Posted by Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun
DETROIT -- If Sidney Crosby is presented the Stanley Cup on Friday night, it will mark the first time he's ever touched the fabled trophy or had his picture taken in its presence.
"Never photographed with it. Had a couple of chances to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Joey DiPenta [of the Anaheim Ducks] actually had a Stanley Cup party in my hometown, so I didn't make it to the party and I didn't get a photograph with it," Crosby said Thursday with a grin. "Everyone knows that you try to stay away from it until you get the opportunity to really do it yourself."
Will he imagine what it might be like to take the Cup from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman at the end of Game 7 or will he try and keep those thoughts at bay?
"I think you try to push them aside," Crosby said. "For me personally, that's the way I look at it. You know, you want to approach it as much as you can like a normal game, and it's probably a lot easier said than done. But it's so important to focus on what you have to do out there. ... We're facing elimination, you don't think, 'What if they win here.' You can't think like that."
One person who has held the Cup aloft is Crosby's teammate Ruslan Fedotenko, who scored the Cup-winning goal in 2004 when he was a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He said there was nothing special in the moments before the game that told him he was going to play a key role in a special hockey moment.
"I think it's after the fact. I mean, going to Game 7, you have nerves, excitement," Fedotenko said. "It's everything and above. You can't take a pregame nap because you're so excited. But, you know what, it's still a game."
That said, he expects to remind his teammates of his experiences before Friday's game.
"Oh, for sure. I will have my moment and I will talk to the team before the game," Fedotenko said. "But I think I want to keep it between the teammates and myself right now, so I wouldn't want to say too much right now in the press."
Helping Hossa
Red Wings coach Mike Babcock chatted with Marian Hossa ahead of the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals in a bid to relax the struggling star winger.
"Well, the big thing Hossa has to understand is all he's got to do is do what he does," Babcock said Thursday. "We've talked about that. I asked him who scored the goals for Detroit in Game 6 last year in the final? He didn't know, and neither did I. That's the facts. But I knew we won. Doesn't matter who scores the goals, none of that matters. What matters is do your part and allow the team to win. He'll do that. He'll be great."
We'll give Hossa credit. He's come out every day and answered the same questions over and over again about his famous decision to ditch Pittsburgh for Detroit last summer. And he admitted Thursday that perhaps he's let that stuff get to him a little.
"You're answering questions every day about Pittsburgh and stuff like that," said Hossa. "You've got the history there. But like I said, it comes down to the last game, just try to focus on everything and have fun."
Hossa said he hopes to just relax and do his thing Friday night.
"Just focus on your things," said Hossa. "Don't focus on all that things surrounding [it]. Be yourself, have fun, enjoy yourself, because who knows when this can happen again."
Hossa insisted one game will not decide whether he made the right decision.
"Not at all," said Hossa. "Through the whole season, I had a chance to learn a lot from the guys here in the dressing room, the older guys. Basically, I feel pretty fortunate to be in this dressing room and learn from these guys. Guys like [Chris] Chelios, who knows if he's going to play, maybe he will ... But just to be around them, to learn something from them, it's just an amazing experience."
Cup finals "Miracle"?
Remember the big speech Herb Brooks (played by Kurt Russell) gave to the U.S. team before the big game against Russia in the movie "Miracle"?
Sure you do.
Well, don't expect Penguins coach Dan Bylsma to reproduce that before Friday's game.
"I don't know what I'm going to say. That's something I usually do in the afternoon of a game. I certainly have thought about it, and I've been forced to think about it when I have questions like that," Bylsma said with a laugh. "But I think the Herb Brooks speech happens many years later after the game is over, and after a team has won.
"You know, the meeting before the game will be about reminders about what we need to do. I always talk about what to expect from their team, maybe some of the adjustments they've made in their game plan or their set breakout or whatever they may have changed, we need to be aware of, reminders that guys are focused on the details in given situations.
"But that meeting all happens in about six minutes, five minutes," Bylsma added. "So it's not like in a movie. I think it happens over a course of 15 minutes. It's a lot more talking in the movies than there's going to be in that game. It's about what happens on the ice."
ESPN.com Stanley Cup playoffs blog
