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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v RED WINGS

May 19, 2009

Mikael Samuelsson

DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game Two

Detroit Â– 3
Chicago - 2

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Mike Babcock.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the defense on Kane, what Lidstrom was able to do back there.
MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I don't think we did as good a job tonight. He looked like he was having way too much fun for me out there. I thought we should have run over him a few times. But never happened. He had too much time and space tonight.
I don't know what it is with the two teams, but there's a lot of turnovers out there, boy. I don't know if it's because it's going so fast or what. But there's good chances that both teams had. I thought Khabibulin was good, and I thought Osgood was real good. If you're a hockey fan and not a coach, it was probably really exciting.

Q. Can you talk about how relieved or rewarding it is to win this game when they seemed so much better than they were in Game 1.
MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I thought this game was gonna be Game 1. I thought Game 1 was gonna be Game 2, to tell you the truth.
We just got off a long series. What we need more than anything is tomorrow off, just like what it's set up. We need two days in between games so bad it's not even funny, just to reenergize. I didn't think we had any legs or any pop tonight whatsoever, right through our lineup. I thought it was very evident right from the get-go. I thought we had good will and good determination, but no legs.

Q. As a coach, how big an advantage is it to have those four lines, even in overtime, playing the way they were, that kind of depth?
MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I think we're looking at a team that's the same thing. Their four lines, they had them all mixed up tonight. I thought Joel did a good job with that. You know, he got good performance out of his guys. His fourth line has been really good right through. So I think it's two teams that can go that way.
I thought tonight the best we played was when the coach didn't get involved and didn't worry about matchups and just got his guys out the door. That seemed to help us.
You know, it's important. Helmer is playing really good for us. Doing a really good job. I'm going to get Maltby back in the lineup next game. All in all, I thought we found a way to win two games against a really good team. Gives us a good start.
Yet this is a team that's gonna be very difficult to put away. They're determined. They're skilled. Their goalie's playing well.

Q. You mentioned Osgood was good. What about in the first period, when the Blackhawks had 19 shots? It looked like he bailed his defense out a little bit, Osgood did.
MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I thought he did. We got to the five-on-three. I thought we did a really good job killing the five-on-three. Sammy came out, instead of -- gave it to them, gave them a goal. I thought they took over for a period of time there . He did a good job. They had a lot of jams, stuff at his feet. I thought he held his ground good. Never got caught up in their guys trying to bump him or anything like that. Just played well.

Q. What challenges does it present having Toews and Kane separated?
MIKE BABCOCK: Well, you just got to pick your medicine, I guess, is what you got to do. You got to decide -- we started the game -- we were gonna go head-to-head against Toews. We decided we'd just do it against Kane, because Kane was having too much fun. So we just switched that around. So Nick go against him. Then Stuey and Kronner got the other guys.
You know, for me, our group on the back, since we got E, we're not as concerned with that stuff. We just get 'em out there.

Q. Talk about the play Sammy made to force the turnover on the winning goal and finish the three-on-one.
MIKE BABCOCK: Well, good for Sammy. That's one of those pucks, I'm sure they're thinking that over there on their side, these teams are so good transitionally. If the puck doesn't either get to the net or the end of rink, that's a huge mistake because here they come. That's what happened. We had a number of opportunities, odd-man rushes in the third period, and we didn't execute on them. They had good sticks. We didn't make the plays. This was a good opportunity for us obviously. It was great to see Hudler drive the net. Filppula made a really nice pass. Kind of showed the shot, and Khabibulin fed it to Sammy.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
Questions for Chris Osgood and Mikael Samuelsson.

Q. Ozzie, were you enjoying the old school duel between two 36-year-old Cup-winning goalies?
CHRIS OSGOOD: That was definitely a fun game. A fast-paced game. I played against Khabi lots in both of our careers. I have tons of respect for him, what he's done, especially the run he had with Tampa. It was fun for me to plays against Khabi, against Chicago. They got a fast, young, enthusiastic team. They gave us everything we could handle tonight, and even in Game 1.

Q. Sammy, talk about the game-winning play, what you saw, how that set up for you.
MIKAEL SAMUELSSON: Yeah, we were in their own zone. Kind of a risky play I should say. They had something good going on there. I just went over, put the stick down. Just was gonna throw it across. Intercepted it. I saw they went the other way. Yeah, kept skating with them. Yeah, great pass from Fil. Thank got it in.

Q. You said a risky play. On your part to go over to the other point?
MIKAEL SAMUELSSON: Yeah, something good was developing for them. Like they had -- I don't actually know what happened there. But, yeah, I usually don't go over to the other D. I did that time, and it worked.

Q. Chris, can you talk about the unique challenge for you? You had 19 shots in the first period, 37 shots, what the challenge was for you tonight.
CHRIS OSGOOD: Well, they come at you from every angle. They're so fast. Every line has a guy that can score. Obviously their defense is offensive. They're quick. They all have very good shots. For me, I can't let up for a second against anybody that's on the ice. Even the guys that don't have as much scoring prowess throw pucks to the net, crash the net.
I mean, they're a very good team. I've been impressed the first two games. They come out pretty hard. Offensively they're sharp. They make a lot of good plays, create a lot of havoc for us in our own zone.
For us, we're going to want to get pucks out of our zone as quick as possible, make a little quicker than we did tonight. They do have some talent. They took advantage of it tonight. But we managed to pull out a great victory for us tonight.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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