EP.142 - NHL Veteran Mathieu Schneider on Success, Development, and Team Dynamics - Up My Hockey with Jason Podollan

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You get to the NHL, you got a set of skills.
You know.
Could you get better at goalscoring?
Yeah, maybe a little bit.
Could you get better?
You could get better at certainthings.
But those guys when I think ofIserman, Shanahan, robitaille
you just go down the list of theplayers there.

(00:21):
They were such students of thegame and they were talking about
goal scoring and you know othergoalies' weaknesses that I'd
never heard ever before in mycareer and I'm thinking I played
over 10 years already and Ihaven't seen this and I played
on several teams.

(00:42):
It was just amazing to me theway they thought about offense
and creating it and goal scoring.
I just hadn't seen it and itmade me better.
There's no question about it.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
That was Stanley Cup champion and NHL legend, matthew
Schneider, and you arelistening to episode 142 of the
Up my Hockey podcast with JasonPadolan.
Welcome to Up my Hockey withJason Padolan, where we

(01:17):
deconstruct the NHL journey,discuss what it takes to make it
and have a few laughs along theway.
I'm your host, jason Padolan, a31st overall draft pick who
played 41 NHL games but thoughthe was destined for a thousand.
Learn from my story and thoseof my guests.

(01:40):
This is a hockey podcast aboutreaching your potential.
Hey there, welcome back, orwelcome to the Up my Hockey
podcast with Jason Padolan.
I'm here, your host, jasonPadolan, and you are listening
to episode 142 of the Up myHockey podcast, and today we
have on special guest MatthewSchneider.
But before we get to MatthewSchneider, we're going to have a
word from our sponsors, eliteProspects, which is the gateway

(02:01):
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Thank you to Elite Prospectsfor partnering with UMH 68 and
the At my Hockey podcast.
It's great to be partneringwith them More on the UMH 68 as
we move forward updating the mywebsite as we speak.

(03:06):
If you are a youth hockeyplayer in the major peewee or
minor bantam age range and youlive in british columbia,
alberta, saskatchewan ormanitoba, we will be coming
there in the spring of 2025.
So get your name on the watchlist on my website and we will
be looking for the best playersin that province, and Elite

(03:28):
Prospects has been a part ofthat.
So thank you very much, eliteProspects.
But we want to talk aboutMatthew Schneider, because
Matthew Schneider is the gueston the show today.
This guy, matthew Schneider,just to give you a little bit of
a hint, if you're a youngerplayer here that doesn't
remember Matthew Schneiderwasn't able to watch him play.
His last season in the NHL was2010.

(03:48):
But prior to that he played1,289 NHL regular season hockey
games and an additional 114playoff games 1,289, just to put
that in perspective.
That is him starting in the NHLin 89-90 and playing till 2010.

(04:10):
That's 20 seasons of NHL actionwith a few lockouts in the
middle.
That puts him 80th all time onthe games played list Top 100 to
ever play in the NHL.
What a fantastic feat that is,and Matthew Schneider was an
awesome defenseman.

(04:31):
He played for the US nationalteam.
He won a Stanley Cup withMontreal back in 92-93.
That's where he started hiscareer, after being a third
round draft pick to theCanadians, 44th overall in the
87 draft.
He hails from New York, so wehave an American on.
Like I said, played for theAmerican national team, was an

(04:52):
all-star in the NHL.
Twice he was top three inpoints for defensemen, I believe
multiple times led the leaguein goals as a defenseman.
He was all over the place,though, and he says he had a
problem with not fighting withhis coaches.
So, uh, that was interesting.
It came up a few times duringthe conversation, but I mean he

(05:12):
was just to give you an idea.
Montreal Canadiens to start off,then to the Islanders, then to
the Leafs, then to the Rangers,then to the Kings, then to the
Wings, then to the Ducks, thento the Thrashers, then back to
the Canadians and then to theCanucks, where he dipped his toe
back in the AHL for eight gamesbecause of a fight with
Vigneault and then finished hiscareer with the Phoenix Coyotes

(05:36):
so all over the place but was aproducer everywhere.
He went In the 1,289 games.
He had 743 points as adefenseman over half a point a
game over a 20-year career.
That's insane to be thatproductive over 20 years as a
D-man and then again 54 pointsin 114 games in the playoffs

(05:57):
almost a half point there aswell.
So he was a big-time producer.
And, yeah, if you're notfamiliar with Matthew Schneider,
it's awesome that we're able tohave him on here.
I will not delay thisintroduction anymore.
We got about an hour here withSchneider.
He joined us from Florida, bythe way, we played together in
LA for the hot minute that I wasthere.

(06:17):
So, connected on LinkedIn andwithout further ado, I bring you
a player of 1,289 NHL games anda Stanley Cup champion, mr
Matthew Schneider.
All right, here we are, episode142.
Old teammate of mine for a hotminute in LA.
Matthew Schneider, thanks somuch for being on the program

(06:38):
with me.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
My pleasure.
Thanks for having me, Jay.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, I love the world, the social media world.
Like, as we said before,linkedin kind of flashed your
profile in front of me the otherday there and said hi.
And here we are seven dayslater reconnecting for the first
time in a couple of decades.
So awesome to see your faceagain.
And yeah, I want to dive in manto the 1300 games essentially
that you played, and I don'treally know where to start with

(07:05):
games essentially that youplayed, and and uh, and I don't
really know where to start withthat essentially.
But uh, maybe you can tell us alittle bit about playing hockey
in new york growing up, um,what that was, even like hockey
in a big city like that, andyour introduction to it yeah,
well, there wasn't an awful lotwhen I was growing up, so you
know we're going back.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Uh well, it wasn't an awful lot when I was growing up
, so you know we're going back.
Well, we're going back 40 years, 45 years.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Isn't that crazy, even to say that.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, no, I know, actually 50 years.
I was five when I reallystarted playing, but my dad
married my mom, who wasFrench-Canadian.
She came from a big FrenchCanadian family in Rhode Island
and she was 11th of 12 kids.
My dad thought my cousins wouldall be playing hockey.

(07:51):
My dad was a hockey fan growingup.
They had the Providence Bruins,which were Boston Bruins farm
team, and went back in theoriginal six.
So you know there wasn't a tonof hockey.
Hockey was real regional.
You had New England, michigan,mass or Michigan and Minnesota

(08:13):
were really the hockey regions.
Outside of that in the UnitedStates there wasn't much hockey
back then.
But my dad started programswhen I was, when I was growing
up, and that's really how I, howI started playing.
Uh, he got me on the ice.
I was hockey, baseball, alittle bit of tennis, that was
it, and so, uh, I I guess when Iwas probably 11 or 12 years old

(08:37):
, I started to really focus moreon hockey and that was my
passion growing up right, beingfrom a kind of I mean, small
market in the sense of, like,not a lot of people playing.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
You know lots of people around you but not a lot
of people playing the game andyou obviously being good or I
assume you were good were yougood at like 11, 12 was?
Was it already showing that youwere kind of better than
everybody?

Speaker 1 (08:57):
uh, I, I don't think so.
You know, I guess it dependswho you ask.
That really knew me back then.
But yeah, I grew up we had somefamily friends that my dad had
known that played in the NHL,and you know that was kind of my
aspiration, looking up to acouple of my heroes.

(09:18):
Uh called the Bennett family inRhode Island.
That was really, uh, you know,a big part of uh still very
close to the family today, who,who I was, as particularly as as
it related to hockey.
And you know there were fivebrothers.

(09:39):
Four of them played in the NHL.
They all played college ormajor junior hockey and I looked
up to them, I was aspiring tobe them when I was a kid but in
all honesty I never thought in amillion years I'd be playing in
the NHL and that really wasn'tmy goal.

(10:01):
When I was a young teenager andgrowing up I was hoping to play
college hockey maybe, and evenback then now I'm before your
time too, pots but there weren'ta lot of college hockey players
coming to play in the NHL.
And you think back to like 1980, you know the Miracle on Ice,

(10:25):
jim Craig and all those guys.
You know that's kind of whenguys started breaking into the
NHL a little bit was just afterthat.
So it was a long, long journey,I think.
But it wasn't like.
I think maybe growing up inCanada might have been a little
bit different because the NHLwas just full of Canadian

(10:47):
players.
So it was a little bitdifferent growing up, but it's
certainly not like it is today.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Right, yeah, I mean because it gets quite serious, I
guess, for lack of a betterword earlier, you know, with the
aspirations being real and forsome more real than others and
chasing that NHL dream in someways unhealthily right.
So it sounds like yourintroduction and your
participation in it was prettyholistic.

(11:13):
You were an athlete.
Growing up you were playinghockey.
You found that you were good atit.
At some point you had to make adecision that that's what you
wanted to play, but it was morewith the goals and aspirations
of maybe being a D1 collegeplayer but it was more with the
goals and aspirations of maybebeing a D1 college player.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, exactly, and I mean I guess, ironically, I
ended up leaving high school ayear early and going to play
major junior Right.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
So walk us through that.
How did that transpire?

Speaker 1 (11:38):
It's a long story, I'll try to shorten it, but I
mean in a nutshell.
I finished my junior year ofhigh school.
I was playing at mount saintcharles, which was a big hockey
school, and in rhode island and,uh, new england, high school
hockey was was very high levelback then, or a lot of guys, uh,
you know, around around thattime and before uh that came out

(12:01):
of you know, rhode Island, prepschool, high school hockey,
went on to play college and thenNHL, but you couldn't compare
high school hockey to majorjunior hockey.
It was certainly a big jump and, as I said, my goals, goals, my

(12:26):
dreams, were to play collegehockey, pretty much up until
then.
And I went to the US junior campin the summer, which happened
to be in Lake Placid, and I wasthere, for I was there for three
or four days, I think, ended upfrom there.
As a family friend asked if Iwanted to go to skate in the

(12:51):
Cornwall Royals camp for twodays.
Back then they had the 48 hourrule and if you, if you stayed
longer than 48 hours as actuallyif you went to camp for more
than 48 hours you lost yourcollege eligibility.
Whether you're Canadian orAmerican, it didn't matter.
And so I went up and I skatedin four scrimmages and they

(13:14):
offered me a contract that wouldhave subsidized part of my
college if I didn't sign an NHLcontract.
And we went home for a week andI talked about it with my dad
and my brother for the betterpart of that week and within a
week I just I said up, I'm gonnago.

(13:34):
That was really it.
It was.
It was.
Yeah, I think you know it's.
It's easy to look back and go.
Everything worked out in 20-20hindsight but I've said this
probably throughout my career Imissed out on that college

(13:54):
experience.
I wish I went to college, ifnot for anything more than all
the guys that I played with thatwent to college.
They had their alma mater,their built-in group of friends,
their network.
All the guys that I play withthat went to college.
They had kind of their almamater, their built in group of
friends or network, so to speak.
You know whether it's peoplehelping out financially or you
know agents across the board.
They just had a tight knitgroup of friends that I feel

(14:18):
like I kind of missed out on.
I still keep in touch with acouple of guys from junior, but
you know not nearly the extentto what the college experience
was.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, interesting, because I've kind of wondered
that myself too.
I mean, you have your path andyou take the path out.
Here in the West it was, it wasan option for sure, like I
played with Paul Correa as a 15year old when he was moving on
to Maine, you know, bc Junior.
So there were some guys movinglike higher profile players, but
from out here there wasn't thatmany right going.
The route was CHL and for usthe Western league, and, and I

(14:52):
made that decision, and and thenin hindsight, for me obviously
we had vastly different careers.
I was wondering, like, geez, Iwonder what would have happened
Right, like if I would have wentthat other way.
You know how would that haveworked out, who knows?
Right, because it definitelybecame much more mainstream for
guys to be coming out of NCAAand coming and stepping into the
NHL from there, even guys thatwere undrafted and coming out as

(15:14):
free agents, right.
That happened a lot more too,but yeah so, but I have that
great experience of having thefour years in Spokane and for me
, like being all over the placein my pro career, that, for me,
is my fraternity right, like theguys from there are the guys
that I talk to really the most,you know that have the closest
connections with, so I can onlysee where you're coming from

(15:35):
with that, especially being fromthe States.
I can imagine that that wouldbe something.
Well, how do you feel about thewhole?
It sounds like it's happeningthat just a matter of when, like
the chl is is going to be ableto come and play in ncaa and
receive scholarships to play.
How do you feel that it's gonna?

Speaker 1 (15:53):
uh, due to the hockey landscape well, I, you know, I
think that there's so manyunknowns of what's what's gonna
happen, um, you know, but in theend I I think it's it's.
It's great for players in thesense that there there's going
to be more options.
And as a player, obviously, youknow, I I wish I didn't have to
make that decision when I was17 years old, that I went there

(16:15):
and I lost my collegeeligibility.
Now would I have gone tocollege?
I don't know, maybe I wouldhave, maybe I wouldn't have, but
at the same time, to have havethat option, have that ability,
it's just, it never made senseand, as as someone that that
gave up that option, opportunity, I always thought that that
that's what.
That was wrong.

(16:36):
You know, it's wrong to force,force kids that young.
So I think from that sense it'sreally good.
You know, the I guess the mostinteresting thing from my
perspective Patty LaFontaine isworking for the league.
He's still working for theleague.
He works for the EmergencyAssistance Fund, mainly now.

(16:58):
But Bill Daly had brought himin and it was about a two-year
project in, and it was about atwo-year project and patty
brought in all the different umstakeholders I would say in
hockey.
So he brought.
You know, ushl, the chl, allthree of the commissioners from
uh, the ohl whl, quebec leaguehad the ncaa, usaockey Hockey

(17:23):
Canada.
Even at certain points peoplefrom the IIHF came in to a
couple of the meetings.
He had guys like Cam Neely andLuke Robitaille and it was
really to try to.
He had a couple goals One hewanted to raise draft age, which

(17:44):
I'm in complete agreement with.
I think you know an 18-year-olddraft, it's just there's so many
challenges for an 18-year-oldkid.
I played a couple games as an18-year-old.
It's just forget the on-icestuff.
You know the physical nature ofthe game.
It's a little different todaybut you know you're a boy
playing amongst men and that'sone thing, but the mental aspect

(18:07):
I think is extremelychallenging.
You think about going from a17-year-old to an 18-year-old
living on your own playing inthe NHL.
It's just another.
Buying another year or twowouldn't be the worst thing in
the world.
So I didn't mean to getsidetracked there.

(18:29):
But Patty wanted to raise draftage.
He wanted to open up the NCAAto major junior players,
basically create a pathway thatplayers could see more clearly
than you see today.
You look at other sports.
There are clear pathways fromyouth sports up through high

(18:54):
school, up through college toprofessional levels.
Soccer may be the other outlier, but hockey is challenging that
way.
So patty was trying to bring allthe stakeholders together and
get some agreements on thesedifferent things and we started
to get pretty close to it, toachieving some of the goals that

(19:17):
patty wanted to.
And I actually started to getscared when we were getting
close because I'm you'rethinking what are the unknowns?
What's going to happen when weopen that up?
Are, and when you look, isballpark, you got 60 major
junior teams across Canada.
You got 60 some odd uh d1programs in the United States.

(19:39):
So you, you have 120 teamswhere kids of that age can kind
of land and then move on to thepro level.
Do you do now just create apathway where they're going to
go major?
Those same you know howevermany kids there are are going to
go major junior and thenthey're going to go to college.

(20:00):
Are they going to?
Are they going to take up allthe air in the room?
Basically?
And instead of creating moreopportunities for players, does
it potentially just tighten thefunnel at the top, which is what
Patty used to talk about, howeverybody kind of gets
bottlenecked and kids startquitting the game at 15, 16, 17

(20:24):
years old because there's justno hope of them playing at the
game at, you know, 15, 16, 17years old, because there's just
no hope of them playing at thehigher level, which is which is
what we were seeing.
So, um, but in the end, I think,I, I think one.
We do need more programs.
You need, you know, and andbefore we, before we hopped out
and we're talking a little bitabout potential junior hockey
expansion in the United States I, I, I think you're gonna, I

(20:48):
think you're going to seeexpansion of junior hockey.
I think you're going to seeexpansion of NCAA programs over
the next several years.
So, I, I, I really think it'sgoing to be good for the game
overall.
But you, what?
You see, what's happening withthe NIL name, image likeness

(21:09):
deals and what's the portal forcollege football and college
basketball especially?
It's just craziness.
It's the Wild West and it'sgoing to take time for it to get
sorted out In the end, forhockey, for this specifically, I
think it's going to take.
It's going to take time for itto get sorted out.
Um, in the end, for hockey, forthis specifically, I think it's
going to be good yeah, like.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
So I love this conversation.
Like what, what are the good?
Like, what do you think is thebest thing about it?

Speaker 1 (21:37):
I mean, you're, there's just extremely high
levels of hockey and, and Ithink right now, a lot of kids
that are very talented, veryskilled, have been getting
pushed out of the game becausethere just aren't enough spots
for them to land.
I think that it's going to keepmore kids in the game longer,

(21:57):
giving them, you know, a betteropportunity to maybe realize
their dream of playingprofessional hockey one day,
whether it's in the nhl, theamerican league or overseas,
wherever it might be.
I think it just contributes tothe growth of the game, does it?

Speaker 2 (22:13):
hurt canadian youth sports, do you think?

Speaker 1 (22:18):
I don't think it will .
Uh, I, I think again.
You know there's someinteresting things happening in
Canada, though, or there wereanyway.
I don't have access to thelatest stats, but I know, just
even a few years ago, you'relooking at hockey having real

(22:39):
competition over the last decadein Canada, for you know kids
participating in sports, whetherit's baseball or basketball or
soccer you know we talked aboutall the new Canadians coming in
from different countries, andhockey wasn't necessarily what
they were going to begravitating to.

(23:01):
You also had, you know, Canadianplayers being very successful
in the nba and major leaguebaseball and that becoming, you
know, uh, an aspiration forother young canadian kids, so
you started to see morecompetition for kids at young
ages.
That didn't always exist incanada.

(23:22):
It was always assumed that, oh,oh, you're Canadian.
The first thing you're going todo is you're going to get a
hockey stick in your hand,you're going to be playing
street hockey, and you know thatwas so.
So I do think that.
I think that you know the forthe ability for kids to continue
to play at higher levels andhave more opportunities, more

(23:49):
places for them to land.
I think that's a good thing forthe Canadian kids.
The last thing that I'll say isa lot of times, in hockey in
particular, I think you knowmaybe maybe I'm not, maybe I
just don't understand the otherpaths in sports as well, but

(24:14):
feel like kids are forced toleave home, generally at younger
ages in hockey than they are inother sports, and, and I don't
think that's a great thing.
I left home as a 17 year old, Ithink you know.
The longer you can stay at homeand and under the guidance of
your parents and things likethat, I think that's a good
thing.
And and, and I think you knowkids crossing the border,

(24:39):
whether they're going to US kidsgoing to play junior hockey or
Canadian kids coming down to theU Ss to play in the ushl to
save their college eligibility Ithink I think you're going to
keep more uh, kids at homelonger and I think that's a good
thing.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
yeah, personally, yeah, I agree.
Yeah, I think it might getolder, like I'm speculating,
potentially, like the leaguemight might get, meaning the CHL
, the BCHL here, when they leftHockey Canada.
It's definitely gotten older,like it's been less
developmental, let's say, andmore of a 19-year-old league.
So I'm wondering what's goingto happen with that landscape.

(25:16):
You talk about the NHL draft.
You know the WHL draft is a14-year-old draft, which is
crazy, you know.
Is that going to change?
Uh, does it make?
Does it make the whl stronger,the chl stronger in general?
Right, because now you knowmost of the best players are
there anyways.
But is now all the best playersgoing to go there because they
still have the option of ofgoing ncaa?

(25:37):
Right, like it's.
It's definitely an interestinglandscape, uh, right now, and
you know who knows where it'sgoing to go.
But to your, your point, Ithink the more options the
better.
And, and for me, we were bothin the same boat.
You know I had to.
I decided, 15 years old, 15years old, whether I was going
to play major junior or whetherI was going to take university
off the off the table.

(25:57):
I mean, that's an unfairdecision to have to make at that
age.
So, you know, if that getschanged, I think just from the
basis, you know the baseline ofthe philosophy of it, I think
they're getting it right andthen whatever happens from there
, I guess happens.
You mentioned the mentalchallenges of the draft.
You know you were somebody thatwent to Cornwall, was drafted
out of Cornwall.
You know, in the NHL, as an NHLthird rounder, I believe

(26:19):
dealing with that wholeexperience, I believe dealing
with that whole experience, youknow that whole crossing a
border, leaving home playingCanadian junior hockey, being
exposed to the NHL draft gettingdrafted, how do?

Speaker 1 (26:37):
you feel that you handled the mental challenges of
that.
Going back to that time, yeah,you know, I think when I look
back I feel like I was extremelyfortunate to be drafted by
Montreal.
The organization back then, youknow, top to bottom, was just
amazing.
And you know, I think, from thecoaching staff to the scouts

(27:00):
and I was an hour from Montreal,you know, and I was playing in
Cornwall, I was very close andClaude Ruel was actually a
former coach of the Canadiens,famous scout.
For years and years he used tocome down to see me probably a
couple times a month.
And you know, my first year Ihad stayed up.

(27:21):
I played four games and then Igot sent back to junior.
I was expecting to potentiallystay up as a 19-year-old and
that didn't happen.
I got sent back right away.
I didn't play any games and yougo through really big emotional
swings, ups and downs throughyour career.
There was times where I wasgetting in my car and I was

(27:44):
going to drive home to RhodeIsland.
I wanted to quit.
You know, and it's just, you'rejust very you know, it's their
personal challenges thateverybody you know faces
differently and at differenttimes in their career.
But you I, I look back, all ofthat kind of contributed to you

(28:06):
know who I was, uh, particularlythe second half of my career, I
think.
Uh, because I, I just had, Iwas, I was on a roller coaster.
I think I probably say I was ona roller coaster throughout my
entire career, but it was um,you know, every, every obstacle
you face uh makes you a strongerperson.

(28:26):
The experience makes you better, smarter, and and it's uh, it's
like anything else you know,but there are, you know there's
so few people that can relate toit or that go through it.
So, being in an organizationlike Montreal, really, you know,
they, I, I, what I wanted toplay in the league as an 18 year

(28:46):
old, 19 year old, absolutelywasn't ready, probably not.
And and they brought me in andtaught me how to be a
professional, and so I don'tknow if that would have been the
case if I was drafted by thePittsburgh Penguins back then or
another team that wasn'tnecessarily the Montreal
Canadians or had the staff thatthey had.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Right yeah, that conversation comes up so often,
especially in the line of workthat I'm doing right now.
You know the, the place thatdrafts you really does matter.
And even like where you go toas a junior matters.
You know, like there's so manythings that are wrapped around
opportunity, that are wrappedaround the infrastructure of the
team, the culture there matters.
You know, like there's so manythings that are wrapped around

(29:27):
opportunity, that are wrappedaround the infrastructure of the
team, the culture there.
You know all those things thatuh, that are paramount in in
your path, in and in yourpersonal pathway and and how
that works out for you.
And obviously there's lots ofthings that aren't in our
control with that and we need tomake the best of our uh, you
know, of whatever opportunity wehave, but it's it's.
We're not being fair to thesystem if we're, if we're, if
we're discounting that aspect.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, yeah, right, no , for sure, I.
I had a.
I had a close friend, uh formeramerican player who's actually
he was, I don't want, I'm notgoing to name names, but uh, he
was, uh he, he had a reallyreally good nhl and his son, his
son, who's playing right now.

(30:08):
He's up and down between theminors and the NHL, but he was a
four-year undrafted collegeplayer and he was pretty, I
don't want to say he had hispick of where he could sign
coming out, but he had options.
There was no question about it.

(30:31):
And I spent, you know, probablyan hour or two on the phone with
his dad talking about differentopportunities that he had.
And you know, the one thingthat I really stressed to him
was you know, put the moneyaside and you have to be in an
organization where he's going tobe able to thrive and develop.

(30:52):
What is it?
And he happened to be adefenseman.
I said who's coaching thedefense?
You know what are the type ofthings that they're saying.
How are they going to?
You know, they look at him as aplayer that's going to develop
over time or they think they'regoing to stick him in the lineup
right away.
You know, and so do you want tobe on a team that's in the, you

(31:12):
know, in the bottom third ofthe league for the last three
years.
You know what opportunities arethere and so it's really.
It really is challenging, though, because you know he was in a
situation where, you know youhave the rookie caps and
everything like that, so themoney's going to be fairly
similar across the board.
But he ended up going to anorganization that was struggling

(31:35):
and, you know, within two yearshe was out of there and he was
in another organization and his,his self-confidence was
dropping.
That development, that abilityfor teams to develop players and
there are a lot of good onesnow.
It wasn't necessarily the caseback in the late 80s and early

(31:59):
90s, but there are a lot of goodteams that do develop players
and have a lot of knowledgetoday that they never they never
had in the past.
So, um, taking all those thingsinto consideration, if you have
that opportunity, you're notdrafted.
You know it's just differentthings to think about, different
ways of thinking about thingsyeah, yeah, well, definitely.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
I mean, I've think about the san jose sharks right
now, like, just for instance,right, like they, they aren't
really an NHL team.
So the players on that team,it's funny, right, they're in
the same league, but it's notreally the same league, so
you're getting opportunities inthat environment that other guys
might not have.
Some guys are going to thrivethere.
Maybe they're, you know, inanother organization.

(32:39):
They wouldn't be in the NHL atthat point, right, they'd be in
the minors working on theircraft.
Some guys rise to thatchallenge and some guys end up
making it work, and some guys,when they get thrown in like
that, it doesn't work out forthem.
It was too early, it was toosoon, right.
So you can't really paint itwith a broad brush.
I don't think that one is rightfor the other, but it is
amazing, like, the amount ofopportunity that you will get
generally on a team that islower in the in, that is lower

(33:01):
in the standings, right, thanyou know, trying to make the
Tampa Bay Lightning roster forthe last five years in a row.
It's a little bit harder as ayoung guy, you know, no matter
how good you are.
So, yeah, those are greatquestions, though, and to find
out where it was.
I mean, I even noticed that inmy brief time with different
teams across the NHL.
I'm sure you saw it too,walking into the Montreal
Canadiens.
That was the creme de la cremeat the time.

(33:26):
I mean, they, they, just it wasthey.
They oozed tradition andexcellence, right like I
remember Brent Gilchrist saying,like the from the guy who would
take you to your seat, like itwas all about winning,
everything was class.
You know everyone was,everything was taken care of.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
And then you know you go around the league and it's
definitely not like thateverywhere yeah, yeah, no
question about that right isn'tthat not so mean, but from the
outside, looking in the casualfan or the casual player.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
I mean, the nhl is the nhl, but it's vastly
different experiences dependingon where you're at yeah, no,
absolutely 100.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
I.
I think things are differenttoday.
I think you know you go in anynhl room and and just to be
competitive, like if you, if youwant, if you want to attract
free agents one day, if you want, you know you're, you have to,
you have to keep up with thejoneses and it's.
You know.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
They're the all, I think all the nhl take a short
break from my conversation withmr Schneider to remind you that
if you are listening to thispodcast, you have interest in
performance, I assume, and highperformance at that, and you
have found value, I'm sure, inthe mental side of the game.

(34:36):
It comes up over and over againin the podcast.
It is, without question, thegreatest competitive advantage
you can have as a player.
And what does Up my Hockey do?
What is it all about?
Well, it's about providing youwith that mental advantage, with
a program that is tailor-madefor hockey players to be able to
reach their potential, which iswhy I called it the Peak

(34:59):
Potential Hockey Project.
Now, if you are interested atall about mindset and you would
like to dip your toe in, atleast to see where you sit, I
have developed a mindset quizwhich is available on my website
, wwwupmyhockeycom.
It's in the top right portionof your screen.

(35:19):
You click mindset quiz.
It takes you maybe five minutesto respond to the questions.
It will give you an idea abouthow mindset can impact your game
, the different areas where howyou think and perceive can show
up to your benefit or to yourdetriment.
When you complete the quiz, youwill get a letter grade how

(35:41):
good or how poorly is yourmindset at this moment in your
career?
And after you press submit andyou get that letter grade, I
will also see your responses andit'll give us an opportunity to
potentially discuss what yourmindset program could or should
look like.
Should you be involved in thePeak Potential Hockey Project or

(36:03):
do you think it's best that youcontinue on the same path that
you were on?
I highly recommend players workon their confidence.
I highly recommend they work ontheir ability to self-assess.
Their confidence is coming fromtheir empowerment, and that's
what I do is we give you toolsto be empowered to make new

(36:23):
choices in new situations, torethink the game in a way that
is advantageous for you, to pushthe envelope, to double down on
your skill development and tobe an amazing teammate and
contributor on the iceconsistently.
Does that sound good?
I think it does so.
Why not take the mindset quizand see if you will work with me
in a peak potential hockeyproject, either in a group

(36:46):
capacity called my guidedmission, or as a mentored
mission, where it is just youand me, one-on-one, crafting a
game plan for you and yourultimate playing potential?
Now let's get back to theconversation with Matthew
Schneider yeah, I'm going to goback to when you said there was

(37:09):
times that you were going todrive back to rhode island, like
those are.
Those are those decisive, youknow, turning points in
somebody's career, because thereare some guys that do drive
home.
You know, and we all know thoseguys right that they do leave.
Yeah, do you remember anyreason like what made matthew
schneider stay in one of thosescenarios?
What was the difference thatmade you not drive the car out

(37:30):
of the country and and stay andstick it out?
Do you?
Do you remember any informative?

Speaker 1 (37:34):
moment.
Oh, I mean, there was one time,the one time in particular uh,
I actually, uh, serge Savard wasthe GM in Montreal at the time
and he called me.
I was like I'm like, I'm goinghome, home, I quit, it was, and
I wasn't.
I was in my car, uh, and I Ithink I got about two hours and
then I turned around I'm like,yeah, it was, you know, it's

(37:56):
just.
And I and it was I.
I had a fight.
I had a fight with my coach andI I don't remember what the
fight was over, uh, and, but Iit was.
We had a really goodrelationship, uh, and for some
reason, we ended up getting intoa fight which became a pattern
over the rest of my career.
I fought with all my coachesbut but uh, but that that was uh

(38:18):
, and and serge called me and hewas, and just, guys, you know
what's the issue and in the end.
You know, I, he's, he's talkedme down and and I, and I'm like,
yeah, it was ridiculous.
I, I don't, I don't know what Iwas thinking and I but it's,
it's just the have a harder timecontrolling your emotions, I

(38:39):
think, as a young man, I thinkis was, uh, was.
You know the challenge and, andyou know to my reaction to
criticism, whether I thought itwas justified or not justified
or whatever the case might be,and you know, I think, at the
time too, it was a combinationof factors where, you know, I, I

(39:01):
, I was probably thinking, oh, Ishouldn't be here anyway, I
should be playing in the NHL.
And if I'm not in the NHL, Idon't want to play, and you know
things like that.
So it, it was uh, yeah, it, youknow, thinking back it's, it's
completely unreasonable.
You know the the, the way I wasthinking.
But you know I, I I look at youknow my, my oldest son now is

(39:22):
23 and my younger son is uh 20and you know I look at them and
they make unreasonable decisionsall the time, right, so, yeah,
you know you're.
Just the stakes are higher.
You're at a different levelwhen you're on the cusp there
and, you know, trying to make it.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
I think that you know I'm listening to you through
the lens and with the years ofwhat I'm doing now, right,
helping players.
One of the things is, you know'mlistening to you through the
lens and with the years of whatI'm doing now, right, helping
players.
One of the things is, you know,manage those emotions.
And so I'm listening to youtalk about, you know, a 19, 20
year old kid who is a kid, whois playing on a big stage, who
has big things at stake, thatstill has a 19 year old brain,

(40:07):
right and and without theparents and stuff, and and I
can't help but think too, soyou're like a third round pick,
you know you're.
You're somebody that's on theprospect depth chart.
You're somebody that they want,like they've invested in, that,
they want to play for them oneday, like your rope is a little
bit longer than maybe the otherguy that has that same reaction
and see you later.

(40:28):
You're gone right, like moment,like how important do you think
it is?
Like that emotional regulationwhen it comes to being a pro, or
even on the journey?

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Oh, I, I think that's everything I mean.
Put put sports aside, I thinkyou know it's one of the.
I think it's one of the mostimportant qualities or assets
that any individual can have isto really, you know, keep your
emotions in check, not makeemotional decisions.

(41:00):
And you know that later on inmy career, you know you want to
be kind of a flat line, right,you don't want to be.
You know, when things are goingreally well, you know it's easy
to get really high.
A lot of those guys that getreally high after you know, uh,
you know one good game or twogood games fall into the trap of

(41:24):
getting really low andspiraling when you have a couple
bad games.
You know, you know, you know weused to joke about you can't
read the newspapers now.
Now kids today have socialmedia.
It makes things so much morechallenging.
It's so much more difficult,you know, just to pick up the
phone in between periods orsomething.
If you had a bad period, or youturn the puck over and cost a

(41:46):
goal or things like that, how doyou turn that off?
It?
It's a skill and it and it's youknow it's, it's something that
you have to you.
You get the opportunity to, uh,to learn it just through time.
Right, and because if you don't, you're gone pretty quickly.
If, if you, if, every time youmake a mistake, your game

(42:09):
spirals and you keep gettingworse and you're feeling bad for
yourself and you're down andyou're not playing as well,
you're going to be gone prettyquickly.
There's just not that room forerror.
And it's at all the higherlevels, it's at the NCAA, it's
in major junior, it's at youknow, heck, you know we talk
about 12-year-olds, the12-year-old kids.
Today you go to the GTHL inToronto and kids are getting

(42:33):
benched for making a bad passbecause the coach wants to win
the championship that year andit's ridiculous.
So yeah, but I think that it'sjust a required skill to have
that mental toughness, no matterwhat happens.

(42:53):
I'm here, right, I can't gethere and I can't get down, down
too low.
I can't get too high, I can'tget down too low, and I think
that's huge.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
I like to say that it is a skill.
It's one thing that I, I thinkreframing that to people,
whether it be the parents thatare listening or to the athletes
that this isn't something thatyou either have necessarily or
don't have necessarily.
It's something that if you wantto focus on and provide
intention to it that you can getbetter at it.
And it's actually in your bestinterest to consciously try to

(43:24):
get better at it, because if youdon't, it might be too late to
your point, right, like we don'tnecessarily have endless
amounts of time, especially withthe short window of trying to
develop a hockey career, tofigure it out and get it figured
out, you know.
So take the opportunities, like, let yourself recognize that
this is something that I can getbetter at, that I can
consciously improve, um, youknow, on an accelerated rate,

(43:47):
and you're definitely giveyourself a better chance of, uh,
of making things happen.
So I mean, I like that skillword, right, the skill word is a
good word yeah, for sure I had.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
I had just done a side note.
I uh, we, our families, had theabsolute pleasure and honor of
uh hosting a woman volleyballplayer at our house in californ
California, for a better part ofthe last five or six years.
I guess I get lose track oftime through the pandemic.

(44:17):
But, um, melissa Humana Paradis, she's actually a BC, she's.
She lives out in BC now, uh,with her boyfriend, um, but she
won silver, her and her partner.
They won silver in uh paristhis uh past olympics.
Beach volleyball, and when you,you know you, you look at

(44:37):
individual sports versus teamsports, it becomes just so much
more important.
Uh, you know, and and I I lookat the beach volleyball, the
pairs, it's.
You know it's not an individualsport, but you're not, you know
it's not a team like you.
You know you're watching theworld series and you know I I

(44:58):
felt bad for uh otani.
He wasn't hitting in the worldseries but the rest of his team
was playing unbelievable andthey go on and win a
championship.
Unfortunately for a judge, itdidn't work out the same way.
But you know, when you, whenyou look at a team sport like
hockey, baseball, football, ifyou know one or two guys are
having a bad night.

(45:19):
The rest of the team can pickyou up in an individual sport.
You know you cannot afford tofeel sorry for yourself after a
bad point, after a missed shot,after any any of those things
for two seconds because theset's gone and you lose a set
and there's your opportunity.

(45:40):
It's such a short window.
I, I think those, thoseathletes are, are, I think
they're even more resilient thanthan, you know, the team guys.
And it's really incredible tosee Melissa.
They actually used to call herthe silent assassin, but you
watch her play and it's just thesame all the way through and it

(46:04):
really is incredible.
But you know, I said skill.
Maybe I said it accidentally,you're using it, but it is a
skill that doesn't just happenovernight.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
Yeah, yeah, and you talk about those fluctuations.
When I'm talking to theathletes, about mental toughness
or I call actually mentalagility, is that the people
you're talking about, like thegolfers, the tennis players,
where it's like full-on display.
You can't check out for a holeon display, you know you cannot.
You can't check out for a holein golf.

(46:37):
You've lost the tournament.
You can't check out for a for aset or for a game in tennis.
You've, you've lost, right?
I always say that those playersare humans.
Like stuff goes wrong, theyfeel bad at times, but their
ability to close the gap onwhatever that is that event
becomes like microseconds.
You know, like it's done, it'sover, and then it's onto the
next thing.
It's done, it's over, it's ontothe next thing, Whereas a
hockey player does have a muchmore.

(46:58):
Like there's more ability forhockey player to sit on the
bench, recover, right.
Like there's there's longerwindows.
That we're dealing with therewhen it comes to, uh, to that
resiliency and the ability toclose the gap, but it's on full
display.
People just get better at itthan others.
You know, I do think that's athing and you see that even grow
through the careers of golfersand tennis players.
You watch them develop thatover time, where they get better

(47:19):
at it.
It's pretty neat With you and,going back to the start of your
career, I like that you startedin the AHL and ended in the AHL
or at least had an experiencewith it in the AHL Obviously
close to my heart, like I thinkthat you know, with me being a
guy that was up and down and youknow riding the buses and
trying to make it.

(47:40):
There's something to be said, Ibelieve, for that route, you
know, and for at least thatexperience.
What can you say about yourtime in the AHL there, and did
it give you any type ofperspective for what was going
to happen for the rest of yourcareer?

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Yeah, I think I think the AHL has really and you know
, as you just mentioned, I was,I was back in the AHL towards
the end of my career due to afight with my coach, again with
Elaine Vigneault, but it was,you know, know it changed so

(48:13):
much.
You know, I think when I, whenI was, when I first came up, uh,
it was just starting to becomemore of a developmental league
rather than kind of uh, I wouldsay you know you had you had a
mix of a lot of older players.
You know, I say you know older,you had guys that were, you

(48:36):
know, in their late 20s, pushing30, that were in the American
League.
And now you know those werelike you know, your your top
goal scorers and sometimes yourenforcers.
But you know, generally theLeague was, I think it was older
back then.
I never looked at the numbers,but when you look at the

(48:57):
American League today, I thinkyou've got maybe two or three
veterans on the team but you'vegot a very young roster and
you're strictly trying todevelop.
It wasn't the same, but again,I go back to the organization at
the time and I had a greatcoach when I got sent down to

(49:19):
Sherbrooke in the AmericanLeague I just had a tremendous
coach that was.
He was a defenseman as well andit goes back to.
He taught me how to playdefense.
You know, playing defense inthe NHL is much different than
playing defense, and or it wasback then.
Anyway, I think it's a lotcloser today.

(49:41):
You know, when you look atcollege hockey or junior hockey,
I feel like the jump fromcollege or junior is not quite
as big as it used to be.
College or junior is not quiteas big as it used to be.
You know, back when I came intothe league and even throughout
a lot of the 90s, but thedevelopment side of the American

(50:02):
League for me was important.
You know, it was just anotherpiece to the puzzle that kind of
allowed me or gave me theopportunity to have a long
career.
So at the end of my career, youknow, I, I it was, it was
literally I got into a fightwith Vino and Mike Gillis was

(50:23):
the GM, was actually my, my, myformer agent.
When, when, before he becamethe president and GM of
Vancouvercouver and he's like oh, I'll try to trade you, but uh,
you gotta go down to you, gottago down to manitoba.
I was like I was like, allright, uh went down to manitoba
for a couple weeks when I was at, so but, um, no, it it was.

(50:45):
Uh, you know it was.
It was really I.
I thought the game itself andManitoba was an independent team
and they had gone to the CalderFinals the year before, but
they were just decimated withinjuries.
I mean, we had guys on thatteam that had trouble catching a

(51:06):
pass, literally, so it was.
I think we won one game.
I played about six or sevengames there.
I think we won one game.
I played about six or sevengames there.
I think we won one of them andwe probably shouldn't have won
that one either.
Um, but it it was.
Uh, that was a littlechallenging, you know, I, I'm,
I'm breaking out from behind mynet and I'm looking at our guys

(51:26):
at the far blue line waiting forpasses.
It was just, it was uh, youknow that was.
I was.
I felt like I was in adifferent, different world.
But uh, my two experiences werepolar opposites of being an
admirers there you go.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, I mean the perspective is nice though, too,
like I think, mind you,actually maybe we should go on
that, because you, you did playnhl games this season before.
Uh, you mentioned that.
You kind of in your headthought that you want, should be
in the nhl.
I mean, a lot of guys do rightthat you were there, maybe we're
successful.
And then now you start your procareer in the minors.
Was there any issue at all with, like you know, playing where

(52:02):
your feet were or where yourskates were, as I like to say,
like being in that?

Speaker 1 (52:05):
moment, or or were you kind of out of your head.
I wasn wasn't really thrilledabout it.
I wasn't happy about it.
We had some great players downthere.
I'm trying to think now.
Lyle O'Dwine was down there.
He ended up being my partner inthe NHL for a while.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Lots of NHLers.
I'm looking at the list rightnow.
Steph Van Rische was there.
Andrew Castles, benoit Brunet,mark Peterson we had Richer was
there, yeah, andrew Castles,andrew Castles, yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Mark Peterson.
Oh yeah, we had some great,great players down there, so
that certainly made it easier.
But I think that year Montrealhad they kept nine defensemen up
and I was 10th.
They had sent me down up and Iwas, I was 10th.

(52:58):
They said they had sent me downand, uh, I actually had a call
and into my agent, had a call onthe surge.
You were asking for a trade ifI'm not gonna.
You know, you got ninedefensemen up where.
You know where am I on that andtotal ball and I, you know I
felt like I could play um.
They ended up getting fourinjuries, four guys got hurt and
I get called up.
It was early December.
I got called up, um, and I.

(53:22):
I played my first two or threegames Pat Burns was the coach
and uh, and, and I stayed.
After that I stayed in thelineup and uh, and I never
looked back after after that,but it was uh, it was
challenging for sure.
Having having great teammates,having a great coach down in
sherbrooke was was certainlywonderful.

(53:44):
But you know, I I thought itwas ready to play and I was, and
, and so you know it just workedout.
It was another one of thosethings like it could have worked
out where I just where theytraded me too, if they did, if
four guys don't get hurt on thefence, which was incredible when
.
I look back and think about it.
I could have ended up somewhereelse easily too.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Yeah, no kidding, or maybe not traded and playing a
whole year in the.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
AHL.
And yeah, absolutely right youknow, it's kind of crazy.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Uh, you never know, so that's cool.
Yes, you got up and started toplay and then, shit man, 1300
games later, uh, and a cup inyour third year.
Like was that?
I mean, I would assume that'sstill the pinnacle, like it was
that?
Was that the best experience asa as a hockey player for you?

Speaker 1 (54:28):
yeah, yeah, that was.
That was amazing.
I guess my only regret is thatI was so young when I won it.
You know I was 23.
I thought, oh, I'm going to winit a few more times.
You know that was it.
But you know, having won it inMontreal was just incredible.
Obviously, being there, and youknow the group of guys that we

(54:52):
had were incredible.
We just had our 30th reunionlast year in Montreal which was
a lot of fun.
Yeah, and so you know, I thinkif I had to pick one spot that I
was going to win it.
Looking back over the course ofmy career, montreal was the
place.
And you know, I wish, like Isaid, I wish I was older and I

(55:14):
would have enjoyed it andappreciated it a lot more,
because it was.
It's everybody that plays inthe NHL should get the
opportunity to lift that cup.
You know you get there, it'sjust there's not a feeling like
it in the world.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Yeah, Did it make it even somehow more special that
it was against gretter and theand the kings?

Speaker 1 (55:34):
yeah, you know again, you look at, you know, you look
at how like you know destiny orfate or whatever the case might
be and I remember, uh, so yougo back, go back a couple series
through that whole playoff run.
You know we were I actually Igot hurt in the first round.
We're playing Quebec.
Quebec had a great team.

(55:55):
Sackick, sundin was there,hextall was their goal.
They were up to nothing.
Guys were, guys were gettingready to book their summer
vacations.
We were back at, we werethinking this is going to be a
tough one to bounce back from.
And then, all of a sudden, youknow we won four straight.
We played Buffalo beat themfour straight.

(56:16):
And we're watching theIslanders Pittsburgh series, and
Pittsburgh was just off thecharts.
Right, they won 91.
They won 92.
Mario in the height of it, andthe islanders knock him off in
game seven.
They're like, oh my god, thisis unbelievable.

(56:38):
The islanders had a great teamtoo, I I mean.
But pittsburgh was just, youknow it was, they were
incredible.
So we end up, we got luckythere.
We, we played the islanders, wehad a good series against the
islanders.
Get through that.
And you know we're watching.
We're watching gretz and we'rewatching the, the, the toronto,

(56:59):
la series, and toronto had anunbelievable team back then too,
like thinking of gilmore andclark right in the prime of
their career, and I mean theywere, they were really good.
But the difference between themand la for us, I think, was
they were a big, heavy, toughteam in toronto and la was more

(57:22):
of a skill finesse.
Um, they had some toughness,there's no question about it, uh
.
But I think I say thisbegrudgingly but I feel like if
we would have had to playToronto that year, I feel like
Toronto would have beat us.
We just, I don't know if we had, they were just a heavy team.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
And then you know.
And then in the finals you knowwe end up winning the second
game in overtime.
And poor Marty McSorley I'mfriends with him to this day and
I still feel bad for him aboutit but his illegal stick gets
called and we end up tying it.
And Eric Desjardins had ahat-trick Unbelievable game.

(58:07):
But you look at all thosethings and how they lined up Ten
overtimes.
Patrick Patrick Ruaj just stoodon his head night in and night
out.
He was unbelievable and youknow all the things that just
kind of fall into place.
But you know that that wasn'tit you.
We were out of the 16 teamsthat made the playoffs that year

(58:27):
.
You probably would have had usabout 15 or 16 on the odds to
win it.
You know we lost.
I think we lost like eight ofour last 10 games going into the
playoffs that year too.
Wow, it was a wild seasonthat's so fun.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Yeah, things got to go right, you know, and that's
that's the thing like Icompletely embrace and support,
like the celebration ofchampions.
But I think that the mediaoverdoes like the difference
between getting to the final andlosing, and getting to the
final and winning.
Like you know, they've, bothteams have figured it out.
I think you know just one team,for whatever reason, comedy of

(59:04):
errors.
You know luck, you know thecircumstances.
Whatever the case may be,something pushes them over the
edge, which is amazing, and whenyou get to do it is it is so
special.
But even getting to thesemi-finals at that level, like
you've, you have to do so manythings right and you have to
come together as a team in somany ways and you know, overcome
so much adversity that it's uh,you know, I just think it's bad

(59:25):
in the hall of fame kind ofdiscussion, these types of
things.
Well, did you ever win?
Well, holy smokes.
There's so many things thathave to go right, you know for
that to happen right?
Yeah, um, that is tough to putthat on one player and that they
were some type of a failurebecause they weren't able to
accomplish it right yeah, yeahno it's uh, I mean hockey more
than any other sport.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
It's a true team effort.
You you cannot win achampionship with 12 guys, even
with 15 guys.
You need your third line topitch in.
You need your 5-6 D to pitch inwhen guys get hurt.
You need guys that are the 22nd, 23rd guy.
You need them to step in andplay at the highest level

(01:00:06):
possible.
You need your goaltender tostand on his head every night,
and you need to do that for twomonths straight.
Right, and so it truly is.
I look at basketball and I feellike and maybe I just don't
know enough about basketball Ifeel like you can win with three

(01:00:30):
or four great players.
You can win a basketballchampionship, and teams have
done it In hockey.
That's not the case, right?
You need everybody peaking atthe same time.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Isn't that what makes it so freaking beautiful?

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Yeah, yeah, no, it is .
It's at every level too, thoughthat's major junior, I think
Memorial Cup, I mean that'sincredible, NCAA same thing,
it's all that's hockey.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
Love it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
I love it and when you get it right and you feel it
with all the teams you playedon, there's just something about
that culture that is different.
I mean guys care about eachother in a different way.
You know guys are valued in adifferent way.
You know, from top to bottom.
There's just a there's adifferent vibe about that and
it's so special when you got itand you you just can't undo it

(01:01:25):
once you've seen it.
Do right like it's.
It's a difference maker with asfar as you, and just from an
individual.
You mean, I was looking you up alittle bit before.
I try not to look too deep, tobe completely honest, because I
think that that's where theauthenticity of the of the
conversation maybe fades.
But like some really coolhighlights, you know, one being

(01:01:46):
led the uh NHL and points of thedefenseman in goals and other
season Like those are high, highaccolades like how, how was
that from a mental side of it,one like being in nhl or sounds
like you had quite a bit ofbelief in yourself from a young
age that you thought you weregood enough to be there and
should be there.
At what point did your beliefsystem allow you to be one of

(01:02:10):
the best in the game and, in acouple of scenarios, the best at
your position in the game.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
Yeah, I think, you know, there were different
opportunities that I hadthroughout my career that were
really, you know, I guess thefirst one, the first one I would
say, was when Jacques Demerscame in to, when he replaced Pat
Burns and when Pat was thereand the defensive, the whole

(01:02:41):
system was a very defensivesystem.
You know, we used to play theneutral zone trap, right, and
they didn't want defensemenjumping up into the rush unless
we were going to create anoutnumbered rush.
We were really like they kindof had the D, you know, holding
us back all the time, reallyfelt that you know, our job was

(01:03:04):
defense first and in all honesty, that allowed me, I think, to
be able to play as long as I did, because defense was always the
first responsibility.
I had that in my mind.
I wasn't going to takeunnecessary risk and that was
something that was ingrained inus, all of us in Montreal, the

(01:03:24):
defense that were playing there.
But when Jacques came in,jacques kind of took the
handcuffs off of me and he saidgo, I want you to go and create
offense.
And that's what I was in junior.
I was an offensive defensemanbut I didn't have that defensive
side of my game.
I couldn't contain guys in thecorner until they really taught

(01:03:49):
me.
And so you know, on one hand itwas great, on the other hand I
missed the offensive side ofstuff and and then Jack really
kind of brought that out of meagain and I started to started
to produce, uh, uh, some morepoints, more goals, I think you

(01:04:09):
know.
The other thing is my shot.
I always had a pretty good shotbut I worked on my shots so
much with all the otherone-timers, things like that,
getting pucks through to the netnumber one, but that just
became a big weapon for me and Ithink you know, a lot of my

(01:04:33):
points came off one-timer slapshots or rebound assists and
things like that.
So I think, as my shot gotbetter over the course of my
career, that led to a lot of mypoints.
That led to a lot of my points.
And then you know, in Detroit Ihad some good years and I think

(01:04:56):
that a lot of that, you know,credit to the guys that were
around me, not around me, that Iwas around.
You know when I think about that.
I got to Detroit and what wasit?
2001?
Sorry, no, it was 2003.
Sorry, 2003,.

(01:05:17):
I got to Detroit.
There were 11 Hall of Famers onthat team.
Pavel Datsyuk and HenrikZetterberg were alternating
fourth-line centers.
The fourth line was RobitailleLarionov and either Zetterberg
or Gatsik that was the fourthline that I got there.
And it was just I mean, youknow, you go up and down that

(01:05:39):
roster.
It was crazy.
And so to have the ability toplay with those guys in that
lineup was I mean that was justso much fun playing there in
Detroit with those guys.
Um, and the game, the game felteasy.
You know, every night you wentout, you look forward, you, you
knew you, you went out thereevery single night thinking

(01:06:01):
you're going to win.
And I I don't think there wasanother team that I ever played
on when I felt that way.
I mean you felt you know therewere.
I felt the opposite.
A couple of years when I was,when I felt that way I mean you
felt, you know there were I feltthe opposite a couple of years
when I was with the AtlantaThrashers one year.
That was a grind, but you know,to feel like I mean you should
win every single night that yougot to step on the ice.

(01:06:23):
That was just incredible.
So that was a lot of fun.
But you know, playing with thoseguys and then you, the other,
the other aspect of it inDetroit, that, uh, I got there
as a 31 year old, I was, I hadgotten traded from LA and I was,
I was, I was I think I was thesecond oldest guy on the team in

(01:06:45):
LA and I got traded to Detroitand I was, I was like I think,
11th or 12th oldest on the team.
But the thing that amazed me,you know, I always had this
preconception that you get tothe NHL, you got a set of skills

(01:07:06):
.
You know, could you get betterat goal scoring?
Yeah, maybe a little bit.
Could you get better?
You could get better at goalscoring?
Yeah, maybe a little bit Couldyou get better.
You could get better at certainthings.
But those guys when I think ofIserman, shanahan, robitaille
you just go down the list of theplayers there they were such

(01:07:26):
students of the game and theywere talking about goal scoring
and you know other other goalies, weaknesses that I never heard
ever before in my career.
And I'm thinking I play, Iplayed over 10 years already and
I haven't seen this and Iplayed on several teams.
It was just amazing to me theway they thought about offense

(01:07:49):
and creating it and goal scoring.
I just hadn't seen and and itmade me better, there's no
question about it Brett Hall,like his whole philosophy.
It made complete sense when hesaid it to me.
But it you're, you're watchinghim score goals, picking corners
here and there, and he's likeI'm not picking corners.
He goes I'm shooting up or down, left or right, that's it.

(01:08:09):
There's four quadrants and I'mjust trying to hit.
He goes I'm shooting up or down, left or right, that's it.
There's four quadrants and I'mjust trying to hit the net and
that's it.
Up or down, left or right.
I'm like that makes completesense and he's just shooting,
he's just shooting, he's ashooter.
So you know, when you start tothink about the game differently
and guys are sharing those typeof uh, those type of uh

(01:08:31):
insights, it just made everybodybetter and you, you look at
that.
You look at how that team overthose years and even still, I
I'm sure stevie still has thesame you know mentality as a
general manager.
That's why tampa is sosuccessful too.
But yeah you know, just thatidea that you, you keep learning
from one another, you know asteammates, is incredible, and I

(01:08:54):
hadn't experienced that reallyuntil until I got there and just
it was just such a great time,great team, great guys, but yeah
that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
The uh, I mean that whole concept essentially is
growth mindset versus fixedmindset, which is something that
I've studied quite extensivelysince getting out of the game
and it's been an absolute gamechanger for me on a personal
level like to understand thatBecause, to your point, it shows
up in so many different waysjust in life.
But if you can incorporate thatgrowth mindset, philosophy,

(01:09:25):
strategy into your sports, intoyour team, into the idea of what
you guys want to become, it's agame changer.
Because as an NHLer you'reright A lot of the guys that
were there, you're the bestplayers in the world.
There was no skill developmentback in the 90s and the 2000s.
There was no skill developmentguy.
If you weren't playing in thelineup, you'd stay after and

(01:09:48):
you'd work on stuff with whoevertold you to work on stuff.
But in the lineup you'd stayafter and you'd work on stuff
with whoever told you to work onstuff.
But it wasn't necessarilyground into the players there.
We were just trying to getthrough.
Play the next game, right, playthe next game now.
If you get on that team thateveryone's still trying to push
and trying to get better,whether it's in the weight room
or it's in practice, or it'safter.
If it's before, like that'scontagious and you do actually

(01:10:09):
get better, like Like that's theother thing you know, like you
improve, so it's, it's, it's.
Yeah, I mean that's awesomethat you were able to see that
and you know you said 10 yearsinto a career to see that and to
see the impact that it can have.
I mean it speaks to that wholeidea of I mean, if you can adopt
that early and choose thatmindset, you know it's massively
helpful.

(01:10:33):
Take another short break fromthe conversation with Matthew
Schneider to remind coaches outthere if you want to be involved
in the game as a job whetheryou are coaching an academy, a
youth team, a minor hockey teamif you have a passion for
helping people succeed and growand develop, maybe you can be

(01:10:53):
the next up, my hockeyambassador or affiliate.
What that would mean is workingwith me, side by side,
essentially with my programs, todeliver them to your potential
community, your geographicregion or even outside of that
region.
On Zoom calls, I have no moreroom to handle the calls and to

(01:11:18):
handle the clients and handlethe teams that want to work on
their mindset.
This is a great way to expandyour coaching expertise to grow
in an area of hockey that isbeing underserved right now and
with a reputable brand of Up myHockey and myself.
So, if this sounds likesomething you'd be interested in
, I have been receiving morecalls and more inquiries about

(01:11:41):
this recently and it's exciting.
So join, I can build a team andI want to build a team, and
it's an exciting time at Up myHockey with the growth that is
happening.
So, yes, do you check the box ofhockey experience?
Do you check the box of being ahockey coach or hockey
influencer?
Do you have a hockey network inyour area?

(01:12:01):
Do you want to help playerssucceed and do you want to be
compensated for your help?
If those are checkboxes, thenby all means, reach out to me,
jason, at upmyhockeycom, andwe'll see if we're a good fit.
I'm excited to receive youremail.
Get it into me and let's rockand roll.

(01:12:22):
Now let's get back to theconversation with Matthew
Schneider.
How good.
I want to ask this questionbecause you you, as a d-man, uh
and a hell of a good d-manplayed alongside Nick Lidstrom
for for four years.
Uh, I just love watching himplay.

(01:12:42):
You know from you know, I wasable to play against him, so
grateful for that.
But just even from a videostandpoint to watch him, he was
really, really compelling to,was he great to play with and to
learn from.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
Yeah, no, amazing, amazing.
I mean I think I think the thefirst thing you hear whenever
anybody asks someone that playedwith Nicky is a great player,
better human being, that's, youknow, that's that's the what you
hear consistently.
And he there just wasn't aweakness to his game, you know,

(01:13:19):
and he just kept getting betterand better and better Played
with great players.
But you know, he made everybodyaround him better and he's just
an amazing guy.
I mean, you can't say enough,you can't say enough about him.
Uh, you know, he was fortunateto be in that organization at

(01:13:44):
that time and you know, and withall those great players, but
you know he was a huge part ofcreating that environment.
You know that that I described,just, you know, talking about
talking about everybody learningfrom one another.
And you know, if you didn't knowanything about hockey and you

(01:14:06):
met Nick Lidstrom, you would.
You would just like the guy.
You'd want to just sit down andhave coffee with him and go for
beers and he's just that typeof person.
Right, and it zero ego, right,this is it.
Uh, it would never know in amillion years.
He was the greatest defensemanof all time.
So, uh, I mean, I think youknow there's probably no one

(01:14:31):
that would think any differentlythan that, which is amazing,
right.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
That's super cool, would you?
Would you put him on thatpedestal that you just said that
it was, that it was thatexaggeration, or do you think he
is the best?

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
No, no, I I you know.
I mean when you look at the,when you look at the, I mean you
look at the different errors.
Not errors, but errors.
ERA and the amount of.

(01:15:03):
You know the skill level, thephysicality, the way the game
has morphed over the years.
You know, I think you know heplayed.
He went probably similar to me.
I think he started.
He started I would 89, 90 wasmy first year.
I think he might've been 91, 92or somewhere, maybe 92, 93.

(01:15:26):
But you look at how the gamechanged over over uh, the those
two decades from, uh, the nin90s to 2000s and it started to
become uh, less physical, moreskill.
You know, I think back therewere, there were defensemen when
I first came in the league thathad a hard time pivoting

(01:15:47):
backward to frontward.
You know five, six defense,when there were just big guys
that would just beat the heckout of you in front of the net,
in the corners.
You know they just wear youdown and they'd hook and hold
and they cross check you and itwas a, it was a brutal game back
then and it started to get moreand more skill.
They took out a lot of thehooking and holding.
Later on, in the 90s and, andyou know, different times, the

(01:16:08):
game got real.
You know players got really bigand fast and strong.
You think of guys like Lindrosand Primo and John McClare and
you think of these big.
And now the game is super fastevery single night and the skill
level's through the roof.
Every single player can pivoton a dime and, you know, pick up

(01:16:29):
the puck with a stick and throwit over his.
I mean, it's crazy where it'sgone from, but as you morph
through it, like Nick had zero,there were zero weaknesses in
his game, like there was nothingthat you could say.
You couldn't beat him, youcouldn't get around him.
You probably couldn't beat himtwo-on-one you very rarely beat

(01:16:50):
him two-on-one Making baddecisions with the puck, you
know, I think I think of all thedifferent pizzas I threw up the
middle that ended up in theback of our net.
I don't ever remember nickledstrom throwing a pizza up the
middle of the ice.
Maybe he did, but uh, just youknow everything that he did
offensively, defensively, andyou know everything that he did

(01:17:12):
offensively, defensively.
And then you know, obviously,his leadership ability.
You know I never played withBobby Orr, but Nick Lidstrom was
the best from, you know my 20years, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
To be able to transfer through all those
decades and the differentaspects of the game, and he made
everything look easy.
That's the thing when I talk toplayers about being competitive
too, and some guys that maybearen't overly physical, right,
but sometimes players have ahard time understanding what
that means from a competitivestandpoint.
You know, I'm not a hitter.
Well, watch Nick Lidstrom playdefense.

(01:17:50):
He would rarely hit anybody,but he'd always end up with the
puck somehow.
Play defense like he wouldrarely hit anybody, but he'd
always end up with the pucksomehow.
Yeah, right like yeah, smartsand competitive in a different
way, right like um, there wasjust, he was so cerebral.
I loved the way he played thegame and it was fun to watch him
.
Maybe you can unpack the goodteammate aspect, though, because
I love that as a conversationpiece too.
Does it boil down to having noego?
Because in this teamenvironment that we just talked

(01:18:10):
about, the success of a hockeyteam requires a group of
individuals to give a shit abouteach other, right, and not
everyone's going to love eachother, but the value of being a
good teammate does factor intothat.
You know and and and how thateven happens.
Do you describe whether it'snick lidstrom.
Or even in your eye, in yourmind, like what a good teammate

(01:18:30):
looks like as a hockey playeryeah, well, you know the, the
dressing room in Detroit was wasreally.

Speaker 1 (01:18:38):
It was so interesting .
It was uh, you know, I, I guessI, if I, if I go back, I'll
start by the first dressing room.
When I went in, I played myfirst four games in Montreal.
Bob Ganey was the captain therein Montreal and the back.
Then I think there was justsuch tremendous respect like he

(01:19:03):
was, I don't know, it was almostlike royalty.
I get it felt like.
Felt like I maybe it's thewrong word, but almost it was.
He was almost unapproachable tome.
I had it.
It was just like and I was arookie Larry Robinson was on
that team too.
He was actually he was hurt.
That's what kind of gave me myfirst break.

(01:19:23):
He had broken his leg in thesummer and I stayed up a little
bit.
They were trying to fill a holebecause they thought he was
going to miss a big part of theseason.
Because they thought he wasgoing to miss a big part of the
season.
But those two guys I mean theywere you know you're playing
with, you know Hall of Famers,icons.
I mean it was just incredibleand that was.

(01:19:44):
It was I just I felt like afive-year-old kid in that
dressing room.
So and you know that was how itwas back then.
I guess fast forward to Detroit, where I was, and you know
again I list off, like all theHall of Fame guys that were
there from you know, StevieWhite Shanahan to Dominic Hasek

(01:20:06):
and Brett Hall and LukeRobitaille and Larry Honoff, I
mean, and then you and then theyounger
guys.
So you're managingpersonalities, but there was a
hierarchy in the sense thatStevie Y was the leader in the
dressing room.
No questions hands down.

(01:20:26):
He had been there through allthe tough times early in his
career all the tough times, whenyou know, early in his career
and they were built into awinter through the through the
90s, with scotty bowman comingthere and everything.
But stevie was the guy and if,if stevie didn't say much in the
dress room, nobody else wasreally right.

(01:20:49):
Maybe, maybe, shanning a littlebit.
Brendan shanahan was a littlemore vocal.
He was a little.
He was a little bit.
Brendan Shanahan was a littlemore vocal.
He was a little strange.
He had a lot of superstitionsand stuff.
Shani, I used to mess with himwith all the superstitions, but
Stevie was the guy right andNicky had the A on all the time
too, but Nicky, neither one ofthem were really very vocal and

(01:21:15):
it was a pretty quiet dressingroom most of the time.
Oh, granted, things went well alot of the time we were there,
but it was, it was a, it was apretty quiet dressing room and
it was real interesting becauseI had come from.
There was a lot of rah-rah anda lot of dressing rooms that I
played in on all all mydifferent teams.
You always had a couple of guysthat would get, you know,
really fired up and buteverybody took their cue from

(01:21:39):
Stevie and if Stevie saidsomething, everybody, whether
whether it was Hully or Shani orNikki and Stevie talked,
everybody just zip and that's it.
You know it was his dressingroom, so they were real
interesting.
But at the same time you cameinto that room and you were in

(01:22:03):
line.
I'm 31 years old, walking intothat room for the first time,
played against these guys forthe last 10 years.
Some of them I knew better thanothers from.
You know Team USA and thingslike that that I've already
played with them before, but noone was stepping out of line and
it was really.
It was really incredible, right?

(01:22:23):
you know that as long as Steviewas there, that was the case and
then that kind of got passeddown when Stevie, when Stevie
retired and Nicky became captain, that that got passed down and
I imagine it was the same upuntil up until Nicky left.
But you know, I guess that'snot answering your question
directly about I think there'sthere's different ways to be a

(01:22:48):
really good teammate but in theend.
It's caring about each other,right, it's caring about each
other off the ice.
If you, if, if you don't like aguy off the ice, I guess you
can fake it for a while maybe,but you know, and if things are
going well on the ice,everything's good.
But when things start to gosideways, if you got a guy

(01:23:08):
that's really not a good personor only worried about his own
stats or his own performance,not puts himself before the team
, that gets flushed out prettyquickly at higher levels.
For sure, right At juniorcollege, nhl, ahl, that gets
flushed out pretty quickly.

(01:23:28):
And and you know I, I think youknow it it it's difficult on a
hockey team.
For sure you can't thrive whenyou're that type of player.

Speaker 2 (01:23:41):
Yeah, yeah, one of the things I try and say well,
it separates, I think, greatfrom good, and you've mentioned
it a couple of times is theability to make other people
better, and there's very few,you know, like like I mean
Crosby comes to mind all thetime like anyone who plays with
him is is better, always right,and not all superstars are like
that, in that magnitude.
But if you can do that on theice, I think there's also that

(01:24:04):
feeling in the dressing roombecause there is a, a comfort
level, right, a value level, andI think there's some guys that
have the ability to do that, tobring others up, you know,
instead of looking down or, youknow, making them feel bad about
themselves in whatever way.
It's just it's that lifting ofthe, of the boats, I think.
And when guys, when guys areable to do that, especially guys
that recognize and understandthe power they have and the

(01:24:25):
influence they have over theroom you mentioned Stevie there
a ton of times like he I'm surehe was aware of the presence
that he had and you know himtalking to a young guy coming in
that was on his first game orjust joined the team like the
influence that can have comingfrom somebody like that is
freaking, mind-blowing for thatyoung guy yeah, yeah, yeah, were

(01:24:45):
you ever aware of that as youwent through, you know,
consciously aware of you, knowhow your position changed and
how maybe your, yourcontribution, your conversation,
your willingness to maybe takesome out for a dinner could have
a big impact on them.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
Oh, absolutely, I mean in Montreal, that was, that
was ingrained in me, you know,I think you know you mentioned
you had Brian Scrooge on beforeyour show.
There was my rookie year, theyear that I got called up from

(01:25:22):
Montreal.
Actually, sorry, this is mysecond year.
It was my sophomore year, mysecond year.
Pat Burns and I were gettinginto it a lot more.
He was on me all the time.
He was great to me my firstyear.
Second year, he was on me allthe time.
He was great to me my firstyear.
Second year, he was on me allthe time.
He was riding me.
I guess he didn't want me toget an ego, I'm not sure, but he

(01:25:46):
was riding me all the time andwe were playing in Boston.
We had several injuries.
I think Carbo was our captain,he was out and I think Screwy

(01:26:07):
was probably the real veteran inthe room and we had a fairly
young team.
We certainly had a youngdefensive core.
But, pat, I took a bad penaltyat the end of the period and I'm
walking into the dress room andI go to go and put my helmet up
in my stall and pat burnsbeelines to me, grabs me but
it's, and puts me up againstthat, against my stall, and I I

(01:26:32):
pushed him back against theGatorade table.
The coaches jumped in and theybrought Pat to the back.
I'm sitting there, I'mhyperventilating, I'm going what
the heck just happened to him?
I was 20 years old and I wassitting there.
Pat Burns has me there, brianScrooge gets up and he and he

(01:26:57):
goes right to the back andstarts screaming at Bernsie what
the hell are you doing?
What in the world will make it?
And and I was like, wow, likehe's.
You know, he's standing up forme.
I like, and and that was thatwas what you know, brian
screwing Guy Carboneau, I thinkback, you mentioned Brent
Gilchrist those guys ShaneCorson and I was there guys that

(01:27:20):
I really looked up to, that Iadmired, that were leaders in
the dressing room.
You know, they stood up for meand that was to me, that was
ingrained in me.
That's one example, but thereare a bunch of others.
Pat wasn't always throwing meup against the locker, but it

(01:27:40):
was, but you know that thosetype of things like that's what
was part of who I was later on,you know, trying to make sure
that, yeah, you know, maybe,maybe not in that drastic or
black and white situation, butyou know, coach is riding a guy,

(01:28:01):
he's having a bad week, or youknow a few bad games going over,
just having that conversationwith him.
Hey, block it out or you knowwhat you can do.
You know, you know the type ofplayer.
You are back on track.
One game, one period and justthose type of things from
teammates go a long, long way,right, yeah big time Makes a big

(01:28:21):
difference.

Speaker 2 (01:28:24):
Well, we'll catch you for an hour.
You mentioned it so many timesand it's a very real aspect of
the game.
So I want to finish with thecoach altercations, because it
just came up again.
So you said it kind of became atheme throughout your career.
Um, that battle sometimes itdepends on who's who's the bench
boss, right, what theirphilosophy is.

(01:28:44):
It all depends on the characterand the personality of the
player too, for how these thingsunravel.
But there usually needs to besome level of communication and
sometimes we do have to stand upfor ourselves as players, right
, some are more akin to it thanothers.
Some people do it in differentways.
How, just talk about, like yourexperience with that and I

(01:29:06):
don't even know where to leadyou with that, but like you
obviously weren't scared of thealtercation, you know, is there
anything that learned through,about that through your career?
Any advice you'd have toplayers about how to approach
coaches, like I don't know likeyou take the lead on that, but
it's definitely a real part ofbeing a hockey player yeah, no,
it is.

Speaker 1 (01:29:26):
Um, I'm not sure I would advise kids or players to
do it.
I mean, that's that's lookingback.
It's probably a big reason whyI played on 10 different teams,
or, of course, kids or playersto do it.
Looking back, it's probably abig reason why I played on 10
different teams over the courseof my career.
In the end, there weresituations that I was in,

(01:29:48):
whether it was New YorkIslanders I'm trying to think I
wasn't necessarily in that rolein Detroit because there were so
many guys in the dressing roomyou know, I was there for four
years.
But when I was with theIslanders or the Leafs or LA
Kings all different teams, youknow, I, in a lot of cases I, I

(01:30:14):
was always, I was taking myteammates side, over the coach's
side, and sometimes that, youknow, wasn't necessarily viewed
as a positive thing by coachingstaff and so, um, you know, I, I
just it was, I was, I was morevocal.
In that sense, I would challengecoaches and I don't think I did

(01:30:37):
it necessarily for myselfpersonally.
I felt like when I did it, itwas always for my teammates, for
the team, and I would sayprobably I wore my heart on my
sleeve too.
It gets me in trouble with mywife too, as you can imagine.

(01:30:58):
But some things, some thingsare better left unsaid I guess.
But it was just there, was, Iguess, goes back to I'll blame
Screwy for this.
So I'll you know, he went inand did that and it kind of
became a part of me.
But it's you know, I thinkthings could have gone a lot

(01:31:19):
smoother if I kept my mouth shutin different situations, I
guess.
But I always felt that it waspart of my responsibility as a
leader on different teams to bevocal and express my opinion.

Speaker 2 (01:31:35):
So sometimes it worked out out, sometimes it
didn't well, I mean fair enough,I mean, but there's, I mean
there's obviously there's anunderlying passion there with
you you know a passion for thesport, a passion for the game, a
passion that came out.
I'm sure that helped you play aslong as you did, and sometimes
that you know there's a, there'sa knife edge there, that you're
walking right and and it'sgoing to show up in the

(01:31:57):
interpersonal conflicts thathappen and and I'm sure some of
the coaches again respected itbecause they knew that was part
of you and some guys maybedidn't weren't so fond of it,
but it is a bit of the beingauthentic to you, I think, as a
player and and uh, and I dothink that's a very important
aspect.
You know there are things thatwe can mold and we do want to

(01:32:18):
develop and grow, evolve, youknow, personal evolution, but
there is just innate parts of usthat I think we need to embrace
, you know, and allow and allowto happen, because when we're
trying to be someone that we'renot too, you know how that goes
usually not very well, right,yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, uh.
Well, you know what I reallyenjoyed this conversation, you
know.
Thanks for coming on.
I'm sure we could probably dothis for another hour or two,

(01:32:39):
but we both got things to do, so, uh, I'll let you.
I'll let you off the hook.
Is there any last advice?
You know my audience is isusually hockey coaches, hockey
parents, you know, kids that are, uh, you know, moving up
through the system, that want achance to play at some level, at
some level of higher hockey,whether that be junior or NCAA.

(01:32:59):
What, maybe passing words,would you give to the guys that
are trying to follow in yourfootsteps?

Speaker 1 (01:33:07):
Well, I think you know I'll try not to be cliched,
but you know sometimes it'shard to because I mean the the.
The truth is, you know what isit?
It's the top 1% ever end up.

(01:33:28):
End up playing in the NHL orplaying professionally, making a
career, making a living out of.
But having the dream to do itis certainly amazing, certainly
something extremely honorable toaspire to.
But it's the lessons that youlearn as an athlete, a hockey

(01:33:53):
player.
You learn as an athlete, ahockey player, day to day, the
work ethic, the camaraderie, theteam around you that translates
into everything that you do andhelps you become a better
person, a better coworker.
And to me, there's no betterlife lessons than what I learned

(01:34:20):
as a hockey player andthroughout my career.
And so I think don't lose sightof that fact.
The journey everybody's gottheir own journey and there are
a lot of different paths,particularly in hockey, to
becoming a professional playerand take all the lessons and

(01:34:42):
learn from them and apply themin everything that you do.
And if you do that, you'regoing to be happy with yourself
and you're going to besuccessful.

Speaker 2 (01:34:51):
And that's my two cents, yeah no, I love it, I
love it.
I mean, that's really you're'reechoing kind of what I say with
with what I do.
If we can align, if you have agreat big goal, I think that's
amazing, like a lot of us don't,right?
So if somebody has a goal outthere, love it, I love it.
There's going to be passion andthere's going to be some you
know, some rawness behind that.
Now, if you can align yourwords and your actions with that

(01:35:13):
goal, who knows what's going tohappen?
Right, you might get there, youmight not, but that alignment
and that chase and that processis immensely invaluable with
anything right.
So that's what I'm justgrateful for.
With my boys, like they lovehockey.
It could have been anything, itcould have been the ukulele, it
doesn't matter to me, butthey've chose to love hockey and
they've chose to get behindhockey and they've chose to put

(01:35:35):
their blood, sweat and tearsinto it.
And after that I don't give arip, like they're already,
they're already learning right,wherever they're going to end up
, they're going to end up.
But there's going to be a lotof lessons involved in that and
I'm accountability of that isimportant to me too.
So, uh, you know, grateful forthis game, grateful that it
brought us together, brought ustogether today and hopefully we

(01:35:56):
were able to share some, somelessons that are that are
helping others out there.
So, uh, again, schneider'sreally appreciate you coming on
and, um, we'll have to do itagain sometime.

Speaker 1 (01:36:05):
Thanks for having me Great being on.
Thank you so?

Speaker 2 (01:36:13):
much for being here for episode 142 of the up my
hockey podcast, with matthewschneider as our special guest.
Uh, fantastic to be able toconnect with schneids again.
It's been a long time.
Uh, and boy, I really enjoyconnecting with him.
Smart guy, intellectual guy,well spoken, well thought, uh
out answers and uh, and reallystill connected extensively

(01:36:36):
throughout the hockey world, notonly with the PA but also the
alumni, and has his fingers in afew other ventures that we
spoke about after.
So great insights there fromone of the game's best really
one of the game's best to everplay 1,289 games was a valued
defenseman wherever he went, uh,an offensive contributor and uh

(01:36:59):
and a solid teammate.
So lots of good stuff for youto take away from that
conversation, as I know you will.
And uh, I will leave you withthat.
So play hard and keep your headup till next time.
I'm Jason Padoll with the Up myHockey podcast.
Cheers.

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EP.142 - NHL Veteran Mathieu Schneider on Success, Development, and Team Dynamics

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}EP.142 - NHL Veteran Mathieu Schneider on Success, Development, and Team Dynamics