip down a little bit, you know, we're not going to hurt the team just to please someone. That's been always our philosophy. It happened to Darryl Sydor early in the season that was (indiscernible). After a few games, got great attitude, came back and played really well for us. This is what it's all about, what you're supposed to give. Right now he's playing well. It's the same thing with Brooks Orpik. The intention to be part of a rotation, and we were honest with it. In the meantime, we have to have the last decision to see if the guy is playing well or not. But you know what, since he's been back in the lineup, he's been back for two games, and he's playing with Kris Letang. This is a good pairing for us and he's playing really well. That's what we're looking for from a player: to be good. Q. Do you worry a little bit about that you've now gotten younger with Gary being out? COACH MICHEL THERRIEN: Well, people were saying we were young last year. This team grew up quick. Sometimes we kind of forget we had two young guys that's got an important role in our team. Kris Letang, he's 20 years old and he's playing on the first unit of power play a lot of time. He's playing on a regular basis. We had Tyler Kennedy, who is 21 years old, played only 40 games in the American Hockey League last year. So you all get the tendency to say we're younger than last year, even if last year we're young. I think that's the best way to grow together. We got to compensate because we don't have much experience on the ice. But we got to compensate with our passion, with the energy. From a coaching standpoint, it's fun. They want to learn. They wanted so much to learn. They want to work so hard. It's a fun group to coach. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach. End of FastScripts |
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