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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: PENGUINS v RED WINGSJune 8, 2009Nicklas LidstromHenrik ZetterbergPITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA: Practice Day Q. Can I ask you about home ice advantage in this series? The home team has obviously won all the games. Are match-ups that critical in this series, how big a part of the results that we've seen is that? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: I don't think match-ups has been the big issue. I think the team that's had home ice advantage has played really well at home. They've gained a lot of momentum from the crowd or what not. So I think just that in itself has helped the home team playing on their home ice. I think match-ups in Games 3 and 4 wasn't that big of an issue for us. Only a couple of times we didn't have the match-up that we wanted we started the shift. But otherwise we did a good job coming on and off the ice. Q. Didn't want to ask you this before you guys were within a game to maybe win the Cup. But you and some of your teammates are on the verge of maybe a fifth Stanley Cup. Can you talk about what that means? Winning one for the thumb, how big that is for you guys? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Well, winning four Stanley Cups is something I'm very proud of. Having a chance to win another one, it's a good feeling. But we know as a team that we're not there yet. We know we need another win to get to where we want to be. But I'm very fortunate to have been with the same team for a lot of years and been with an organization and ownership that really are dedicated to winning. They've been willing to before the Cap world, willing to spend money to get players. In the Cap world that we're in now, they're able to keep players or draft players, you know, players that really fit our team and our system. So I've been very fortunate to be with the same team for a lot of years. Q. How do you think Hossa has handled all the attention that's been paid to him, given the obvious story line with him coming back? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: I think he's handled it real well. It doesn't seem to have bothered him a whole lot on. Even coming in here and playing Games 3 and 4, it didn't seem to bother him at all. So I think he's handled it great. Q. Some of us in the media like to play a little game called who would maybe get the Cup first kind of thing. Like when does Nick decide who would get the Cup? I know it's way premature, but with the potential clinching situation, do any of the scenarios of what could potentially play out in a postgame celebration go through your mind? At what point is something like that ever in the front of your mind? Was it strictly impulsive last year to go right to Dallas? How does that come to you? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Well, last year after you're winning it and celebrating with all your teammates you're starting to think a little bit about it and what you want to do. This time around I haven't given it any thought, really. Like you said it is premature to talk about that. I think that will all take care of itself if you win. Right now we're so focused on getting another win, that all of that will just handle itself. Q. Can you take me back to that Game 5 when you guys lost in triple overtime and now you have a different scenario coming off of a Game 5 when you totally destroyed them 5-0. Is it different this year coming into Game 6 tomorrow? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: Well, I think it was a little different feeling after Game 5 than last year. But still we want to come in here and play a good game. We know we have to play very well, otherwise we will not get our victory. But I think also we got an extra day this year to spend with our families at home, and we had a good practice today. So it was a little different that way. Q. A lot of teams will say that the toughest thing to do in sports is repeat, and you guys obviously haven't yet. But I'm wondering what was the toughest thing this year that you guys had to go through on this journey? HENRIK ZETTERBERG: I think we had some issues during the regular season to get started in games, to kind of find the focus that we needed to have to play well. But I think as long as the season went, we found a way to mobilize the force that we need to have to win games. Now when the playoff starts, that's not an issue at all. Q. As it stands now, Anaheim is the last team that beat you guys in the playoffs back in 2007. Have you seen Pittsburgh trying to do things that the Ducks did? And what made the Ducks so close a match-up? It was 3:00 left in Game 7 this year when you guys went ahead and won the game? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Going back to the Anaheim series, I think we had two very competitive teams that neither team would break. I thought the match-ups were great, too, with some of the lines we had offensively and the strong defense that they had. I thought it was a great match-up. But I thought in that series I thought just the depth that we had on our team finally turned into our favor, and we were able to win that series. Looking at Pittsburgh this year, I think they're at home, the games we played in their building they've been more aggressive. Coming after us a little bit more. Trying to put more pressure on our defensemen. Just coming with more pressure, I think. I think that's been the biggest difference. And some of the similarities that we saw in the Anaheim series, too. Q. Can you each talk about the biggest difference in an elimination game in the Stanley Cup Finals as compared to other series, entering the elimination game in a Stanley Cup Final? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Well, during the playoffs when you're in the first, second or third round you're looking to advance. You're looking to move up and play with the next round or you're getting ready for the next round. When you're in the Finals you know you can see the end. You know when you're close to the end. You know you almost reached your goal. So during the playoffs you're just setting a certain amount of goals that you want to reach. But the ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup. And that is the goal we're trying to achieve right now. So I think that's a different mindset. You're happy with advancing in the playoffs, but when you're in the Finals you want to win those four games to win the Stanley Cup. HENRIK ZETTERBERG: I got nothing to add to that. It was a perfect answer (laughing). Q. Along those lines until the series against Anaheim, you guys had won 13 straight Game 6's when you had a chance to end the series. Being that you were most of the time on the road for those, is there a bit of relaxation to know that you're away from home in an enemy building, but somehow you can put those games away then? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Yeah, I think the experience that we have on our team has really helped us in those situations when you're going into a Game 6 on the road. You know you have to play well for 60 minutes. You know they're going to come at you real hard and trying to get that win. So with the experience that we have, I think we've been able to kind of play the patient style that we can play when we have to and take advantage of our chances, and I think that's the way we're approaching this game, too. We know they're going to be desperate hockey team. We know they're going to be coming out hard tomorrow night. So that's where you have to play that patient hockey. But when you have a chance to go on the offense or you have the puck, you have to take care of your chances as well. 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