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There are a lot more shots coming at the net and guys are just shooting it at the net because they have more time and pucks are going in off legs and feet and shoulders and heads, so you might have to play out a little further on the shot and hope it hits you.
You win with people, not with talent. So the quality of the people is very important in building your team. I always looked for people with a solid value system. Then I recruited kids from a cross-section of different personalities, talents and styles of play.
We have a lot of rookies in the lineup. More than anybody, I would say. Its going to be something new for them. They have to understand that it's totally different hockey in the playoffs. Starting with the fans, the intensity of the game, every mistake counts.
It's kind of funny the way it happened - the way I became a goalie. I was playing forward on this one team when I was little, and there was another team that needed a backup goalie. I mean, to me it just meant a chance to play more hockey, so I was all for it.
I had some struggles later in my teenage years. I moved away from home and struggled a little bit being on my home and finding out who I was and trying to mix that with my faith and make it real. I learned a lot of lessons and made some mistakes along the way.
People talk about skating, puck handling and shooting, but the whole sport is angles and caroms, forgetting the straight direction the puck is going, calculating where it will be directed, factoring in all the interruptions. Basically, my whole game is angles.
When my wife was six years old, her father was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and was given a 10% chance to live. He wanted to travel the world with his family while he could, so on these trips she got to see her father be excited to be with the family.
My recruiting key - I looked for PEOPLE first, athletes second. I wanted people with a sound value system as you cannot buy values. You're only as good as your values. I learned early on that you do not put greatness into people...but somehow try to pull it out.
You don't realize the atmosphere in the arena until you're down on the ice for real, especially during the playoffs. You come out of the gate, you hear the fans going crazy, you know you're at home and in for a good time. It's something special, that's for sure.
We did rent some houses in different hub cities which made it that we weren't in hotels all the time. But we're on the bus a lot. Isaiah, our 4-year-old, he loves it. He boots around on his scooter and he loves seeing all the people on tour that he gets to know.
Our four defensemen all had flaws: one couldn't skate backwards, one couldn't turn to his left, one couldn't turn to his right, and the fourth couldn't pass the puck accurately to our blue line. Somebody had to clear the loose pucks, so I started doing it myself.
As you've progress further in the Playoffs, the ice usually gets a little softer. It's tough to keep it that cold. We could make it hard, but it would be about 4 degrees in the building. I'm sure the fans wouldn't appreciate that very much, wearing parkas in June.
There will always be critics. On one hand, criticism can be positive. On the other hand, criticism can be negative. But critics will always be watching the game. If you listen to everybody, you can go crazy. I have my own point of view, and I always try to keep it.
My body's feeling it a little bit. But one good thing, my back is in good shape, and that's my main concern. I know that my legs are going to take awhile to get back to where I was a few years ago, but as long as my back is solid, I feel that I can play many years.
I was 13 when I developed the classic symptoms of a person who gets diabetes: a lot of weight loss, a tremendous thirst, and blurry eyesight. My mom took me to the hospital, and the doctors took some blood tests. My blood sugar was so high that they knew right away.
For me, what takes up most of the space in my closet are suits. I wear a lot of suits and jackets. But I think every man needs a black suit at home. You can never go wrong in a black suit. But in terms of style, I think it's about being comfortable in what you wear.
It is about getting better every game. Work ethic was the first part. We were not ready to give up and the Slovaks did not give up also. That is what the Olympics are all about. We executed where we needed to execute. It was important to play the way we always play.
Even the strongest personality will regress and eventually may disintegrate if there is no incentive (other than threat of punishment) for the work he does. When there is no feeling to accomplishment, children fail to develop properly and old people rapidly decline.
I mean at the end of the day, we are still brothers [with Malcolm Subban]. But I'm also getting paid to score goals so he better watch that glove side, because I like to go glove side. I know he thinks he's got a hot glove but I'm going to have to try and expose it.
The blood corpuscles take up the atmospheric oxygen in the lungs, and the vital chemical process accordingly depends essentially on the combination of oxygen absorbed by blood corpuscles with the combustible constituents of the blood to form carbonic acid and water.
If our team is playing well and winning, it doesn't really matter to me if I am scoring points or not. For me though the more I can help offensively the better our chances are to win, so I just push myself to get better and hope it continues for the rest of the year.
We found out tonight how important and how crucial momentum swings can be. I thought we were playing very well. We were doing a lot of positive things but then we lost the puck two times in our zone and things swung their way. You can't afford to give teams momentum.
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.
Christian guys had a reputation for being soft or not being tough enough to play the game. But every chapel we've had, our team fighter has been in there. Stu Grimson is very outspoken. Dan Bylsma, the head coach at Pittsburgh, was one guy that really helped me a lot.
I like to try to give something back to the community because I feel fortunate for how I was raised and how my life turned out. Each year, with the help of my brother, Grant, we run a charity golf tournament to raise money for the Ontario Federation for Cerebral Palsy.
If I had to compare any of the two, I'd compare the first one in Edmonton, the first one here in New York because it had been so long in New York since we had won. Obviously, being the first time to ever win the cup in Edmonton, they were fairly similar in that regard.
On the personal level, it's hard for a goalie. You don't get awards for save percentage or anything like that. Your work is really put into how many wins you can get, how many times you can get your team in the playoffs and all that. So I took a lot of pride in winning.
I think that everyone has an equal right to play and I think we've been supportive of that. With the Olympics and the controversy around that I think those decisions and those laws aren't necessarily something that I agree with personally ... their laws and their views.
It's just that [the Hawks have made] a lot of changes. A lot of their great players have moved on. They have a lot of new faces and a lot of young guys who are going to be a part of this team for a long time. It'll take time. They've got a nice little core to start with.
I was sitting at a friend's place in Michigan on vacation, having a beer on the patio. I was a little hefty. I said to myself: "Okay, I'm going to finish this weekend off strong, then after that I'm going to shut her down. I'm going to start taking better care of myself."
After I saw how badly animals were treated to en up in our plates, how bad it was for our health and for the environment, I decided to stop this nonsense and educate others. After all, animals can’t talk and they need people that have notoriety like me to be their voices.
I think it was always there and it was maybe a matter of bringing it out. It was harder than I thought it would be and I had to try harder. I had to regain my confidence, maybe the most important thing. I have learned a lot to relax. I know what I can do now, and I do it.
Honestly, I believe that you are only as good as your last game. And so there were games and tournaments and days when I was like, "I'm probably the best player in the world." And there were some where I'm like, "Oh god, I'm terrible." I think that pushed me all the time.
Football, you can go out and buy a football and play it in your backyard. Basketball, you can go out and play it in the schoolyard or in your driveway. Baseball, you get a glove and a bat and a ball and you go out and play in the neighborhood. You can't do that in hockey.
Our job is to get on the road and win one game now. It's a great position to be in. We were lucky to get home ice [advantage] this year. For some reason, we pulled it off at the end and we took advantage early in the series. Now, it's up to us to do our thing on the road.
When I got the call of being drafted by the Devils, I was in shock more than anything. I didn't have a clue where New Jersey was, but it was just nice to be taken in the first round and nice to know where my future would be, which organization I was going to be a part of.
Without the support of my mom, Marlene, I would not be the person I am. She has been my main supporter throughout my career, and I owe everything to her. This is a small way that we, as players, can pay tribute to her and other hockey moms, and it is all for a good cause.
I think that when you are in the limelight it is part of your obligation to be a good role model. A lot of kids look up to you, and you are given a God-given talent, so it is your responsibility. It isn't hard to deal with. I never have to think twice about doing anything.
The 2002 (Olympic) team was a great team, we won the gold medal, they deserved all the accolades that they got. But this team seems to have a little more depth and maybe a little more talent to pick from. So it makes the job of picking the right 23 guys even more difficult.
It was important that we kept moving the puck and moving forward as a team. It is good that we practiced today. The rivalry we have against Sweden is very intense. We have had some very physical games against Sweden and we are looking forward to them. We know what to expect.
In football, every play, play after play, there's that physicality. Football players only play once a week, so they must really need to rest. That does kind of tell you how physical the sport is. But in hockey, you have the boards. I just couldn't say which is more physical.
I remember being 20 years old and I'm living by myself for the first time with my buddies and what you're worried about day to day is what am I going to eat for dinner? I don't know how to cook, so I've got to get canned food. Those are the only worries you have in the world.
I don't think the summer is short. I would rather play hockey than work out in the gym. It would be tougher if summer was longer. You have your two or three weeks to take off. You have plenty of time to go back and see family and friends. I don't want summer to be any longer.
People of this teenager's age are on the brink of adulthood and have to be allowed a greater degree of responsibility. A consequence of this is a decrease in parental responsibility. Therefore to have criminal responsibility for what you don't know about seems rather extreme.
My life was going to school, having a snack and going outside to play hockey until dinner time. I would then do my homework and go back out to play, but only if the Canadiens weren't playing that night. That's what I did every day, whether it was street hockey or pond hockey.
Obviously there are not too many people who get a chance to play in the Olympics in their hometown. That would be something special, but going into the summer you have to be realistic with yourself, and health-wise and motivation-wise you have to be willing to do what it takes.
I watch a lot of tapes, a lot of games, all the replays. You watch the highlights on TV, those are all about goals getting scored or big saves. So you just look and see what guys do and how they're successful, and sometimes I see something and I go, Wow, that could work for me.
The last year I was playing, I asked the stick boy to get me a Diet Coke and he said, "Really?" But I always had one on the bench because that's what I did in 1979 when there wasn't Gatorade. If you needed energy you went and got a Snickers or a Kit Kat. Nobody knew any better.
When I'm in the city, I like to go to different events and get introduced to different people. That's what New York is all about. There is great diversity, and there are people from all over the world who have done amazing things. That's my favorite thing to do: meet new people.
You get a pretty good read by watching the play, and knowing what you would have done - having done most of the things that these guys are accused of doing. I put myself in their shoes: Would I have been wanting to send a message? Is it a hockey play that went a little sideways?