Ice hockey

“Management wins Stanley Cups. Players can only do their best. You've got to bring the right ingredients to make a Stanley Cup winner and if the manager is not doing his job, the players can only do so much. You produce and do what's right, but if you don't have the talent there, you're not going to win many games.”

“When I first started playing, everything was outdoors. They were home-made community rinks. I played one game a year indoors. That would be the championship.”

“My feelings I'm sure are like the thousands of other kids who dreamed their entire life of winning and holding the Stanley Cup. I don't really know how to articulate it and I've never seen anybody put the feeling into words properly. We all felt the same way, whether you won it in Montreal, or in Toronto or in Philadelphia. When you win the Stanley Cup after dreaming about it your whole life, for me, that was the highlight of my hockey playing career.”

“I must now describe to you the game of Hockey; we have each a stick turning up at the end. We get a bung. There are two sides one of them knocks one way and the other side the other way. If any one of the sides makes the bung reach that end of the churchyard it is victorious.”

“I had a great time, and I always took care of my body. That's the thing some players don't. For a goalie, there's no reason he can't play until he's 40 if he takes care of himself. The reflexes are still there.”

“Hockey is known as a hard-hitting, collision sport. Players risk injury from high-impact collisions with each other, the rigid boards that mark the boundary of the playing surface, and the goal posts. Impact with a skate blade, long sticks, and pucks traveling more than 100 MPH also add to the risk.”

“I think for kids it's the most important part of the game. You have to be able to skate forward and backward, stop and start, go from side to side. Those are the basics of the game.”

“Most kids today slap the puck. The backhand takes time to learn. It's not something you do naturally. But it is an effective shot.”

“Everybody skated and played hockey. When I was five, Dad gave me a heavy box for Christmas. When I opened it, there was only a piece of wood. I was so mad! Then he gave me another box, and the skates were there. Dad used to build a rink behind our house every winter. That's where I started playing hockey. From the time I was seven, I used to sleep in all my equipment. That way, I was ready to play in the morning.”

“On the other end of the spectrum -- because I know you're wondering -- the lowest salaries are $10,000. And while, sure, these salaries aren't enough to live solely on, they appear to be a step up from last season in the Canadian Women's Hockey League, where players had to PAY to play. So, progress, right?”

“Hockey is an art. It requires speed, precision, and strength like other sports, but it also demands an extraordinary intelligence to develop a logical sequence of movements, a technique which is smooth, graceful and in rhythm with the rest of the game.”

“The shot by [Andy] Bathgate nearly ripped my nose off. I told Toe [Blake] I would only return if I could wear the mask, so there was no choice. He never wanted me to wear the mask because he thought it would make me too complacent.”

“When you're playing, you don't worry about being in the Hall of Fame. When they come up and say, 'Hey, you've been inducted,' it was a thrill for everybody. You're being acknowledged by your peers and the people within the industry, and that's impressive because they're the hardest ones to convince. That, more than anything, gave me the greatest satisfaction.”