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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: PENGUINS v RED WINGSMay 30, 2009Justin AbdelkaderNicklas LidstromChris OsgoodDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game One Pittsburgh – 1 Q. This will be your big chance. Describe your first NHL playoff goal. Can you take us through it? JUSTIN ABDELKADER: Yeah, Ville made a good play behind the net and beat his defenseman, and made a good turn up. And I yell at him, kind of stayed on that close post, and he gave me a great pass. I got actually a good first shot off. Fleury made a great save. The puck kind of went up in the air, I jumped up, grabbed it, pulled it down and put it on net. Q. You scored big goals before most notably for Michigan State in the title game. Where does this rank in terms of that? JUSTIN ABDELKADER: I think it's right up there, obviously, with Michigan State. It was kind of like a Game 7 situation because it's a one-game elimination with 18.9 seconds. So that would be a tough one to beat. But I think this one is right up there. Q. You had to sit for long periods of time during this game. How do you keep your mind ready to go, and more importantly your legs ready to go when you're not out on the ice? JUSTIN ABDELKADER: Yeah, it can be tough, you know. I haven't been in that situation really in my whole career. So it's a little adjustment for me. But just between whistles, trying to get on the ice, keep my legs underneath me and just follow the play everywhere. Stay into the game, because you never know when your next shift's going to be, and you have to be ready for it. Q. Did you have a feeling that Malkin was going to go high on that breakaway? CHRIS OSGOOD: No, because I haven't really seen him. I mean, I played him once in the last more or less year, so I really have no idea. I've seen him take slap shots on breakaways and do a bunch of different things. In my mind, I just wanted to stay up and be as big as I could, and just try to stay on net as much as I could. He's got a great shot and he can make great moves. I was fortunate to get my hand on it. Q. Your team scored a couple of goals from bouncing on the end boards. How long did it take for you to adjust to that here in this rink? CHRIS OSGOOD: Well, it just kind of happened in the last two years, really. It's tough for goalies. They're scoring lots in the regular season on them. Especially if it comes off one side and out the other, you're pretty much left defenseless. It can be frustrating, but you've got to work them the best you can. For me, I just try to get back to my post as quick as I can. And sometimes it just has to do with getting a good bounce, and it doesn't come back in front of somebody's stick. I had a few in the third that went right back in front and went on our stick instead of theirs. They definitely are dangerous, and tonight they bounced our way. Q. Can you talk about the sequence that led to the puck being in the middle of your back, and I think Zetterberg jumped on your back? CHRIS OSGOOD: Somebody took a wrister from the blue liner. I didn't even see it. It went off my arm and off to the side. Crows bee got a hand on it. I think it hit my arm and bounced up in the air on top of my back. I knew it was there, but I'm not that flexible. I can't really grab it on my back. So I was kind of just hoping for the best at that point. And Lebs was covering on my back. I was telling him to glove it off my back. I was hoping he wasn't going to get a penalty for it. Q. Just a follow up on what you're saying on the end boards. You're saying it changed in the last two years? CHRIS OSGOOD: I think in the last two years they've gotten more lively. Q. Do you know what happened or what they did? CHRIS OSGOOD: I have no idea. But I've sworn at Al quite a few times beyond the glass. He stands behind the net where Fleury stands, and I've been fuming a few nights. I know how it feels, it's frustrating sometimes. Q. In hindsight, was the rebound controllable on Fedotenko's goal? CHRIS OSGOOD: Oh, I'd explain it to you guys. He took a shot, and actually broke my blade in half. So I was angling over here, and it broke my stick in half, and it rolled over to their side. So bad break, but they made a nice play. I mean, they caused a turnover with a great pick off, and he put a good shot. Malkin's got a hard shot. He ripped it at me and he drove the net. That's a playoff goal. And they got the balance and took advantage of it. Q. You had to make big saves early in the second there. Did you feel like that was sort of the most important stretch of the game for yourself personally when it was still 1-1. CHRIS OSGOOD: Yeah, I mean, I thought we got our heels in the second a little bit probably more than we would have liked. We were turning pucks on over. They came at us pretty good. I think they had a couple of shots early in the second period. It was Guerin and somebody else. And then they had some chances. But they have guys that can make plays. They have a good team. They played hard-nosed and they came at us good in the second. We managed to weather the storm, and the last minute goal in the second was huge for us. Q. How often, as defensemen, do you guys miss the net on purpose to get the kind of goals you got tonight? Is that something that's part of your repertoire in this building? ReplaceName2: It is. Not just in this building, but you know when you're on the point and you can't see the net or you can't get it on net, sometimes you're trying to bank it off. Usually to the short side to get it behind their defense or get it to bounce to bring it out in front of the net. We know in this building the boards are pretty wild. The puck's bouncing a lot out there. So we do that sometimes on purpose. Even our forward standing in front of the net, they know sometimes they have to go to the side a little bit to try to deflect the pucks. So it happens quite frequently where if you can't get it on net, just get it deep. Q. Can you talk a little about the importance of Justin Abdelkader's goal, and the few minutes that fourth line plays against those guys especially in the quick turnarounds? ReplaceName2: That was huge for us to get that insurance goal. I thought that line did a tremendous job just hanging on to the puck down low in Pittsburgh's end. And when you do that the other team has to play some defense. They have to stay, playing in their own zone and play strong defensively. Getting a goal out of that was huge for us tonight to get that insurance goal. Q. How do you go about preparing for back-to-back games now. It's a little different than the regular season I would imagine? ReplaceName2: Yeah, you've got to make sure you get a lot of food in you tonight and get a good night's sleep. When the game starts tomorrow, I think you have to keep the shifts a little bit shorter. Keep your legs going again, but keep your shifts shorter and try to get the four lines rolling as well so everybody gets into it again. It's a quick turn around so you have to be ready again tomorrow night. Q. A lot of the talk before the series was about the condensed schedule. You guys played later in the week, banged up, an older team. But you seem to have a little more jump early on tonight. Can you just talk about that and how you're feeling, and maybe some of that time off is getting some rest as well? ReplaceName2: Well, for me personally I think getting a few days off helped. I did feel a little rusty early in the game before I got my legs under me. So, you know, it felt good. And I think the team was just excited about being back in the finals again. The team played Wednesday night at home, and we had Thursday off and came in for a light skate yesterday, Friday. So the team was ready to go. And when you're in the finals, everybody's so excited and happy to be here again. So I think you can play with a lot of adrenaline, too. Q. There's so much talent on both of these teams and we kind of hyped up this final again, looking for those tic-tac-toe plays tonight. But you got a couple of bouncers and they got a rebound goal. Is that how it's going to be, you think, or is it Game 1, two teams feeling each other out? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: I think maybe the first two shifts were a feel-out period when you try to feel where they're standing. But you have so many skilled players on both sides of the ice, so sometimes you kind of take each other out. You have to get those kind of playoff goals where you're banking it off the net or throwing it at the net to make a play. But when you're playing against a really talented team, you have to take away the turnovers. They're a real quick transition team. Going from defense to offense. That's one of the things we've talked about. You can't give them the chance coming through the neutral zone with speed. We're the same kind of team. We like to have quick turnarounds go the other way as well. So I think you see a lot of similarities with the two teams. Q. How much of a lift do you get when Osgood stops Malkin, one of their best players on a clear breakaway in a tie game early in the second? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Oh, it's huge. It gives our team a boost. And especially that moment of the game. The momentum could have swung in their favor. So he came out big. He came out big on other occasions later in the game, too. I think one of their defensemen almost had a point blank shot coming in the slot, and Ozzie made a big save. So you're looking for those kind of saves, and it gives your team that extra boost to stay in a game like this where we've got that insurance goal. I don't know how much time was left. But we needed another goal to feel better about ourselves in the last few minutes. Q. You kind of eluded to this a bit. But a strange situation for you first time in your career coming back in a playoff game from an injury. You feel okay now going through? You physically feel fine? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Yeah, I felt fine. Like I said, I was a little bit rusty in the first few shifts. You can practice, but it's -- when you're in the game, the tempo is a lot higher and you've got to react quicker. So after a few shifts I got my legs under me and started feeling more comfortable and felt better, too. End of FastScripts |
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