Interesting interviews

[MadLuke]

I did search for an interviews thread but could not find one.

Listened to a 1 hour long, Patrick Roy interview yesterday and there was a bunch of nice little trivias:


- Guy Lafleur was a really intimidating figure for him, he was taking maybe 5 minutes max between entering the locker room and skating on the ice, the no helmet look, by then they had a no smoking in the locker room rules so they made him an different room for it.

- After retirement he took a special effort to not start any superstitious habit as a coach, it completely overwhelmed is day to day life even outside the ring, everything about the schedule, meal, clothes, habits was a constant obsession (maybe a mechanism to stay focus while not thinking about the actual game and pressure). At one point he made someone bring back a puck that was thrown to fans in the crowd back, he had to remove all his left pad to change the right skate lace because he needed to put them in the right order....

- Sounded like he thought Claude Lemieux not accepting the McCarthy fighting invitation was a big mistake for the franchise, the big battle that followed removed the team focus, it was not about winning hockey game anymore, felt like it did cost them a cup if not 2.

- Detroit being the team that finished is Montreal career was part of the rivalry for him.

When Bourque arrived they were in 8th place in the west, they went 11-2-1 and he rapidly became for them the real team Captain despite the letter, that part was a surprise for Latendresse-Lapierre, considering how much colorado had legendary veteran already in place for along time, obviously Joe Sakic. Apparently Sakic was more of a silent, by example leader, while Bourque would go into giving big speech.

In 2001, we are lucky to get a mulligan and an other Bourque season, but now it really need to win it vibe.

Back in the days, he really did not took well after winning the cups with a Smythe run to be replaced next year by Hayward and played terribly when was put back in, but in hindsight it was just how much Montreal was all about winning the cup and nothing else was accepted, even building up your group of rookie that won it the year before was second to that. And he was probably specially bad against the Nordiques, being from Quebec, not handling it well, the first 2 games in 1993 against them in the Colisée were not good either.

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[JackSlater]

The most interesting interview is clearly the one where Art Coulter (I think) calls Gordie Howe "stinko" and complains about everyone younger than him.

When Bourque arrived they were in 8th place in the west, they went 11-2-1 and he rapidly became for them the real team Captain despite the letter, that part was a surprise for Latendresse-Lapierre, considering how much colorado had legendary veteran already in place for along time, obviously Joe Sakic. Apparently Sakic was more of a silent, by example leader, while Bourque would go into giving big speech.

That's interesting about Bourque, I don't recall ever hearing much about him as a leader either positive or negative.

 

[buffalowing88]

Miller on Lucic



I enjoyed Miller calling out guys he didn't like awhile back. He also has one where he goes off on Mike Richards for a dirty hit in the 2011 playoffs. Strange guy but he was a straight shooter.

 

[JianYang]

Miller on Lucic



I enjoyed Miller calling out guys he didn't like awhile back. He also has one where he goes off on Mike Richards for a dirty hit in the 2011 playoffs. Strange guy but he was a straight shooter.

The other special move lucic had was spearing guys in the nuts.

 

[JackSlater]

I suppose that this is a press conference rather than an interview but it interesting. Gretzky was always very guarded and intelligent in terms of how he handled the media. This was a calculated move too but also, I believe, a rare look at the competitive Gretzky who slaughtered hockey records rather than the standard "aww shucks" Gretzky we saw 99% of the time.

 

[Gorskyontario]

Daigle interviews are always interesting. Very honest about how he thinks his career went wrong and his flaws as a player.

 

[The Panther]

There's a Scott Stevens audio-interview (I think it's on YouTube) where he talks about the dreaded (for Canadians) 1998 Olympic Hockey in Nagano.

Stevens says that after the semi-Final game where Canada lost in the shoot-out to the Czechs, Gretzky came into the hotel room 'party' and said something like, "Hey guys, how many goals have I scored in the NHL?" He took a cooler of beers with him, popped one open, and started drinking. All this, the night before (?) the Bronze-medal game... Anyway, so all the Team Canada guys were drinking beers and feeling remorse about Gretzky being left on the bench and the game in general, and basically doing the opposite of what you should do before a medal game. Needless to say, they all went home empty-handed.

Another one:
I have little interest in Nail Yakupov, but somebody on the main-board posted this John Scott interview with Yakupov, which is quite recent:

I watched most of it. Yakupov talks a lot about his time in Canadian junior hockey and especially about the draft-process and going to the Oilers, etc. It becomes very clear (to me, anyway) that he completely lacked the required mental framework for high-pressure high-level sports. He seems oddly fixated on the lavish lifestyle afforded by being an NHL player. He says that former Oiler #1 draft picks (Nugent-Hopkins, Hall) who could have given him advice, basically didn't talk to him his entire first season, partly because of language communication problems. He says that, as a rookie, he didn't speak to his only countryman on the club, Nikolai Khabibulin, until after they'd played about 40 games together.

 

[MadLuke]

All this, the night before (?) the Bronze-medal game...

would have been. Semi-finals: 20 February 1998 14:45 (with ot + so) Bronze: 21 February 1998 15:15

 

[Crosby2010]

There's a Scott Stevens audio-interview (I think it's on YouTube) where he talks about the dreaded (for Canadians) 1998 Olympic Hockey in Nagano.

Stevens says that after the semi-Final game where Canada lost in the shoot-out to the Czechs, Gretzky came into the hotel room 'party' and said something like, "Hey guys, how many goals have I scored in the NHL?" He took a cooler of beers with him, popped one open, and started drinking. All this, the night before (?) the Bronze-medal game... Anyway, so all the Team Canada guys were drinking beers and feeling remorse about Gretzky being left on the bench and the game in general, and basically doing the opposite of what you should do before a medal game. Needless to say, they all went home empty-handed.

It is interesting how we have never heard much in the way of how Gretzky felt after that shootout. Any interview he does he takes the high road when asked about it, but this was Gretzky with his hair down and off the record, so if this is true from Stevens then I guess you can say we heard the true feelings from Gretzky. And this would have been his dig at Crawford I guess you could say.

Hey look, more reason in my opinion that you pull Roy and put in someone like Brodeur or Joseph for the bronze. I know that Crawford is his coach in Colorado and there was that and all, but it was not Roy's fault, and I would have emphasized that, but you need a fresh start for that game. Someone who is more motivated to win. I doubt Roy was terribly motivated. I'd have also changed up the lines just for the heck of it. You had to shake things up for that game.

I did search for an interviews thread but could not find one.

Listened to a 1 hour long, Patrick Roy interview yesterday and there was a bunch of nice little trivias:


- Guy Lafleur was a really intimidating figure for him, he was taking maybe 5 minutes max between entering the locker room and skating on the ice, the no helmet look, by then they had a no smoking in the locker room rules so they made him an different room for it.

I guess it would have to be training camp, but Roy and Lafleur never played together. Roy played one game in 1984-'85 season and this was Lafleur's last as a Hab. That's the only time I would think that the two of them would have shared a locker room.

I suppose that this is a press conference rather than an interview but it interesting. Gretzky was always very guarded and intelligent in terms of how he handled the media. This was a calculated move too but also, I believe, a rare look at the competitive Gretzky who slaughtered hockey records rather than the standard "aww shucks" Gretzky we saw 99% of the time.

Always loved Gretzky for doing this. This was after that tie with the Czechs. A spirited effort for sure, and then there was talk about the cross check Hamrlik gave Theo Fleury in the back and if I remember that sort of set Gretzky off and the results were legendary. There are times you think Gretzky lost his good ol' Canadian mindset, what with playing in Hollywood and stuff like that, but right then at that time you felt he was that kid from Brantford again and I assume that was in the back of the minds of the players. The fact that Gretzky took the brunt of things probably helped them relax.

 

[MadLuke]

really nice interview with Alexandre Daigle.

Some nice trivias:

- He signed a $12M contract with the Sens before he was drafted, they did fear quite a bit to be in a Lindros situation, how "legal-nhl-nhlpa" was it, not so sure.

- He played in the world with Pronger, Kariya and had a strong feeling he was not the best of that draft class.

- Should have never been a first line center in 1994, facing the Lindros, Sakic, Forsberg, Aotes of the world, that something he seem to focus a lot on, the chance to play on the second line and face third pair Ds-lesser center for young player.

Lindros (that would 98-99 isshh), loved hockey a lot and trained a lot, when Daigle was in the Flyers they asked him to stop training so much, too big and too low bodyfat.

In the 1999 season, Roger Neilson said that he would turn him into a defensive-complete forward, Daigle refused (which he regret now) and did not play for the flyers after that.

- Paul Coffey had a really strong character at that point of his career, the one that could answer strongly and talk back to Lindros, Neilson wanted him to play on the wing for the playoff, to which Coffey would have responded I have more assists in my career than Gordie Howe, I think I can play defense in the nhl, Neilson did not dressed him for the playoff after that, legendary Coffey was cutting stick and doing kids helper stuff in practice, it was incredibly sad to see.

When he returned in the nhl (all star games was in LosAngeles and good friend Daze-Thibault were playing, that gave him the fire back), his agents told him he needed to train with Chris Chelios that summer, training at 6:30 am every day with someone like Chelios was without surprise incredibly good for Daigle, that created a good word among GM.

He cherish a lot having playing 3-4 games on Mario lines, but in hindsight he should have joined Lemaire Wild right away.

Loved Lemaire as a coach, what you had to do was extremely clear and if you did you had minutes and PP time in a really straight forward, open and fair way, that was really different than what he experienced before

still a bit bitter of the 2004 lock-out, he just had his best season of his career, both lock-out probably hurted him quite a bit, with his lifestyle issues (speaking of which, playing in New-York on a team with the Fleurys, Stevens, Pilon and co. was a lot of fun but maybe not the best, it was quite the s*** show, which I imagine could explain why they did so little with so much talents in that era, that said the 00s edition when Leetch was not there, not that great)

 

[The Panther]

Some of the stuff @MadLuke mentions about Daigle came up also in that recent documentary about him.

- Paul Coffey had a really strong character at that point of his career, the one that could answer strongly and talk back to Lindros, Neilson wanted him to play on the wing for the playoff, to which Coffey would have responded I have more assists in my career than Gordie Howe, I think I can play defense in the nhl, Neilson did not dressed him for the playoff after that, legendary Coffey was cutting stick and doing kids helper stuff in practice, it was incredibly sad to see.

Whoa, this is weird! Never heard this before.

 

[VanIslander]

An interview that gets better & better...

 

[JackSlater]

really nice interview with Alexandre Daigle.

Some nice trivias:

- He signed a $12M contract with the Sens before he was drafted, they did fear quite a bit to be in a Lindros situation, how "legal-nhl-nhlpa" was it, not so sure.

- He played in the world with Pronger, Kariya and had a strong feeling he was not the best of that draft class.

- Should have never been a first line center in 1994, facing the Lindros, Sakic, Forsberg, Aotes of the world, that something he seem to focus a lot on, the chance to play on the second line and face third pair Ds-lesser center for young player.

Lindros (that would 98-99 isshh), loved hockey a lot and trained a lot, when Daigle was in the Flyers they asked him to stop training so much, too big and too low bodyfat.

In the 1999 season, Roger Neilson said that he would turn him into a defensive-complete forward, Daigle refused (which he regret now) and did not play for the flyers after that.

- Paul Coffey had a really strong character at that point of his career, the one that could answer strongly and talk back to Lindros, Neilson wanted him to play on the wing for the playoff, to which Coffey would have responded I have more assists in my career than Gordie Howe, I think I can play defense in the nhl, Neilson did not dressed him for the playoff after that, legendary Coffey was cutting stick and doing kids helper stuff in practice, it was incredibly sad to see.

When he returned in the nhl (all star games was in LosAngeles and good friend Daze-Thibault were playing, that gave him the fire back), his agents told him he needed to train with Chris Chelios that summer, training at 6:30 am every day with someone like Chelios was without surprise incredibly good for Daigle, that created a good word among GM.

He cherish a lot having playing 3-4 games on Mario lines, but in hindsight he should have joined Lemaire Wild right away.

Loved Lemaire as a coach, what you had to do was extremely clear and if you did you had minutes and PP time in a really straight forward, open and fair way, that was really different than what he experienced before

still a bit bitter of the 2004 lock-out, he just had his best season of his career, both lock-out probably hurted him quite a bit, with his lifestyle issues (speaking of which, playing in New-York on a team with the Fleurys, Stevens, Pilon and co. was a lot of fun but maybe not the best, it was quite the s*** show, which I imagine could explain why they did so little with so much talents in that era, that said the 00s edition when Leetch was not there, not that great)

In the Amazon Daigle video he talked about Lindros and the difference between them and their attitude. Lindros lived and breathed hockey, Daigle didn't, according to Daigle. That's also interesting regarding Daigle's views on Pronger and Kariya. Kariya was better than Daigle when they were teammates on the 1993 WJC team. Kariya also made the 1992 WJC team while Daigle didn't. I wonder if playing in the CHL would have altered Kariya's draft position.

 

[MadLuke]

I wonder if playing in the CHL would have altered Kariya's draft position.

According to Daigle the view at that time was if you went the us college route from Canada, it was a sign you were soft, could very well have altered the views of teams.

He mention that Pronger had like a +90 something season in the OHL, I am not sure if it was just an expression he was using or if his big powerful agent had access to internal OHL/scouts stats ?