Posted by Antoine Vermette on March 27, 2008 in Antoine Vermette

The playoffs are getting closer, but we still have five games to play before then. I don’t think it’s too hard to get up for them. We’re aware that you just can’t turn a switch on and off at this time of the year. We take these games very seriously and we want to go into the playoffs with some good habits.

Lately, we’ve been lacking in consistency. We’ve been good at some parts of our game, not so good at the others. I think that’s what we’re looking for in the next five games. Especially defensively, we have to be a little more reliable. I wouldn’t say more conservative, but a little more tight defensively.

Monday night, we played in Montreal and as someone who grew up in Quebec, that’s always a thrill, no doubt about it. As a young guy, I watched the Canadiens pretty much every Saturday night. I know what the team represents there and the building always gets loud. Now they have a good team and they’re right in front of us in the standings. That adds to the meaning of these games. I’ve got some family coming over as well to watch me, so that’s fun, too. It’s 2½ hours from my hometown, so it’s the closest place for them to come and watch me play.

We’ve never met the Canadiens in the playoffs, but I’m sure there would be a lot of atmosphere in both places if we did. The Bell Centre is a loud building and when we play them in our building, they have fans come out and our fans try their best to yell louder than them. I’ll bet it would be a pretty fun series. If you look back, when we played Toronto, a lot of emotion was built up from it. We met each other pretty regularly for a couple of years, so I’m sure it would be pretty good if we played Montreal.

The fact we’ve played Toronto so many times is a factor, no doubt, in why they’re a bigger rival for us than Montreal. It’s also two teams in Ontario and that’s another thing you have to take into consideration. But I think it would be the other way around if we’d played Montreal four times in the playoffs and we had a past history like we had with Toronto, I think we would probably have a better rivalry with them. But things happened in the past against Toronto that you can’t erase. It’s always going to be there and that’s why it’s such a big deal.

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Les séries éliminatoires approchent à grands pas. Il nous reste quatre matchs à disputer d’ici là. Je ne crois pas que cela est trop difficile pour s’y préparer. Nous sommes conscients que nous ne pouvons pas prendre les choses à la légère en cette période de l’année. Nous abordons ces matchs très sérieusement, question de bien se préparer et d’amorcer les séries du bon pied.

Récemment, nous n’avons pas toujours été constants. Nous avons excellé dans certains aspects, mais ce fut moins convaincant dans d’autres. Je crois qu’il nous faut retrouver cet équilibre au cours des derniers matchs du calendrier régulier. En défensive particulièrement, nous devrons être un peu plus fiables. Je ne veux pas dire qu’il faut être plus conservateur, mais il faut serrer le jeu un peu plus à la ligne bleue.

Lundi soir, nous avons joué à Montréal et pour un Québécois, ces matchs ont toujours une connotation particulière, sans aucun doute. Quand j’étais plus jeune, je regardais jouer les Canadiens tous les samedis soir. Donc, je sais à quel point l’équipe occupe une grande place là-bas et que l’ambiance est toujours à son comble dans l’amphithéâtre. Maintenant, ils ont une bonne équipe et ils nous devancent au classement. Cela ajoute à la signification que représentaient déjà ces matchs. Des membres de ma famille sont aussi venus me voir jouer, ce qui est aussi plaisant. Pour eux, il s’agit de l’endroit le plus près pour venir me voir à l’œuvre, à deux heures et demie de ma ville natale.

Nous n’avons jamais affronté les Canadiens en séries éliminatoires, mais je suis convaincu qu’advenant le cas, il y aura énormément d’atmosphère dans les deux amphithéâtres. La foule du Centre Bell est très animée et lorsque nous les affrontons dans notre amphithéâtre, leurs partisans viennent en grand nombre et les nôtres tentent d’être aussi bruyants qu’eux. Je crois que ce serait une très bonne série. Souvenez-vous lorsque nous affrontions Toronto en séries, le degré d’émotivité a augmenté d’un cran. Nous croisons le fer avec eux sur une base régulière depuis quelques années, donc je pense que ce serait excitant d’affronter Montréal.

Les séries éliminatoires approchent à grands pas. Il nous reste quatre matchs à disputer d’ici là. Je ne crois pas que cela est trop difficile pour s’y préparer. Nous sommes conscients que nous ne pouvons pas prendre les choses à la légère en cette période de l’année. Nous abordons ces matchs très sérieusement, question de bien se préparer et d’amorcer les séries du bon pied.

Récemment, nous n’avons pas toujours été constants. Nous avons excellé dans certains aspects, mais ce fut moins convaincant dans d’autres. Je crois qu’il nous faut retrouver cet équilibre au cours des derniers matchs du calendrier régulier. En défensive particulièrement, nous devrons être un peu plus fiables. Je ne veux pas dire qu’il faut être plus conservateur, mais il faut serrer le jeu un peu plus à la ligne bleue.

Lundi soir, nous avons joué à Montréal et pour un Québécois, ces matchs ont toujours une connotation particulière, sans aucun doute. Quand j’étais plus jeune, je regardais jouer les Canadiens tous les samedis soir. Donc, je sais à quel point l’équipe occupe une grande place là-bas et que l’ambiance est toujours à son comble dans l’amphithéâtre. Maintenant, ils ont une bonne équipe et ils nous devancent au classement. Cela ajoute à la signification que représentaient déjà ces matchs. Des membres de ma famille sont aussi venus me voir jouer, ce qui est aussi plaisant. Pour eux, il s’agit de l’endroit le plus près pour venir me voir à l’œuvre, à deux heures et demie de ma ville natale.

Nous n’avons jamais affronté les Canadiens en séries éliminatoires, mais je suis convaincu qu’advenant le cas, il y aura énormément d’atmosphère dans les deux amphithéâtres. La foule du Centre Bell est très animée et lorsque nous les affrontons dans notre amphithéâtre, leurs partisans viennent en grand nombre et les nôtres tentent d’être aussi bruyants qu’eux. Je crois que ce serait une très bonne série. Souvenez-vous lorsque nous affrontions Toronto en séries, le degré d’émotivité a augmenté d’un cran. Nous croisons le fer avec eux sur une base régulière depuis quelques années, donc je pense que ce serait excitant d’affronter Montréal.

Les nombreux affrontements contre Toronto en séries représentent sans doute un élément qui a fait en sorte que la rivalité est devenue plus importante à nos yeux, comparativement à celle contre Montréal. Il faut aussi mentionner qu’il s’agit de deux équipes de l’Ontario. Imaginez la situation inverse, les Sénateurs auraient affronté les Canadiens quatre fois en séries éliminatoires avec un historique identique à celui vécu avec Toronto. Je pense que la rivalité aurait été encore plus intense. Mais nous ne pouvons pas effacer le passé contre Toronto. Cela restera marqué à jamais et c’est ce qui explique l’ampleur de cette rivalité.

Posted by Antoine Vermette on March 19, 2008 in Antoine Vermette

We played against two of our former teammates, Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves, on Sunday for the first time since they were traded to the Carolina Hurricanes. It’s a little bit of a strange feeling, but I’m sure it was even worse for them. I’m sure it was very weird.

I remember when I was in junior hockey, I played for the Quebec Remparts and that happened to me in the summertime. My first game I played the next regular season for Victoriaville was against my old Quebec teammates and in my old home rink. The fans still cheered for me, but it’s always strange, really strange. It’s not a fun feeling. You have a lot of friends on the opposing team and you have good memories of your time there. You want to make sure you have a good game against them.

A bunch of guys went for a bite to eat with Patty the night before Sunday’s game. It was nice to see him, and he’s doing all right. Obviously, it’s different down there but he seems to be adapting and adjusting to it.

We play the St. Louis Blues tomorrow night. It’s a team we don’t see very much, but we know they beat the Canadiens on Tuesday night. That’s a message for us. Things happen like that. Teams out of the playoffs come in and hurt some teams looking for positioning for the playoffs. That’s something we’re aware of, for sure.

A couple of guys on the team, including myself, are going to see the Foo Fighters concert tonight. I know Luke is a fan as well. They’re a good group, they have some pretty good songs. I like their style of music. It’ll be my first time seeing them. During the season, you don’t get much of a chance to see a group like that. A lot of times, the timing is not there for it. You’re losing the ice, so that means sometimes we’re on the road and you can’t see them. So tonight is a good chance to be here to see this concert. It should be fun.

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Dimanche dernier, nous avons joué contre deux de nos anciens coéquipiers, Joe Corvo et Patrick Eaves, pour la première fois depuis qu’ils ont été échangés aux Hurricanes de la Caroline. C’était un peu étrange pour nous et certainement davantage pour eux.

Je me souviens lorsque j’étais dans le hockey junior, je jouais pour les Remparts de Québec et j’ai été échangé au cours de la saison estivale. La saison suivante, j’ai évolué à Victoriaville et le premier match du calendrier était contre mes anciens camarades à Québec. Les amateurs continuaient de m’encourager mais le sentiment que je ressentais était difficile à expliquer. J’étais un peu mal à l’aise. Je devais affronter une équipe qui comptait plusieurs de mes amis avec qui j’ai connu de très bons moments. Tu veux connaître un bon match contre eux.

Plusieurs d’entre nous avons cassé la croûte avec Patty, la veille du match de dimanche. Nous étions heureux de le revoir et il se portait bien. Évidemment, le mode de vie est différent là-bas mais il semble bien s’y adapter.

Nous affronterons les Blues de St. Louis demain soir, une équipe dont nous n’avons pas la chance d’affronter souvent. Ils ont battu le Canadien mardi soir. C’est un message pour nous. Les équipes excluent des séries éliminatoires peuvent venir jouer les troubles fête et faire mal aux formations qui luttent pour une bonne position au classement. Ce sont des choses qui arrivent et nous devrons évidemment faire preuve de vigilance.

Quelques joueurs de l’équipe et moi allons assister au concert des Foo Fighters ce soir. Je sais que Luke est aussi un amateur de ce groupe. C’est une bonne formation qui compte plusieurs bonnes chansons. J’aime leur musique. C’est la première fois que je vais les voir. Au cours de la saison, nous n’avons pas beaucoup d’occasions pour assister à des spectacles du genre. Souvent, notre calendrier ne nous le permet pas ou encore nous sommes sur la route. Ce soir, nous avons la chance d’assister à ce concert. Du plaisir en perspective.

Posted by Antoine Vermette on March 12, 2008 in Antoine Vermette

We’re back home now from a long road trip, but I don’t think you look at something like that as just a hard thing. You have to see the positive in it. You can look at it as a chance for us to be together and use it as a team bonding thing. It’s nice. We get together and go and play some hockey. The travel gets a little tiring, but it’s part of the game. We won’t use that as an excuse for our play. Every team goes through it and it’s part of it.

We didn’t have a lot of chance to enjoy the warm weather and sunshine in California and in Phoenix. We travelled quite a bit. We have practice in the afternoon when we don’t play and on game days, you practise in the mornings and in the afternoon, you have your routine and get some rest and get ready for the game. So you don’t have much time off to enjoy the weather. You can tell by looking at us that the sun tanning has not kicked in too well.

All of us knew what was going on back home with the snowstorms. Every time I called home, my dad said he’d never seen anything like it. They beat the record in Quebec City as far as snowfall. It was the same thing with my girlfriend. She kept telling me how bad the weather was. It makes you kind of enjoy it a little more when you’re down south and you take the bus and it’s sunny and there’s no snow.

But after a long trip, we’re glad to be home again. Obviously, you prefer to be at home and practise at your rink and play in front of your fans. When you go away for a few days, it really feels like home when you return and it’s good to be back.

We’re getting toward the end of the regular season now. We see the standings and it’s obviously very tight. When you watch the TV networks, they show the amount of games every team has left. That’s a good sign that the end of the season is coming up real quick and every game can directly affect the standings. It’s a fun stretch. As a player, you want to have a good season and when you get to this time of the year, you feel the excitement building up. So we feel that, definitely.

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Nous sommes de retour à la maison après un long séjour à l’étranger, mais il ne faut pas voir cela comme étant une corvée. Il y a un bon côté à ce genre de périple. On peut le voir comme étant une occasion de resserrer les liens entre les membres de l’équipe. C’est plaisant. On se rassemble et on joue au hockey. Le voyage est un peu fatigant, mais cela fait partie du travail. Nous n’utilisons pas cela comme prétexte pour nos performances. Toutes les équipes doivent voyager.

Nous n’avons pas eu beaucoup d’occasions pour profiter du soleil et de la chaleur de la Californie et de Phoenix. Nous avons beaucoup voyagé. Les jours où il n’y avait pas de match, les séances d’entraînement avaient lieu en après-midi. Les jours de match, nous devions nous entraîner le matin et l’après-midi. Ensuite, un peu de repos avant de se préparer pour la partie. Cela ne laisse pas beaucoup d’occasion pour profiter du beau temps. La preuve, notre teint n’est pas très basané.

Nous étions tous au courant que des tempêtes de neige sévissaient ici pendant notre absence. Chaque fois que je téléphonais à la maison, mon père me disait qu’il n’avait jamais rien vu de tel. À Québec, un record de chute de neige a été battu. Ma copine me racontait la même chose, affirmant que les conditions météo étaient mauvaises. Cela nous fait apprécier un peu plus le climat du sud, une ballade en autobus par une journée ensoleillée et pas de neige!!

Mais après un long périple, nous sommes contents d’être de retour à la maison. Évidemment, nous préférons nous entraîner sur notre propre patinoire et jouer devant nos partisans. Cela fait du bien de revenir chez nous.

La fin de la saison régulière approche. Nous constatons que le classement est très serré. Ces jours-ci, les réseaux de télévision montrent régulièrement le nombre de matchs qu’il reste à disputer pour chaque équipe. C’est un signe que la fin de la saison arrive à grands pas et que chaque match a une incidence sur le classement. C’est une séquence excitante. Nous, les joueurs, voulons terminer le calendrier régulier sur une bonne note et nous ressentons l’enthousiasme monter d’un cran à cette période de l’année. C’est définitivement très excitant pour nous.

Posted by Mike Fisher on February 21, 2008 in Mike Fisher

We welcomed two new players, Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore, into our locker-room last week after the trade with Carolina. I find that fitting in just happens naturally in these situations. I’ve played against these guys for a while and some of the guys have played with each other on other teams.

For the guys coming in, it’s a little harder, not knowing anyone and trying to fit in. But they’re veteran guys. It’s not like they’re young guys. They’ve been around the league and they’ve done it before. And I think we’re a pretty easy locker room to fit in with.

It’s tough seeing players like Patrick Eaves and Joe Corvo leave. You get the call in the afternoon about a trade and guys are gone that night. That’s the tough part of hockey, seeing guys go that you’ve become good friends with. That’s not easy, for sure.

Until the deadline passes, there’s always a possibility of some guys going or being traded. So there might be a bit of uneasiness about it. That’s always been part of it. There’s been some jokes made in the past, scaring guys and stuff about being traded. But we try to keep it light. It’s nothing that we can control.

We attended the Sens Soirée at the Hilton Lac-Leamy in Gatineau on Wednesday night. It’s fun being able to interact with the fans and supporters of the team. It’s a big deal, too, because it raises a lot of money for the Sens Foundation and children’s charities and things like that. So it’s a big event for us. And we have a little bit of fun at it, too.

Posted by Mike Fisher on February 7, 2008 in Mike Fisher

We’re all looking forward to the skills competition we’ll be holding here on Sunday afternoon. It’s kind of a fun event. It’s pretty relaxed and it’s for the fans, basically. We just go out and try to have some fun, and it’ll be a time to show the skills – or lack thereof – that we have.

I won the hardest shot competition last year, but I don’t have anything special planned to defend my title. I might tweak the stick a bit to get an extra mile an hour but I haven’t been practising for it. I expect I’ll have some good competition this year. Schubie’s a contender, for sure. Meszaros, Corvo … there’s guys who are going to be gunning for me.

I’m hearing we’ll have at least 15,000 people out on Sunday. That doesn’t really surprise me. The fan support that we’ve had all year has been great. Some of the open practices we’ve had, you see all the fans out. It’s pretty amazing. It adds to the whole thing if there’s a lot of people there. Hopefully, we can make it enjoyable for them.

It’s coming down to the stretch run for us now. We’ve got 28 games left, and this is when we’ve got to start ramping up our game. We obviously haven’t performed as well in December and January and there’s the trade deadline coming, with changes possible and a lot of different factors. But we’ve got to step it up.

There’s always a little bit of tension about the trade deadline. It’s worse for some guys more than others because of the rumours you hear. It’s a tough time, for sure. At the same time, it’s about making your team better and realizing that it’s possible. None of us really have control over that. Definitely, some guys think about it and there’s nervousness about it, for sure.

Posted by Jason Spezza on January 31, 2008 in Jason Spezza

My first all-star game was a pretty fun time. Just being around the guys was great and it was a pretty relaxed atmosphere. You always welcome those kind of things. It was fun to spend time with my family and girlfiend, too. I got to bring all of them down.

These games are all pretty much the same. It was pretty busy, and the skills day was a long day with lots going on. But nothing really jumped out and surprised me about the weekend.

I brought the guys back some T-shirts from the game, and grabbed some hats and stuff as souvenirs for my cousin. I kept all of my gloves and kept a few sticks and different stuff for my own keepsakes.

I’m someone who likes to collect sticks from guys. I get them from certain guys along the way, and guys who look like they’re going to be retiring soon. I just try to grab some memorabilia just so I’ll have it when I’m older. I’ve got a whole room back home with a bunch of memorabilia and I just try to add to it. You get to know guys and you want some guys’ equipment and stuff, and it’s cool to have. I collect stuff from certain players because I like the way they play or I grew up watching them. But there’s no real criteria for any of it.

It was fun playing on a line with Alex Ovechkin in the all-star game. He’s full of energy, he’s all over the ice and he likes to score goals. He’s a guy who wants the puck a lot. But you don’t get much of a feel in a situation like that. You just wing it. Me and Marty St. Louis know each other from Olympics and stuff so if anything, we probably had more chemistry than me and Ovechkin did. Marty’s a pretty smart player and likes the give and go a bit. He’s a speedy little guy and it was fun to play with him.

Vinny Lecavalier is a guy I enjoy watching, but we’re both centremen and both kind of play similar styles, so playing on a line together probably wouldn’t work too well. But he’s still a guy that I’d like a chance to play with in that situation.

Posted by Jason Spezza on January 25, 2008 in Jason Spezza

I’m very excited about heading to the all-star game in Atlanta this weekend. It’s always a pretty neat thing to be around everybody and to be recognized by the league this way. It’s definitely an exciting time because it’s my first one, too.

For me, the biggest thing is to be around all the guys and to see everybody and see everybody’s equipment and that kind of stuff. As much as we’re players, we still enjoy seeing all that stuff from other guys, too.

Usually, all-star games are just fun times. I've got a few memories from watching them when I was growing up or later on in my career. The year I saw Owen Nolan pointing and scoring on Dominik Hasek, that's one game I remember. When Fox introduced the glowing puck that showed up on the screen, that was kind of a moment. Mario had a couple of big nights and those are the kind of things I always enjoyed watching.

My mom, my dad, my sister and my girlfriend are coming in for the game. For my parents, I think it’ll be pretty exciting. It’s pretty special for them. My dad is pretty excited to be going to an all-star game with me. I think it’s a good time to pay tribute to your parents for all the work they’ve done in helping you along the way. It’ll be nice to hang out with them this weekend and spend some time with my girlfriend and sister. It’ll be a good weekend, I'm sure.

Posted by Jason Spezza on January 10, 2008 in Jason Spezza

I’m excited to see Steve Yzerman is being honoured here this weekend. Mario Lemieux was No. 1 and Steve Yzerman was 1A for me growing up. They were my two favourite players. My uncle played junior with Yzerman, so I got to meet him when I was a kid. I’ve got pictures of me when I was a kid with Yzerman. He’s always been a guy that was kind of close to my heart that way. For him to be in the building and to get inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame, that’s another great honour for him. I definitely look up to him.

I’ve heard Steve is supposed to be dropping the puck before our game against the Red Wings on Saturday night. I know I’ll be cheering for him at that moment. By no means are we going to let them beat us so he can feel good about himself. But Steve’s a guy that deserves a lot of accolades and he deserves the respect of the players who are playing the game now. He paved the way for a lot of guys and we’ll definitely pay our respect to him.

Steve was an offensive guy, he was pretty good with the puck and he played pretty hard. Toward the end of his career, he won a lot of Stanley Cups. He took a lot of criticism early in his career, but it didn’t seem to bug him too much. He found a way to become a winner, he was a great captain and just a good guy to look up to.

Everyone’s already talking about Saturday’s game against Detroit. When we play Toronto and Montreal, it’s usually a big game and Buffalo’s become a big rivalry for us. This is just something else to look forward to on the schedule, because we don’t play Detroit that much. Both teams are first in their conference, so it makes it extra special that way.

Any time you play a good team, you want to show them you’re a good club, too. There’s a little bit extra that goes into it, but it’s not like if you lose, you’re out, and if you win, you’re in. You don’t want to put too much stock into it, but you definitely want to show them you’re a good hockey club. It is more than just another game, but it’s not like we’re looking ahead to it and not worrying about other games. When we get to it, I’m sure it’ll be an exciting game, being that it’s on a Saturday night.

The final all-star rosters get announced on Friday. It’s definitely something you want to be a part of and you want to get recognized in that light. For sure, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens, but I won’t lose sleep over it. I’ve done all the work I can do up to now. If they pick you, it’s because of what you’ve done already.

Posted by Jason Spezza on January 4, 2008 in Jason Spezza

The world juniors are getting a lot of attention in Canada these days, as usual. And it’s true in our dressing room, too, especially among the Canadian players on the team. Any time your country is being represented, you want to watch. So we have it on every day here at the rink before practice. It all depends on the time of the games, but we do go out of our way to watch it.

Alfie and I were watching the Sweden-Canada game together the other day. But it seems to mean more to Canadians than anyone else. We seem to have the best TV coverage of it and we’ve kind of grown up with the tradition. So we pay more attention to it. There’s a few gentleman’s wagers on the go with some of the non-Canadian guys on the team about the games. You try to make a few bucks off your teammates. It’s all friendly stuff. I still haven’t heard the end of Volchy scoring the game winner for Russia against us when I played, and that was a few years ago now. It’s something that gets talked about for a long time, and it’s good memories for a lot of the guys.

Just the guys you meet is probably the biggest thing you remember about world juniors. You meet so many guys along the way, and now you’re playing against them at the NHL level. It helps your relationships out now. That’s probably the biggest thing I remember, meeting the guys and being around the guys. Some still remain friends to this day. I played junior with Steve Ott and roomed with him at world juniors. Jarret Stoll is a guy who I played with at world juniors and still talk to regularly.

Me and Heater first became buddies at world juniors. We thought back then that there was a chance we might end up together in the NHL. He was drafted by Atlanta and the next year was my draft year, and the Thrashers were picking first. So we thought there might be a chance. But once I got drafted here, I thought there would be no chance whatsoever of us playing together. Of course, that’s all changed now. Unfortunately, our world junior memories aren’t all as positive as some of the other guys on our team here. We have some positive memories, but we didn’t win any gold when we were there. So there’s maybe not quite as much reminiscing going on as with some of the other guys.

All of us who played in the tournament still feel a connection to the Canadian team. We try to send them an email every year wishing the guys luck, and let ’em know that we’ll be watching. We definitely want to see Canada win.

Posted by Dean McAmmond on December 21, 2007 in Dean McAmmond

I was fortunate to get the chance to play for Canada at the 1993 world junior hockey championship in Sweden. Being able to represent your country was a pretty cool thing, looking back at it now. It’s a different feeling. You’re always competing against Canadian guys in your junior hockey league, and now you’re competing with them. That was pretty cool, too.

At the beginning of the year, I remember Sweden beat us 8-3 in an exhibition game and Peter Forsberg didn’t even play for them. But we ended up beating them when it counted in the tournament and winning a gold medal. Back then, it was the best record after seven games that determined who won the gold, and we ended up with the best record. They didn’t have the playoff format they use now. We had to beat Japan to have the best record. It was kind of anti-climactic, but that’s how it went.

Christmas, of course, is the focal point for a lot of people at this time of the year. But it isn’t the focal point when you’re in that situation. The focal point is playing hockey. And you have a bunch of guys together and you usually do your own Christmas thing. You have a little celebration there. The team doctor at that time dressed up as Santa Claus at our little Christmas party, and we celebrated together. We were in a small Swedish town, it was kind of a like a ski resort. They had an ice rink where we practised and we had little cabins that we stayed in. That’s where we celebrated, and then we went to Gavle for the tournament.

Winning that gold medal was special. They went on to win five golds in a row, and we were the team to start that. It’s always fun when you win, right? I had a chance to play with some good players there – Paul Kariya, Chris Pronger and the likes of those guys.
It’s also a special thing for a kid, especially a Canadian kid, to wear that jersey. I’ve done it a couple times since then at the world championships. That’s pretty neat, too, but it’s a little bit of a different thing.