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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v RED WINGSMay 16, 2009Mike BabcockJohan FranzenNicklas LidstromChris OsgoodHenrik ZetterbergDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions for Mike Babcock. Q. Considering you've only had one practice to get ready for tomorrow, are you guys ready? I notice you practiced probably an hour, I haven't seen you practice that long in a long time. Can you talk about your practice today and your preparation for tomorrow. MIKE BABCOCK: Well, we didn't practice an hour. We practiced 40 minutes. We got out there late today because we met so much today. Normally you have a couple days. Today we had to jam it in. That's just the way it is. No different than cramming for a course. I'm sure all of us have done that in the past. We're going to be ready and prepared and look forward to playing a good Chicago team. Q. Talk about playing a team so many times in the regular season, eight times having the Winter Classic this year, and now you guys are playing for the Conference Finals. MIKE BABCOCK: I thought it was real special we played them in the Winter Classic this year. I thought that was a really great event, as good a family event as I've ever been to in a sporting arena. Normally big events are this time of the year, the pressure is that you don't have your family with you. It's not the same atmosphere. That was a great atmosphere. They got a real good team. We've had some good battles with them over the last two years. They play with high skill. They've got four lines that can score, especially if they have Sharp playing where he did for part of last year. You look at 'em, they're going to be a tough opponent. But it should be a lot of fun. Q. You've been asked a lot about Pavel Datsyuk recently. What do you like to see out of his game? Is he playing well? Does something need to change? MIKE BABCOCK: I thought last game he was fantastic. He got run over behind the net by Marchant to set up the third goal. To me that's a great sign. Any time you're willing to pay the price and take the abuse he did to win, that's a good sign. Pavel is a proud guy. He wants to be leading the team in scoring. He usually does. When he's not, he probably puts some pressure on himself. He's just got to make sure he's not thinking too much and just play the game. I don't think it would be any different for Hossa, Filppula, any of those guys that haven't scored at the rate they normally do. Q. How are Kane and Toews the same or different in terms of what they bring to the Blackhawks? MIKE BABCOCK: There's nothing similar about them at all. Toews to me, he's a will guy. He's the guy you need to have for your franchise because he's a guy that's gonna play two ways. He's the guy that's going to will your team to success, he's the guy that's going to set the tone in practice. Off ice, he's the guys who's going to do all those things. Kane is the guy who can channel in a phone booth, he can just flat out -- how can a guy that size go into traffic like he does, never get touched, be so strong on the puck, score as many goals as he does, yet always be open on the back door, shoot the puck, have the instincts he has, play in big games? To me he's an exciting, fantastic player. But they're very much different. Q. How much do you take from the six times you played this team in the regular season into this series? MIKE BABCOCK: None. I mean, we know who they are. We know what they do, how they play technically. It's not an exhibition, but it's close. That's what it is. They matter because you need some points. But there's no way there's the focus. It's no different than our series with Anaheim this year. I think, if I'm not mistaken, we were 3-1 or 3-0-1 with Anaheim. Now this series, any way you look at it with Chicago, 4-2 for us, we're 2-2-2 any way you want to look at it. It doesn't matter. It starts all tomorrow. Q. You mentioned Pavel being a proud guy. Tomas Holmstrom is another proud guy and he's just gone through a series where he didn't get a point. Where is his game at? Where do you think you need more from him? MIKE BABCOCK: Obviously net front on the power-play, he's got to do his job. He's got to find a way to contribute. So competing and being -- he was out lead today so that's usually a good sign for us. He's a competitive guy, too. Obviously when you go through a whole series and you're normally a guy who scores, when it doesn't happen for you, you're fortunate you're on a good team. Some of these guys who haven't scored if they were on different teams wouldn't be playing in the playoffs anymore. In our situation, we have enough depth that other people pick you up. They only pick you up for so long and then you got to do your part, too. Q. How nice is it that two original six teams are going to determine the Western Conference champion? MIKE BABCOCK: I think that's very nice if you're an original six team. Until you're a part of one, you don't think about it or care about it as much. But when you're part of one -- you know, Gordie was down yesterday, Ted was down the day before, Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Howe, and then you see Alex around, the guys around, that's impressive. When you go to Chicago, you see Mr. Hull, Mr. Mikita, I think those are special things. The great thing about those players is they've won. I think if you've won, that's something you carry with you forever. I think when you're there with the young guys, when Mr. Lindsay tells you something or Mr. Howe tells you something, you tend to listen. Q. How much impact do you think Scottie has had on this team in just a single year? MIKE BABCOCK: I don't know. You'd have to ask them. I don't know how they go about their business there whatsoever. My time here with Scottie, post lockout, and everything I did with Scottie involved me pursuing it. I don't know if that answers your question. You know, Scottie is a book of knowledge. Number one, he's got to be willing to share with you. Number two, you got to want it. Q. Can you talk about Cleary. Last year he was in the playoffs more of a checking role. This year more of an offensive role. Just his ability to adapt to any role that's given to him. How valuable is it to have a guy like that that can do so many different things for you? MIKE BABCOCK: He's a real good player. He was a gifted, gifted kid. I heard him the other day telling the guys how high end he was when he was young. I had to laugh, but he was. He was beyond gifted. He just -- things happened too fast for him. It took him a while to get his career back. Now he can flat-out do anything. He's a big body. He's good with the puck. He's strong down low. He can match up well against the best players. He's good on the penalty kill. You know, on our team, he's real good on the power-play, net front, too. Maybe that's something we'll have to consider if guys don't start dipping some in there. But he's overall a good player, and he's valuable to have. I think on most teams that are successful, you have a lot of guys that can do that. When you think about winning Game 7, we got goals from Helm, Samuelsson, Cleary. Who else scored in that game? Hoots. That's good secondary scoring. Q. In Anaheim you had the experience in front of the net, you had the experienced defensemen and the young goalie. Now with Chicago you have a young team and an inexperienced goalie. Can you talk about the differences? MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I think, I said this the other day, I think Seabrook and Keith are a really good matchup pair. Seabrook is a big body, passes the puck well. Keith skates as good as anybody in hockey. They're both competitive guys. They've had some knocks over the years here. They've gotten better together. They started with a Chicago team that wasn't very good. So I think those guys are excellent that way. Then Hjalmarsson is really a good player, can really skate. Campbell can really skate. They're puck movers. Barker has a bomb from the back end. And Walker is a stay-at-home guy. Almost like a Brookbank, a right-handed shot who is going to cross-check you and abuse you at the net. This group can really move the puck. I don't think they have the ability to be as nasty as the last group we played against. And yet they can really move the puck. So everybody's got to play to their strengths. Q. Can you talk about Helm, what was the decision behind him putting on the line with Hossa in Game 7? MIKE BABCOCK: Well, that's a good question. You know, I just didn't think it was going as well for Hossa and Pavel. So I put Phil there. I wanted more speed. I moved Tommy off that line and put him on the fourth line. Now I had too many players for the third and fourth line. So someone had to get moved around a little bit, so I put Hossa there with Hudler. I thought maybe the matchup might be better for them. What we tried to do is in Anaheim what they basically said is, Z and Pavel and Homer's line, they thought they could shut down with Marchant. They put Niedermayer and Pronger against the fill line with Hossa and Franzen. We wanted to spread them out so they couldn't do that, so that's what we did. Q. Does Chicago's youth make them more dangerous than Dallas in the semis last season, more loose than you think or than most teams or... ? MIKE BABCOCK: No. But, I mean, experience, youth. They're in the final four. I think early on maybe nerves can be a factor for you. I don't think nerves are a factor for either team now. I think it's just a matter of playing. Youth could be an advantage. If we weren't traveling very far, it's convenient for us that it's 45 minutes. You know, I don't know the answer to any of those questions. We're gonna know at the end of the series whether experience had the advantage or whether youth did. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Mike. Questions for Nicklas Lidstrom and Johan Franzen. Q. Nick, Kane and Toews remind you of anybody else in the league now or maybe somebody you played 10, 15 years ago? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: I think if you look at the team we just played, Anaheim, with Getzlaf and Perry, they're similar with the skill levels. I think Getzlaf and Perry are maybe a little bit bigger guys. They have the speed, both Kane and Toews. They're skill players. They're able to hang on to the puck. They're poised with the puck. They can wait for teammates to get open, late D, jumping up in the play. Comparing them to players I played against earlier in my career or with, maybe Sergei a little bit when he played, the way he could skate with the puck, draw two defenders to him. Otherwise, I can't really think of anyone that would stick out. Q. Nick, what do you recall from the last time you guys met the Blackhawks in the post-season back in that 1995 Western Conference Final series? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Well, I remember Cheli being on that team, for one. I remember Kozlov scoring the series-winning goal in overtime. But I remember we beat them 4-1. I remember it being a tough, tight series. They were a hard-fought team to play against back then. Cheli was a big part of their team, playing a lot of minutes, playing against our top players. Overall, I remember just that tough series we had against them. Q. Nick, along those same lines, that series, Kane was six years old when that series was played. Toews had just turned seven. Kind of puts in perspective how long this team has been good. NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Yeah, you know, we've been able to keep the core group for a long period of time. We've had young players, new players coming in. I think back in the '90s, we had Sergei and Stevie being our two go-to guys down the middle. Now we have Pavel and Hank being our go-to guys. We've been able to keep a lot of players for a long period of time. I think that's one of the reasons we've been successful. We haven't had a lot of players leaving the team and new guys coming in. We've had few new guys every season but have been able to keep the core players. Kenny and Jim have been doing a great job scouting and finding players, finding a player like Mule here that brings so much to our team, Holmstrom. You can go down the line. Pavel and Hank was a late pick as well. They've been doing a great job identifying talent and bringing them to our team. Q. Nick, how nice is it that two original six teams are going to determine the Western Conference champ? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: I think it's great. I think it's great two of the original six are playing each other in the Conference Finals. When I first started in the league, we had some great battles with the Blackhawks. They reached the finals in the early '90s. They had tough teams to play against. So it's great to get that rivalry going again. Since the lockout, they've been getting better and better. Their younger players are their best players, I believe. They've just been getting better and better. They've been getting some experience. I think in these two rounds they played so far, they've gained a lot of experience from knowing how to play in the playoffs compared to regular season. Q. Johan, Mike Babcock said that playing them in the regular season going 4-2 against them was akin to pre-season or exhibition, that it doesn't matter now. What can you guys as players draw on from the experience of playing against them and what you know about their team as often as you see them? JOHAN FRANZEN: Well, yeah, when we play them a lot of times, you gonna start to know their players, what their special moves are, where they're going to shoot the puck, how to play defense. We can use that, yeah, use our experience, and hopefully know what they gonna do out there. Q. Johan, talk about having one day to prepare after coming off such an emotional series with the Ducks and having this practice and then all of a sudden you've got to play tomorrow in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. JOHAN FRANZEN: Yeah, we usually been lucky to finish our series in six games. We don't get as much rest. But I think everyone is fresh. We feel good. No injuries or anything like that. So I think we'll be fine. NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Yeah, I think it helps playing a team that's in our division, that we've seen six times, kind of know their tendencies, know the players fairly well, I think know their goaltender as well. I think that helps preparing for a team in the playoffs. It's not regular season hockey we're facing now. I think it helps knowing most of their players and their tendencies going into a bit of a short break that we had, getting into the next series here. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Nick and Johan. Questions for Henrik and Chris. Q. Hank, how much do you think it helped you in your career that when you came to the Red Wings, you weren't asked to be a star right away, kind of like Kane and Toews are right now? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: I think it helped me when first time I got here right away I played with good players. You know, I didn't play in all situations. They kind of just eased me in. I learned a lot in the first two years. Q. Henrik, a lot of people have been asking about Pavel, lack of production overall in the playoffs. How do you think he's handled whatever criticism he maybe has faced and is handling the pressure having to try and produce? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: I think he's been handling it good. He's been working really hard. He's been contributing other ways than just scoring. He's creating lot of chances. He really, you know, gives us momentum. I think it's easier for our line to come in after, you know, his line has been in there for a minute or so in their end. It's easier for us to come in and create some offense. Q. Chris, it was a while back when you last met the Blackhawks in the playoffs. You've met them more than any other franchise has met in the regular season. Why do you think it is you've sustained playoff-level hockey for so many years ever since '95 and even before and yet this is their first time back into the Conference Finals? CHRIS OSGOOD: I just think it starts with the way Ken Holland and Jim Nill have drafted players. We've always been able to find diamonds in the rough, guys later in rounds that are good players that other teams have passed by. When these players do get to the NHL, we always have had guys that have showed them how to be leaders, how to win in the playoffs. We've had guys like Steve Yzerman, Shanahan. For me I got a chance to play with Mike Vernon and a lot of different goalies that taught me -- Dominik Hasek, even when I was here with him, teaching me how to handle myself and approach the playoffs. It's been the same for all of our players that are here now. They've never been by themselves. They've always had the opportunity and chance to learn from guys that have been ahead of them. It's made us that much better, and it's enabled us to be good for so long. Q. Past Conference Finals have been even rivalries with Dallas, Colorado, Anaheim, and the distance is so far away. Can you talk about the closeness between Detroit and Chicago and with the Winter Classic, how the rivalry kicked up a little bit? CHRIS OSGOOD: I mean, it's great for us for starters. We're ecstatic about travel. It's tough flying back and forth, again, the huge time change. If anything, for the fans I think it will be great. Both cities, fans will be able to travel back and forth. To play Chicago, we're excited about it. We haven't played them for a long time. A lot of guys on our team haven't played them in playoffs ever. Likewise for them. I think it's an exciting series. We're a veteran team that's won before, experienced. They're the up-and-coming young fast team that's playing fearless hockey right now. So it's going to be exciting. Q. You are used to closing out series and getting a few days to prepare for teams. What do you expect out of this team in Game 1 with only one day to prepare? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: Well, I think they will come out fighting. They have a young, fast team. They will skate hard against us. You know, I think we got our rest before the last series. We had I think eight days off. So we're ready to go when the puck drops tomorrow. Q. I was asking Johan how much you can know about a team from facing them in the regular season and how much it changes when you move into the post-season against a team you've seen six times already this year. CHRIS OSGOOD: Team-wise, not as much as individually. We know a lot of their guys just from playing against them. Obviously we know Khabibulin, we've played with him a ton over the years. Anaheim was a completely different team when they played them in the playoffs this year than what they were when we played them in the regular season. They made a lot of changes and they improved a ton and they were very good. So we expect the same from Chicago. Yeah, we did play them at the end of the year, but both game games were as meaningless as they get. We expect the intensity level, the speed level and their type of play to be bumped up that much higher. The games are totally different than the regular season. But individually we know what their tendencies are, but we're gonna have to be able to match that for the whole series. Q. You obviously played some good defensemen in the last series. Can you talk about the top pairing or two in Chicago, the challenge they pose based on their youthfulness and the way Seabrook has been playing this year? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: I think it's kind of similar that we faced against Anaheim. They're really good in their own end. But still, when they get the puck, they really can play good offense, too. You got to be aware when they're out there. You got to be on the right side, otherwise if you get caught on the wrong side, they will hurt you. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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