On the Wings

Here is the final part of the Draper interview:

Question #8: As I was watching your practice, I noticed that you seem to be the jokester of the group. Are you known as the jokester or do people have other nicknames for you?
Dave Lewis: “Oh, we have lots of nicknames for him. Did he tell you about his great goal the other night?�
Draper: “Which one?�
The shorthanded one?
“Yeah probably. A lot of guys call me Drapes or Nails.�
Why Nails?
“Oh, the whole tough as nails kind of deal. Ray Whitney calls me Spike � the little dog who doesn�t stop, the little bulldog who keeps going. So like I said, I realize how fortunate I am doing what I�m doing; its something that I�ve wanted to do ever since I learned how to skate and knew what hockey was. You know, I�m going to come to the rink everyday and work hard when I have to but I�m going to have a lot of fun doing it. Sometimes guys are know whatever, like in grumpy moods or grouchy but I make sure I�m much more chipper and kind of bug them as much as I can to get them in good moods. So its fun that way, myself and Kirk Maltby � we have a lot of energy and we love to kind of fool around out there and have fun but the bottom line is, when you have to work � you work and when you can have fun, you have fun. I�m just fortunate. Everyday I get to come down here. I�m a Detroit Red Wing and I�ve won three Stanley Cups and everything in hockey is just going really good now.�

Question #9: Was it Holmstrom or Maltby that missed that great pass and then you guys gave him a hard time about it just like any high school team I know?
“I�m not sure but that�s all we are. And we�re lucky to be able to do that, we�re in a winning environment and we�re expected to do well. When things aren�t going well, its turns into a bit of a business especially in this city since the expectations are so high. And we place those expectations on ourselves as well. It�s a good thing and right now we�re on a bit of a winning streak and things are good. But when we�re not winning and playing as well � its more like a business atmosphere and that�s how it should be. You have to realize when its time to have fun and when you need to buckle down and get to work. You know everyone goes out and practices hard, we all have the expectations that we want to go out and win night in and night out � that�s what is fun, to be able to go out and do that. I realize how lucky we are. Some guys come from different teams and organizations who go to the rink everyday but aren�t expected to win hockey games whereas here everyday we go to the rink and have that chance to win the hockey game.�

Question #10: What is your pregame routine like? For example, tomorrow night you have a game what do you do between the time that you wake up and the time that the puck drops to initiate the game?
�I�ll wake up in the morning�you know it�s different now that my daughter is in school. Tomorrow, I�ll drive my daughter to school and usually I�ll try to go to my little restaurant, its called Sunny�s Restaurant for breakfast every morning. Depending on if we�re winning or not, it depends on what I eat. So we�re winning right now so I�ll eat egg white omelets. If we lose, I have to switch what I eat and have oatmeal. It is a little superstition that I have. Then I just drive down to the rink for our pregame skate for like half an hour where we skate and just loosen up. It�s just like a crammed in practice, you get the goalie shots and get your sticks ready for the game. Afterwards, I usually eat at home. My wife cooks a pregame meal for me at home so I hang out with my daughter, Kennedi, and my son, Keinan. Then its time for a nap, like I told you � sleep is very important to me. I usually sleep from about 2 o�clock in the afternoon to 4 o�clock in the afternoon. I�ll get up and then go get my coffee at Tim Horton�s and a muffin, chocolate chip muffin � that�s my lucky muffin. And then I�ll drive down to the rink and I like to get to the rink about 2 and a half hours before the game. Usually I�ll get my sticks ready, do some stretches, and make sure I�m warmed up and ready to go. Half an hour before the game, we go up for warm-up and then its game time.�

Question #11: Do you do anything after the game like if you win or does everyone just go home?
�It depends on the schedule. If we have an opportunity, we�ll grab our wives and go out to dinner. Like right after tomorrow night�s game we have to leave to head out on the road for our game the following day. Usually if we don�t play for a couple of days or have the night off we�ll go up for dinner. But usually by the time we get out of the rink its 11:30 or 12 o�clock already so you might just grab something to eat and then head home.�

Later today I’ll post my first article for my column…