Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood was interviewed on “The Mitch Albom Show” on WJR-AM (760) last week. Albom talked with Osgood about his appearance on “The Tonight Show” and drinking out of the Stanley Cup.
On what he’s doing: I’m at my house. I was cleaning the grass today, getting some stuff organized.
On going on “The Tonight Show”: I know when John Hahn called me, our PR director, and said they requested you, I’m like: “Are you for real?” I thought he was joking. Then he got serious with me – we were at Mr. Ilitch’s party. But at first I was a little nervous and I didn’t know what to expect. But, you know, I had a lot of fun with it; it was great.
On who he thought would have been the first choices to go on the show: Nick (Lidstrom). Then I would have said probably Hank (Zetterberg). And maybe Drapes (Kris Draper), (Darren) McCarty, a lot guys. I could name a lot of guys.
On what the “The Tonight Show” said about what was going to happen there – like it being semi-scripted, and the dance and Justin Timberlake tune: We more or less got there pretty early, three or four hours before the show even was taped. And it was scripted, they told us what we had to do, what they expected of us. We went out on stage and there was nobody in the crowd, and we weren’t very good at it at first, to be honest with you. I was a little nervous. It was a little overwhelming.
It was good, though, because Jay Leno came right into our room about five minutes after we were there, maybe, at the most, talked to us for a little while, made us feel comfortable. So (they) really made us feel like they wanted us there and they were excited, so it made it that much easier for us to be there. When he first asked us to sing and dance (we said) you got the wrong guys here. I still have trouble watching that. I get a little embarrassed.
On when was the last time you danced in public? Uh, uh, probably the last time we won, probably in 1998. No, I haven’t danced for a long time, or sometimes I sing karaoke in the summer at home. I have a karaoke machine, so I dance and do that a little bit.
On drinking out of the Cup: Actually, after a week of drinking out of it, I got a sore throat and a bit of a cold. But it was worth it, though. It was a lot of fun, and I’d never tell anybody they can’t drink out of it, the people we run into.
On Dominik Hasek retiring: Dominik is actually one of my favorite partners, I don’t categorize him in any way. You know he taught me how to relax my mind more. Dom really focuses once the game starts. He’s relaxed prior to it, and I always noticed that, he’s resting himself for the game. And also how hard he works in practice, it was kind of like I was trying to keep up with him when I first came back. And it really made a difference for me, just those two things. I didn’t do as well as maybe I could have early in my career, and that’s what it took, to watch somebody like that. Not to get somebody to tell you – a goalie coach or a coach – but to watch a guy who’s a Hall of Famer how he does it, and that’s the biggest lesson.
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