Blue Line
Dropping The Gloves With Dany Sabourin

Q: You spent last year in Vancouver after the Canucks claimed you on waivers from the Penguins. Did you notice any differences between the Western Conference and Eastern Conference?

A: Yeah, there is a big change. There is a lot of travel in the West. You're almost always on the road. I did like Vancouver; it's a nice city. This year, I really like Pittsburgh, too. It's different, but I like it a lot. I am getting more playing time, too, so that's another big difference.

Q: How nice was it to come back to the Penguins as a free agent - a team where you knew a lot of the guys since you played with them in Wilkes-Barre?

A: I was happy to come back. That was part of my decision, too, to know the organization and the players. It makes you feel better and more comfortable when you come in and you know the guys.

Q: On your goalie mask, you have a picture of a fishing penguin. Do you like to fish?

A: In the offseason back home (in Val d'Or, Quebec), my friends and I go walleye fishing a lot. We go on the weekends all the time. We have a lot of lakes back home, so it's good fishing there. It's a lot of fun. I enjoy it. It's calm; it's a good time to relax.

Q: What's the biggest fish you've ever caught?

A: My biggest walleye was 5-pounder. My dad got an 8-pounder. My friend took out a 10-pounder last summer. Last year in Vancouver, we went steelhead fishing and I got a 12-pounder. That was my biggest fish.

Q: What else do you like to do?

A: My wife and I like the outdoors. We have a daughter now, so we like to do family stuff like camping. We bought a camper so we can go camping and be in the woods with the family and just relax. It's good for fishing, too.

Q: Do you just stick to around Val d'Or for your outdoor adventures?

A: We go all around. We travel a lot. I travel to Sherbrooke every summer, so we do stuff there, too.

Q: Does that take up most of your free time in the summer?

A: I have to work out. But, I like enjoying my time outside on my pontoon boat. We live by a lake, so we do a lot of stuff on the water and hang out on the beach. We're outside pretty much the entire summer.

Q: On the road, you room with fellow goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. How is he for a roommate?

A: He is a good roomie. He doesn't snore. (laughs). It's funny because we are so different. He is relaxed and always waits until the last minute to do something. I am totally the opposite way. I like to be on time and even more on time - like 15 minutes early - to everything. So, it's kind of funny.

Q: Do you watch a lot of movies?

A: In the hotel on the road, that's what we do a lot. I don't watch many movies in the summer, but I come back hard with movies during hockey season. Flower and I always rent movies before game nights. We saw Evan Almighty and Transformers. We saw almost every recent one.

Q: Any good ones?

A: Transformers was pretty good. The TV we watched it on was kind of small, so I wish I would have seen it on the big screen. That was a good movie.

Q: Did you grow up playing with Transformers?

A: Yeah. When the movie was over, I said that I was going to buy one Transformer just to have. (laughs). It was pretty cool. The movie was pretty well done.

Q: What kind of music do you like?

A: I download a lot on my iPod. I have all kinds of music I like, from country to dance, hip hop, techno - all kinds of stuff. I like pretty much everything. It depends on where I am going or what time of day it is.

Q: What is your favorite road city to visit?

A: I saw a lot last year with Vancouver playing in the Western Conference. I liked Phoenix a lot. When we went there, we had a nice hotel and I got my first win, so that was nice. The atmosphere and weather are pretty good there. I like Minnesota, too. It's a nice place to play.

Q: Growing up, who was your favorite goaltender?

A: When I was really young, I liked Bill Ranford. But, I am not like him on the ice. He was all over the place and had that two-pad slide. He was my favorite goalie and Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur, too. Those three were my favorite.

Q: Did you try to pattern yourself after any of them?

A: Yeah, I tried to be more like Roy and Brodeur than Ranford. He had some spectacular saves, but Roy and Brodeur - mostly Roy - were more square to the puck. That's how my technique is.

Q: Any favorite restaurants in Pittsburgh?

A: I don't have much time to go to restaurants because our daughter is 2 and it's tough. We went to an Italian one on Mount Washington. It's pretty good. We went there with my dad. That was a nice place.

Q: What kind of food do you like?

A: I like steak a lot. And I like pasta. We have to eat a lot of pasta during the year, but those two are my favorite.