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Chris Pronger Press Conference from Dec. 1, 1999
Posted: Monday December 20, 1999 04:51 PM
Question: What can we expect at the All-Star Game now with Curtis Joseph leading so far ahead in goaltenders, yourself doing well and Paul Kariya. How is that game shaping up now that we've seen some voting on the top five? Chris Pronger: I think it will be exciting. It's a great way to kick off the new millennium in Toronto. I think it's kind of a return to the glory days with the teams they are producing over the last couple of years now. It is just a great city to have an event like that. I think the players that are going to be involved are again, nothing but world class and elite athletes, so it should be a lot of fun. Question: I am doing a piece on hitting around the league, and I've been talking to some of the guys and some of them are a little bit concerned about that hitting stat that is -- seems inconsistent from building to building. I was just wondering what your view on that hitting stat was and who you think some of the better hitters are around the League? Chris Pronger: That's a good question. If you look at the game summaries after the game and you look at the hits, a lot of teams only have like 12 hits or 13 hits. What some statisticians deem a hit in some buildings, others don't and vice versa. I think a lot of times a hit that makes the biggest noise or just an open ice -- a big, open-ice collision is what is deemed a hit. And I think a lot of times little things get overlooked. Certainly rubbing a guy out isn't a hit. That's, I think a little bit off on those stat sheets. But again, the best hitters I think you still have to think about an Eric Lindros, a Scott Stevens. In our division, (Derian) Hatcher and Rob Blake certainly come to mind as being hard hitters. So again, I think that is kind of a little bit awkward or a bit off in the numbers department. But that is going to vary, because it is not always the same people doing it. Question: Do you notice that it's different around the league? Do you tend to notice the difference at home versus on the road or in certain buildings? Chris Pronger: I never look at the hits per game. I know if I had a physical game or if I didn't. I don't need to look at the hit chart to see if I'm doing my job, I just know. Question: Gary Roberts was saying the only thing he would like is that if TV broadcasts pick it up and it ends up in the paper sometimes is if we're going to use that stat maybe there will be some sort of criteria outlined for everybody so things will be a little more consistent? Chris Pronger: As arbitration comes into play more and more often now, it's kind of a stat that I think a lot of bangers in the league or physical players in the league are going to use in arbitration. If the stats don't correlate from building to building or whatever, it kind of affects you. So again, I think in that regard Gary's right. You have to get on the same page with everybody and have one certain set of criteria that a statistician is going to go by or just go back to the video and count them up. Question: I know it's pretty early in the voting, but what does it mean to you to be leading in the voting for the All-Star Game? Chris Pronger: I think it's a great honor with the caliber of players and the names that are on the ballots. To be leading in defensemen is certainly a great honor. Again, it is still early, but it goes to show the type of year I'm having and the way our team is playing. When you are on a winning team and playing as well as we have been, your team and your name is going to come up a lot more often then if you are on a loser, so I think it's two-fold. Question: Do you feel like you are having a better year than you've had the last couple of years? Chris Pronger: I don't think so. I think it is just being consistent. If you are consistently at the top of your game or near the top of your game and playing at an elite level, I think as time goes on people start to recognize and you start to get a little more recognition for not taking nights off and playing the same way each night and constantly doing the little things that a lot of times get overlooked, but in the long haul make your team and yourself a better player. Question: Last year you averaged over 30-minutes a game. You are averaging over 30-minutes a game this year. What kind of preparation does it take to be able to log that much ice time and how do you feel after a game? Chris Pronger: I feel pretty good after a game. Some games depending upon the amount of skating, the type of game, some games I feel a little worn down and other games I feel real fresh. Especially teams that are - if we are killing a lot of penalties, then I'll be a lot more tired with the running around down low and trying to cover up two positions at once. But for the most part, I feel pretty good. It is just preparation in the summer; weight training obviously, just taking care of your body and trying to gear your body toward playing those type of minutes. You don't just ride the bike for half an hour. There has to be some kind of system or game plan in the summer that I go through with my trainer and he kind of sets up. And we talk before the end of each season and try to go through what I want to work on and various areas that need to be strengthened or what not so during the season my body feels as good as it does now. And we don't have a problem with playing 30-minutes a game. Question: Bringing you back to the trade that brought you to St. Louis, obviously Brendan Shanahan and Mike Keenan took a lot of heat taking a risk -- it looked like a risk at that time. Could you go back to that time and the pressure you felt coming to St. Louis? Chris Pronger: Realistically, coming in here I didn't really feel any pressure. Not getting to play in St. Louis that often and obviously St. Louis not being a huge media market you don't hear about St. Louis as much as when I was Hartford -- Hartford isn't exactly a media hotbed either, so you don't really get the correlation of the two cities and you don't get to read about other players, whether it be from St. Louis or other areas. So I didn't realize the type of respect and the type of player Brendan had become here in St. Louis. You know he scored 50 goals and all those things, but you don't realize what a pillar of the community he was and the things that he did off the ice that everybody loved him for. Just coming in I was kind of -- not shocked, but you always looked at the St. Louis Blues as being Brett Hull and the St. Louis Blues. When I got here, it was almost becoming Shanahan and Hull and the Blues and I think that kind of shocked me a little bit, but again, it was a little bit different. Question: Apparently your nickname is "Captain Happy," can you tell us why that is and where that comes from? Chris Pronger: Is that from the story today? Question: Yeah, that's right. Chris Pronger: That's from our good friend in Calgary, Grant Fuhr. Question: What is the story behind that? Chris Pronger: I don't know if you have enough time to write it. I think just being intense and being a grouch sometimes, around the rink, if things aren't going well, just bugging guys. You know we've got a few grouchy guys on our team and he likes to rip guys and that's just a name he came up with. Captain Happy -- he's always happy -- not necessarily happy, he's always grouchy or bitter. He likes to play little mind games like that. Question: I wanted to touch on something you just mentioned. You were talking about when you got there everything was Brett Hull and the St. Louis Blues. Obviously Brett departing before last season, the St. Louis Blues have survived. And this season, the St. Louis Blues are doing very well even after losing Al MacInnis for quite a while with an injury. What is it with your team; is there a depth that people don't know about. St. Louis not being the major media center do people not know about the Barteckos and Handzus'? What is it that keeps this team going and keeps it so competitive this season? Chris Pronger: I think the biggest thing is the way Joel has kind of set things up and implemented the system that we play and everybody buys into the system. I think now in Worcester they're starting to play the same system, so when guys get called up, they can fit right into the system and they know the system and everything kind of flows together. And the biggest thing with the way Joel has set things up is, sure you have to be responsible offensively, but if you're a gifted offensive player, he doesn't take anything away from you. He doesn't pull the reins in and hold you back in any regard offensively. Take care of everything in the defensive end and as soon as we get the puck it's going to be a quick transition and you're off. Use the skills that you got and the gifts that you got and go with the flow. I think that's why we've been successful, because you can plug guys in that haven't necessarily been here and it's not really that much of a change for them. Question: This season being without Al MacInnis for a month, yet you guys have stayed near the top of a very tough division and a very tough conference, is that surprising at all or is it just kind of, hey, this is what we can do? Chris Pronger: I think a lot of people thought we were going to struggle when Al went down. And last year when I got hurt, guys seemed to be stepping up and making the plays and playing well in the absence of some pretty key guys. Al was out and as soon as he gets back Pierre gets hurt. People thought, they're going to start losing. And guys seem to be able to fill in the holes, pick up their games a little bit extra they need to in order to help out in different areas where guys are going to be missed. Question: I was just wondering, everybody around Ray Bourque here believes this is going to be his last year. I was curious what your thoughts were and what you think Bourque's legacy will be to the game? Chris Pronger: Is the question "Do I think he is going to retire?" Question: No. Everybody around him thinks he is. I was wondering if that was to be true, what your thoughts would be about him? Chris Pronger: He's certainly has to rank in the top three defensemen of all time. You think of Boston and having Bobby Orr. And not too far after Bobby Orr left in comes a guy named Ray Bourque. For him to play at the level he's played at for 21 years has been phenomenal. When I got there - he seems like an ageless wonder -- when I got to Hartford, you're like, he's starting to get up there in age and he was playing more minutes then than I think he ever did in his career. I remember playing one game against him, he played 43 minutes and he played better in the last five minutes than he did in the first five minutes. It was pretty amazing. I think the level of play that he has been able to hold throughout his career will be his legacy. I don't think you'll see a drop off in his play from year one to year 21. It has been unbelievable to play with him and against him and be able to watch him, growing up. Question: In St. Louis now, it used to be once the winter came, it was just the Blues since the Cardinals left. And now the Rams are there and having surprising success. Are you guys getting your due being in first place in your own right as far as with all the Rams that they're doing? Chris Pronger: I guess early on we were quietly going on about having a good season. I think, again, football season's only -- I guess if you go to the Super Bowl, it's only 20 weeks long, and they don't have as long a grind as we have. But they have to get their due. They're having a great season. They're nine and two. There are not too many nine and two teams out there. I think we quietly snuck up on people. We are sitting back in the weeds because of how tight our conference is. People would look and say, they're in sixth or seventh spot. We are in sixth or seventh, but we're one or two points out of first and two or three points out of eighth or ninth. It's funny the way our Conference has kind of shaped up. It's such a log jam near the top. On any given night you can lose and drop two or three spots. So our conference is going to be a real race to the finish. It's only 24 games in and it's already shaping up to be a great Playoff round probably around December. Question: Just how much does your strong start this season carry over from the very good Playoffs you had last year? Chris Pronger: I'm not too sure. I think a couple of years ago things kind of got rolling in the Playoffs. I started to play a little better and gain a little bit of confidence. I think as each year goes by, in the summer I'm able to reflect on the season or what have you, and try to focus on weaknesses I need to work on or parts of my body that I need to strengthen in order to do different things on the ice. Things like that. It takes time in the summer to do those things. I think each summer I've been building up and trying to improve on things I noticed, whether it be in my game or mental preparation for the game or in situations that come up and you need to react quick. And I think all that stuff comes with experience and knowing what to do in certain situations and not having to think about it and just reacting. Question: You're team as a whole, actually was what I was referring to. Chris Pronger: I think it's been -- it has been. To be able to come back from 3-1 like we did against Phoenix and to play as well as we did and to just come up a little bit short against Dallas. Lose two overtime games and win two overtime games; that series could have went either way. It was disappointing to lose to Dallas, but I think in the end the guys realized, hey, we're not that far off. We just needed to fill in a couple of holes and keep playing the way we did. Last year was a funny year, we started off pretty mediocre and as the season went along we gained a little confidence. Then come the end of February, early March we really hit our stride and started to play the way we knew we could and that kind of carried over into the Playoffs. Question: Do you feel that's the way you're playing now? Chris Pronger: Yeah, I do. We had a couple of bad games. That's to be expected. You're not going to play 82 good ones. The efforts been there. We've played very solid defensively. It's been a lot of fun this year. You are bound to lose games, but sometimes when you are able to pull games out, it kind of brings the team together and you are able to reflect on what it was like last year in the Playoffs -- there are certain instances where you are able to come back and play well and see what type of run you can go on. Question: When you were talking about during the summer, you kind of reflected on parts of the game you would like to work on. Is there any part of the game that you still think needs work? Chris Pronger: I think all parts of the game need work. You are always in a constant struggle for perfection. The biggest thing I wanted to work on was the head games, the mental game, if you will. Just try to improve -- sure, it is fine to be unpredictable on the ice and not have guys try to take liberties with you, but at times you're going to have to suck it up. Maybe I won't get them back that game, I'll get them back another game. Just try to buy my time and not worry about things too much. Question: Chris, do you believe it is already your seventh NHL season, and does it seem that long ago that you started with Hartford? Chris Pronger: No, it doesn't. I was just talking to somebody the other day. They said, it's your fifth year in St. Louis. And I said, yeah, it's my seventh year in the League though. And they said, how old are you anyway. I said, I'm only 25. It was kind of interesting. When I was talking to this guy, he was getting the low down on everything. I was one of three that are left over from when Mike Keenan was here. It's kind of strange how quick the turn over of our team's been.
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