Hockey Is My Life. I Love Every

My Best Friend Had A Hockey Scholarship At Ohio State, So I Would Get A Couple Of Pairs At The Beginning Of The Season And Send Them Down To Him. They Practised Two Hours A Day. He'd Skate In Them For Three Weeks Then Ship Them Back.

I Have Absolutely No Complaints About My Life. But People Think I Got Handed Everything, All This Kind Of Fell In My Lap, That I Was Just God-gifted With All This Talent. I Wanted People To Realize It's A Lot Tougher Than Just Waking Up One Day And You're In The Nhl.

If We're Going To Change The Game It Has To Start At Eight, Nine And 10 Years Old. When We Were That Age We'd Go To The Pond Or Backyard Rink And Throw A Puck On The Ice And Play Five On Five, Or Seven On Seven. You Get This Creativity And This Imagination That Comes From Within, Just Having Fun On The Pond. Now Kids Are So Focused On Team Play, And The Coaches Are So Focused On Positioning. You Can't Change It At The Nhl Level.

I Think That From The Time You Start Playing Sports As A Child You See That Your Responsibility To Your Team Is To Play The Best That You Can Play As An Individual... And Yet, Not Take Anything Away From Being Part Of A Team.

The Greatest Thing About Playing Obviously Is Winning, And You Can't Replace That Experience With Anything.