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Steve Yzerman Press Conference from Dec. 14, 1999
Posted: Monday December 20, 1999 04:38 PM
Question: You know Brett Hull is approaching 600 goals himself. I am curious, do you have any advice for him on what the accomplishment means and how to handle the situation in regards to you personally. What does it mean for you to achieve something in a league where you might not have thought you would have gone this far for so long? Steve Yzerman: I really wouldn't have any advice to give Brett on it. When you are coming up on a type of milestone like that, it is different than possibly getting 50 goals like in 50 games as Brett has done, or scoring your first goal. Assuming nothing bad happens, you are going to reach that; you are going to score that goal at some point. I didn't really think about it a whole lot. I just kind of assumed at some point that the puck will go in the net. I just hoped that it would come in a game where we'd win or a game we won or at a good time in the game or at a time where in the game where the goal had some importance. But, no, I really wouldn't have any advice for him. I haven't thought about it as far as what it means to me. I find through the course of the season it is difficult to -- even at the time, it is difficult to really enjoy it. I got my 600th goal early in the game against Edmonton. It is almost like you'd just like to take the rest of the night off because you get a nice ovation from the crowd and everyone is congratulating you and you just as soon skate off the ice. We had about 50 minutes of hockey left, so it was a difficult thing to celebrate at the time and I kind of, like I said, it would be best if you scored in overtime or something right at the end of the game and get off the ice and enjoy it. Then you are preparing for your next game after that so you don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about it. Question: A lot has been written and said about the evolution of the Detroit/Colorado rivalry. Two-part question. (A) Does Claude Lemieux's trade kind of further dissolve some of the enmity in the rivalry and the state of the rivalry now and (B) could I drag you through again your admiration for Bryan Trottier growing up? Steve Yzerman: The rivalry, first of all, we only play four times a year in the regular season anyway. But I think it is strong and what will allow the rivalry to continue is if both teams remain strong and very competitive. There are very few games between Detroit and Colorado that weren't really entertaining hockey games. Whether it was good hockey or whatever, there was always something going on. But, in general, it was because the games were excellent hockey games. Question: But does Claude's absence change it now? Steve Yzerman: Not really. Certainly -- before -- in preparing for their team, there are so many guys on the team that we talk about and situations that we prepare for that we didn't really think about him a whole lot, one way or the other, just because we had a lot of other things on our mind. So, no, it really doesn't change a whole lot. It doesn't change things at all. We still consider them one of the stronger teams in the League and they beat us in last year's playoffs. So things, in our perspective, really haven't changed at all. Question: Then the Bryan Trottier ... Steve Yzerman: Again, he was my idol, I followed him from the minute he came in the NHL. Then I watched the way he played. My dad liked the way he played, and the Islanders were an up-and-coming team, so as a young kid I started to follow them right away. I just admired the way he played the game and how he carried himself on the ice. I like the fact that he was pretty quiet; didn't say a whole lot. I tried to kind of copy a lot of things he did as far as the kind of helmet he wore; the way he celebrated a goal; the way he taped his stick. I watched everything that he did. But most of all I like the way he played. My dad really liked the way he played. It was somebody to try and emulate and then model myself after. But it was -- I think -- his type of game -- he was a physically stronger guy and more physical type player than I was, but I have tried to do some of the things that he did and be responsible in all areas of the ice. Question: Can you talk about the fact that you are a rarity now; that you are now in your 17th season playing with the same franchise and that we may never see something like that happen again? Steve Yzerman: Well, I think I have been very lucky really. I think there are a lot of things that have to fall into place for a guy to stay in the same city for a long time. There were a couple of different -- on a couple different occasions where it was possible that I might be traded for different reasons. I think the only thing that makes it a little bit more difficult now is a lot of decisions are going to be based on finance where in the past, I don't necessarily think that was true because there wasn't such a great range in salaries for players from top to bottom. I know there wasn't as big a gap between a higher paid veteran as opposed to a younger player. Question: Is it meaningful to you, though? Steve Yzerman: It is definitely meaningful to me, absolutely; particularly in the fact that we have been able to win the Stanley Cup here. But the most important -- from my perspective, the biggest reason I am in a good situation, because I play on a good team with a lot of good players, I don't feel the burden of having to carry a team or anything like that. I just kind of go out and play quietly and I don't play 30 minutes a game. I don't get ground into the ice. It is a great situation for -- I don't want to call myself an older player -- but it is a great situation for somebody in my position. I rely heavily on my teammates and we are a team with depth and a reasonably well-balanced team so it makes it easier. I really enjoy playing here. I have played here for a long time. Detroit is my home now, and it is a city with a good hockey history. The Red Wings have a great history and the game is appreciated in the city and the Red Wings have some importance to the community so I enjoy that aspect of it. Question: Just get a very quick comment on Manny Legace's play with you guys? Steve Yzerman: He played three in a row now. He played an excellent first two games at home, he played very well and he was solid in Boston the other night. He has fit in well. I think he is real comfortable with the players. Seems to get along very well. Very personable guy and I think -- I know the guys enjoy having him around and he has played extremely well the first three games. Question: With some of the injuries that have plagued the Wings recently, what do you think about younger guys like Fischer stepping up and taking a more active role? Steve Yzerman: Well, the good thing about the situation is that -- with all the injuries we have had, a lot of younger players, particularly up front, have gotten a lot of ice time, like Stacy Roest, Yuri Butsayev and Darryl Laplante. They are a line and when they went from playing 4-5 minutes a game; now they are playing 14-15 minutes a game, so there ice time has almost tripled. So they are getting a chance to play and feel a lot more comfortable and gaining experience. I think management is also getting a chance to see these guys play and assess them. There are some good things that have come out of it. You mentioned Jiri Fischer and Yan Golubovsky as well are getting a chance to play, although our "D" for the most part has been pretty healthy. We haven't missed too many games because of injury on "D." But all the young guys are getting an opportunity to play through and we have been able to kind of hold our own through the injury bug and hopefully we can get over it quickly. Question: Does it remind you of when you were younger and taking on more responsibility? Steve Yzerman: I guess the situation is a little bit different. When I was in my first couple of years, we were a team that was trying to improve and we were starting from the bottom and trying to work towards getting a playoff spot. Whereas this team, we are competing for first place. So these guys are getting kind of thrown in the fire a little bit more; there is a little less room for error for them. I don't want to say pressure, but, you know, we are playing a lot of tight games and games that are important or reasonably important for us to win. It is a little tougher situation to come in and the game is on the line -- they are playing in a lot more games where it is a close game and a goal one way or the other is deciding the game, so it is a little tougher situation for them to play in. They all seem to be fitting in really good. One thing I have noticed with them, they have a really good work ethic; practice hard and off-ice conditioning is very good, so the attitude of all the young players is very good here, so that is something that I have been very impressed with. Question: I was just noticing that in the Detroit book that you have -- you are the longest serving captain in terms of games in the NHL history. I am curious, how is being captain of the Red Wings different now than it was, say, in the late '80s, early '90s, is it a much different job or how have you grown as a captain over those years? Steve Yzerman: Well, I think just with this team, for the most part, the majority of the team, we have played together for 5-6 years. I have played with Sergei Fedorov his whole career and Nicklas Lidstrom's whole career and some of the younger guys for four or five years. We have all gotten to know each other very well. So -- I don't really say a whole lot. I don't really say much of anything. We don't have a whole lot of team meetings. The majority of the guys are very conscientious about their conditioning; their work habits, and know when to back off and when to go harder, so there is not a need really for the coaching staff or myself or anybody else to really push guys. I think the guys are generally very motivated. We got a lot of strong people with good character, strong personalities and strong people in the room. So my role isn't that great, really, the captain of the team, I don't think has that much significance because I don't stand out in the locker room as a leader any more than any other guys, I don't think. We have a lot of guys who have strong personalities who don't really need me to say much of anything. The only thing I try to do is go and play hard. One thing that is different now is we have got a few younger players, you know, Fischer is 19, and Butsayev is 20, and not that I talk to them a whole lot, but there are little situations that I think I can help them out and if the coaches are on them, I can help them out a little bit. We are just trying to make them all feel comfortable; not just myself, but all the guys, just trying to make them feel comfortable in the locker room. Comparing this team to the team in the '80s, I think it is just the fact that this group has been together a lot longer; I think if I were here in the room constantly trying to act like the captain of the team, I think by this point it would have really worn on a lot of guys. So I really try to stay pretty quiet and work hard. Like I said, the guys do their own thing and everybody has their own kind of idea of what they need to get ready. I believe pretty strongly that all the guys know how to get ready for games and do it in their own way. There is not a whole lot for me to do to tell them. Question: Was it always like that though? Steve Yzerman: With this group, for the most part, yeah. Maybe four or five years ago, we used to spend a lot of time kind of pushing guys to improve their conditioning; work at certain things; take care of themselves, and play hard. A guy like Slava Kozlov, he is a quiet guy, a real serious guy, I am not sure how long Kozzie has been here, six or seven years. He has gradually improved, not that he was in bad shape or anything like that as a young guy, young guys really don't do a whole lot of conditioning, and each year he has done more and more to the point where the guy is in phenomenal condition. He comes and plays hard and he competes hard. He has just kind of matured on his own and so I think if the older guys try to set a tone for that. Like I noticed with Fischer and Butsayev, the two young guys, I know when I came in, all the young guys, they come in and say "I can't believe how much the guys work out and do this or do that, ride the bike." I think that is generally true throughout the League that they learn and I watch these guys now, they are working pretty hard and are conscientious about their conditioning and take pretty good care of themselves. I think it is a good way to start. You get the right impression early in your career and you get good habits early in your career, so that is something that is kind of important now. But I think that has happened in general throughout hockey, guys are doing a lot more to take care of themselves and improve their conditioning. Question: I wondered if you marvel at the fact that it has been 17 years and the fact that it seems to have elapsed pretty quickly; doesn't seem like that long ago that you were just breaking in. Steve Yzerman: Yeah, God it has gone by fairly quickly actually. The start -- seems like -- I feel like I have played on four different teams, with four different groups of guys. We were rebuilding at one point. Got to the semifinals a couple of times under Jacques Demers; then we backed off a bit. Then Bryan Murray came in and we built a strong team and then Scotty came in. I have kind of gone through different groups of players so it felt like different teams. This group has been together for four or five years now, although we are starting to see some change now on our team. Things have gone by very quickly. I have been through a lot, but I don't really look back a lot and think too far back really at all. You get caught up in the season you are in and how things are going right now. So I don't really look back a whole lot. Question: Do you find yourself looking ahead now that you have played 17 and wondering what is down the road a bit? Steve Yzerman: A little bit but not too much. Again I just -- once you get going in the hockey season, you get so caught up in the present and how you are playing now and how your team is doing and what is happening right now, you don't think too far ahead. But, again, I hope to play 20 years, you know, that would take me three more after this. Whether I play 19 or 20 or 21 or 22, I am not sure, but I tried to set a goal of 20. So I have looked ahead a little bit to that and realizing that I only have maybe three or four more years to go and I'd like to try and get as much done or accomplished as much as I can in the remaining years that I have -- after having won the Stanley Cup, I'd like the opportunity to do it again and I don't want to squander any opportunities to do that. Question: Could you talk about Pat Verbeek joining your team a little late in the season; kind of got off to a slow start; was getting in shape; is playing very well. What as he meant to your team and to your line specifically? Steve Yzerman: I think the best thing he brings to our team is that he is a hard guy to play against. That he is gritty. He is abrasive. The more guys you can have that are hard to play against, I think it is really a plus and particularly come playoff time -- abrasive guys seem to excel when it is a tight, close game and there is not a lot of scoring opportunities and a lot of the soft calls, interference and obstruction calls that you get during the regular season, they are not called in a tight playoff game, so those guys who really compete hard and are physically strong and are difficult to play against, seem to really excel. That has been the strength of our team and the guys like Holmstrom and Lapointe, McCarty and Maltby have really stepped up and played very well for us and scored important goals and played key roles for us in the playoffs. I see Patty in the same mold as those players. As far as playing on the line with him, there has been myself, Pat, and Brendan Shanahan for about eight or nine games now. It seems to have worked pretty well. For me -- he goes up and down the wing and plays a simple game and I like that. I am comfortable with that. I just like the way that he competes and he is great to have on our line because he plays hard. He fights for loose pucks in the corners, he goes in hard to get it. He has fit in very nicely on our line and on our entire team for that matter. Question: Does it surprise you that a guy that has the history he has took so long to end up being signed by a team?
Steve Yzerman: Yeah, this year has definitely been different for the free agent. A lot of guys sitting there -- I think there are still a few, I am not exactly sure how many, but I still think there's a few guys. It has been very interesting to see how things have unfolded as far as free agency. So, yeah, it was a surprise. I think now we will go into next summer with everybody wondering what is going to happen; there will be a little bit more uncertainty. I am not really sure the reason why teams did not sign players, but I am assuming it was just financially they decided that we are not going to spend the money on the guys. So I think now it is getting to a point where you can get a pretty darn good player for a pretty good price, I think. It has been a great acquisition for us. Question: The Dallas Stars, they are starting to come on now, but they kind of struggled at the beginning of the season. You are one of the few teams in the '90s that has been able to repeat. How difficult is it to repeat and keep that drive and hunger for a second title?
Steve Yzerman: Well, I think as the season gets on and as I kind of expect Dallas -- my feeling is they are going to get stronger and stronger as the playoffs get closer and the season goes on and they will just become more and more conscious of the playoffs right around the corner and they will get it cranked up more as it gets nearer. I look at their starters, the combination of it, I felt -- I don't know how they felt, but I felt that coming back it was like you have just been through so much and the intensity and emotion that you have in the playoffs, two months later you got to kind of turn around and come do it again. Every time a teams beats you; particularly when you are on the road it is like the Stanley Cup playoff victory for them, and combined with all the injuries that you had made it difficult for them to start. Again, we just felt like when they get all their guys back, they are just going to get stronger and stronger, but it is tough to come back at the start of the next season and go and then they have got a bunch of their guys hurt and they don't have a whole lineup. Question: I have a couple of questions. Do you consider yourself -- you have 600 goals, but do you consider yourself more a passer than a goal scorer? I talked to Wayne Gretzky about it; he said I got all those goals, but I always considered myself more a passer.
Steve Yzerman: Coming into the League, I was a playmaker, I wasn't a big scorer. In junior, my second year, I think I had 40 goals and in junior that is not really a ton of goals. So I don't know. I am not really either. I wouldn't say I am a classic goal scorer like Bossy or Rocket Richard before him. Then when you say playmaker, I look at Wayne or Mario or Adam Oates as your prototypical playmaker, Doug Weight. I am kind of not right there with them either. I guess I am kind of like in between, a little bit of both, but not leaning one way or the other. Certainly when I came in, I felt that I was -- if you asked me what kind of a player I am, I always thought I was a play-making centerman and around my fifth year all of a sudden they started going in more than they ever had. I don't know why that changed. I guess I was happy that it did. Question: What do you consider a really good offensive year for an offensive player now? You got 155 points one year. Steve Yzerman: Yeah. Question: Now is a guy who averages a point a game, is that a really good offensive year now?
Steve Yzerman: I'd like to think so. I think a really good offensive year now is 90 points, you are having a great year. You get 35 goals, you are a sniper. It's amazing how it has changed. Ninety points -- like I look at -- I am not sure how many points Jagr and Forsberg finished with, but those guys are the dominant forwards in the game; dominant offensive guys in the game now. And they are maybe getting 120 points or 115 points, I am not really sure. As opposed to 170, 180. The game has changed and it's totally different. Not only does the opposition play different against you, your team plays much more defensively; as a result, you are not playing in as wide open game and you are winning games 3-1, 4-1 as opposed to 7-5 like they used to be. Question: You have touched on this a little bit already today, but one of the things we really want to ask you is how special is it to have played your entire career with the Red Wings; now getting ready to break that one more milestone as far as setting the goal record -- seems like the fans talk about that so much on our show today, can you touch on that a little bit? Steve Yzerman: Well, I think it is particularly special to play in Detroit or in an organization that has a real history behind it. Living here and playing for the Red Wings, the team has some - I don't know if importance is the right word - but the team is followed extremely well in the community and really has some significance around town that you remember the Detroit Red Wings and it is a good atmosphere to play in. So I have particularly enjoyed that, playing in a real strong hockey atmosphere. Then, fortunately, that we have been able to win a couple of Stanley Cups so the organization has really gained a lot of respect, I guess, around the hockey world, but in the Detroit area right now, it has really gained a lot of respect in the fact that we have been able to win a couple of Stanley Cups, and kind of legitimize our -- this particular group of players. So I have really enjoyed it and I have been fortunate that it has worked out to this point because there is a lot of different reasons why a player can remain or move from one team to the other and it has worked out very well. I am grateful for that because there is a lot of luck and timing has a lot to do with it and I have been to be able fit into the organization reasonably well. Question: Can I get you to touch just a little bit on the personal end of that too because I know that you have spent so much time with this organization on and off the ice; it's got to be a special feeling for yourself to be able to look back at that part of it for your career. Steve Yzerman: Yeah, it has been gratifying for me to stay here. When I was drafted in the summer of '83, I think it was, by Jimmy Devellano who is still with the team; the Ilitch family owned the team when I was drafted here; Kenny Holland, our general manager, I actually played with a way back. Jim Nill I played with, who is the assistant GM. Dave Lewis I played with, our assistant coach. We have been through a lot with the team and we had -- in building a good team we have had a lot of disappointments along the way, so I am glad I was here when I was able to take part in the celebrations of winning and the success of the team. I am glad I was around to witness that and be a part of it because we have been through -- I don't want to say we built it, but I witnessed the building of the team and participated in the building of the organization again and so I am glad I got to participate in the success as well. It would have been difficult to go somewhere else or be somewhere else and sit and watch the Red Wings winning knowing that I have been there for a long time and didn't get a chance to be a part of it. Question: Have these last few years been much more special to you then when you first started on the team like you said was going through that rebuilding stage? Steve Yzerman: The first years of my career were fantastic in that you got your whole career ahead of you; you are enjoying hockey and you are so optimistic as far as the future you are thinking that there is going to be a ton of Stanley Cups ahead of you and a lot of good things happen. You are very optimistic when you are young. Then I found it a difficult time, you know, early in the 90s. Our team suffered some disappointing playoff losses in the first round; one to Toronto; one to San Jose, and it was getting very difficult to play because there was so many questions, you know, was our team good enough; was our leadership strong enough, so it became difficult and then to find out we were able to win a couple of Stanley Cups and now it is kind of -- I guess it is almost like -- it makes it a lot easier to play right now because we have answered a lot of questions. Now we kind of just go out and play and enjoy playing and I have experienced a lot, so I kind of feel comfortable in all the different situations and kind of know what to expect and how to handle the situations a little better than I did when I was younger. So it is a lot of fun to be playing right now. And the fact that we are a competitive team and we go out and play and you usually have a chance to win most nights is a good situation to be in. So, yeah, I certainly enjoy the success the team has had the last couple of years and enjoying playing on a very competitive team right now. It is a great situation to be in.
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