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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: PENGUINS v RED WINGS

May 30, 2009

Sidney Crosby

DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game One

Pittsburgh Â– 1
Detroit - 3

Q. Can you take us through the face-off with Zetterberg late in the second that you lost, they scored after that?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, the puck bounced right over both of our sticks and ended up behind him. Then they kind of got a cycle going. I think I blocked a shot, Franzen's shot. It went to somebody else on the right point. Scuds blocked that shot, and I think Franzen got the puck off the bounce off the boards and hit Flower's leg.
So lot of things happened there. But, you know, they found a way to put one in.

Q. Did you have some flash backs in not a good way that kind of slowed you down and they scored some lucky goals off your goalie?
SIDNEY CROSBY: No, no flashbacks. I mean, we expected to be tight. I mean, that's the way it is. You know, thought we generated some pretty good scoring chances. Our line, I think we've got to find a way to get a few more. But they're a good hockey team, and you've got to execute when you get them. We had a couple that didn't go in, and maybe that's the difference. But it's tight hockey, and we've got to expect that.

Q. Kirk Maltby spoke after the game about the little incident or maybe run-in that you two had. He gave his side of it. I wondered if you can explain from your side what maybe occurred.
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, he was doing what he always does. You know, he was giving guys lip service and things like that. And you know, I two handed him on top of the foot there as we were skating by. So he felt like it was necessary to keep talking after the game, and I thought I'd whack him and that was it.

Q. Can you take us through the play early in the third when I think your shot was saved and it hit the post and it looked like Zetterberg got on top of Osgood, maybe put his hand on the puck.
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, I don't know if it hit the post. It rolled up somehow and laid on Osgood's back. And somebody jumped in there and put their hand on it. So I don't know. I've never seen that happen before. I've never seen the puck stay on a goalie's back like that and just sit there. I don't know the rule on that. I know he put his hand over it. So whether that's a penalty shot or not, I don't know. But didn't go in. And that's the way it went.

Q. Going back to that go ahead goal, the icing before that, how gassed were you guys at that point, and did that feel like a key moment in the game that Dan really needed to use the timeout there?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, I think he did the right thing. I think our set of forwards is probably not out there quite as long as our "D". Those two guys were out there for a long time. So I think the breather was something we needed. And, you know, you make those calls in games and you realize that those are big times in hockey games.
But we had an opportunity to get it out a couple of times at that point. So we didn't, and they got a bounce. I mean, that's what it came down to.

Q. Can you talk about that second goal for Detroit? How deflating it was to play such a tough second period and to have them score in the final minute?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, it's tough. But you face that. They're a good team, and teams get a one goal lead. Whether it was last minute or not. We still had a third period to get back into it. You never want to give up goals first minute in and last minute like that. Those are key times in games. But at the same time we didn't give up or anything like that. There's lots of hockey left.
So it's always easy to look at those things as turning points after everything is said and done. But it's a 2-1 game. We're still in it.

Q. You talk about the need to bury chances. You had some real good ones early. Still 1-1, Malkin had the breakaway. Did you kind of feel like with the inability to beat Osgood at that point sort of turned the game when you guys maybe could have jumped ahead?
SIDNEY CROSBY: We had an opportunity, for sure. We could have put them back on their heels a bit. But I don't think we slowed down the third. We probably didn't get quite the quality with the 2 on 1 we got in the breakaway in the second. But we still got a few chances around the net.
You know, I think we got 13 shots in the second and third. So we found a way to generate some good scoring opportunities. We tried to stick with things. But certainly if we would have buried a couple there, we would have put ourself in a better position.

Q. Two of their goals came bouncing off the end boards. Is there anyplace in the league with boards quite like that?
SIDNEY CROSBY: No, I mean, I haven't seen them. It's amazing. It makes the game even quicker. Just when you think the game is quick, and you see the bounces that the boards have. I mean, for goalies, for defense, for everybody, they're pretty tough to read. So it makes things a little quicker. They've got a couple of bounces tonight, and hopefully we'll get ours back.

Q. Do you leave this game more confident in your ability to compete with this team versus last year after Game 1?
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, definitely. We made a few mistakes tonight, and so did they. They got a few bounces, that's what it came down to. This is tight hockey. We didn't expect to come in here and have it be easy. We knew we were in for a tough series. But we believe in our game. Didn't go the way we want it to tonight. But good thing is we've got a short period of time here to prepare and get ready for Game 2. We're confident that we can get one here ask go home.

End of FastScripts

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