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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: PENGUINS v RED WINGSMay 29, 2009Chris OsgoodHenrik ZetterbergDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Practice Day Q. Just thinking back to last year, Marian Hossa, having to play against him in the finals and what it's been like having him on your team this year? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: I think he's, you know, attributed a lot. Just his skating ability, his size and the force he's been for us this year, he's been unbelievable. Q. Talk a little bit about in the middle of the year when you took a little bit of a break, and cleared your mind and that sort of thing? Take us through where that has brought you now and to be here in the cup finals has got to be obviously outstanding for you? CHRIS OSGOOD: I mean, by no means did I enjoy the first half of the season. It was a struggle. I wasn't mentally prepared to start the year. I know that sounds bad but that's the truth. I mean, coming off last season I didn't do the right things. To be ready. And I know I'll make sure that doesn't happen between. I can guarantee you I'll not have a regular season like that again. But I've known keen since I've been 14 years old. I don't want to say he's a second father to me, but pretty close. And he's called me in and just told me to be me. I had to get back to being I myself and what I need to do to get back. Just kind of a wake-up call, kind of. He told me you're going to work with Jim Bedard for three days, it was on the weekend, you'll be practicing with the team again, but you're not going to play for ten days. Which, at the time now that I think back, probably should have happened in November earlier. But given the fact that we had won, I think it gave me more time to try to work my he way through it. But it was good. I got a good break. Got to work on some things with Jimmy and cleared my mind. It was kind of like that was my new starting point to get ready for the playoffs was that January break. It was really good. I just cleared my mind, and I just 100% on, got myself ready for the playoffs. Worked hard in practice on and off the ice. So I knew the playoffs started, I knew I was ready. I didn't have any doubt in my mind I had done the right things in practice and done the right things off the ice. My mind was in the right spot that I knew I was going in the right -- in a good spot. Q. How weird was it looking back to not have Nick on the ice and to know that he's going to be in Game 1 against Pittsburgh? What does that mean to you? How much more comforting is it? CHRIS OSGOOD: I think when we found out in Chicago, certain guys found out at different times whether it be at premeal or the cab or at the rink when they got there. We never talked about it in the dressing room. Nobody even mentioned his name. It's kind of like if a pitcher's throwing a no hitter, nobody goes near him. We didn't want to mention it. Nobody wanted to talk about it. We just went out there and realized he's not going to be with us. We're missing some other guys, but we have the guys in here that can do it. We have that confidence level even in the guys that don't play or are in our lineup on a regular basis, they can step up and do a great job for us. For Nick to be back in Game 1 is huge. It's going to help us on our power play off obviously. But Nick defensively is one of a kind. He's one of those guys that can shut down other team's star players on his own. So for us to have him back is going to be huge. Especially in Game 1. We were up in Chicago 2-0 to lead those guys. But to start a series without a lot of those guys would be difficult. Q. I don't know if you've had a chance to see much of the Penguins this spring and in the brief scouting time you've had to look at tape. What do you see differently from Malkin and Crosby this year than last year? CHRIS OSGOOD: I just see them as a -- their team on a whole is different. I look at their four lines. They're a lot deeper than they were last year. They seem to be driving the puck to the net more. They're more physical down low. They're strike cycling more. Last year when we played them they're a little more on the perimeter. They were trying some pretty plays. This year they seem Staal and Malkin especially are taking pucks to the net. Especially wrapping it around and trying to crowd the crease. I think they don't try to score as many pretty goals as they were last year. They're happier just to score the ugly, bang it in the net goals. So that's definitely going to pose -- I don't want to say problems, but we'll have to be ready for something different from them this season. That comes with experience. You learn from mistakes and move on. I think they have as a team. Because they've had guys like Kuhn its and guerin, and guys that have won the Cup before, I don't think Malkin and Crosby feel like it's all on them like maybe it was last year. Now they're part of a team. They just seem to me like they're a complete team as a whole. And for us, it's going to pose a challenge. It's a fun challenge. It's going to be a great series. We look at it as fun, we'll be ready and so will they. Q. Can you talk a little about the match-up with Crosby again? And you seemed perception-wise you got the best of that last year. Do you enjoy taking on the guys that are the face of the league? And how frustrated was he with you by the end of the series? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: Well, last year we played a lot of minutes against each other. And it was, for sure, a challenge. If it's going to end up being that this year I'm looking forward to it. He's a great player. He's got a lot of skill. You know, he works really hard, so you've got to be on your toes. You've got to play well, otherwise he will hurt you. Q. Can you talk about the differences between the '97 and '98 teams that won the Cup and now this year's team and last year's team that can do the same? CHRIS OSGOOD: I think both teams are pretty complete teams. They're both deep. It's tough because it's a different era so it's different hockey, different teams, that was more clutch grabbing hockey. I think the talent level is a lot higher now. I think this team can win in more different ways than those teams could. We can win ugly. We can win a wide open game. We can win the grind them out games where they're close 2-1 games where maybe we don't have anybody or we're not on our game. We're capable of just being satisfied grinding out a 2-1 win. I think that would be the number one difference between these two teams and the teams from '97-98. But pretty similar in every other aspect depth-wise and everything. But I just feel these two teams, last year and this year are more able to win in different ways than those two teams were. Q. What have you learned from your team that maybe you didn't know a month ago whether it's the seventh game or with Anaheim or finishing off the Hawks without all those big names what are you doing now? CHRIS OSGOOD: Just our ability to turn it on when we have to. In the regular season we really didn't. We were in a holding pattern the majority of the time. Winning games and maybe we shouldn't have sometimes. Then we turn it on and win a 6-4 game or 6-5. Games we were happy we won but not with the way we played. So really going into the playoffs we he weren't sure we'd get back into that lock down style we played in the previous year in the playoffs. So I've been impressed with the way we, number one, I know our penalty killing gave up 12 consecutive goals. One goal a game in 12 games. But I think it's been way better than it has been in the regular season. I think defensively we've been way better. We're selling out a lot more than we did in the regular season. So just our ability to turn it on. I knew we were deep, but I didn't know we were that deep. I didn't know Abdelkader, I knew Helm was good, but I didn't know he was that good. And I knew Ericsson was a good player from training camp, but for him to come in and play against the Nashes and Perry and Getzlafs and Kane and Toews and the best players in the NHL it's amazing to me just how good these young players really are. It inspires us old guys to try to keep up to them. I mean, it just amazed me the resilience of our team has really amazed me over the last two seasons. Q. You spoke of how the game's different now. We just saw the Pittsburgh-Washington series was maybe one of the most entertaining series played in decades. This series shapes up to be two open, good skate teams. Is the game since they've changed the rules in the lockout, has everyone figured out how to play it? And are we looking at a series to remember? CHRIS OSGOOD: I think it took time after the lockout for players to realize how it was going to be called. There were a lot of penalties called right after. Guys were complaining. It took time for players to adjust to the way the rules were being called. But I think the rule changes that they put into the game you're now reaping the rewards of them. Where the star players are able to skate. There's not as much clutching and grabbing. Guys are able to go to the net. I still think the game, the physicality of the game is still there. They allow that. And I think the game is at its best spot it's ever been in the history of the game, I think right now from what I see. But the skating and the talent that is on the ice. We don't need 6, 5 games to be excited. I watched those games. They were great end-to-end action. Lot of great skill on the ice. I think you'll see the same now. That's what the NHL has to keep doing. Not change a ton of rules. Just making sure we stick with what we've got going right now. Q. For all the experience you and your team have, playing at a point in the finals in back-to-back years hasn't been done. Is there any on on the surface advantages or are there advantages you see for either side going into this one? CHRIS OSGOOD: I think experience is an advantage. I think their experience last year and this year will also help them. I think these are two experienced teams that are coming in and playing. They've added some guys that have won the Cup. But for us, we lean on our experience in Game 1 against Columbus, being there before. Everybody said can they turn it on and play and we showed we could. And against Anaheim we really had to. That was a tough grind it out series where every foot was fought for. A rally talented team that knew how to win. We had to really work for. We used our experience in Game 4 in Anaheim, Game 5 and Game 7 we didn't panic. We stuck with our game and played a good Chicago team. Even though we ran out of gas a bit in Game 5, we stuck with our game plan. Got pucks out. Did the smart things. I think that comes with experience. We give ourselves an opportunity to win those games and went to overtime. We were fortunate to win 2 out of 3 of them. Q. There's been a lot of talk around the league about Crosby adding more to his game and becoming a complete player and playing a lot more, without the puck, contributing in other ways other than scoring. Is that just a natural maturation of a player? Did you kind of go through that yourself where you learned that you can do more for your team, not just by scoring goals but making plays without the puck? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: Yeah, I think he has the complete package. He's scoring goals and making plays. He's working hard both on and off the ice. He's their leader. And one thing this year, you know, he's scoring a lot more goals than the last year. Unfortunately we haven't been able to see too many other games, but if you watch the highlights he's been scoring some goals. Q. How to stop Malkin, any thoughts on that? Is there special tactics? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: Well, you know, it's the same thing as Crosby. You know, he's really skilled. You know, he's a big body, strong on his skates and his stick. And you just have to be aware when he's out there. Try to be on the right side all the time. You know, play physical at him. Q. You talked about how you didn't do the things you were supposed to do at the end of last season, but you'd won Cups before. Why was last year different? What didn't you do? CHRIS OSGOOD: Enjoyed it too much (laughing). That's the truth (smiling). Yeah, a little bit of that. But physically I did everything I needed to do. Mentally you go from playing in a great series against Pittsburgh in the finals and these games are huge. You're playing triple overtime and you lose, you go back to Pittsburgh and win Game 5 or six that's real difficult. And you come down to last shot and the puck's on your side. You wonder how am I going to get up for a game on Tuesday when it's snowing against Minnesota at home in Detroit or on a Thursday. That's something I had to work my way through. It's amazing, at 36 I've played a long time. You still have things that you have to learn and adjust to. That was one of them I think I adjusted to it in January. It took me longer than I would have liked obviously. But like I said before, going into next year I'll know how to approach it differently. Regards to what happened this season, I can guarantee that's not going to happen again. I feel like I'm going to have a great regular season next year. I know it's looking a long ways ahead. But I don't look at it as being a negative. When stuff happens like that, I use it as a positive. Change my thinking, make the corrections and move on. I think that's just another thing that, unfortunately, I had to learn at that time. But it was good. Q. Just wondering if as a goalie if the scheduling of this series is a poses a tough thing with back-to-back games right off the bat? CHRIS OSGOOD: I don't -- not at this time of the year. I think you look forward to playing the games. Once we started playing the games I was talking with somebody when I was walking up here. It's fun once you start playing the games. You get in the rinks and it's loud. The fans are going and the competition level is high. You just want to get out there and play back-to-back games. Games 3 and 4. And we played Thursday or Saturday. The games are just going to keep rolling on. At this time you don't want to practice that much. You want to get out, play the games. That's the best part of it right now is getting on the ice and playing the games. So I don't think it will. I think physically guys are going to be rested enough to be able to play. 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