I've always been a guy that's worked hard off the ice and prepared the right way and I feel like I can play those minutes, can play power play and PK and 5-on-5 and I've worked hard to make sure my stamina's up so I can play those minutes.
My dad's always been a coach and one of my coaches.
It's always a lot easier when you have people around you supporting you.
Halifax is a big hockey city. Everyone loves the game here and really enjoys anyone who has had success.
When you win the Cup, you need everything to line up. You need to get lucky, you need guys to stay healthy, you need guys to play well at the right time.
I can never say enough good things about Boston.
Growing up, I had military members in my family.
Both my grandfathers were in the Navy, and I have cousins and uncles in the military, so it's something that I've always respected.
The last thing I want to do is anything to hurt the team.
If you take guys who have been off who have had very limited opportunity to work out and train and haven't skated in months, you can't just throw them back into games. Everyone's going to get hurt.
If I played the game any other way, you wouldn't know my name. You wouldn't care enough to hate me because I wouldn't be in the NHL.
I had to play a certain way to get in the league. That's kind of where I came from. I wouldn't change a thing going back, I wouldn't change anything that happened.
There are a lot of things people want to look at, pick apart my game, but if you could put any of them in my position, to do anything to make their dream come true... I'm pretty damn sure they'd do it, too.
I just remember I'd snap over little things when I was younger a lot. It was more just trying to control yourself in certain situations and learn how to harness that anger.
The mind is such a powerful thing, and when you learn how to control that it really turns a lot of things around.
I've always been a guy that worked hard.
The leadership group I had to follow is very easy to walk in their footsteps and try to be like them. You try and set that same example for the guys coming up.
There's always room for every player to improve.
There's so much to benefit from being able to control your mind in certain situations and it just keeps you even-keel all the time when things are going well and when they're not. That's one thing that I've always had a bit of a tough time doing. When I get up, I get excited. When I'm down, I get pretty frustrated.
In playoffs, it's so emotional and the tension's really high and guys are laying everything on the line. And when you do that, things get chippy and guys are playing aggressively, and I think it just comes out in the playoffs a little more. When you know what's on the line and what you're expected to do, it just comes out.
