Very few cities in the NHL have the history or the following of the Detroit Red Wings.
I also feel I adapted. I was willing to try to fit into any role. The way I figured, it was always up to me to prove my worth, that I deserved to be here.
And for the team, I always tried to do the right thing.
As long as I could remember, since I was 5 years old, I watched the Stanley Cup. I stayed up, made a point of watching it presented, watched the celebration in the locker room, and always dreamed that maybe I'd get there.
Balanced is probably what I am, although that's just a polite way to say that you don't do anything very well.
I'm exhausted trying to stay healthy.
I hope people like me and appreciate me the way I am.
We have to get better at that. All of the Stanley Cup winning teams throughout the past few seasons, when they needed to play defense, they did it. If you can play defense, that's when you know it's game over.
I mean, the best thing for my knee, for anyone's knee, is to never play again and retire. But I'm not going to do that.
I don't know that I'd agree I was our best player.
People here want the team to win and to do well. The thing is, we know when to shoot the puck.
When you're on the ice, you have very little time, you see very little, and everything happens really quick.
We should've been better, more disciplined. We made untimely mistakes defensively, as a group. This is really humbling for us. After winning the Stanley Cup, we got brought back down to earth, hard. Maybe the humbling is good for us in the long run.
It's been a great honor for me to be a player for the Detroit Red Wings, to play for an Original Six franchise. I know I'm far from perfect, but I learned a lot.
I don't know if I've ever had a memorable body check. It's not really part of my game.
We’re stuck in the middle and need to decide what kind of sport do we want to be. Either anything goes and we accept the consequences or take the next step and eliminate fighting.
I consider the Detroit Red Wings one of the greatest franchises in any sport. For a player to come in and play, it's so special to wear the jersey.
The 70's hair with the long on the sides, just doesn't look good coming down the sides of the helmet.
I'm never gonna play again, and I know I'm really, really going to miss it.
I've been hit hard a few times, been hit really hard a few times, but I don't think I've ever left a memorable, lasting impression on anyone I've ever hit.
We used to play a lot outdoors, not in leagues, but just in our spare time.
When it gets to this point, it's just hard to pull the trigger.
Darren McCarty is a big video game guy, and he brings his systems with him on the road.
I look forward to a lot more free time, at least initially, with my wife, Lisa, and our three children.
As a kid in British Columbia, going back a long way, I learned to skate.
