Drake on WDFN: I couldn't watch the ending

by Jonathan Oosting | MLive.com

Thursday June 05, 2008, 6:59 PM

Monday's triple-overtime loss to the Penguins was tough on Dallas Drake. The Red Wings' 15-year veteran forward lay in bed into the early hours of the morning thinking to himself, "35 seconds. 35 seconds."

So when Pittsburgh mounted another dramatic comeback effort in the final minutes of Wednesday's game, he couldn't bring himself to watch.

"I was looking at my skates on the bench," he said Thursday on the WDFN's "the Stoney and Wojo Show".

"I couldn't look up. My head felt like it weighed about a hundred and fifty pounds and I was sick to my stomach. My heart was racing."

He finally did look up just in time to see a shot by Pittsburgh's Marian Hossa sail inches wide of the goalpost, and minutes later Wings' captain Nicklas Lidstrom handed him the Stanley Cup.

"It was everything you dream of," Drake said of holding hockey's Holy Grail. "As a kid you dream of touching that thing. I've never been in the same building as it let alone been close to it."

Drake's status for next year remains uncertain as retirement looms, but he says he'll make his decision soon.

"Obviously, I don't want to make an emotional decision too quickly," he said. "I don't think I'm leaning one way or another right now. I mean the biggest thing for me is my health and how my body feels in the morning after games."