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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 5, 2007Vincent LecavalierDAVID KEON: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm David Keon of the National Hockey League's Public Relations Department. I'd like to welcome you to today's call. Our guest is Tampa Bay Lightning Center, Vincent Lecavalier. Thanks to Vincent for taking the time today to answer your questions. And thanks to Jay Prebble of the Lightning Public Relations Department for arranging the call. Chosen first overall in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, Vincent in his 8th NHL season, all with the Lightning. This season he's set single season highs with 52 goals, 55 assists and 107 points. His 52 goals lead the NHL in the race for the Rocket Rashard Trophy, four ahead of Ottoway's Dany Heatley. His 107 points place him third in the league behind Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, with 117, and San Jose's Joel Thornton with 199. Tampa Bay sits second in the Southeast Division with 92 points, one point behind the Atlanta Thrashers. Each team has two games remaining in the regular season schedule, with the final game being a game against each other in Atlanta on Saturday which will possibly decide who gets the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and home ice in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Q. Vincent, Pat Burns came out the other day and talked about how he believes you're the best player in the National Hockey League. He's a player -- because he doesn't have any affiliation with anyone, his opinion, I think, carries a lot of weight rather than having to listen to somebody who is an employee of the team talk about it. What do you say when somebody like that comes out and says you've taken your game to that next level? VINCENT LECAVALIER: It's a great honor to hear something like that from Pat Burns, who knows the game and he's been in hockey for so long. It's really nice. But there's great players like Sidney Crosby, 19 years old, who has got 117 points leading the league. That's pretty impressive. But to come from him, it was a nice thing to read. Q. Can you recall what it was like, putting it in the context of Crosby going to the playoffs as a 19-year-old, what was it like for you as a young player the first time you qualified for the playoffs? Did you go in with the weight of the world on your shoulders or because yours was a young emerging expansion team, did you guys just go in, have fun and think whatever we accomplish we accomplish? VINCENT LECAVALIER: No, I think you try to put pressure on yourself. You look at a guy like Sid. He's going to put pressure on himself to try to do the best as he can to win. I think it was my fourth year, I put pressure on myself as much as I can. And good pressure. But you try to win. Once you get into the playoffs, you know that -- you never know what can happen. So it's a great experience that first playoff game and the excitement, and I remember first couple of shifts I was just running around with my head cut off. I was just so excited. But it's obviously, when it's your first time it's great. Q. First of all, last night's Atlanta loss to Washington really opened the door a little bit for you guys to compete for the first place in the division. Were you watching that game? And can you talk a little bit about the rivalry with Atlanta and how important it is to win the division? VINCENT LECAVALIER: I didn't watch the game, but I knew right away when it was over. And I think the rivalries are -- it's definitely heating up, even the last couple of years. The Thrashers a couple of years, they weren't the best team in the league. But now they're definitely, every year they're getting better and better, and they have a great team this year. So it's nice to compete against a team like that with a lot of determination obviously from the year they've been having. But we obviously want to take that third seed and it's going to be -- we have to think about our first game here tomorrow night. But Saturday is definitely going to be a very intense hockey game. And we're definitely big rivals right now. Q. I'm doing a story about grittiness, gritty players. We talk about it all the time. I wonder if you could give me what you think your definition is of a gritty player. And then give me an example of maybe in your guys' run for the Cup, what you consider a gritty performance by a teammate. VINCENT LECAVALIER: I think gritty performances, I think players that get their nose dirty and, I don't know, playing mean and wanting to win and playing very physical. And I think to win you need that. I'm not saying everybody should run with their heads cut off. But they definitely should play with finishing their checks, especially in playoffs, little things like that. If the guys that don't usually do it do it, the same thing with guys that don't usually score, score in playoffs, that's when you can have a big run for it. Q. Can you talk a little bit about Marty's season this year? I mean you've gotten a lot of attention, rightfully so. But because of that, Marty's great big season has probably been a little bit ignored. Can you talk about him stepping up again this season? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Marty is a great player. And since the first year that he's been with the team, you know, I knew right away -- you can tell how determined he is. And he's obviously -- he has a lot of skills. But he's definitely proving the last couple of years, even last year and people said he wasn't having a great year, he still finished with 30 goals. And there's a lot of pressure put on him last year. But he came back this year, played unbelievable. And he's taught me a lot of things, from consistency. And every single night, when you play with a guy like that in the same line, you don't have a choice. He makes you better. And he deserves a lot of credit for this team and for the Tampa Bay Lightning, he's definitely a big part of the team. Q. I'm wondering, obviously with something you couldn't control, but when your original owner made those statements at the draft about how you could be the Michael Jordan of hockey, I'm wondering how that and being named captain at such a young age, how do you think those affected you and do you think they put more expectations and pressure on you than you already had, which was pretty immense in itself? VINCENT LECAVALIER: I think when you're first overall, you automatically get some pressure on you. And for him to say that I was the Michael Jordan of hockey, he was a great man, but he never saw a hockey game in his life. It was the first year that he bought the team. He's really excited. I didn't really pay attention to that. I thought it was fairly -- it's Michael Jordan. I was just an 18-year-old kid. I was playing juniors the year before. So I didn't really pay attention to that. And as far as me being captain, we had a very young team. It's not like -- I was 19 years old, but most of the guys were 21, 22, 23 years old. I think that year was one of the best years, my second year was one of the best years I had especially to develop and get my confidence. So I put a lot of pressure on myself. But I think personally it helped me and brought me a lot of responsibilities. But I was always ready for that. So like I said, we were a very, very young team. It's not like today where most of the guys are 27 to 32. So it's kind of different. Q. Obviously the numbers, what do you see the biggest -- to you what's the biggest difference in your game now than when you first came into the league? What kind of things do you think you do now that maybe you didn't do back then? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Obviously I've said that often just consistency and I think we get in the league, 18, 19 years old, I think that was the toughest thing for me anyways. And I think a lot of young guys, when they come in, being ready to play and focused every single night. And I think you learn that through experience. I think this year -- also through playing, I'm playing 23 minutes a night, 22 minutes a night. You have no choice. You've got to be ready, because you're out there 22 minutes and if you're not ready then you're going to hurt the team. So obviously from playing time to also playing with Martin St. Louise was a great help and a great player and determined player. And Prospa Vaclav, we help each other to make sure that we're ready to go. Q. Is there a point where, I don't know, a light bulb goes on or things seem to fall into place and you don't have to think as much about the game, it just comes naturally? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Can you repeat it? Q. Is there a point in a player's career where things fall into place you find yourself doing things naturally, you don't have to think about it? VINCENT LECAVALIER: I think so. To a certain extent, I think maybe I was thinking too much a couple years back. I think now we've had the same system also with the team on the ice for five to six years now. I don't really -- we still do a lot of videos and stuff like that, but it comes more naturally now. My defensive game comes more naturally. And I don't know, you gotta make sure that you're ready to go all the time and you learn that through experience. And it's been going well. And I think now it's more out of instincts. Q. I was just wondering, you're playing -- statistically you're having the best season of your career. Do you feel that you are playing the best hockey of your career, or does that date back to during the Stanley Cup final when your team won? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Well, I think it's two totally different things. I think playoffs is more of a, you know, it's two months of -- it's different hockey. It's totally different. I think I started building my confidence through the Stanley Cup playoffs and from there to the World Cup. And I started believing more and more in myself. But this year's definitely -- it's confidence about feeling good on the ice, playing with instincts and playing with two unbelievable players. If those two guys wouldn't be there, if Marty wouldn't be there, if Prospa Vaclav wouldn't be there, I don't think I would have produced or scored as much or get 50 goals. Q. You were talking about confidence. Did you at any point, when you were selected number one overall and the team struggled early on, did you ever lose any of that confidence and think that maybe things wouldn't come together? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Not at that point. But definitely during the year there's a lot of ups and downs, and I think that's where my consistency, struggling with it. There's always seven or eight games where I was almost afraid of touching the puck. It was if I didn't score for three or four games, I wouldn't see the net. When I was shooting, I didn't know where I was shooting. I don't know if that's from being nervous or I don't know what. But it just kind of happened. And that's all in building confidence and being young. I think putting a lot of pressure on myself. When it didn't happen right away, maybe that's where I lost that confidence. But that was a while back. That was a long time ago. And I think I grew from those experiences. Q. You talked earlier about the good type of pressure that comes with the first time through the playoffs. How does that differ from the sort of the outside pressure that can be seen as sometimes negative and crushing to a young player the first time through? VINCENT LECAVALIER: Well, I think once you get to the playoffs you don't really think of the outside pressure. I don't know, I was like that. I didn't think of anything else but trying to help the team and it's just -- you've got those butterflies in the stomach and you're excited. You don't even think about what people might say or whatever. You just want to do it. And I think a guy like we're talking about Sidney right before, you know he knows how to handle this. He's had pressure for two years. Even more than two years, his whole career. And he's handled it pretty well, from the season he's had. So he's a great player. And obviously he handles the pressure the way he should. And I think it's going to make him a better player just to make it to the playoffs. Q. Team-wise, how much did that first time through for you guys help and how difficult was it just to compete that first time through as a young team? VINCENT LECAVALIER: We went down actually two nothing right away against Washington in our first playoffs, and the thing that, not that surprised me, but we were pretty young guys but we had that determination in our team. I think that's why we won that couple years -- was it the next year? We won -- we build that confidence. We came back and won four straight games in a row after that against Washington. That was our first series. So just for us to come back as a young team, we started to believe. And obviously we caught the New Jersey Devils, which were a good team; they beat us, but just for us to come back and win like that made us believe. And that stays in your mind even the next year when you return to the playoffs. MODERATOR: Thank you, Vincent. End of FastScripts |
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