NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 13, 2002

Nicklas Lidstrom

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: I didn't really give it much thought before people started talking about it today. People are asking me about it today. I didn't really think much about it. I just wanted to go in and play my game and get away with a win. We have lots of leaders on our club starting with Dominik back at net. He's very aggressive in the net as you all know he talks a lot there on the ice there, tries to help us out a lot. We had goal scorers that could have won it easily. So I am very proud and it's a tremendous honor to receive this award.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: It does, yeah. I think that makes it even sweeter being the first European and we have lots of Europeans on our club too that could have won it. But it's very nice to be the first one.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Actually Scotty told me on the ice after we won it. That's when he said he just coached his last game. I said, well, let's talk about it, let's not get ahead of ourselves. But he has been a tremendous coach throughout the year, been adapting to the different styles from the '60s to up to this year as well. So I like to see him come back but he's been doing a lot of things for hockey and doing a lot of tremendous things, so we'll see what we can do.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Haven't really thought about it yet, if I am. Two previous times I brought it back to Sweden showing it to friends over there. We'll see if we can work it out, have it over here for a half a day and back in Sweden for a half a day. That would be nice to have it here in Detroit with the fans here, my friends here in Detroit as well.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Well, we made a decision back in '99 that we were going to stay over here and we felt comfortable with that decision. And having a chance now to win it all, I think really sweetens the moment a lot more when you made that decision and you had a chance to win the Cup and even get this trophy as well. I think that just makes it a lot more sweeter.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: I think we should be there with some of the greatest teams. I think looking back at last summer when we signed, got Dom and signed Hull and Freddy Olausson, we got some really talented players and it was just a matter of getting everything working together as a team and as a group. That clicked right away. I thought that first week in the regular season we played as a team and we have been doing that throughout the whole regular season and that has been carrying through the Playoffs as well. I think we have just been getting better and better throughout the Playoffs.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Freddy was very excited just to reach the Finals and he's never -- I think he said he has been in the second round a couple of times but that's as far as he has been. He was very thrilled to first of all, reach the semis. I said it's just going to get better and better the closer we get to that Stanley Cup. And it's tremendous moment for him and some other players on our club as well that haven't won it before and I think all the hard work we have been putting through this season and the pressure we had on us too we had some pressure going into the regular season people said we're going to win this thing easily and it wasn't that easy. We really battled hard just going back to the first round, we lost the first two home games and going into Vancouver for Game 3 we pretty much a must-win situation, and we probably played our best game of that series in game 3, so that tells a lot about our team and the way we have been approaching this season and the Playoffs.

NICKLAS LIDSTROM: Well, looking back at previous years we always had competitive teams, teams that we should be up there with the best and have a chance, a crack at it to win it all. And thinking about the things you mentioned that Dom doesn't know what he's going to do next season we had some older players and this is the time to do it. We felt some pressure but felt confident with the group that we had too that we could accomplish something in these Playoffs. I think everybody was very determined to do something good. I think it -- everybody wanted to help the players that haven't won it before and just have a chance to be at the top again and I think that was just a big boost for everybody.