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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HURRICANES v PENGUINSMay 25, 2009Sidney CrosbyMarc Andre FleuryBrooks OrpikRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Practice Day Q. The demeanor of your hockey club right now fits the position you're in in the series. Do you like the fact you're so loose? SIDNEY CROSBY: We're pretty much the same. I don't think we've changed a whole lot. You know, we've got a big game here, and I don't think we've changed our demeanor a whole lot. But, you know, obviously we know what's at stake here. Q. After not getting much on on the power play in the first round, the last round and a half has been pretty productive being in game mode. What's changed? Anything particular? SIDNEY CROSBY: No, it's just execution. There's not a big difference. I think we were getting chances before. We weren't putting them in. It's just a matter of execution. We gave ourself a chance with getting more zone time and stuff like that. I think we've just done a better job of executing. Q. Obviously you want to win it as quickly as possible. Not to give them any light. What would you look for the sweep ideally? SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, we've put ourselves in this position. The last one's always the toughest. And we've had a couple of times to put things away, and we haven't done it yet. So we have to learn from that. And make sure our desperation's there. We don't want to waste any time. Take advantage of the opportunity we have. Q. Does getting that first goal make a difference in Game 4. Maybe putting doubt this their minds right away? SIDNEY CROSBY: It would help us for momentum and things like that. But they're going to fight to the end, and they have all series. You know, whether they're in the situation or not, they've been resilient the whole playoffs and against us as well. So we'd like to get the first one. And we always would like that. But I don't think we're expected to do it. Q. Is there anything that surprises you about the position the team is in? SIDNEY CROSBY: No, we've worked hard. We've earned this situation. But we haven't finished anything yet, and we realize we have to do that. Q. You know, in hockey there's a lot of comparisons to be made. People are starting to compare you and Geno to Jagr and Lemieux. Of what's it like in the beginning when people compared you to the great one. Now they're drawing comparisons to the dynamic duo. SIDNEY CROSBY: I think for me, I can only speak for myself, but I've date with that for a long time comparisons and things like that. It's a compliment, but we don't want to read a whole lot into it. We want to make sure, as far as myself and Geno go, that we're contributing, and if we're looking at that then we're doing something right. I don't think we need to change anything, but it's a compliment. Q. Do you get the sense that you're part of something special because definitely Gretzky and Messier were? SIDNEY CROSBY: Well, these guys won, too. They've won championships. And we haven't done that. So like I said, it's a compliment, but at the same time we still have a lot to prove, so, we've got to keep doing the same thing. Q. Can you compare where they are when you watch them practice to some of the rest of the top stars in the league? In your opinion, where do they rank those two guys right now in the league? MARC-ANDRE FLEURY: Like, they're up there. You know, they're finishing one third in so many ways. And right now they're on fire to both of them. Q. In this series, you've won three, and everybody talks about how tough it is. Do you remember in years having been on the verge of the cup final? How does it compare this year? MARC-ANDRE FLEURY: It's always a new year, new series. But the last game's always tough to get, you know. We expect them to come out hard, you know, and, you know, we've got to be ready for that. Q. Jordan has a reward for you if you shut out his brother in this series and keep him off the score sheet? MARC-ANDRE FLEURY: Yeah, we don't talk about it. BROOKS ORPIK: I thought they had a really good start, the first, five, ten minute start. We were lucky enough to get a goal to neutralize it to 1-1, that was huge for us. And then, obviously, the two goals. Specifically, I think it's just not turning the puck over. We're making it tough on them. Any time they do get the puck, they're getting it deep in their zone, so they have to come through four or five guys. Whereas before, we were maybe turning the puck over too much in the Washington series, and they were counting with the 3 on 2's. The biggest thing is the puck management right now. Q. You have some wiggle room in the series. How critical is it to close these guys out tomorrow? Rod was saying if you plant a seed of doubt you can win this game. Is it critical to get this done tomorrow? BROOKS ORPIK: Yeah, I think a lot of us have been on this side of the situation, too. And don't want to say it's a false sense of hope, but if we can have a good start, we can really crush a lot of the hope that they do have. And get it in their heads early that maybe they don't have a chance. Yeah, I don't think anyone's looking too far ahead. Everyone's just been talking about Game 4 here. No one's been talking about who we might face or who we might play in the next round. So I don't think that's going to be a problem here. Everyone knows we've got to close it out as quick as possible. Q. This has been a different run for you guys. Last year, you've already played more games than you played last year when you moved into the final. And you had your backs against the wall a little bit. You didn't have a lot of that the first three rounds last year. How different has this been this year? BROOKS ORPIK: It's been different. Yeah, with all respect to teams we played last year, it was a pretty easy ride there. I don't know. Two games we lost before the finals. So it was a pretty smooth ride there. We got a lot of time off, which was beneficial for injuries and stuff like that. Yeah, I don't know. There were just a lot of times this year maybe we could have caved in and lost our composure. I think maybe last year, maybe even in the finals helped us a lot in the first couple of rounds, they were getting scored on Washington. Yeah, a little bit different feel, but I think the maturity level here is a lot higher than it was last year, too. End of FastScripts |
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