NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: CAPITALS v RED WINGS

June 9, 1998

Steve Yzerman

STEVE YZERMAN: He is a good hockey player, strong guy, physically strong guy - makes it difficult to play. He is a physically strong guy and smart guy with the puck and strong in the corners and played another solid game.

STEVE YZERMAN: I have my mind on other things. I am not concerned with that. First and third were our two better periods. We just have to continue to stay aggressive and not necessarily sit back. You are not going to be given scoring chances. You have to create them. I thought particularly in the second period, we didn't get the puck and go with it more, take it to the net and generate chances. You can't sit and wait for the other team to give them to you. Obviously, they didn't. Second period we -- I didn't think we were particularly pleased with our play. Third one we played a little better. I am just -- really not that big a deal. Just try to step -- you step out of the way when somebody is coming at you and natural reaction is for the guy to get a piece of you. So, really not a big deal. I am not really concerned about it. There is a lot of going over the line out there, so it is not -- there is no sense of complaining about it. You hope the referees call the initial one. But, again, they are not going to. They are going to wait for you to retaliate. We hope that they call the first one; then you just continue to play and not get distracted and get off your game. We have got players on our team doing the same thing so, that is part of the game.