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NHL ALL-STAR GAMEJanuary 30, 2011Jeff SkinnerEric StaalCam WardRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA Team Lidstrom – 11 MODERATOR: Questions. Q. For all of you, I think the weekend had everything but the win. ERIC STAAL: Yeah, it was incredible. I thought the atmosphere, especially the start, it was awesome. Fans were excited. The weather was unbelievable. The fans were tailgating. It was awesome. It was a lot of fun. Came up a little bit short, but good game overall. A lot of fun to be out there with the guys that were on our team, and, I don't know, it was a good time. Q. Cam, do you want to talk about that one too? CAM WARD: Yeah, just like Eric said, the fans, once again, were tremendous. I think it was great for the players and the fans from out of town that came in to be able to see how hockey is down here in the south. And I think they're going to go home with a different perspective on Raleigh and the game in itself, because it was just a party at that and entertainment, really. So it was great to see. We're blessed with the fact that we get to play here every day. So it's been a lot of fun. Q. Cam, you reached your goal of under 5 in your 20 minutes of work. Talk about that? CAM WARD: Yeah, I thought I was doing pretty good the first 10 minutes. It was like, whoa, this ain't so bad, and boom, four goals against. Yeah, I just kind of wanted to go out there and have a good time. I didn't want to get caught up about how many goals I was going to allow. But I did the best I could. But, I mean, those guys are all stars. They're going to put the puck in the net when they have good chances like that. Q. Jeff, you scored 70 last year, you scored a few this year, have you ever had that many chances in a game and not found the back of the net? JEFF SKINNER: I'm trying to think about that one. Paul and Patrick, my line mates, were trying to get me the puck all night. And unfortunately I couldn't get one in. But it was fun. Q. Cam and Eric, can you just address, more than 20 goals were scored, and Weber and Lidstrom were plus 14 together in an All-Star game. Can you even talk about that? ERIC STAAL: I guess he picked the winning team and it was plus seven. Pretty good night for Nicklas Lidstrom. They were both very good. They're very good both offensively and defensively, and tonight obviously on the right side of the puck, you know, just - it's been fun getting to know - I didn't know Nick at all really before this weekend, and I just know from watching him play over the last lot of years, and he's got a ton of class, and he's a great guy and obviously a tremendous player, as everybody knows. And it's fun to get to know him a little bit more on a personal level, just doing this whole experience for the first time with him. And he played a great game tonight, as you can tell by the stats. Q. Eric, 4-0, your team seemed to get a little caught up in trying to feed you and Jeff a little bit. Can you talk sort of about as a captain your failure of leadership to keep everybody focused there. ERIC STAAL: We got complacent. I'm not going to lie to you. You're right. I'll take the brunt of it. Leave a little bit for Quenneville, too. But, no, we had a great start. I think it was the crowd that got us going. The boys were fired up. We got some quick goals and we were up by 4, and I don't know if we started to feel bad or what. We let them right back into it and really opened the game up. But that's what happens in these type of games. Q. Eric, you know how loud this building can be in an important game. And it certainly seemed like it was that level of loudness today as well? ERIC STAAL: Yeah, it was pretty loud coming out, especially with that little skit scene they had there with Roddy and Ron. It was pretty cool. And it was neat to be a part of that. I could feel they were ready to cheer, if me and Skins would finally put one in the net. We were trying as hard as we could, and line mates were feeding us. So I was glad to be able to get one through Thomas there to get the crowd up out of their seats. And it was fun. Q. Cam, you addressed this a little bit, but, Eric, what do you think that people that came here this weekend will take back home with them after seeing not just the game but all the things that went around the All-Star Weekend? ERIC STAAL: I think they were probably surprised with the response that the community had given this event. I think for us we felt the energy, the buildup coming into this weekend, it was being around the community, talking about it, the fans have been excited, and then they delivered. It was awesome. I'm very proud of our fans and how they showed their support for this event and came out in throngs and were tailgating and doing all the things we know they do. And I thought it was pretty awesome, and I'm sure the guys thought the same. It was exciting to be just a part of it with them and enjoy the whole experience. MODERATOR: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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