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
beat couple elite games last lost start teams
We've lost two in a row, and we have to respond. To beat the elite teams in the league, it's got to be start to finish. We haven't done that the last couple of games and that's why we've lost.
adjust amount felt good penalties seems specialty talking teams
It felt good to be back out there. It seems there's going to be a lot of specialty teams this year. I think that's what everybody's kind of talking about right now, the amount of penalties that were called. You know, basically, how are we going to adjust to it is really what it's going to come down to.
adjustment body choice defence good guys happen huge open skate speed step teams
Here at the Joe, guys are getting used to the speed and the body positioning. Teams that can skate and have a good defence will be a step ahead. You won't have any choice to open up. But this is going to be a huge adjustment and it won't happen overnight.
certainly five four realizing regular scoreboard sure teams watch
Yeah, now we're on the scoreboard watching. We're realizing there's probably about four or five teams that are going to keep flip-flopping from here right on up to the end of the regular season. For us, you certainly watch that but the one thing we want to make sure is that we're concentrating on what this team does.
anyone deep extent former friend realized teammate tough
I don't think anyone realized the extent of how deep it went. It's tough when you see a friend and former teammate go through something like that.
shooting specialty talked teams
One thing we wanted to do was take away Blake, with that big one-timer he has. We wanted to get into some shooting lanes, and we did that. We talked about how important specialty teams were going to be in this game, and they were.
division great hockey realize teams themselves tougher turned
So you realize that our division just got that much tougher with the upgrades that all these teams made. They've turned themselves into some great hockey clubs.
fun nice teammates
It always makes for a fun night. Down here, you're with your teammates and your family, and it's always nice to be a part of something.
active money teams tied
Out of all the teams in our division, we were the least active because of how much money we had tied into players,
morning team winning
Actually it was easier than you'd think. We were the guys who had the opportunity to play for something. Only 26 players on the eight teams had that chance. We would wake up in the morning and have a reason to train. We are able to have four weeks to play at this level. Since the first day our policy was not to talk about the labor situation. Our goal was to win. We'll enjoy it for one night. Then the reality of the owners locking us out sets in.
game master played playing seen stirring talking tricks
We had the master of the manipulators, playing for Scotty (Bowman) . We've seen all the tricks before. The game is going to be played on the ice. Not talking or stirring things up.
brad cheeky goal grin type ugly
It was an ugly type of goal and Brad had a cheeky grin on his face, but it was what we needed.
demanding eastern easy either playing realize time western zone
Either way we're going out west. There's nothing easy about that. First round, right off the hop, it's pretty demanding travel-wise and that's something that we realize but that's just unfortunate, us being in the Eastern Time zone and playing in the Western Conference.
canadian edmonton forward heard kid looking playoffs special vancouver
I've never been part of it. I'm really looking forward to it. After Vancouver and Calgary and what we've heard about the way it is in Edmonton for the playoffs ... it's pretty special for a Canadian kid to be part of that.