April 6, 2024

Building Teams and Developing Champions with Neil Smith and Vic Morren of the NHL Wraparound Podcast

In this week's episode of "Our Kids Play Hockey," hosts Lee Elias, Christie Casciano Burns, and Mike Bonelli dive into a conversation with two hockey legends, Neil Smith and Vic Morren. Neil and Vic share their invaluable experiences and philosophies on building successful teams and fostering leadership qualities in young athletes.

What You'll Learn:

The Art of Team Building: Discover Neil Smith's approach to creating a championship team, focusing on the blend of talent, character, and leadership.
Developing Young Talent: Vic Morren sheds light on the importance of nurturing young players, emphasizing respect, discipline, and a strong work ethic.
Overcoming Adversity: Both guests share their perspectives on the critical role of facing and overcoming challenges, both in hockey and life.
Leadership: Insights into what makes a great leader on and off the ice, and how these qualities can be cultivated in young athletes.
The Future of Hockey: A discussion on the evolving landscape of hockey and what it means for the next generation of players and coaches.

Episode Highlights:

Neil Smith's Blueprint for Success: An in-depth look at the strategy behind the 1994 Rangers' triumph and how these principles can be applied to youth hockey.
Vic Morren's Philosophy on Youth Development: Learn about the principles that have made Vic a respected figure in youth hockey circles.
Personal Growth Through Sport: Our guests discuss how the lessons learned through hockey are applicable to personal development and success beyond the rink.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone involved in hockey, from coaches and parents to young players aspiring to reach new heights in their careers. Neil Smith and Vic Morren not only share the secrets behind their impressive careers but also impart wisdom that transcends sports, offering lessons on leadership, resilience, and the power of a positive team culture.

Join Lee, Christie, and Mike as they explore these themes, providing both inspiration and practical advice for our hockey community. Whether you're looking to inspire a young athlete or understand the nuances of team dynamics, this episode offers rich insights into the essence of success in hockey and life.

Text The Our Kids Play Hockey Team!

We're powered by NHL Sense Arena!

NHL Sense Arena, is a virtual reality training game designed specifically to improve hockey sense and IQ for both players and goalies. Experience the next generation of off-ice training in VR with over 100+ drills and training plans curated from top coaches and players.

Use Code "HockeyNeverStops" at Hockey.SenseArena.com to score $50 off an annual plan!

Have A Topic You Want Us To Cover? Let us know!

Please Be Sure To Subscribe & Leave A Review For Us On Apple Podcasts, doing so helps our show grow!

Follow Us On Social Media:

00:56 - Hockey Podcasting With Industry Insiders

10:56 - Importance of Character in Team Success

16:03 - Building Success in Team Dynamics

29:35 - Living in the Present Moment

42:00 - Professional Hockey Career Reflections and Compassion

47:30 - Navigating Adversity in Youth Sports

01:00:09 - Building a Winning Organization Through Specialization

01:05:39 - Building a Championship Team Strategy

01:16:22 - The Importance of Team Environment

WEBVTT

00:00:12.852 --> 00:00:19.792
Hello hockey friends and families around the world and welcome back to another edition of our kids play hockey, powered by NHL sensorina.

00:00:19.792 --> 00:00:29.172
The whole trifecta is here Christy cash out of burns, mike Benelli and I am Leo Lyas, and today we're privileged to have two men who have made an impact in the game of hockey in different ways.

00:00:29.172 --> 00:00:35.959
Neil Smith, known for being the president and GM of the 1994 Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers, has led a hockey life.

00:00:35.959 --> 00:00:40.296
As a freshman, neil was an all-american defenseman with Western Michigan University.

00:00:40.296 --> 00:00:42.747
It was named captain of that team the following year.

00:00:42.747 --> 00:00:49.841
After being drafted and some time in the minor leagues, neil graduated to management and soon won Calder cups with the Detroit Red Wings organization as a GM.

00:00:49.841 --> 00:00:58.527
In 1989, neil was hired by the New York Rangers and oversaw that team's emergence during a pivotal time in both Rangers and NHL history.

00:00:58.527 --> 00:01:05.490
Not to mention, he was the architect of some of the biggest moves in NHL history, which included names like Messier and Gretzky.

00:01:05.510 --> 00:01:06.200
You might have heard of him.

00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:12.662
Neil is a highly regarded hockey executive and broadcaster whose experience will definitely dive into today.

00:01:12.662 --> 00:01:22.109
Vic Moran is an Emmy award winning NHL broadcast veteran who has had a hockey in his blood from the start, as a fan player, production manager and many more.

00:01:22.109 --> 00:01:36.347
The William Patterson University graduate which is funny because that was the arch rival of my school, montclair State University has authored multiple hockey books and has been a mainstay in hockey and sports broadcasting, which includes the Olympics, football and more.

00:01:36.347 --> 00:01:42.868
It also includes a 30-plus year career with ESPN, where he has spent a lot of time doing hockey.

00:01:42.868 --> 00:01:54.090
Vic and Neil have known each other for over 30 years and recently started the NHL wrap-around podcast with the goal of sharing no nonsense, opinions and news and issues around the National Hockey League.

00:01:54.090 --> 00:01:55.031
I have listened to it.

00:01:55.031 --> 00:01:56.063
It is fantastic.

00:01:56.063 --> 00:01:57.629
You should all take a look at that.

00:01:57.629 --> 00:02:01.362
We will try not to be too much nonsense on our show today.

00:02:01.362 --> 00:02:02.686
Neil, vic, welcome to.

00:02:02.686 --> 00:02:03.771
Our kids play hockey.

00:02:06.007 --> 00:02:06.969
It's really good to be here.

00:02:06.969 --> 00:02:07.852
Great to be here.

00:02:07.852 --> 00:02:09.277
We were looking forward to this.

00:02:09.277 --> 00:02:13.167
We're talking about it all week, so it's fun to be with you guys.

00:02:13.668 --> 00:02:14.109
All week.

00:02:14.109 --> 00:02:15.412
That is a compliment, my friend.

00:02:15.412 --> 00:02:18.467
Well, listen, we're not going to talk all week, today, we're only going to talk for about an hour.

00:02:18.467 --> 00:02:22.991
But I want to start by first congratulating you both on your podcast.

00:02:22.991 --> 00:02:25.421
Needless to say, you started with the boom.

00:02:25.421 --> 00:02:35.336
For those of you who haven't listened yet, the guest list from the first six episodes includes names like Wayne Gretzky, craig McTavish, keith Kachuk and Brian Burke.

00:02:35.336 --> 00:02:41.060
I want to know, guys, what was the inspiration for starting this show now and how has it been received?

00:02:43.925 --> 00:02:44.847
Vic, you go first.

00:02:45.808 --> 00:02:58.372
Sure, I separated from ESPN at the end of June of last year and Neil and I had been in pretty regular communication, kind of leading up towards that.

00:02:58.372 --> 00:03:14.061
And in early June actually before my last days there Neil reached out and said you know, we should do a production project together, and without really knowing what went into podcast, I said, well, how about a podcast?

00:03:14.061 --> 00:03:17.669
And from there it gained momentum.

00:03:17.669 --> 00:03:34.478
We teamed up with a company and from there it was just, you know, just a focus and get this thing launched in January, which I felt was just perfect timing, coming into the stretch drive of the NHL, and we just had a blast doing it.

00:03:34.478 --> 00:03:43.403
It's not only fun to do the shows, but as soon as we put a show in the can, it's also planning the next show and what you're going to talk about.

00:03:43.403 --> 00:03:48.283
So we've had a great time doing this up till now and hopefully we're doing it for many years down the road.

00:03:48.805 --> 00:03:50.710
So give us a little flavor of the show.

00:03:50.710 --> 00:03:53.925
For folks who haven't heard it yet, sell it to us.

00:03:53.925 --> 00:03:54.888
What's it about?

00:03:54.888 --> 00:03:56.913
What kind of topics do you dive into?

00:03:56.913 --> 00:03:58.323
How do you come up with the topics?

00:03:59.305 --> 00:04:16.815
Well, that's a great question and something that we spent a lot of time thinking about when we were thinking about what our mission statement would be for the show, and really the thing that we like to say is that we're going to make sure that by the end of the show, you'll learn something that you wouldn't have known if you hadn't listened to it.

00:04:16.815 --> 00:04:23.512
That's really important, that something has to be out there that you didn't know before you tuned in.

00:04:23.512 --> 00:04:31.694
The other part about it is we're both historians because we're so damn old, and so you go.

00:04:31.694 --> 00:04:36.413
I go all the way back to the original six watching that when I was a little boy.

00:04:36.413 --> 00:04:52.040
Vic goes almost back that far and so and we have great recall both of us do and it's fun when you meet somebody that has the recall that you have, because you can go tit for tat about things that have happened in the past.

00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:54.165
So we bring that to the show as well.

00:04:54.726 --> 00:05:10.699
The other thing is is that Vic has a huge roll of decks, to use an old phrase, and I have a huge roll of decks, and so people like Wayne and Greg McTavish, kevin Shevelday off, others that are well known nationally well known are.

00:05:10.699 --> 00:05:21.699
I've been very kind and obliging to come on to the show and also we have a stable of people who have already said yes and that we're keeping them in a queue, hopefully to use them.

00:05:21.699 --> 00:05:23.122
You know, have them down the road.

00:05:23.122 --> 00:05:38.646
So we like to bring current topics, current people with current opinions, but also marry it back to the past and things that have gone on historically so that you can understand where the game is today.

00:05:38.646 --> 00:05:46.189
You can get a understanding from hearing what it was like before and how it evolved to where it is today.

00:05:47.374 --> 00:06:09.386
You know, guys, when I think about hockey podcasting and this is why I love your show there's so many hockey podcasts out there, right and the I don't want to say it's a problem, but the hold up for me is that most of the shows are kind of fan opinion based right, which, look, it has its place right, that's the community of sports in general.

00:06:09.386 --> 00:06:36.906
But when I look for a podcast, I'm looking for that in depth kind of viewpoint that maybe I don't have and that's what I think you both bring to the table right, because and again for those of you who don't listen to the show it's usually really great interviews and then a breakdown of kind of the NHL as it stands at the time of the show, and I really appreciate that because I'm getting insight from professionals in the game and again make you think right about about these teams and the NHL in a different way.

00:06:36.906 --> 00:06:42.569
It's not just complaining about what's going on or or actually probably more importantly, not creating rumors.

00:06:42.569 --> 00:06:49.583
I mean, we just saw that happen in Philadelphia recently where, you know, a crazy rumor was was brought out on a podcast and it caused a lot of hoopla.

00:06:49.583 --> 00:06:57.473
And then the other thing too is in your questioning and I have a lot of respect for this and a lot of appreciation for this as a broadcaster.

00:06:58.175 --> 00:07:02.788
You're asking Wayne Gretzky questions I've never heard him asked, right, if you.

00:07:02.788 --> 00:07:06.528
If you search Wayne Gretzky online, there's so much information you can.

00:07:06.528 --> 00:07:14.156
You can hear his speeches, you can hear his talks and his stories, but you guys asked him questions that I have never heard him answer and I.

00:07:14.156 --> 00:07:18.036
That's so fresh, right, especially for someone as high profile as Wayne Gretzky and the other.

00:07:18.036 --> 00:07:23.440
I'm not, I'm not trying to take away from the other athletes and people that you've had on the show, but I just got to tell you.

00:07:23.440 --> 00:07:26.509
I appreciate that as someone who wants to listen and I was.

00:07:26.509 --> 00:07:30.194
I was joked like it's like the airlines, right, we know you have a choice when listening to podcasts.

00:07:30.194 --> 00:07:36.802
We want to thank you for listening to ours, so I love that you guys took that approach in a very busy broadcast world.

00:07:38.406 --> 00:07:52.350
I think both of us really appreciate those words and, you know, even with Gretz, you know, obviously everybody asked him about Alex Ovechkin and we decided to spin that towards Austin Matthews, who will likely be the heir apparent.

00:07:52.350 --> 00:08:01.197
So every question you could take mainstream topics, but it's really what you do with them that is going to differentiate.

00:08:01.499 --> 00:08:14.153
And so whenever we get into Q&A and we had Brian Berkman last week who is just terrific talking about the penguins, talking about the PWHL and we want to come from places.

00:08:14.153 --> 00:08:18.545
That has to make them think also about their answers.

00:08:18.545 --> 00:08:43.503
You know, we don't want to throw softballs, we want to have fun, we want to be engaging with them but at the same time the method of our Q&A is to take either mainstream or non-mainstream, but whatever approach we take, make them think about their answers and, to your point, lee, come at them with something that maybe they haven't been asked before, or ask it in a different way.

00:08:43.503 --> 00:08:47.541
That's going to elicit a different answer and really enrich the experience for the listener.

00:08:48.263 --> 00:08:57.147
Yeah, I think that as a journalist, as a broadcaster, even as an executive, that's how we educate each other right by asking great questions.

00:08:57.147 --> 00:09:00.322
We always say on the show great questions demand great answers.

00:09:00.322 --> 00:09:17.365
I want to turn this a little bit now into your collective experience, especially for the audience listening, because, as I said, we have a lot of coaches, we have a lot of parents listening, and one thing I want to ask both of you is to talk for a few minutes about culture and its importance to being successful.

00:09:17.365 --> 00:09:25.351
So, obviously, whether it's competing for the Stanley Cup or managing a live production, the ability for the team to work together is everything.

00:09:25.351 --> 00:09:30.687
So how did you both approach architecting teams that could perform at the highest level?

00:09:32.731 --> 00:09:52.985
Well, for me I mean the my leadership position has always been what you know it as, and that is in hockey and professional hockey, and climbing the ladder to become the general manager of an NHL team, which that day that that happened, I was scared out of my mind.

00:09:52.985 --> 00:10:11.768
And then, of course, you get anointed president in GM, which was the first time ever that original six Rangers had had the same man be both positions, and so it's really important.

00:10:11.768 --> 00:10:18.961
Character is the first and very top ingredient in making anything successful.

00:10:18.961 --> 00:10:40.114
If you look at an organization that has been very successful I don't care what it is from donut making to, you know, ice hockey you look at the very top of the pyramid and if the person has good character, there's a chance that you could be extremely successful down the road.

00:10:40.114 --> 00:10:50.288
If the person at the top of the pyramid lacks in character, there is no chance that you're going to be able to be ultimately completely successful down the road.

00:10:50.288 --> 00:11:09.849
And as you go down that pyramid, it's really important that you keep hiring and putting on to the team high character individuals as you go down that pyramid, so that every layer of that pyramid has a lot of character in it, a lot of integrity, decision making is properly done.

00:11:09.849 --> 00:11:13.621
It's not done with ego, it's done with what's best for this organization.

00:11:16.105 --> 00:11:18.169
I'll give you an example, just with our podcast.

00:11:18.169 --> 00:11:21.400
Vic and I have no ego going into this thing.

00:11:21.400 --> 00:11:27.624
I mean our ego days are behind us, because his ego was involved with his television production, and rightly so.

00:11:27.624 --> 00:11:33.543
My ego was involved with winning and losing in hockey games and on the podcast we don't have an ego like.

00:11:33.543 --> 00:11:35.008
We're trying to do the best we can.

00:11:35.008 --> 00:11:39.485
So we collaborate on every single little thing, including this background that's behind us.

00:11:39.485 --> 00:11:43.360
We collaborated on on making that, ordering that.

00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:44.344
How do we do things?

00:11:44.344 --> 00:11:48.131
And that's the way I think a successful team has to operate.

00:11:48.131 --> 00:11:49.743
What's best for this podcast?

00:11:49.743 --> 00:11:58.331
Not what's best for Vic and makes him feel good about himself, or what not not making sure that everybody knows that you won the Stanley Cup in 1994.

00:11:58.331 --> 00:12:02.383
It's about what's what's going to make a better podcast.

00:12:02.442 --> 00:12:06.611
So that and that has to be like that in everything in life.

00:12:06.611 --> 00:12:20.644
If you, whether you've got a team in Pee Wee or Bantam or Midget or whatever the names are today maybe they're changed you got to make sure you get good character people, and especially the coaches of God, to be character individuals.

00:12:20.644 --> 00:12:24.953
It's so important that young people learn from character people.

00:12:24.953 --> 00:12:31.256
It's their starting place, it's the roots, it's where they're going to want to go.

00:12:31.256 --> 00:12:36.192
You know where their mind will take them back to later in life when they make a decision.

00:12:36.192 --> 00:12:45.725
Subconsciously or consciously, they'll go back to what they were taught when they were very young, not only from their parents, but also from their coaches.

00:12:45.725 --> 00:12:53.941
Their coaches are going to teach them about teamwork, something parents can't completely teach them, but the coach and their teammates will teach you that.

00:12:53.941 --> 00:12:55.207
I know that's a long answer.

00:12:55.207 --> 00:12:57.620
The character is the number one ingredient.

00:12:58.142 --> 00:13:10.793
Well, and Vic, before we turn to you and Neil, I love that answer because I believe I think we all believe that that character development from both a team and an individual point in youth hockey and youth sports in general, it's part of the job that you're volunteering for.

00:13:10.793 --> 00:13:26.852
Right, obviously, hockey skills, hockey hockey tactics are part of it, but the ability for the coach and the village, for lack of a better sense to build that character from an organizational standpoint, I think are essential If you want to become a successful organization.

00:13:26.852 --> 00:13:31.328
Right, and I always say that I appreciate parents that volunteer.

00:13:31.328 --> 00:13:34.078
But you got to know what you're volunteering for.

00:13:34.078 --> 00:13:38.311
You're not here just to push pucks around and to make sure the kids get off the bench in order.

00:13:38.311 --> 00:13:46.886
Right, it's a little bit more than that, and that comes from the top, that comes from the hockey organization, the director of hockey, to make sure that that's portrayed.

00:13:47.687 --> 00:13:51.945
Now, vic, turning to you, I've worked in broadcasting, christie's working broadcasting.

00:13:51.945 --> 00:13:53.389
I've been in a live production room.

00:13:53.389 --> 00:13:55.924
I don't think a lot of people know what that's like.

00:13:55.924 --> 00:14:01.971
I don't think they understand the chaos, or really sometimes it's organized chaos that happens.

00:14:01.971 --> 00:14:05.485
But you have built some amazing production teams over your time.

00:14:05.485 --> 00:14:08.294
Why don't you tell us a little bit about your keys to success.

00:14:09.217 --> 00:14:32.860
One of the things that amazes me and I've been in the industry for over 39 years and the one thing I have always found remarkable regarding television and particularly sports television, where so much what goes on is spontaneous is the chances of something somewhere to go wrong, and how seldom it does.

00:14:32.860 --> 00:14:57.811
Now I've been a part of a few things that have just completely gone down the toilet and have looked bad, sounded bad, but overall, the amount of times that there's so much chaos and yet so seldom does anything really go markedly wrong.

00:14:57.811 --> 00:15:15.357
But to your point and to follow up on Neil, there is so much to be said about leading a team and bringing the right people and having them buy into a core vision that is best for the overall project.

00:15:15.357 --> 00:15:19.688
And it's in television, it's in coaching I spend time in coaching.

00:15:19.749 --> 00:15:47.337
There's that delicate balance of also knowing how to deal with individuals within a team concept that some people need to pat on the back, some people need to kick in the butt, and it's very important also that when you do have those moments that you're dressing down or you're talking to somebody sternly, that the ending message is that it's uplifting and that there is hope for that individual.

00:15:47.337 --> 00:15:56.109
So there's a lot of different ways to build success, be it on the ball field, on the ice or in a production control room.

00:15:56.109 --> 00:16:15.208
There's that level of competitiveness that I know, neil and I have, that you always wanted to be the best it could be, and there's a lot of paths to getting there and that's part of the fun part is trying to find that path for each individual and each team that you're involved with.

00:16:15.328 --> 00:16:28.828
I always like to say too and Christie, you could probably talk to this too you know, when you see an NHL team play a game or you see Christie go on the news at night, it looks very smooth sometimes, right, how it gets to that point.

00:16:28.828 --> 00:16:35.005
But it's the behind the scenes stuff, you know, is where all of that is made.

00:16:35.005 --> 00:16:42.288
And I always say to kind of hockey fans we see so little of what's actually going on in the same in television.

00:16:42.288 --> 00:17:00.047
You see so little of what it takes to make this product look as good as it does, right, and it's amazing really, because that I would say there's the rub right, Like, like, when you look at it, from youth hockey to the NHL to television, that's where the work is done.

00:17:00.047 --> 00:17:04.587
You know and we've heard all the cliche sayings of you know you practice hard, so the games are easy.

00:17:04.587 --> 00:17:10.008
The amount of training that goes into hockey and broadcasting is insane, Neil.

00:17:10.028 --> 00:17:20.453
To your point earlier, one of the sayings that I love to when I do team building excuse me with all the teams and whether it be from pro all the way down to the youth, I always give this.

00:17:20.453 --> 00:17:24.173
It was given to me by a Marine, but there's a lot of arguments about where it came from.

00:17:24.173 --> 00:17:32.473
But this ideology of team, teammates, self as a priority system and that you can always bring that to the table, Are you putting the team first, and then your teammates and then yourself?

00:17:32.473 --> 00:17:42.089
They're all important, they're all equally important, but it's how we prioritize them that matters, right and, I imagine, for the highest levels of success we talked about.

00:17:42.089 --> 00:17:44.135
You talked earlier about removing ego.

00:17:44.135 --> 00:17:47.756
The ego falls away and everybody is in sync with that priority system.

00:17:49.153 --> 00:17:52.040
Oh, absolutely, you know you can't have.

00:17:52.040 --> 00:17:56.839
I mean, it's very similar to the military.

00:17:56.839 --> 00:18:05.415
I have a very close friend who's spent 23 years in the military and including in halo jumping and all kinds of scary stuff.

00:18:05.415 --> 00:18:24.278
You know, behind enemy lines Yemen, afghanistan, iraq and even the stuff he talks to me about, about no man left behind and other things that make you chill and they give you chills the way they have to approach this In a much tamer sense.

00:18:24.278 --> 00:18:26.031
It's the same thing when you're team building.

00:18:26.031 --> 00:18:27.916
In any team you can't be successful.

00:18:27.916 --> 00:18:33.901
Can you imagine the military if you had egos getting in the way or you had stuff like that?

00:18:33.901 --> 00:18:36.638
How many people would literally die from that?

00:18:36.638 --> 00:18:39.357
So take that to this other level.

00:18:39.538 --> 00:18:43.240
And, yeah, the integrity is so important.

00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:56.462
And again, getting back to what we're all here to talk about, it's so important for adults to have integrity in front of children, in front of young adults, in front of people, because they're gonna pick up on everything.

00:18:56.462 --> 00:19:05.741
Their file cabinet is not very full and so there's a lot of room for new files to go in there.

00:19:05.741 --> 00:19:09.500
Our file cabinet mine is jammed, like it's falling out of the drawers.

00:19:09.500 --> 00:19:13.419
Young people have a lot of space in their file cabinet.

00:19:13.419 --> 00:19:15.836
So everything you do goes into that file cabinet.

00:19:15.836 --> 00:19:25.680
Every all your body language, all your different things goes into that file cabinet and it's stored for later, for them to pull back out and use in their own life.

00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:34.973
And so think of how important everything you say and do in front of a young person is when you think about it from that perspective.

00:19:35.694 --> 00:19:36.537
You're so right there.

00:19:36.537 --> 00:19:37.740
I just witnessed it.

00:19:37.740 --> 00:19:45.099
This weekend I was invited to go watch a skills competition with 7U.

00:19:45.099 --> 00:19:55.141
So these are tiny little kids out there and the parents in the stands were cheering and there were four different teams out there battling it out with different skills.

00:19:55.141 --> 00:19:56.433
It was so fun to watch.

00:19:56.433 --> 00:20:01.359
The parents were cheering on every single kid out there, it didn't matter what team they were on.

00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:02.413
And you know what?

00:20:02.713 --> 00:20:18.736
After that skill competition was done, the little kids were out there congratulating each other on their own and I think a lot of that came because they felt that positivity from their parents in the stands that we're all in this together.

00:20:18.736 --> 00:20:35.255
We're seven years old, we're out there battling out and the parents are cheering for all the kids, not just their kid, and I think that spilled out onto the ice and you saw that and I was sat back and I never happened when my kids were out there years ago.

00:20:35.255 --> 00:20:48.713
It was like go get them, you know, and I thought that parents are getting it, parents are getting it, and the kids emulated their parents and they went out there and they were congratulating each other.

00:20:48.713 --> 00:20:50.557
That's really good.

00:20:50.557 --> 00:20:57.500
Maybe the culture is starting to change since when we were at our little kids out there doing skills competition.

00:20:57.540 --> 00:20:58.403
It was good to see.

00:21:00.237 --> 00:21:20.318
It's such an important message also because for every example that, christine, you just shared, you can go onto the Internet and find high school brawl kids brawl somebody punching an umpire or a referee in a hockey, baseball, soccer game, whatever it is.

00:21:20.318 --> 00:21:34.579
And I think we're at a real crossroads here because it's so important not to let these negative instances become more mainstream and that it's acceptable behavior.

00:21:34.579 --> 00:21:50.515
So it's so important that the message that you just shared, christine, is it gets out there, people see it and you know just as if there's negative stuff out there, it can grow momentum.

00:21:50.515 --> 00:21:53.650
Same thing in the opposite direction with positive messaging.

00:21:53.650 --> 00:22:04.781
And I think, the way the country is now and there's so much divisiveness, to show true unity for a common cause is one of the best messages that can be delivered.

00:22:04.990 --> 00:22:07.938
Yeah, and start y'all, start y'all.

00:22:07.938 --> 00:22:11.095
Don't wait until you think, oh, they're not going to get it.

00:22:11.095 --> 00:22:12.559
They're only six and seven years old.

00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:13.732
They get it.

00:22:13.752 --> 00:22:14.355
They watch.

00:22:14.474 --> 00:22:15.479
They're listening to you.

00:22:16.012 --> 00:22:17.750
That's Neil's file cabinet right there.

00:22:20.816 --> 00:22:47.836
Maybe it's almost also a good time breaking somebody like Neil and ask so we see, like today's NHL, right, and we watch, you know, obviously a lot of people around here will follow the Rangers and you watch, you know everybody leading up to a player that obviously is a very skilled hockey player but comes out and says, okay, the only reason I'm going to tune into this game is for a you know about, that's going to happen and it's going to be a fight in this game and that's everybody's looking up to it.

00:22:48.170 --> 00:22:53.482
My, you know, neil, you had Mike Canan in behind the scenes, you know.

00:22:53.482 --> 00:22:55.875
So you really saw how the sausage gets made.

00:22:55.875 --> 00:23:05.138
That a lot of people shouldn't see, but that's but I think we on our podcast and we talked about this a lot that's at the professional level, that's at the very top.

00:23:05.138 --> 00:23:10.693
That's when people's lives are literally on the line for a job, like they could get fired tomorrow.

00:23:10.693 --> 00:23:20.580
If this doesn't happen, then this is going to happen and I think you know, maybe you guys could talk a little bit about you know how do we, as parents of youth hockey players, differentiate between the two?

00:23:21.131 --> 00:23:24.141
Because I, you know, I, because I, Mike, are you saying it's not the same?

00:23:24.141 --> 00:23:26.979
Are you trying to say that youth hockey is not the NHL?

00:23:26.979 --> 00:23:27.290
I?

00:23:27.351 --> 00:23:28.114
want it to be the same.

00:23:28.114 --> 00:23:29.920
Listen, I love listen if my team lost.

00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:34.641
If my team lost in Norway, I would skate my kids for four hours after after.

00:23:34.681 --> 00:23:35.542
Hire the head coach.

00:23:37.592 --> 00:23:41.703
But I think this is what happens now, like we all as youth hockey coaches fall into this.

00:23:41.703 --> 00:23:50.838
Like look at the winners, look what they look, what they do, look at the, look at the intimidation that they use, look at the way that that that coach coaches their their.

00:23:50.838 --> 00:23:52.583
They call them kids.

00:23:52.583 --> 00:23:53.311
They're not kids.

00:23:53.311 --> 00:23:53.571
These are.

00:23:53.571 --> 00:23:59.362
These are men that are that are paid quite well, that have to be in a gladiator mindset.

00:23:59.362 --> 00:24:11.455
So maybe you guys could talk a little bit about and I know you probably don't broach this too much on your show because it's not a youth hockey podcast it's like you know, really real hockey fans that want to hear, like, what's happening in NHL.

00:24:11.455 --> 00:24:17.770
So maybe you guys could talk about, like, where you know, what can we do to understand that there is a difference and that you know you will.

00:24:17.770 --> 00:24:24.709
You got to get our players to that place first before you can start asking them to do with like pro you know pro people do.

00:24:24.904 --> 00:24:43.483
Well, in my mind, I think, and and you know what Vic can speak to this as authoritatively as I can, because he has two young men, sons, young adults that he's helped get into, become good athletes, and I'll let him speak to that.

00:24:43.483 --> 00:25:01.099
But in my life, I think the main thing that young parents need to remember is that you need to talk about what's an example within youth hockey, not an example within the NHL.

00:25:01.099 --> 00:25:19.983
So if you're lust to get your kid to the NHL or you're lust to get to some way emulate these heroes that you have in the NHL, you can't you said it right, Mike, you can't bring that down to the eight, 10, 12 year olds.

00:25:19.983 --> 00:25:28.864
Don't bring that down there, because it's a totally different thing, it's not the same, and you don't want to emulate what's going on in an NHL game.

00:25:28.864 --> 00:25:31.782
You're not at that level that you can do that yet.

00:25:31.782 --> 00:25:45.105
You want to be getting through the basics of the game before you start worrying about one timers at the point through a bunch of or blocking shots when you're eight years old.

00:25:45.105 --> 00:25:50.325
I mean whatever, whatever the example would be, and so it's.

00:25:50.325 --> 00:25:52.230
It's really important that you remember.

00:25:52.230 --> 00:25:53.772
Okay, here's where we are now.

00:25:53.772 --> 00:25:57.221
We got plenty of time to go there in the future.

00:25:57.221 --> 00:26:05.343
But where are we right now and keep concentrating on the now, because that's what's important.

00:26:05.363 --> 00:26:18.288
And I think that gets away from parents, because of course they're sitting there, they're in their late 20s, 30s, the parents are, let's say, they're watching basically younger peers play on the ice.

00:26:18.288 --> 00:26:25.823
So in other words, it's not like me watching NHL players now they could all be my son, it's.

00:26:25.823 --> 00:26:32.069
It's it's you know, you're in the same age group type thing, and so it's natural to want to do that.

00:26:32.069 --> 00:26:34.138
But not to the children, not to the kids.

00:26:34.138 --> 00:26:35.203
Don't bring that to them.

00:26:35.203 --> 00:26:36.691
Bring it to yourself, if you want.

00:26:36.691 --> 00:26:40.665
Understand how hard it is to play the way that Jack Hughes plays.

00:26:40.665 --> 00:26:48.290
Understand how hard it is to play the way Sabanajad plays, because you're that age and you can oh gosh, how could I ever do that?

00:26:48.290 --> 00:26:58.215
But don't bring Sabanajad or Panarin down to an eight year old, because there's no correlation whatsoever between those two.

00:26:58.215 --> 00:27:00.241
But, Vic, you should talk about your kids.

00:27:01.230 --> 00:27:14.529
Yeah, well, my older boy is studying sports management at UMass but when he was pitching in high school, you know, had a big arm but has now, you know, gone off on a different path.

00:27:14.529 --> 00:27:25.661
Conversely, my younger son goes to the same school that Red Wing's head coach, derek Lalonde, played goal, which is the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

00:27:25.661 --> 00:27:39.623
And even though we're talking baseball as opposed to hockey here, I'm going to go in the opposite direction of Neil, where you know, you kind of see, you know the players and the young kids and you can't emulate them.

00:27:39.623 --> 00:28:11.772
And in working with Jake, this was a kid that hated working out, hated doing stretching, hated doing any of the prep work, and about three or four years ago it just clicked for him, where he works hard, he studies the craft, and I said, look, the odds of you becoming a majorling baseball player is infinitesimal, but you are among the 7% of high schoolers that go on to play college sports.

00:28:12.714 --> 00:28:13.616
Enjoy the ride.

00:28:13.616 --> 00:28:20.030
You're obviously there because you can play and that you're not dropping off.

00:28:20.030 --> 00:28:21.772
You're there, You're an athlete.

00:28:21.772 --> 00:28:36.224
Now Enjoy it Field, hit, throw and Wherever it ends, it ends and, more likely, it's going to end and you're going to be a psychologist, which is what you're studying.

00:28:36.224 --> 00:28:40.351
But for now, just enjoy where you're at.

00:28:40.351 --> 00:28:44.211
Don't worry about having to get to that next level.

00:28:44.211 --> 00:28:48.508
If it works out, great, and if it doesn't, that's great too.

00:28:49.859 --> 00:28:51.326
You know, vic, you brought up with some great points here.

00:28:51.326 --> 00:28:53.406
We talk a lot on the show about present moment awareness.

00:28:53.406 --> 00:28:55.685
We had some great guests on previously.

00:28:55.685 --> 00:29:02.987
You know, be where your feet are at and we talk all the time to coaches about you got to meet these kids, no matter what age they are, where they're at.

00:29:02.987 --> 00:29:10.404
Because if you're not, if you tell a nine-year-old, look at Panarin, but you're literally forcing them out of the moment of being nine.

00:29:11.126 --> 00:29:20.787
Right, I had a great conversation with a parent the other day and this parent really wants this might team to win the games even though we don't keep score.

00:29:20.787 --> 00:29:30.184
And I explained to her that, look, I understand what you're saying, but we need to teach the kids to be competitive before they can compete.

00:29:30.184 --> 00:29:33.208
And I said there's a difference between those two things.

00:29:33.208 --> 00:29:37.589
And I said being competitive is like walking or reading.

00:29:37.589 --> 00:29:41.945
Some kids get it at different points and you have to be patient with that.

00:29:41.945 --> 00:29:43.685
You know well my kid doesn't compete hard enough.

00:29:43.685 --> 00:29:52.265
Your kid is seven and goes to preschool or in first grade where they're teaching them to share and be nice to each other.

00:29:52.265 --> 00:29:56.026
So it's not shocking to me that they don't want to go on the ice and steal the puck.

00:29:56.026 --> 00:30:02.307
But we can teach them how to be competitive at practice and explain to them this is a game that you want to win.

00:30:02.307 --> 00:30:05.667
That's the skill that needs to be developed at that age.

00:30:05.667 --> 00:30:18.907
It was a great conversation because I think the parent understood of like look, obviously we preach at the youngest levels to have fun, love the game, because if you don't love the game at that young age, you're not going to play beyond a certain age anyway.

00:30:18.907 --> 00:30:21.105
Right, if you don't foster a love of the game.

00:30:21.105 --> 00:30:23.667
But we can teach them to be competitive.

00:30:23.667 --> 00:30:34.267
And that was the key moment for her of oh, you're not just teaching them happy clapping and holding hands, which isn't the worst thing in the world anyway, but you gotta meet kids where they're at.

00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:41.605
And again, when you get up to 12 or even 18, right, you gotta meet these kids where they're at, within their development, and where they're at.

00:30:41.605 --> 00:30:43.224
And you made a great point there too.

00:30:43.224 --> 00:30:51.785
Some kids it just clicks early on and they got it and they want to practice all the time and they're in the garage or in the basement and it's all they do all the time.

00:30:51.785 --> 00:30:54.567
Never compare your kid to that kid if they don't want to do it.

00:30:55.460 --> 00:31:00.931
We say this on the show all the time you can cultivate a love, but you cannot create it, right.

00:31:00.931 --> 00:31:06.967
You cannot put your love of hockey into your kid, right, so, but you can cultivate it.

00:31:06.967 --> 00:31:09.106
You can create an environment, right.

00:31:09.106 --> 00:31:17.041
But it's so important and you both said it right and look, I imagine this goes beyond youth sports, right, and you can, yeah.

00:31:17.041 --> 00:31:24.887
So I just think it's a really important point to you're both emulating it right now in your answers of just you gotta meet people where they're at.

00:31:24.887 --> 00:31:32.226
If you go and reflect on the past too much or the future too much, they can't do the work in the present if you don't present them with that environment.

00:31:32.819 --> 00:31:33.765
Vic, I should tell them.

00:31:33.765 --> 00:31:40.951
I'm not gonna tell them the whole story, but how I survive day to day personally.

00:31:40.951 --> 00:32:08.588
You said something and I know you were picking up on what we said, but I just want to go back to that point, Lee, for a second, and that is that even throughout your life and this is gonna sound really like Grandpa Smith here you should always try to be where you are in your entire life and you should enjoy the journey and not keep looking towards the destination.

00:32:08.588 --> 00:32:17.429
It's so easy to say that you read so many books, that cartoony on and on and on about live the now, live the now, live the now.

00:32:17.429 --> 00:32:30.066
But I'll tell you one thing Life's gonna throw something at you at some point and you're gonna have to live the now because you won't survive if you don't.

00:32:30.066 --> 00:32:46.428
And if you are so wrapped up in yourself that all you're thinking about is the future and regretting the past and hoping for the future, you're not gonna do well, and that goes for any age you are.

00:32:46.428 --> 00:32:54.285
It goes especially later in life when you start to have stuff hitching the face that you didn't really want.

00:32:54.285 --> 00:32:56.403
It's really important.

00:32:56.940 --> 00:33:02.300
But for children, can you imagine how we all think back on our childhood and go gosh.

00:33:02.300 --> 00:33:03.606
I wish I could relive that.

00:33:03.606 --> 00:33:05.046
I wish I could relive this part.

00:33:05.046 --> 00:33:06.506
I wish I could relive college.

00:33:06.506 --> 00:33:10.691
I wish I could relive being on that championship team.

00:33:10.691 --> 00:33:16.766
I was on when I was 10 years old and the fun and the thrill of that that was bigger than the Stanley Cup when I was 40.

00:33:16.766 --> 00:33:35.209
And the reason is because sometimes and it's natural in life, because this is how we compete in society and how we get ahead is we're thinking future, future, future, like well, tomorrow I'll be better than I was today, and so on and so forth.

00:33:35.209 --> 00:33:50.349
But it's so important to try to teach young kids to live in the moment and live where they are right then, and stop thinking about what's it gonna be like when I'm in the ninth grade, when I'm in the seventh.

00:33:50.349 --> 00:33:52.365
No, no, think about the seventh.

00:33:52.365 --> 00:33:54.768
You'll get to the ninth, I promise you you'll get there.

00:33:54.768 --> 00:33:58.624
But just, it's really important in life to stay where we are.

00:34:00.721 --> 00:34:01.565
I'll speak to that too, neil.

00:34:01.565 --> 00:34:03.026
Thank you for sharing that, my friend.

00:34:03.026 --> 00:34:05.587
I appreciate the vulnerability there.

00:34:05.587 --> 00:34:08.766
I do, again, a lot of team building.

00:34:08.766 --> 00:34:18.965
A lot of my team building is mindfulness and I started doing it with seven, eight year olds and what I was told was they can't do mini meditations, they don't have the attention span.

00:34:18.965 --> 00:34:33.605
They're better at it than the adults and what I tell people is that it's funny, because this is another saying people have heard, but the first in the youth areas you're putting stuff in their minds.

00:34:33.605 --> 00:34:39.188
So you teach a kid at seven or eight to be present, they can start picking up on that and planting seeds.

00:34:39.739 --> 00:34:49.188
When I work with adults or older hockey players, a lot of it's more taking stuff out of their minds and that's life in a microcosm in a lot of ways.

00:34:49.188 --> 00:34:58.088
But you're so right and I think that's part of coaching is, if we look too far ahead even the next game, like if you're a practice, be at practice.

00:34:58.088 --> 00:35:10.407
We might be preparing for the game, but you're here now and look for everybody listening your mind is completely wired to wander, like that's how the human brain works.

00:35:10.407 --> 00:35:15.126
So you don't have to be angry with yourself if you end up in the past or the future.

00:35:15.126 --> 00:35:16.342
That's normal.

00:35:16.342 --> 00:35:25.407
The key of it, though, is can you recognize and be conscious that you're leaving the present moment, and then gently bring yourself back?

00:35:25.407 --> 00:35:27.043
And that's not easy.

00:35:27.043 --> 00:35:29.126
That's what you were alluding to.

00:35:29.126 --> 00:35:30.224
That's the exercise, right?

00:35:30.224 --> 00:35:36.086
That's where the work comes in, but I think, once you're conscious to it, there's really no going back, right?

00:35:36.086 --> 00:35:37.543
It's like being born again.

00:35:38.820 --> 00:35:41.869
You know I'm gonna stop after this, I promise.

00:35:41.869 --> 00:36:00.168
But you meet people that can't get out of the rabbit hole, whatever rabbit hole they're in, you know, lost their job, lost their spouse, you know, whatever, whatever it is, and that's because they can't do what you just talked about.

00:36:00.168 --> 00:36:04.626
They can't pull their head out of that place that they're in and get it back to right now.

00:36:04.626 --> 00:36:18.887
So if you've been fired from your job, take Vic for just use my part here for an example If he kept going back to I was 35 years at ESPN and they laid me off like this is horrible.

00:36:18.887 --> 00:36:20.927
It's like you know, I must have done something wrong.

00:36:20.927 --> 00:36:21.501
I must have.

00:36:21.501 --> 00:36:22.947
Well, I thought I was better than that.

00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:24.706
He stays in that mindset.

00:36:24.706 --> 00:36:30.286
He's not gonna be able to do this show, he's never gonna be able to develop it with me.

00:36:30.286 --> 00:36:32.929
He's not even gonna be able to say, yes, I'll do that with you.

00:36:32.929 --> 00:36:38.168
He's just gonna stay down in that rabbit hole and he's gonna lose so much going forward.

00:36:38.168 --> 00:36:41.442
But if he can which he does, obviously pulls himself.

00:36:41.442 --> 00:36:44.585
Whenever his mind goes down there, he says no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:36:44.585 --> 00:36:47.826
I'm not going down there, I'm going back to where I am right now.

00:36:47.826 --> 00:36:49.362
That's the key.

00:36:49.362 --> 00:36:50.684
I'm not going there.

00:36:50.684 --> 00:36:53.043
I'm not going there, I'm just staying where I am.

00:36:54.141 --> 00:36:58.512
And that's so much a matter of what your mindset is.

00:36:58.512 --> 00:37:11.731
And look, I've had my share of setbacks and unexpected's over life, but in the end, it's always ended up in the right place.

00:37:11.731 --> 00:37:19.289
I may have not liked something that happened at the time, but it's always ended up in a good place.

00:37:19.289 --> 00:37:35.088
And in November of 2022, when Bob Iger came back to Disney, I had already survived five different periods of layoffs of literally thousands of people.

00:37:35.420 --> 00:37:39.646
And I'm thinking, eh, you know what, this one may be the one.

00:37:39.646 --> 00:37:43.108
And so you prepare yourself for it.

00:37:43.108 --> 00:37:46.088
You keep on doing what you're doing.

00:37:46.088 --> 00:37:53.405
But when the time came and you have this pit in your stomach, you think, oh my God, this is gonna be the worst thing ever.

00:37:53.405 --> 00:37:59.166
And boy, when I got the call that day, I was almost relieved and they said we're gonna pay you for another two months.

00:37:59.166 --> 00:38:08.469
And I'm thinking, okay, in as much as I saw the layoff coming, I'm like something else is out there.

00:38:08.820 --> 00:38:16.128
And I didn't know it right away and, of course, then Neil called six weeks later and it turns out this was it.

00:38:16.128 --> 00:38:19.929
So it's a matter of having a healthy mindset.

00:38:19.929 --> 00:38:31.048
It's also challenging yourself every day not to get into that depressed mind shaft or a place that you don't wanna be in.

00:38:31.048 --> 00:38:35.648
And it's easy to say that, but to actually put it into practice.

00:38:35.648 --> 00:38:36.583
Have a healthy mindset.

00:38:36.583 --> 00:38:41.358
Challenge yourself to be better every day, and it doesn't have to be something grandiose.

00:38:41.358 --> 00:38:43.427
Is doing a podcast?

00:38:43.427 --> 00:38:51.764
It can be the smallest tasks of you know doing a good job, painting in your basement or whatever you do.

00:38:51.764 --> 00:39:06.168
If you challenge yourself to do it better, then it's gonna be healthier for you, it's gonna be healthier for the people around you, and I think that that message as it goes to our youth challenge them just small pieces.

00:39:06.168 --> 00:39:14.764
It doesn't have to be anything big, but if you challenge yourself in small spaces, you'll be able to tackle the bigger ones much better once you get there.

00:39:16.623 --> 00:39:16.903
So yeah.

00:39:16.903 --> 00:39:18.449
So I'm wondering, how do you tie this in?

00:39:18.449 --> 00:39:32.230
And maybe, neil, you could speak to this, because you have to change people's lives in your profession all the time, like somebody has to get traded, somebody's gotta get moved, somebody might be at the end of their hockey career, that might be it.

00:39:32.230 --> 00:39:34.045
Like okay, this is you.

00:39:34.045 --> 00:39:41.804
Just like we're talking about it right now with, like the Pittsburgh Penguins, right, people are saying, oh my God, like we might have to blow this whole thing up, like what's the debate?

00:39:41.804 --> 00:39:43.425
You know, are we debating?

00:39:43.425 --> 00:39:45.483
Do we hold on because of prosperity?

00:39:45.483 --> 00:39:51.507
And just, you know, feeling like like, oh my God, this is like this is something that should be right.

00:39:51.507 --> 00:39:53.166
Like so how do you deal with that?

00:39:53.166 --> 00:39:58.451
And then maybe we could talk a little bit about because you guys are, you're hitting the nail on the head right where we are right now.

00:39:58.539 --> 00:40:04.489
We're in like tryout season and little kids and parents moving from one organization to another.

00:40:04.489 --> 00:40:06.166
Do I stay in the organization I'm at?

00:40:06.166 --> 00:40:07.786
Am I happy where I was?

00:40:07.786 --> 00:40:09.164
How can I change things?

00:40:09.164 --> 00:40:19.961
And you think about that as a parent and you're in the car with these kids having these conversations on the cell phone and you're talking to other coaches and other parents and all these eight year olds and nine year olds who are sucking all that in Like they might.

00:40:19.961 --> 00:40:25.461
They don't listen to you when you're telling them to get off the phone, but they are hearing you all the time and I think, like.

00:40:25.461 --> 00:40:26.065
So it's like.

00:40:26.619 --> 00:40:27.885
For me it's like a two-part question.

00:40:27.885 --> 00:40:37.585
Number one how do you work with the pros on making you know, having those conversations about moving a player on and, you know, moving in a different direction?

00:40:37.585 --> 00:40:48.585
And then, maybe, how conscious do we have to be about not letting our players appreciate how great they have it now?

00:40:48.585 --> 00:40:53.849
And it doesn't always have to change, it doesn't always have to be in a place they're not ready for.

00:40:53.849 --> 00:40:57.503
It doesn't always have to be the challenge of, you know, moving up.

00:40:57.503 --> 00:40:59.686
It just be happy where you're at now.

00:40:59.686 --> 00:41:03.867
And I think more and more we see it where people start being unhappy in November.

00:41:03.867 --> 00:41:08.550
You know they're not happy in November, so then they go in November, december, january, february, and they're always moving.

00:41:08.550 --> 00:41:11.110
So I know, I know it's a little over the place, but maybe a two-parter.

00:41:11.449 --> 00:41:16.067
You know, as far as the NHL, goes, or Pro hockey, which, because I was always.

00:41:16.067 --> 00:41:26.657
I was also in the American League as a general manager for a long time and I was also a chief scout, so there's different levels of bad news there.

00:41:26.657 --> 00:41:29.396
Or good news.

00:41:29.396 --> 00:41:40.197
You know you're always in the middle of the day and you know you're always on the top of the list of some news, hiring, firing.

00:41:40.197 --> 00:42:13.530
I mean you just have to have compassion for the person who's hearing the news and and understand where they're coming from and that you know if you're trading Mike Gartner at the deadline when he's got a chance in his long hall of fame career to win the Stanley Cup, and you're trading them on the deadline of the year that you win the Cup, you just got to be compassionate to him and his wife, colleen, and to their kids and how this is going to disrupt their family and so on and so forth.

00:42:13.530 --> 00:42:38.032
There's nothing you can do about it to change it, because you've made a decision that's in the best interest of the greater good, which is the Rangers and their fan base and their and their ownership and their, the rest of the team and their support for that individual, and not just treat it like you know he's a piece of meat that you're going to take off to the.

00:42:38.032 --> 00:42:41.284
You know you've just traded to a different farmer.

00:42:41.617 --> 00:42:49.451
I think I can tell you my minor hockey I I went quite far as a player, I think I mean I was all American.

00:42:49.451 --> 00:42:52.496
In college at Western Michigan I played in the Miners for a couple years.

00:42:52.496 --> 00:42:54.409
I wasn't good enough to make the NHL.

00:42:54.409 --> 00:42:58.713
As it turned out, I was a good player.

00:42:58.713 --> 00:43:00.472
I was a good player.

00:43:00.472 --> 00:43:01.217
I was a good player.

00:43:02.309 --> 00:43:19.532
New York Islanders pretty good training camp if you think about potpin and bossy and trotchy, and Phillies and all these guys were in our room there and of course I'm, I'm, I'm wondering why I'm even there, you know, like because of you skating around with these guys, but but in any case, so I had a good, a good career.

00:43:19.532 --> 00:43:33.592
I mean parents, if, if Vick said it about his son, I mean if you know, I mean it's never mind the NHL, and I know there's 32 teams now and there's 50 contracts on every, on every team.

00:43:33.592 --> 00:43:43.858
So you've got what 1500 contracts out there or whatever it is, but that's still a miniscule amount compared to who plays the game and plays it all over the world.

00:43:43.858 --> 00:43:48.891
You're not just competing to make the NHL with Americans and Canadians.

00:43:48.891 --> 00:43:56.476
You're competing with, you know, slovaks, and and, and, and and and so, but.

00:43:56.476 --> 00:44:05.650
But what I want to get to is I remember countless times it's so painful to coming up stairs from the locker room.

00:44:05.670 --> 00:44:11.690
My mom was waiting upstairs because my dad died early and she was a hockey player.

00:44:11.690 --> 00:44:18.793
That's how I got into hockey, and, and I'm crying because they cut me.

00:44:18.793 --> 00:44:41.429
They just cut me and and, but I always tried out for teams that I probably was just on the periphery of whether I was good enough to make it or not, but I wanted to try for it because you know, and so naturally what happens you get cut a lot when you're when you're trying out for a team and then you end up because the season's going to start.

00:44:41.429 --> 00:44:46.990
You end up going to a team lower down and you try again the next year and that that was that day's hockey.

00:44:46.990 --> 00:44:47.452
I know today.

00:44:47.452 --> 00:44:54.630
You know you're going to be a good player.

00:44:54.630 --> 00:44:57.853
All that crying and all that stuff still was good.

00:44:57.853 --> 00:45:07.177
I think it was good for me in the long run because I I tasted, defeat a lot and got ready to understand what it's like.

00:45:07.418 --> 00:45:14.655
That you I'll fast forward this you win the president's trophy in nineteen ninety-two.

00:45:14.655 --> 00:45:16.432
You've got a Stanley Cup team.

00:45:16.432 --> 00:45:24.222
You go up and you're going to get a penalty out and the penguins go on to win the Cup.

00:45:24.222 --> 00:45:25.240
Never lose another game.

00:45:25.289 --> 00:45:53.373
That was nineteen ninety-two and and that hurt that you've got to deal with until the next year's playoffs when you get another chance and story be told, we didn't have another playoffs that year because we missed the playoffs, the following yeah, but anyway, that pain you know that you're trying to get rid of, but you the one thing is is it hardens you to that because you know you're trying to get rid of every game nobody makes every team, nobody, and and so it's it.

00:45:53.373 --> 00:46:02.152
There's a learning process there, but again, I I hope, mike, I've answered your question in in as best I can, because I know it was a longer question if I haven't yet.

00:46:02.769 --> 00:46:03.931