Today was absolutely nuts. It was crazy. There were enough press credentialed scribes and broadcasters to rival media day at the Superbowl.
The Canucks and Stars both practiced for the first time in front of the pundits who'll be covering the best of seven series and then afterwards, players from both teams stood in their respective dressing rooms while the media buzzed from one scrum to the other in search of the perfect quote.
Questions about playoff beards, superstitions, scouting reports, difference makers, what to expect, what not to expect, who to key on, will Turco wilt, who will play with whom, who's injured, where's Lindros, how does it feel Luongo, can the Sedin's even grow a beard, what does the buzz feel like, what will you do to prepare, will you sleep at night, is your family in town, are you enjoying the Vancouver restaurants, does Zubov speak English and do you expect to break out of your season slump Markus?
Today was my first indication of what NHL players go through in the playoffs. Everything is different. Everything is picked apart and scrutinized to shreds. Players must relish the chance to just get on the ice and finally play!
No joke...at one point today I was actually balancing on the bench in the dressing room in a yoga like stance (I think they call it the warrior pose) with my arm outstretched trying to get quotes from Kevin Bieksa as my recorder hung perilously close to falling amongst the feet of reporters.
And what do you think is the key component to any media scrum? You guessed it: Fresh gum.
With all that being said, here's the story I managed to put together after crawling out barely alive from the swarthy scrums. It's about
what it takes.
ps - Did you know canucks.com has their own podcast now? It's free and easy to use. The latest podcast is a video clip on how well Canuck players know Sami Salo. Luongo's got one of the best answers to Salo's pet peeve.
canucks.com podcast
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