Пресс-конференция Майка Модано и Кейта
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Q. Mike, you and Bill and Keith combined for 11 points on a night
where your best players are the best on the ice. Can you talk about that.
MIKE MODANO: We discussed it throughout the day and prior to
the game that between the three of us that it was pretty important that
we come out and play well and consistent and try to create as much as we
can offensively. They played great, skated hard, made some great
plays. They're strong, big and tough to move around.
For my game I tried to get the puck in that area and to get to the
net to get some rebounds and tips from them. And they played great.
And once we got a couple early we got the confidence going and felt we
can make some more and created off mistakes they were making.
Q. We talked a lot about the age of the team and the experience.
Is this a night where your experience paid off where maybe youth wouldn't
have been able to cope with some of the bad things?
MIKE MODANO: Well, maybe not. I think if you did have a
bunch of young kids and it ended up 2 -2, I think you would have a little
bit of a different mentality with a younger bunch of kids. We didn't
have the greatest game against these guys prior and we learned a lot from
that game and understood how we had to change our game and play to beat
these guys. It comes with experience and realizing when and where
to take chances and make the right play at the right time and pick your
spots better.
Q. Do you think it's fair to say the Russians failed to make some
kind of adjustment?
MIKE MODANO: I think we played a lot like we did in the round-robin
game. We were overpursuing the puck, overforechecking and backchecking,
and we created too much open ice for them because of that. Our second
and third guys were a little more smart in certain areas. They moved
the puck to the middle of the ice, and we tried to take that time and space
away from them. The more time they have it to generate speed, that
one-on-one confrontation, the more dangerous they are.
Q. Can you talk specifically about what you guys do as players
to maybe elevate your game and carry the team the way you did.
MIKE MODANO: It's hard to put it in words. I think
it does pay off a little bit to be in those situations, whether it be in
the Olympics or world championships or Stanley Cup finals. That's
what elevates great players. You need to elevate your game in this
type of situation and type of environment. It does. When you
are able to compete at a high level like that, that's what this game is
all about. That's why we as players play this game is to be able
to once play at a level that's high and raise it up because of the type
of tournaments and personnel and competition that's out there. When
you're able to do that, that's what it's all about.
Q. Mike, you had three days off since the last game. You
are going to have a couple days off again. How big of a deal is that,
and how much of a difference does that make for you personally?
MIKE MODANO: It's something nice. You go back to
the age factor, it's good for us to get some R and R, and rest the legs
a little bit, and gives us time to prepare for Finland. It's going
to be a great chess match-type of game, a very patient game. They're
a type of team that capitalizes on mistakes, if you're going to make too
many. They're speedy and crafty, and they played well in their round-robin.
So it should be a good game.
Q. Mike, you've played a lot of big games over the years and had
a lot of great performances in big games. How does this stack up,
and did you feel like you were in a zone tonight?
MIKE MODANO: I think considering the way the last six or seven
months have gone for me personally, it's a great time to come around.
It was probably good to get away from the game a little bit over the summer,
kind of take a break, and get ready for this tournament. It was probably
good timing to get around these great players and great atmosphere.
It's a lot of fun playing in these types of things. It is great to
come in and be successful, have your hand in on some goals and be consistent.
I think it's a good change for me. It gives a little bit of confidence
going into later in the tournament.
Q. You played with Keith for a long time. Internationally
is this the best game he's had?
MIKE MODANO: I think, you know, internationally it's one
of the best ones he's had. He drove the net hard. He took up
space, he forechecked well. He takes the body. Because of his
size and strength he's tough to move around in front of the net.
That's what he's made his living on doing in the NHL, and it gave him a
great career.
Again, I'm pretty thankful to have the opportunity to play with these
guys and play with Bill and Keith and this type of team. It's a great
opportunity for all of us to feed off each others' success and enthusiasm
and excitement to play at such a great time right now.
Q. Mike, you talked about the Russians to come back to tie it
right away. What was the mood at that point? Any talk on the
bench?
MIKE MODANO: Those are tough goals to kind of absorb.
It happens real fast. You're sitting there. It's obviously
still a lot of time left on the clock.
Again, going back to the experience and age factor, then we had some
great shifts back to back, and boom, boom it's 4 -2. We didn't let
it bother us. There was a lot of time left on the clock. We
wanted to get the momentum back. The 4-minute power play was a good
one. Our penalty killers came up big for us at that time. Again,
it was good to get that two goals back quick.
Q. It makes sense that you clicked with Bill since you've played
with him. Is there any explanation how you two were able to click
with Keith?
MIKE MODANO: I think from past experiences, the '96 World
Cup. We played in Nagano and Salt Lake City. So, there is some
familiarity there that we are comfortable with one another. We kind
of know each other's game very well and try to keep it as simple as possible
when we play; not try to be creative or fancy, just stick to what's good
with our team, crashing the net and making plays and getting those opportunities.
Q. Keith, how many four-goal games have you had? Have you
had any game with five points like this? Would this be your biggest
thrill in your career?
KEITH TKACHUK: Winning obviously tonight was huge for us.
I have had four goals at some point in my NHL career. It was special
tonight. It was a big game for us. There was no way we wanted
to go home like this. We played very, very well as a team.
Obviously Mo and Billy played great and set me up with some tap-ins.
Q. Can you talk about playing with two guys of that caliber, you
and Bill have the ability to go to the net and score the goal? And
Mike, what's it like playing with those two guys?
KEITH TKACHUK: It's pretty easy. We wanted to get
the puck to Mike as much as possible. He's one of the best players
in the NHL and the world, and when he gets his speed going, it's pretty
simple just to go to the net and do the dirty work in the corners and get
him the puck as much as possible. It's a lot of fun and I have been
playing with Billy. Since we grew up in Massachusetts, I'm pretty
familiar with him.
You don't get the opportunity often during the course of the year to
play with them. It's a special tournament. We played together
in '96, so we obviously know how each other plays.
Q. In Salt Lake City you guys got off to a really fast start and
tapered off. It's the opposite in this tournament. Can you
explain why that is?
KEITH TKACHUK: Obviously we went through a lull last week against
Russia they played extremely well against us. We were tired and when
you're tired, you cut corners. Obviously now is the time to kick
it into gear. These are elimination games. I think we're hit
our stride and getting better. Obviously we continued playing tonight
like a couple days ago. It was the opposite in Salt Lake. We
played I don't know how many great games, and in the finals we ran out
of gas and Canada played a great game and beat us. Hopefully we'll
see the opposite this time.
Q. Yourself being an American player who came up through the college
system and moved on to the NHL, at what point do you stop and think about
what you guys are doing means to the future of American hockey, and what
your legacy will be among kids playing the game like you were.
KEITH TKACHUK: Obviously the '80 Olympics meant a lot for me
as a kid growing up. We want to continue that. What the World
Juniors did this year, winning the gold for the first time, you want to
go out and be a role model and keep this USA hockey going. We're
far behind a lot of these countries. We managed to catch up and we
want to keep it going and become better than these teams. I'm excited
to be a part of it and hopefully we can do it at least a couple more years.
Q. How long have they been calling you Walt? Any relation?
KEITH TKACHUK: No relation. I got that name. When
I walked to the locker room, Eddie Olcyzk said, "your new nickname is Walt."
And I said okay, and it stuck.
Q. The goal you created might have been a big goal for the night.
Can you talk about that goal.
KEITH TKACHUK: Somebody was forechecking. The defensemen
kind of had a stick on him, and I almost guessed where the puck was going
to be. Fortunately I was in the right position in the middle of the
ice. I didn't see Gomer, and he got the rebound. That was a
huge goal.
Gomer was going hard and did all the work, but it was tough when Russia
scored that second goal and tied it up in the third period. But it
motivated us and it was a big goal by Gomer. He's done that all tournament.
Q. You have had hot streaks like this, but you look at last week
and after the game you were talking how frustrated you guys were, and now
tonight everything you touched was golden, is that the way your career
has gone?
KEITH TKACHUK: Well, I tried to prove a point to my teammates
last week because it was frustrating game, and I figure I would try to
go out and stir things up and wake our team up. Obviously to have
that team remember it's going to be hard to play against that was kind
of the reasoning I did that and tonight you just get lucky. That's
the bottom line.
Q. Keith, tell us when you first met Bill Guerin. How old
were you guys? What was going on in your lives? Now you're
at this age. You're older guys, your kids are playing with each other.
Give us a scenario when you two guys first shook hands.
KEITH TKACHUK: We first met a long time ago. I don't remember
what year it was. We were always familiar with each other.
He went to the second best school in Boston: Boston College and I
went to Boston University. We always faced off against each other.
We became really, really good friends that year we played on the national
team in '91 and '92. And you know, fortunately Billy was the last
player cut. Nobody wanted to room with us that year, so we roomed
together. He's a terrific guy and it's nice to see him have a great
career after that year what happened to him. We get along so good.
Q. You have a little bit of a history in this building during
the NHL season. Tonight it looks like everything was forgiven after
the four goals.
KEITH TKACHUK: It seems to be the scenario in every building
I play in, I seem to do something to get the crowd against me. Now,
it's -- I love playing the game. I love representing my country.
We have a tremendous amount of guys in that locker room. But it was
nice to see scoring a couple goals and getting the fans behind you, where
they usually -- boo you here. It's pretty exciting.
Q. Mike talked about the experience of having been Stanley Cup
players and Olympics situations and with the experience you knew how to
deal with it when it was tied 2-2. What do you say about that?
KEITH TKACHUK: I think that's where the experience comes into
play. If you are a younger team you get flustered and down on the
bench. We knew we were dominating most of that game and it's easy
to pack it in. We kept on pushing, and obviously that was a big goal
by Russia to make it 2-2. But we stuck to the game plan, and experience
paid off there. We kept on plugging away.
Q. There was kind of a variety of goals: Tap in, deflection,
empty net. Walk me through the four scenarios that ended up in the
net.
KEITH TKACHUK: Most of my goals are in a ten-foot circle.
The first one deflection; the second one Billy made a great pass and all
I had to do was shovel it; in and the third one was another great play
by Billy, and it was a tap-in and the fourth one, an unselfish play by
Mike Modano, and I had no idea the goal was out of the net. Thank
God I took a quick peek, otherwise I would have just shot it.
Q. Keith, you guys have obviously stepped up your effort in these
last two games. Could you talk a little bit about the game plan.
What you have been doing differently from a defensive standpoint?
KEITH TKACHUK: I think we're playing a lot more smarter and disciplined
defensively. We wanted to play a control trap in the neutral zone
and force them to dump it in. Our forwards did a great job coming
back and making it hard on those forwards coming from behind. Our
defense did a great job stepping up and we played most of the game in their
zone, and we made it hard on their defense and made them pay the price
all night.
Q. The way last week's game went, sort of lopsided, do you think
that might be the reason the building wasn't sold out?
KEITH TKACHUK: I don't know why the building wasn't sold out.
That was the past what happened last week. We're going on to play
Finland Friday in the semi-finals.
Q. Keith, do you have any idea where scoring nights like this
come from? Is it stellar linemen or something in the gut?
KEITH TKACHUK: I don't know what happened. I'm usually
the first one at the rink, and I slept in. Today I was late.
I don't know, maybe that was the reason why. You've just got to go
to the net. The puck's going to be there. Fortunately it was
one of those lucky nights. It kept on coming.
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