I was a hockey player. I played hockey forever. That was my life and my job until I got injured, so I get sports, and I get the sports atmosphere, the feeling around other athletes, but I never played football.

People who know the game of hockey, who followed hockey, they know who Sandeep Singh is. They know I have been Indian Hockey team's captain, but they don't know about the struggle and the life after being shot.

There's a time and a place when it needs to be all about hockey. I don't think that's 24 hours a day, seven days a week. How you choose to spend that time when it's not all about hockey is completely up to you.

Baseball was popular in the summer, but hockey was big most of the time. With five brothers, you never escaped it. We had an indoor rink in our town, and all the boys would play on it right through high school.

I've always gone through adversity in this game, and I've always overcome it. My middle school coach told me that I was probably a better hockey player than a football player, and that still drives me every day.

I started as a fourth-line fighter, went to being a third-line centre, then a second-line winger and a first-line centre. I've played every role there is, and the only thing that matters is helping the team win.

The shoot-and-chase approach had become big in hockey. Teams would come up to the blue line and shoot the puck around our boards deep in our zone, then swarm in after it forechecking, trying to regain possession.

It is so important to me to have my time away from hockey. Obviously, hockey is my passion; I love it. But definitely for me, time away from the rink and time when my mind isn't thinking about hockey is important.

For the next approximately three years, I have got Nathan to take care of. I know that once he graduates from high school, he will be off doing whatever it is he is going to be doing - probably playing ice hockey.

I've been watching the growth of Auston Matthews, for instance. If he were playing 20 years ago, we'd be saying he's Mario Lemieux-like. He's 6-foot-5. He skates great. He's got unbelievable hands and a hockey IQ.

It's a good start. Seems like all the lines have chemistry right now. It's tough to tell after one game, but with only one practice all the guys looked like the flowed pretty good out there after the first period.

That's another thing, we made up games. We didn't have equipment. When it snowed, we would play slow motion tackle football. We would play hockey, but we wouldn't skate. We just made things up. I loved doing that.

Leon, no offense, but you don't exactly look like a hockey player." "I told 'em I was a goalie. That's where they put the guy who can't skate, right? Just like in baseball when they put the worst player at catcher.

I am like the Jack Nicholson of the Kings - every single game. If there was a game tonight I wouldn't be here. I used to play hockey. That was my original thing. My first thing, I wanted to play professional hockey

I didn't know that I'd like it this much, coaching both boys and coming out all the time and seeing how excited they are to play hockey. It reminds you of when you were that age and you wanted to be out on the ice.

For good reasons, there are no ties during the Stanley Cup season. Somebody needs to win so the lads can get out to their cottages on the lakes, where all hockey players spend their summers, or so I have been told.

On his refusal to deal with Keith Primeau: We refuse to pay a prima donna, a petulant, pouting player who had 30 goals last year the same money as Toronto is paying Mats Sundin or Pittsburgh is paying Jaromir Jagr.

When you take off that sweater, your jersey, after today's game, you will be the last player in the NHL to ever wear 99. You have always been and you will always be 'The Great One,' and there will never be another.

These are tough games to play. We shared the puck and we wanted everyone to get a chance to score. Tough games to play in. We want close games. That is why we train so hard. We want to show our fans some even games.

My favorite personal hockey moment was probably when Mike Bossy scored fifty goals in fifty games. He was the first one to do it since Rocket Richard. I was young when it happened, but I remember it very distinctly.

I saw the older kids entering the rink carrying hockey sticks and bags, and I was fascinated by the equipment. Once I started skating faster, I was attracted to the speed and dynamics of hockey. I never looked back!

But there was a hockey game where they didn't even play hockey, they just threw the puck aside and started fighting. I saw that and I thought, 'Oh man, I'm a thug?' So I'm really disappointed in being called a thug.

I am like the Jack Nicholson of the Kings - every single game. If there was a game tonight I wouldn't be here. I used to play hockey. That was my original thing. My first thing, I wanted to play professional hockey.

I knew at a young age, whether I was playing baseball or hockey or lacrosse, that my teammates were counting on me, whether it be to strike the last batter out in a baseball game or score a big goal in a hockey game.

We all bring some different elements at the Games. Everything is a stepping stone for us after playing these two games. These Games are preparing us to play a 60-minutes game and preparing us for the gold-medal game.

I get mad at my mom. I really wish she'd put me into hockey. I'm not gifted with height, but look at Martin St-Louis. He's unbelievable. He's small, but he's so fast, so skilful. I think I could have been pretty good.

I just want to play well, have the people in Chicago enjoy watching soccer. You have a very good baseball team, a very good ice hockey team, and a very good football team. Hopefully you'll have a very good soccer team.

I know there are sort of misnomers that women's hockey isn't as physical or fast as the guys, but women's hockey is very dynamic and tactful in its own ways. It's just as respectable of a sport as any male counterpart.

That's the fun part about your playing career is that everyone knows your first and foremost responsibility, and that's playing hockey, but whenever you can mix in some other things have fun with it, that's great, too.

When I broke into professional hockey at 17 I was told that I was too small and too slow and I wouldn't make the NHL. Now it's kind of flip-flopped and the sense is I can't be a good coach because I was a great athlete.

I was captain of the netball team, captain of the hockey team and I did my sprinting, but I would push myself. That's why yoga is really good for me because it actually slows me down and finds some sort of space for me.

I've always loved sports and hockey is a sport I play as much as I can. I love it. In a weird way it's like church and therapy and exercise all rolled up into one. I mean when I play hockey I don't think about anything.

The only other time I can recall my dad getting upset at me was when I missed a hockey practice. My parents were away, so my buddy and I decided to skip it. I never told my dad about it, but he found out from the coach.

Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapably and inhospitably cold, hockey is the chance of life, and an affirmation that despite the deathly chill of winter we are alive.

It's a great feeling, its something that I've dreamt about since I was little, and it's finally come true. It couldn't be better. Well I think that we stuck to the game plan. We got shots on net, and just used our power.

I think he knows all my tricks. Or the fact I don't have any tricks - Brendan Shanahan on trying to score against Curtis Joseph. I'm hoping for a bench clearing brawl during the warm up so I can go out and grab his stick.

I tried to talk my daughter out of going with a hockey player but, he's a good kid. He asked me if he could marry Carrie before he asked her. I said: You want to what? I thought he was just going to ask for more ice time.

I loved the idea of playing quarterback on Friday Night Lights in high school, that whole experience. I wanted to be a Division I quarterback, that became my goal growing up, other than being a professional hockey player.

I know that meeting a black woman with a love for hockey is a bit like stumbling upon a unicorn in the woods... or a unicorn anywhere. I'm sure it'd be just as surreal finding a unicorn in downtown Chicago. But here I am.

Goaltending is a suffering position. Your equipment protects you from injury, but not from pain, every time you go out there. And if you allow a goal, the red lights go on for everyone to see. But you get to be a hero too!

I think as women on the national team, you start your hockey career and you also are starting to plan what you're going to do when it's over, because we don't make the millions of dollars and you have to have a life after.

Seriously, I faced a lot of anti-Semitism playing hockey as a kid. It motivated me to play well and to punch everyone who was anti-Semitic. I was taunted and called names. I'd either beat them with a goal or with my fists.

I like ice hockey, but it's a frustrating game to watch. It's hard to keep your eyes on both the puck and the players and too much time passes between scoring in hockey. There are usually more fights than there are points.

The biggest challenge was the cost to play the sport, and this is a challenge that my parents faced. They relied on the community and friends and family for support, and I learned to play hockey using second hand equipment.

Whether youre trying to learn in hockey or trying to learn in life, Ive always tried to be observant and tried to learn more, tried to evolve, whether its as a hockey player or as a person. With each year, I try to do that.

I played everything. I played lacrosse, baseball, hockey, soccer, track and field. I was a big believer that you played hockey in the winter and when the season was over you hung up your skates and you played something else.

Back in the NBA's pre-mask era, ballers with busted noses or orbital bones had two unappealing options: Sit out and heal, or strap on a Michael Myers-looking opaque face shield closely related to that worn by hockey goalies.

A lot of guys are missing teeth and don't get them fixed until they're done. I think that's pretty much the hockey trademark... guys figure, well, we're going to lose our teeth anyway, so we'll get them fixed when we're done.

I covered hockey for a few years in the late '90s and early 2000s for the 'Colorado Springs Gazette,' and I covered the Avalanche for some of the glory years. I've done hockey off and on as a sportswriter but never played it.

In a hockey fight, barring the occasional brawl, theres actually some etiquette that goes into it. Honor, too, absolutely. Most of those guys that do it, thats their job, and they follow a certain code of conduct in doing it.

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