Kris Draper
Kris Draper
Kristopher Bruce "Kris" Draperis a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and current special assistant to the general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, the team with which he played 17 seasons for during his 20-year National Hockey Leagueplaying career...
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth24 May 1971
next sitting
Why are you sitting next to me? Get out of here.
games meant playing playoffs
We've been playing some games here for a while now that haven't really meant anything standing-wise. Now everything's over and done with. The playoffs are coming.
For me, 03-04 ... was it 03-04 or 02-03?
best columbus good half league playing records regular second
That's something we can't control. Columbus had one of the best records in the league the second half of the season. We feel good about what we accomplished during the regular season. Now everything counts, and we're playing for real.
build definitely
It's something I definitely want to build on.
figuring learning roles rules
Everyone's going in on a whole new learning curve, ... Figuring out what the rules are going to be, what the roles are going to be with the new coach, and that's all going to come pretty fast.
adjust coaches exciting game guys hockey mind open players puck sake
It's going to be a whole different mind-set, not only for the players but for the coaches, as we try to adjust to the new rules. Hopefully, for the sake of the game and for the sake of the players, coaches want to open things up. Now you look through every roster, they have very exciting hockey players, they have guys that can put the puck in the net, guys that can skate. Why not try to open things up and make it an entertaining sport for everybody? I think that's going to have to be the case.
call camp camps exhibition game games grasp open previous training year
It's going to really open up the game, make the game a lot more entertaining. Training camp this year is going to be more important than previous camps and the exhibition games are going to be very important to get a grasp of how the refs are going to call things.
adjust seems specialty
It seems there's going to be a lot of specialty teams. Basically, how are we going to adjust to it is what it comes down to.
fun
It went well. It was a lot of fun.
affected changes definitely free ken manager money quite step though tied
It's definitely affected us a lot, ... It kind of handcuffed Detroit. We had a lot of money tied into a lot of players. (General manager Ken Holland) had to step up and make some changes to free up some money. Even though we did, we didn't quite get enough.
bring game nice people plan schedule start successful
We're back where we should be. This is always a game when the schedule comes out where you take a look at who you're playing, and it's always nice. It's something that people plan to bring their New Year's in on. It's always a nice celebration, a nice atmosphere. To make it a successful night, it's up to us to go out and start it off right.
hockey hung veteran
We're a veteran hockey club, we know better than that. We hung Manny out to dry.
gotten jump next sounds turning until wait wheels
I thought we were going to wait until the buzzer sounds after tomorrow's (Sunday) game, but the Americans have gotten a jump on us. The wheels will be turning for the next 24 hours.