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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: OILERS v HURRICANES


June 4, 2006


Mark Recchi

Glen Wesley


RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Practice Day

MARK RECCHI: You never forget when you win and it's a special feeling with the guys. They have a special group of guys here, and you know. Dougie and I are very glad to be a part of it. So it's been good.
Q. When you see all those veteran players, a chance to win the Cup, you think about Wesley, waiting 18 years, and Brind'Amour, you must have a special connection with the team.
MARK RECCHI: You know how committed they are to the game and how much they have given to the game and just to get that opportunity now. I know Wesley had a couple of times, Rod has had it once, this is a first for Dougie and it's special for those guys. It's nice to see these guys get that opportunity.
Q. And everybody has to be hungry, you know that you don't want to miss the opportunity.
MARK RECCHI: Well, you know, like I said, this could all be our last chances, we don't know. This could be that last chance to get that thing again. Like I said, how hard it is to get here and, you know, you want to try and obviously nothing is going to be left on both sides, let me tell you that. And you know, they have got some veterans over there that know the same thing and played a long time.
They know that, you know, both sides know it, it's hard to get here. So there won't be anything left in the dressing room.
GLEN WESLEY: If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. I think you can probably go back and look at that game in the crossbars and the post, you know, we were hitting the knobs with a stick and we would have empty nets. You know, would it have made a difference? I don't know. I don't even know what the series was really at that point. You know, it was so long ago.
Q. First game?
GLEN WESLEY: I don't even know, to be honest with you. It's a long time ago.
Q. Do you remember what your emotions were when you were traded from Boston to Hartford?
GLEN WESLEY: Well, I knew I was getting traded because I had asked. So really from the emotional standpoint, I didn't know where I was going. You know, I had a couple preferences, but really, to say that, it's unknown. When you get traded, you don't know what to expect. You're uprooting your family, you're going to new surroundings, new teammates, new organization.
Q. I would expect the last thing on your mind would be this many years later to be with the same franchise after, you know, you set in motion the fact that you are going to move around, to last once you're traded, with one franchise?
GLEN WESLEY: I guess you don't know. You don't know if you're going to get another opportunity. You don't know what really your future holds, but in saying that, I think I made a pretty wise choice. Really, going through some growing pains maybe with this organization, seek the benefits that we've had going through the struggles of leaving Greensboro and coming here and seeing how much the fan base has grown, and really coming to a point here, two times in the last five years, here we are again playing in the Finals.
You know, that's all in the past. We have a great opportunity here and that's all we're really focusing on now.
Q. Players know talent more than anyone in the National Hockey League and there was a sense in 2002 you were maybe a little overmatched with Detroit but this year it's much different with the Carolina Hurricanes.
GLEN WESLEY: Yeah, Detroit was virtually an All-Star team in our minds, and we knew that we were heavy underdogs. But I think going into every one of those games, I think every game was a winnable game going into the third period.
So, yeah, I'd say we were heavy underdogs, and looking at it from this time around, I think both teams are evenly matched. You know, teams have -- good team speed on both sides, there's grit, good talent on both times, good goaltending, good special teams. It's a good balance. We expect a long and physical series and that's what we're preparing ourselves for.

End of FastScripts...

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