Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the hockey journey podcast, episode number five, my hockey journey. As a player, part four of my professional career presented to you by online hockey training.com. I'm your host coach Lance Pitt. If you're new here, please make sure you subscribe so you won't miss out on any future.
Before we get back to it. If you want to learn more about me, my hockey experiences, what I know, and most importantly, how I've been helping hockey players get really good with a stick and puck, just head on over to online hockey, training.com and gain instant access to my 10 part video series, where I'll show you everything considered my gift to you.
In the last episode, I finally played my first NHL game, scored my first NHL goal and made history by making the playoffs with the Ottawa senators for the first time in the monitor. I'm hopefully about to sign my first one-way contract and there's going to be a new member to teen potluck. This is the last leg of the tour for me, my final journey as a hockey player.
And that's where we begin today. So one thing that all players seek went on this journey as a player, trying to make it as an everyday player in the NHL. And that's the day you signed a one-way contract. I was always just a happy to be their guy, but this was my time to solidify myself as an NHL player.
And I ended up getting that one. A milestone that goes mostly unnoticed, but when it does happen to the player, there's a quiet pumpernickel that takes place. When no one's watching, I ended up playing two more seasons with the senators, eventually being named one of the captains. My final year, during those last two years, I had experienced what the second round of the playoffs.
I had to have hip surgery and finally said goodbye to a family of people, both my wife and I had become super close with. But before we move on to the next chapter of my hockey journey, as a player, I have to tell you the story of my best hockey experience. When I played for Ottawa, my wife, Lisa was pregnant with our first child and do any day I was in Buffalo as we were playing the sabers the following night, what many people don't know, but when you're on the road, I'm assuming it was fans of the team we'd be playing, but somehow the phone would start ringing in the middle of.
Crank colony and is what they call it back then. So what's players quickly learned to put a, do not disturb on the phone where the front desk wouldn't allow any calls to go through for a certain period of time. Those were the times we slept, but there always seemed to be someone that knew someone at the front desk.
And once in a while, a call would make it through. So you pretty quickly learned after crank call after crank call to just unplug the phone in the room. And that's what I basically did for my entire career. I always had a roommate who liked to stay up late and watch. For me, I looked at the day as only needing eight hours asleep, but not all at the same time, because we can factor in the afternoon nap, the routine, my roomie and I had on a normal game day when it was a 7:00 PM or a seven 30 start time was to shut it down for the night between two and 3:00 AM.
I always would eventually find a request, a roomy that could also fall asleep with the TV on, but with the volume on low, like I said, I wasn't much of a sleeper. So in case I wasn't ready to shut it down, I could still have the TV on for a bit longer until I got a little. The morning of April 2nd, 1997 in that Buffalo hotel.
I remember waking up around 7:00 AM, looking at my watch and was happy to see. I still had two hours of sleep until we had to get up and have the. So I snuggled in and drifted off again, but that was short-lived as my roommate. And I got an early wake up call in the form of someone knocking at our hotel door.
I'm pissed because someone's disrupting our routine. So I get up charged the door, ready to tear into whoever's on the other side. But when I looked through the people to my surprise, I see our trainer, Eddie, Georgia, standing in the hallway. I opened the door and he said, pitter, we've been trying to call you for the last 30 minutes.
Your wife is in labor and you need to get home. What I knew the day was coming, had thought I'd prepared for it, but didn't expect what was about to end. Once I packed up my things. I went to Ed's room and he was in contact with our travel coordinator and she determined that the quickest way I could get back to Ottawa was to take a cab from Buffalo to Toronto, and then catch the first flight back to the nation's Capitol.
As all the early morning, flights from Buffalo to Ottawa were full. So we called the front desk, asked for a cab once he got there, I told the guy we were going to Toronto. He set the meter and went. That ride ended up costing me $500, but I didn't care. I needed to get home. And for the first leg of the trip, I ended up getting the right guy for the job.
The cabbie was awesome. He had three kids and knew the importance of the car ride we were taking together. Ahmad was a Muslim from Indonesia and in that short period of time, he and I spent with each other. I learned of his journey as a parent and someone who had some struggles in that. The conversation we had in the cab on the way to Toronto really prepared me for what was coming.
We both seem so interested in learning each other's story. I guess we were both playing on the same piano together. So to speak. The one thing I'll never forget is the moment before I'd never see him again, he showed it to me as I was about to enter the doors, going into the airport, Lance, just be present and all will be.
And we parted ways. Once I got into the Toronto airport, I was on the tightest of timelines. I needed to get on the first flight back to Ottawa and had 30 minutes to get to my gate. Right. When I arrived, someone at the airport was waiting for me and I should be through security in front of a long line of people.
Once through, I was directed where to go and which gate I needed to get to. And I started to. Lucky for me, the gate wasn't that far away. So when I got there, I was able to relax the bed. As the last few passengers were just going through the gate entry door. I made it Toronto to Ottawa as a short flight, but there's one thing I'm really good at on planes.
And that's taking a nap. I was out like a light before we took off and before I knew it, the tires hit the ground, startling me to where I grabbed onto the seat rest hanging on for dear. I'm sure. A few people around me had to chuckle seeing how scared I was. But once my heart calmed down a bit, I took a deep breath, gathered my things and departed the plane quickly grabbed a cab and headed to the hospital.
Anticipating the doctors rushing me down a hallway, gowning me up frantically and entering the delivery room right before the baby arrived. Boy was that a waste of time? Because when I got to the hospital and to my wife's room, she was cozied up in her hospital bed, having some jello, watching the. Though her water had broke the final phase of childbirth wasn't happening.
As I had seen it so many times before on TV and the weight began, nothing happened for hours. So I got something to eat and as I passed the waiting room on my way back to see my wife, I saw out of the corner of my eye, the sens game was on since the birthing process has been so slow. I settled in the waiting room and started watching my team.
I remember this was the run. We went on leading up to the first playoff appearance since 1934. So I was rooting for my team to get the win. I was the only person in the room and kind of got lost for 10 to 15 minutes until the nurse came in and said, Lance, it's time. Barely hearing what she said, because my focus was on the game.
I'm embarrassed to say, but my reply to what she had said was there's four minutes left in the period. I'll be ready. I said that I give the woman credit and sorry for not remembering your name, but she took a few steps toward the TV, turned it off and quietly said, Lance it's time. And from that point on things got real.
All the child birthing classes can't prepare anyone for what actually happens. Now. It definitely helps. But when the moment actually happens, you quickly realize the only way to get your education and becoming a parent is to go through the birth of your first child. I got into the room and it was. 10 minutes before I was watching my mates, trying to keep the winning streak alive.
And then all of a sudden, now I'm a father. My world just shifted when my son REM was born. I stayed late into the night with Lisa and Ram, but had to go home at some point because we had a game the next evening against the Washington capitals. And I had to go back to work. I had no idea if I'd play and I actually was so tired.
I hoped I'd get another game off in order to recover from all the events that recently. But when I got to the rink for the morning meeting, Jack Barton, the head coach pulled me into his office, congratulated me and said, you know, you're playing tonight. Don't ya? I thought he'd given me the night off based on what the last 24 hours were like for me.
But when he said that, all of a sudden I wasn't tired and I was excited to get back into the lineup, but that excitement didn't last long. As after I had my pre-game meal, I went home collapsed and had one of the best naps I can never use. Whatever intuition coach had for putting me into the lineup that evening was correct because we ended up winning the game.
I finished the contest with a goal and an assist and took a rare curtain call as the game's first star. Definitely a moment in time where my coaches and teammates rallied around my special moment. And somehow I became the star that. Thank you fellas. It was a night. I will never forget the last story I want to share with you has to do with the former Rumi on the road I had and his name was Sean MacCachren.
It was my last season in Ottawa. When we started playing together, Sean was a stud coming out of Boston university, being a first team, all American at the conclusion of his junior year and had a very accomplished NHL career established when he was acquired by the senators. He and I hit it off. Right. He met all the requirements for a roommate on the road.
I had a chat with coach to see if it'd be okay. He approved it. And I had my new roommate for the year, little did I know I might've made a mistake in my due diligence when screening him, because the first night we had on the road, he revealed something to me that I had never experienced before Sean was asleep Walker.
So I said, okay, what does that mean? He proceeded to tell me that he'll at times get up in the middle of the night, walk around and he's not aware he's doing. This just got interesting. He said, if I wake up and I see him out of bed, just shout out assertively, Sean, Sean you're sleep walking, go to bed. I thought easy enough, but still was uncertain about the potential of one of these encounters.
The first few road trips that year was short ones and I never saw him get out of bed until in the morning. So I kind of forgot about it. Then we went on a long Western swing and it's. The first night I was woken up. I thought it was dreaming because there was a cat meowing, but when I fully woke up, there was a cat meowing in our room.
I turned on the lights. So confused only to see Mac on all fours over by the windows meowing, as he was rubbing his shoulder against the curtain. Holy crap. What did I get myself into? I did what he told me to do. He woke up, shook his head back and forth and discussed and crawled back into bed. The next time it happened, we were in New York playing.
I hadn't had an episode with Sean for a few trips. So again, I forgot about it and let my guard down that night, I was sleeping on my back and I sensed something was wrong. When I opened my eyes, the light between the beds was on, he was leaning over me, staring right through me. It seemed like once again, I did what he told me to do.
He woke up, shook his head and crawled back into bed. I can't remember where we were, but this one scared the crap out. I know this particular night, I was really tired. The last couple of games were very physical. So I had taken a nice path, brushed my teeth and quietly got into bed because Sean was already sleeping.
I fell asleep right when my head hit the pillow. I remember being so. But around 3:00 AM. I found myself in full panic mode. As I jumped out of bed only to see Mac in his underwear with our door to the hallway, open holding two pillows, screaming at me to get my stuff because we got to get out of here.
And then he left. Does the door slam shut lucky for me? He didn't wander off too far. I ran after him woke him up and again, he looked at me, shook his head and went back into the room, crawled in the bed and went back to this. Back in 2017, the senators hosted an outdoor game and celebration of the NHL. A hundred year anniversary.
They invited a bunch of alumni back to play a game. The night before down at parliament hill, where additional rink was constructed, it was a really cool backdrop at a dinner we had. Once everyone arrived, I was chatting with Sean and asked him how the sleepwalking was gone, because he was always looking for help.
Orient. He went on to say that there was a group of researchers who asked if they could install a couple of cameras in their bedroom and monitor his sleeping behavior. Mac pulls out his phone and shows me a video of him and his wife sleeping. He gets up, turns on the light, stands up next to the bed, grabs the mattress, lifts it to the ceiling, sending his wife tumbling to the floor.
He said they haven't figured out a way to help. Man, his poor wife, I feel for your girl. There were so many people that intersected into my wife and I's lives that made our time. And Canada's nation's capital. So memorable, Don and Nancy falls some in your circle of family and friends, Kathy has Sarah and her son, Evan, the president of the Ottawa senators at the time Roy locker, who helped me help a woman who lost her son to cancer, get her foundation Candlelighters launched.
And her name is Jocelyn. Every NHL city has an Italian restaurant, the players regularly visit and Ottawa. It was Tony Capone's. Thank you, Tony. And all the staff there at the time for making me feel like a rock star. The last family I'd like to recognize is Carla and Paul St. Germain, Carla, you became my son, REMS, godmother, you and your family's connection to my crew means more than you.
I know, I miss the recognizing a lot of people, but know that you all contributed to what would be my most memorable years playing the sport of hockey. So thank you to all my teammates, coaches, trainers, and anyone associated with the senators. Those were some fun years, and I was glad to be there sharing those experiences with you all, every player's dream is to make it to free agency.
And I finally got there at age 31. This moment is when a player can finally get. For a player like me, you just hoped you could make it to that day. You see, for my entire professional career, I've been offered contracts that have had very little negotiations. The contracts were offered and we basically accepted, but with free agency, every team in the NHL is in the game.
And the hope is that you can get more than one team. When that happens, each team tries to sweeten the deal. I hit the jackpot because I had four teams that were looking to assign me. And they were Ottawa. The New York Rangers, Florida Panthers, and Nashville predators. What happens a lot of time with NHL teams, especially smaller market teams.
Players will play themselves off the team because they succeed. What I mean by that is I improved to a level that Ottawa couldn't afford anymore for the role that I had on the team, based on a number of factors that go into the calculus. In the simplest of terms, when a player is up for a contract, the agent will put together a list of comparable players that have signed a year or two before those comparable contracts are the benchmark.
For the beginning of the negotiation, Ottawa was the first offer we received and we knew it. Wasn't going to be close to what I could get on the open market, but they were as generous as they could be. And I was grateful. They wanted me to. But both parties knew that if another team got into the game, the two offers would be on opposite ends of the spectrum.
And that's exactly what happened. So my time in Ottawa officially came to a clause and we were now focusing on what the next adventure was going to be. The one thing hockey players have to understand is that there's a beginning to a career and then there's an end. Every player will have to have that conversation with themselves.
At some point we can't play competitive hockey for. And there will be a time when you'll realize that hockey is a vehicle to get ahead in life. Unfortunately, women hockey players don't have the same opportunities as males from an earning perspective after graduating from college. Yes, there is professional hockey for women, but most of those players have jobs in the background to finance that passion.
And if they're lucky enough to make it to the Olympics, well, I haven't met any female Olympians that have gotten rich off endorsements after the game. This is my little shout out to all you female players out there that had the same drive commitment and intensity to succeed as much or more than any male player I trained.
I wish it was a level playing field for you. So Ottawa was checked off as a no-go and now we have a little bidding war going on. I wasn't a spring chicken at age 31, so I knew my ability to earn a paycheck in the NHL. Wasn't going to last another 10 years. Realistically based on all the injuries, I was hoping to get five to six more years tops.
So you have to look at this from a business perspective, how can I make as much money as possible in the window of time? I have left with that being said, the money part of this was one factor, but the loudest buzz in my mind as these negotiations proceeded was I wanted to go to a team that I thought had a chance to win a Stanley cup.
So my agent, Jeff Solomon, my wife and I started to dissect each other. The New York Rangers state income tax, was that the highest in the nation? So they were an early exit. Nashville was an expansion team, still finding their legs and I wasn't getting any younger. So we passed on them as well. The Florida Panthers had a cup run a few years earlier and their roster was really solid.
So we ended up signing a three-year deal with them with a fourth year. That could be guaranteed. If I met some performance bonus. I'll touch on that in a little bit. As things got off the rails in the hurry, that second half of my first season with the Florida Panthers, when I officially signed the contract, something unexpected happened to me.
The captain of the Florida Panthers. At the time Scott Mellon be called me. He just wanted to welcome me and my family to the team and offered to help with any questions I might have making the move down to south. What a solid unanticipated gesture. It, this goes to show you how great of a leader he was for all those teams he played for.
I ended up taking him up on the offer and flew down to south Florida to go look for a house for my wife and I, and our son REM Scott's wife was realtor. And she said, she'd be more than happy than show me a bunch of houses. Once I arrived, Florida houses are completely different from houses in ministry.
There's no basements. And it's more like a hotel feel because most of the homes have a screened in porch and pool. Every house Sue showed me just didn't fit because my wife and I are simple people who had been living on a budget, my whole career. And now it was different because we could move up a level, but we decided not to, before I left for Minnesota to go look for a place down in south Florida, my wife and I made it up.
That we were going to try to live on a similar conservative budget for the remainder of my career, however long that would be. And at that point, hopefully we would have made enough money to buy the house of our dreams. When I retired after about four home tours, Sue could sense that everything she was showing me was not connecting.
She showed me another home and right away, I'm like, Sue, this is all too much. I'm not the person who could feel comfortable in a home like this. I felt like I'd be showing. We just got into the house. She does an about face and says, follow me. I think I might have the perfect place for you. When we got into the car, her tone changed to one of confidence because she just figured me out.
She went on to tell me in the car ride to the next joint that Scott didn't want me to show this to you, but I don't care. I'm going to show it to you. So they had a home they'd been renting for a number of years, and we're now looking to sell it. When we arrived and pulled into the driveway right away, I felt a different feeling than I did prior to entering any of the previous homes.
It felt like. We walked in, toured the property for about 20 minutes. I asked her what they were looking to get. She told me, I said, we'll take it. And we had our home. Thank you, Susan Scott Mellon B you're genuine. Kindness is contagious. And the two of you started my journey with the Panthers on the best of notes, much appreciated going into my first year in Florida.
I knew we were going to have a better than average team because on paper we were pretty solid from top to. We had the Russian rocket Pawel, Barry Ray, Whitney, and Victor Kozlov were our top point getters that year we had Roberts Failla in your slob. Spot-check anchoring our decor. There were a couple other Minnesotans on the team with bread, head akin and Mark Parrish.
We were as tough as a team came with Paul Laos, Todd Simpson, and Peter Warrell had great goaltending from Trevor. And all of those moving parts were managed by our leader, Scott melon beat. We might've been three or four weeks into the season and we all could send something pretty cool was going on. I had one season in Ottawa when I thought we had a team that could make a cup run and that same feeling started to appear.
As we kept gaining momentum as a team, as we got into the meats of the season, we had climbed to the top of the NHL standings having one of the best, if not the best records in the. There never was any panic in the room. If we got down in the game, someone always seemed to come through and we got a point or the w it was crazy how things were going for us.
We were a well-oiled machine. Hockey is a funny game. As all sports are the impossible, all of a sudden become possible and Herculean accomplishments. TMZ racing for gold deficits to eventually win an overtime or a goalie standing on his head, basically putting the rest of the team on his shoulders and carrying the group.
But the game can also shift in the opposite direction much. Like when two of my defensive teammates went down with a season ending knee injury. And my third year in Ottawa, I went from number seven to number five in the lineup. Sometimes we benefit from someone else's hardship and other times. And the event was soon going to happen.
That would start a domino effect for the team and franchise that took years to recover from down in Florida. They're always trying to grow their fan base because down there so many of the people are snowbirds or vacationers through the winter months. I remember when we'd play any of the original six teams, there'd be more of their fans in the building then.
When we play the Montreal Canadians, all you saw was a CRN in the stands in that attempt to increase the local fan base. During the all-star break, the Panthers organized and held a similar event that would feature all of us players that weren't going to the actual all-star game. There was going to be a skills competition and a game that followed one of the skills competitions was a shootout.
Trevor kid was in net as the next attempt was. I don't remember if it was a shot or a move, but whenever Kidder made the save, there was a rebound and instinctively. Both players did what they were supposed to do. One went to cover the puck and the other went for a second attempt, even though both players knew it was a dead play after the shot.
At the same moment, Kitter's glove covered the puck. There was a jab from the stick trying to pounce on the real. What resulted was a dislocated shoulder for Trevor and things were about to get flipped upside down. It was such an unfortunate situation. And I still to this day, feel bad for both parties that were involved as, from that point on the team would never be the same again.
Soon after the injury to Kidder, there was some trades made, some guys got moved out. Some new puzzle pieces got added and when it was all set up. The chemistry that was going on at the beginning of the season had left the team and everything was hard from that point. Moving forward for the remainder of my time down in south Florida, we ended up making the playoffs that first year, but lost to New Jersey in four games and they went on to eventually win the Stanley cup.
That's. The following year, the team struggles continued. The franchise was sold. There was a new GM appointed in two or three coaching changes in the three years that I was there. It was a mess. The darkest and most challenging time I ever had as a hockey player happened during my final season playing for the Panthers.
Or should I say, sitting for the Panthers? You see, this is where the business side of the sport came into play. The contract, my agent negotiated had a fourth year. That would be guaranteed. If I reached the games, played number, meaning I had a three-year contract guaranteed. But if I played a certain amount of games in those three years, I'd done an additional fourth year guaranteed on my con.
Going into that third year, I think I needed to play around 60 to 65 games in order to activate that fourth year. So I thought it was totally doable if I had a year with minimal injuries, but what my wife and I would soon realize at times there's a game within the game. Again, I can't recall the exact number of games I had to play in that season in order to earn that fourth year in my current.
But soon after my 30th game, all of a sudden I found myself being a healthy scratch again and not for just a game or two, but for over three months, After a while I asked to be traded or sent to the miners just because I wanted to play, but neither happened. And I just got bags, skated most days, and traveled around with the team from city to city.
After awhile, when we were on the road, I never went to, or watch the games anymore. I just hang out in my hotel room. My wife would call when the third period was starting. I'd pack up my things, head over to the rink, hop on the bus and wait for everyone else to jump. I never wanted it to be a distraction to my teammates.
So I just kept everything bottled up and started to avoid people. My wife and kids had to go through this as well as I wasn't a team player. I isolated myself in a back room. Most of the time I was home playing guitar or reading books. I just couldn't pull myself out of the pool of negativity and self.
I don't remember feeling like I was drowning, but more like I was trapped. And couldn't find a way out of the water in a situation like this. You're not going to get any sympathy from anyone because I was making a lot of money at the time. So I played the good soldier was a professional when in public.
But after that, I was in my own world having a pity party after pity party with myself, mostly. Y because at the end of the day, hockey players love to play. And when that carrot is taken away, it can be really tough. At times once that final season ended down in south Florida, for every hockey player, something happens, you're able to hit the reset button and start the process all over again.
Once we got back to Minnesota, I made the transition and I was back as a husband and wife. Though I was coming off a really hard period of time. The one event that happened down in Florida that saved me was the birth of my second son Rhett. Unfortunately, there's not a crazy story of me trying to get home just in the Nick of time.
But what that second child coming into this world did for me was make me realize that hockey was only one thing that I chose to do on this. When you have a baby, you get home from a crappy day. They don't care. They just want your attention and love before we leave this chapter and move on to the last leg of the tour.
For me as a hockey player, I wanted to thank a few people that made our experience down south so special for my family. And I thanks to our next door neighbors, the McCormick family, you looked after my crew and I was on the road. Your friendship is a charity. To all the coaches, trainers, doctors, arena staff, and finally the teammates I had the opportunity to play with.
It was a pleasure battling by your side, all of those seasons for many years, I often wondered what that first year could have been. Like if things went differently, that little window of time was on a different level. And lastly to the Florida Panthers organization. You gave me the ability after I retired, not to have to go get a job right away and figure things out regarding what the heck I was going to do with the rest of my life.
That franchise was in a transitional period when I was with the organization. But looking back, there were way more good days than there were bad ones. Oh, I almost forgot. Remember there's always an Italian restaurant. The team calls their own well down in coral Springs. Our place was pizza time. That was the place.
All of us players would go for our Italian. Thank you. Not only for the unbelievable food, but the kindness and generosity you gave me and my boys over those three years, you will all be a fond memory from that time. So many years ago. All right, we're here. This is the last lap I'm going to take on my hockey journey as a player.
So let's bring this to the finish line. I didn't know if my career was over or I'd get another opportunity, but the summer of 2002 started on a good note out of the blue. My agent called me and said Colorado had offered to cover. It was a two way deal, but I didn't care. I was still in the game. So I ended up signing a one-year contract with them and started to prepare for my 13th season as a pro.
I started my normal off season training routine, but this summer was different from any other I'd had previously, as I kept on the injury in myself, nothing major, but I had tweaked my shoulder or a hamstring and I'd have to take a day or two off to rehab and then start over my body. Wasn't allowing me to train as hard as I used to be able to do.
I started to be in constant pain. Most days I could manage it, but some days I wasn't operational. It's a hard realization when your body starts failing and you're not able to do what you do at the highest level anymore. Anytime we played the avalanche in Colorado, I always struggled with the altitude change.
I felt like I was a lifelong smoker and could never catch from. Someone suggested I head out to camp a few weeks early to give my body some time to adjust to the thinner air before camp began. I don't know how I got hooked up with them, but a couple of players there, Dan high note and Brad Larson had a house with an extra room and offered it up to me for this acclimation.
I took them up on it and headed to the Rocky mountain state. Not knowing if I'd get another chance to play in the NHL or was I going to be sent to the miners? This was a star-studded team that included Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Rob Blake and goaltender Patrick watt. What was apparent right from the start.
When I got there, those four individuals set the tempo or pace of the. I've never been part of a group where the top players were also the hardest working guys on the ice every day. You just tried to keep up. Bob Hartley was the head coach and had a reputation of having very conditioned teams. He did this by putting us players through an exhausting drill called the super Herbie.
The super Herbie was made famous in the movie. Miracle on ice were legendary. Coach herb Brooks during the 1980 Olympic tour. While over in Europe, after a game, beg skated the team because of a disappointing. Players would line up on the goal line, have to skate to the near blue line, back to the goal line, to the red line and back far blue line and back and to the other goal line and back, I can't remember if each round was timed in the miracle movie, but that was something Mr.
Hartley implemented. You had to complete each round in 45 seconds. If you didn't. Everyone had the skate, the sequence. Again, we had an intense hour practice and now are having the hardest bag skate I've ever had in my car. I think we're in round six or seven, someone was always not making the 45 second time limit.
So we had to keep on repeating. I know I missed the time, a couple of rounds as a lot of us transitioned to feeling like we were going to throw up. Coach did something completely unexpected. Why he picked me. I'll never know, but he shouts out pitter and passes me a puck I'm gasping for air, trying to recover as best I could before the next round started and somehow received the pass.
He said in his friendship. You score a goal at the far end we are done for the day. That was a horrible example of a French accent, but we're going to have to go with it. I guess he thought we had put in a good day of work at that point. And he was good with the practice being over. If I could do what I thought at the time was being impossible to this day.
I have no idea why he picked me, but I just didn't think I grabbed the puck, looked at the net at the opposite end of the rink and just fired it. And to my surprise, it ended up finding its way to the back of the net. And the day was. It was like, I just scored an overtime goal is everyone came over to congratulate me.
That was a pretty cool moment. This training camp was different from any other. I had participated in because I was in so much pain. In the evenings at the house I'd limp around was always icing something and taking a mega dose of anti-inflammatories in order just to stay operational things were sliding off the rails.
And I was struggling to be able to keep this journey going. As camp progressed, I knew I was in trouble. I had to be a player that was always seeking out and engaging in physical contact. And that wasn't happening this year. All I was trying to do is not give. So I was now avoiding what was the one thing I was really good at, and that was running over people.
When I was down in Florida. My second year I made a pass, took a hit and felt something in my lower back. I ended up herniating, a couple of disks, fast forward, two years. I'm now flying out to Quebec with the avalanche, for an exhibition game. And about an hour before we started our descent, I felt something slipped in my lower back and right away, I knew my back challenges just presented themselves.
I don't know what other players did or experienced, but when you haven't secured an everyday position on the team, you're trying out for when injuries happen, we may not disclose what's going on to our coaches or trainers. Once we got to the hotel, I was in full-on repair mode. I changed into my gym clothes, did my stretching routine and rehab exercises went into the Whirlpool and let one jet does pound on the effected area.
I took a double dose of anti-inflammatories. And for most of the night, I had a nice bag on my body trying to put out the fire that was burning in my lower back. The next morning, to my surprise, I felt a little better and was optimistic that I might be able to play. If I was in the lineup that night, I went to the morning, skate learned I was playing later that day and got lucky because it was a really easy morning skate and I made it through without much.
I figured I was progressing in the right direction and a little more, I've seen lunch and a pre-game nap. I was hopeful that I'd wake up and I'd be back to normal. When I did wake up, I felt a little better, but knew that I was still off for all hockey players over time, you'll learn that we often play the game with some type of pain.
You might block a shot in the ankle or take a slash to the arm. You're in pain for a couple of days, but you can play. As I stepped onto the elevator to head down to the lobby to get a cab to the rink. I had to shortly answer the question. Can I play tonight? It was a nice fall day. So I was waiting outside the hotel entrance for my cab door arrived.
And all of a sudden the head coach Bob Hartley was standing next to me. He asked if I was heading to the rink and if so, would I mind sharing a cab with him? I said, absolutely no problem. This is my 13th year pro and I've never shared a cab with any of my coaches. As we were driving to the rink, we had a short conversation and then he started talking to the cabbie in French at that very moment, things got quiet and I couldn't hear anything they were seeing.
And as we pass by things, the whole world, all of a sudden was in slow motion. I don't know if it was my inner self or a higher power at work, but in that cab, I had a moment of clarity and the sentence began to repeat in my head. You can't do this anymore. You can't do this anymore. And it's so. The next thing I remember is coach Hartley tapped me on the arm saying, are you all right?
I had drifted into my own thoughts. And apparently didn't respond after asking me a question a couple of times. I don't know why or how it happened so quickly, but the next words that came out of my mouth were coach. I don't think I can do this anymore. I'm sure he didn't think when he jumped into that cab with me, that he'd have to be dealing with a guy calling it quits, but that's where we were together.
I never could have expected what would happen. Coach congratulated me on my career and said, I don't want you to tell anyone associated with the team what's going on. I told them about my back. So that's why he'd pulled me from the lineup. He said, we fly back to Colorado tomorrow, which was a Sunday. He said, you come to my office on Monday.
And if you still feel, this is the decision you want to make, we can make it official. Then how awesome was that from a guy? I didn't even know. The last thing I wanted to do was watch a hockey game that night. So I asked coach if it would be okay if I didn't go to the game and just met the team on the bus after he was cool with it and said, I'm sure you have a lot on your mind and gave me the green light.
It just so happened that two of my wife and I, his closest friends from Ottawa had made the trip out to come see me play. When I finally became an everyday player in the NHL and Ottawa, my wife and I were able to get a place to stay in the nation's cat. My wife took the lead in setting up a bank account at a local institution and met a bank teller named Nancy, and they hit it off right away before I knew it.
She was cross country skiing with them, skating on the Rido canal and dinners at their house. When I was on the. Over time. They offered to have me join Lisa for supper at their house, but I was resistant. The NHL season is a grind. And when you're home and have a day off, I just want it to hang at home or maybe have dinner somewhere and then hit a movie.
I didn't want to have to invest any time or energy into a new venture or relationship, but after a little while all the stories of the adventures they were having, while I was jetting off to different places around north America, I finally agreed to a Sunday. With Don and Nancy Folsom and their two kids, Brian and Julie, after my first meeting with them, I knew there was a solid connection between my wife and the four of them.
I was instantly sucked into their family. And to this day we maintain contact on a yearly basis. Like I said, Don and Nancy made the trip to Quebec to see me play, but I changed those plans and we ended up just going out to dinner together and then. During dinner, we basically were catching up on things.
They knew I was hurt, but couldn't have anticipated what I'd tell them on our walk alone, down by some nearby. At dinner, we had a few glasses of wine and I guess it was a bit of truth CIRM because when we were sitting at the picnic table near the river, what I was supposed to keep a secret till Monday, I revealed to Donna Nancy that night that I was retiring.
I hadn't even told my wife at that point. It just became a chain of events that happened living in the moment when I eventually did tell my wife what was happening. Well, that's another story and I'll have to cover that in a future. I spent the rest of that evening with Don and Nancy. I'm so happy. I was able to have that experience with two people that were so close to me and my family.
The next day, we flew back to Colorado. I didn't know many guys on the team very well. So since I knew this would probably be my last time I'd ever be traveling like this again, I became a chatter box and it was bouncing around the plane, having conversations with anyone who wasn't napping that evening.
I had several conversations with my wife, where she was trying to fix something that was no longer fixable. I had gone out for a walk in between. And there was a church that I had walked past many times over the last few weeks, but I guess I really didn't ever notice it until that evening. I don't know why, but something drew me inside the building.
I went in, stood there, closed my eyes, and I asked whoever the higher power was in that building to show me a sign that I was making the right. I said, thank you. And then walk back to the house. It's funny how I had a similar sleep. My last day as an NHL player, as I did the night before my first NHL game, a wrestling match with my pillows and blankets before my first game, everything was an unknown, but that evening, my whole professional career played like a movie all night with intermittent pockets.
Whereas like, what the heck am I going to do with the rest of my life? I had no idea. And the unknown can be scary at times. When I haven't had a good sleep in a couple of days, my brain will eventually shut down the system for a few hours and I would have crazy vivid dreams. A reoccurring one that I had throughout my entire career was during pregame naps.
And here's how it would go. It usually happened when we were on the road, but in the dream, I'd wake up from the nap and head to the rink for the game. But as I traveled toward the arena, everything humanly possible happened or got in my way from getting to the game on. The taxi would break down road closures.
I'd get out and start to run, but there would always be someone pulling me aside asking me questions or trying to sell me something. And I always woke up stressed out. But when I realized it was a dream, I took a deep breath relaxed because I knew it didn't happen. And I knew that I just had a good sleep.
I didn't drift off to sleep until the early morning and only had a couple hours before I had to head over to the rink to meet with coach Hartley. But in those couple hours I had one of those vivid dreams. It wasn't me frantically trying to get to a hockey rink. It was me holding hands with my wife, with both of our boys scampering around in front of us.
As we walked along a beach on some tropical island, everything was calm and peaceful, whatever, or whoever interviewed them. Gave me the clarity I was searching for. I was making the right decision and I was good with it. And I headed in to have my meeting with coach and officially retired. I don't know who was responsible for it, but that evening a bunch of players took me out for a nice dinner and presented me with two Colorado avalanche jerseys signed by all the guys.
It was a very special night for me, completely unexpected and offered up mostly by guys that hardly knew. Thank you for that. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's the conclusion of my hockey journey. As a player, I ended up walking away having eight surgeries throughout my college and professional career. I played in 662 games as a pro 393 of them in the NHL.
And I did end up getting a few hockey cards along the way. My late father-in-law once told me that at the end, when this trip on earth is finally over, you hoped you had more good days than bad. I can honestly say that that was the case for me, not even close way more good than bad. Everything I have in my life today, over 20 years later from playing my last NHL game is somehow connected to hockey.
It's a spiderweb that intersects in and out throughout my network of family and friends. It's like hockey has its own heartbeat faint, but there's a pulse you can sense and feel. I think hockey for coming into my life, every. What was interesting when I completed this exercise and script recorded the podcast.
And then finally listen to each episode, there were only spatterings of memories associated with playing a specific game when turning back the clock, trying to uncork those years from my past, the memories that kept flooding into my mind were times when I was working out in the locker room or on a bus or flying somewhere with my team.
It was moments when someone said something to me that had a positive impact and changed my trajectory. It was the people that entered my wife and I's lives at each destination that made those experiences so memorable over the course of my career. I want to finally thank one more small group of people.
My mom, my dad, Larry, my dad, gene, my brothers and sister, aunts, uncles. And lastly, my wife and my boys reminisce. You have always been my biggest fans. I couldn't have done it without all of you. And I'm grateful. I was able to experience that journey together with all of you. Thank you everyone. So I've been grinding on this script for over two months.
I was excited to start because I hadn't thought about those years when I was a player in a long, long time. It was hard. But now that I'm at the finish line, it was an amazing exercise. I highly recommend for everyone listening to rewind your life's movie and try to document some part of it, focusing on the experiences and the people that impacted you in a positive way.
Thank you for listening to my hockey journey. As a player, there were so many people along the way that came into my wife and I's life that made living away from home always seem like home and we will forever be great. Well, that's a wrap for this podcast. Thanks for stopping by make sure you subscribe.
I hope to see you back here as soon, and do me a favor, make someone close to you. Smile today. All the best. My friends.
