Don't Miss
Home / Team Notes / Off-Season Notes / Three Minutes With: Preds center Marcel Goc…

Three Minutes With: Preds center Marcel Goc…

This is the seventh in a multi-part series leading up to the 2010-11 regular season.

—-

To help bridge the gap between now and the regular season, we will be doing a series called Three Minutes With. Every installment will be with a different member of the Nashville Predators family. Could be players. Could be coaches. Could even be fans.

In the seventh installment we have Predators center – and German Olympian – Marcel Goc. After becoming the highest drafted German-born player ever, Goc went on to play four respectable seasons with the San Jose Sharks before signing a free agent deal with Nashville in the summer of 2008. He then posted career highs in goals (12), assists (18), points (30) and plus/minus (plus-10). Additionally, he’s shown he can be more than a fourth line player. Burried under the top-heavy San Jose rosters, Goc was rarely able to flex his offensive muscles. Once in Music City, where there’s a much more contribute-by-committee approach, Goc flourished. He was rewarded with a one year contract extension mid-season.

Jeremy K. Gover: What was your summer like and what’s it like being back in Nashville?
Marcel Goc: Yeah, the summer went by pretty quick but it’s always like that in the summer time. After the season was done here, I went and played in the World Championships in Germany. Then, after that, like I do every year, I took two weeks off where I didn’t move. *laughs* You know, no sporting activities. And then after three weeks of doing nothing, you slowly start getting ready for your workout. We get the program from our (Nashville) fitness coach. And then there’s your everyday schedule. I work out with my brothers so basically we don’t see each other a lot. They both play hockey and they won the German championship last year. I went on a short vacation with a friend of mine and then I did another training (module) with my brothers and my buddy and now I’m back here and ready to go.

JG: Compare the two opportunities you’ve had between this organization and in San Jose. Obviously San Jose was loaded with talent up front and you never really got a chance to break out whereas here, you’re not necessarily stuck behind big name guys. Can you kinda compare the two?
MG: Ah yeah it was a lot different for me last season than the years before in San Jose. They have a lot of big players there and I guess I wasn’t planned in as an offensive player. They had me penciled in as a third or fourth line player but then I got my opportunity here in Nashville and I think last year went pretty well for me and that’s where I want to continue this year. I want to start off the season where I left off last year. With the team, we pretty much stayed together. We have a few new players but I think they gonna fit in well and I’m looking forward to the season. I think if we trust ourselves and our system and we play hard night-in and night-out than we’ll have success here.

JG: How tough was the first round loss last year, losing in such a heart-breaking fashion?
MG: Yeah, you know, that fifth game where we had the win and then we got that power play and they scored with 10 seconds left or whatever it was. That was a tough loss for us. But, I mean, that’s why they won. They’re never out of it and if you’re going to give them a chance, they’re going to contribute. I think they deserved to win last year. I think they played really well. They were able to play their game and make the other team adapt to what they wanted to do. But I think we played well against Chicago. It’s not like they played us into the wall or kept us in their end. I think we had our chances. But I think we played well and we want to build on that this year.

JG: Finally, I know it’s your second time going but talk a little bit about the whole Olympic experience last year.
MG: Oh it was pretty cool, just being there. For hockey it doesn’t get any better than the Olympics in Canada where it’s the sport, you know? There was so many people. I was there in Italy for the Olympics but, when there was a hockey game, there wasn’t that many people on the street or downtown or in the area. But in Canada it was unbelievable how much media and everything was around the sport.

JG: Thanks so much.
MG: Yep.

3 Comments