The biggest thing for me is the passion that I've always had for hockey. I remember growing up, no matter what I did in life, my parents always told me to try to do my best at it and be my best. I can say going through different things that that passion is the most important part. It's not skills or talent or any of that stuff.
Sidney Crosby
I don't think you're human if you don't get nervous.
The more you hesitate in a game, the more your chance of getting hit. Your focus isn't there. When you hesitate, usually you're in trouble.
I want to be the best, so whatever comes with that, I'll have to accept.
Whether you're trying to learn in hockey or trying to learn in life, I've always tried to be observant and tried to learn more, tried to evolve, whether it's as a hockey player or as a person. With each year, I try to do that.
I am putting pressure on myself to do my best and perform to my potential.
I think as a Canadian hockey player, you go through it in your mind so many times, being able to stand on that blue line and hear your national anthem play and being a gold medal champion, you dream of that. And then to be able to accomplish that and actually win a gold medal and represent your country its an amazing feeling.
For me, I've learned that the best thing is to focus on the team you play for and yourself and what you need to do.
I don't have one favourite band. I like everything.
I didn't realize the connection between the mullet and success. For sure, you have to have a little bit of hockey hair - a little bit of flow, as they say. A lot of guys have fun with their hockey hair, so I'll try to keep it a little long.
Individual honors and scoring championships are great, but my No. 1 goal is to win the Stanley Cup.
For every whack I've given, I've gotten four or five.
I always wanted to be the best and to get the most out of myself.
I'm most comfortable definitely when I'm on the ice. I love to play. It's something that I just love to do.
Growing up in Canada, I didn't watch football much.
I watched 'Mighty Ducks.' 'Slapshot' when I was a little older.
People are going to have their opinions. Whether it's good or bad, I don't really think about it either way.
When you get a typical injury, you're given a time frame; you're gradually working towards getting back. With concussions, there is not generally a time frame or a span where you're feeling better. You feel like you're getting better, and it can be one day and you're back to where you started.
Breakaway goals are fun.
My favorite player would probably be Steve Yzerman. He played in Detroit. I really liked the way he played and the way he handled himself.
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.
When I'm practicing, I think I'm pretty focused, and I spend a lot of energy on making sure I get better, but once I'm outside the rink, I think, like anyone else, I like to enjoy everything that everyone else does.
Challenging someone is good. You need to do it. Sometimes they don't even realize you're doing it, like when you joke with a goalie, 'What's wrong today? You losing it?'
Concussions are still kind of a mysterious thing.
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.
In my situation there are often things I need to do for the team, so when I get the chance to relax it's all I want to do.
I try to stay pretty level-headed and just do what I have to do.
Obviously, I don't want to be in the box for over a hundred minutes during the season, but at the same time I have to try to play with an edge and battle out there.
It's really football, tennis, and golf that I watch other than hockey.
I'll be the first one to admit my first couple of years I was pretty hard on the refs.
There's no doubt I'm emotional.
It's not that hard to stay grounded. It's the way I was brought up.
I think every athlete will tell you no matter what sport you're in, when you train so hard and when you care so much about doing what you do, there's a little bit of nerves that come with that. But nerves that won't prevent you form performing, nerves that, hopefully, allow you to be that much more motivated and inspired to do well.
Breakaway goals are fun. When you score a quick one in front of the net, it just happens, but during a breakaway, there's about one or two seconds where you're not sure.
I'm not picky. When I'm hungry, I eat.
