Quotes About Hockey

I've always been a goal scorer. Playing both ways is something I wanted to do coming into the league.

I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out.

I've always loved sports and hockey is a sport I play as much as I can. I love it. In a weird way it's like church and therapy and exercise all rolled up into one. I mean when I play hockey I don't think about anything.

All I've ever wanted was to go pro ever since my dad first put me in hockey when I was 7. Some of the other kids go to fancy hockey camps in the summer and practice with the best coaches, but I never could. My folks are divorced and even working two jobs, my mom could barely keep up with the rent, so my hockey fees were partly subsidized and my dad paid the rest. There was no money available to help my performance. I had to earn my chops on the ice by myself.

Scrimmage is one of the most intense parts of a practice. Its a chance for the coach to really analyze how skilled a played. For a first practice with a new coach, you want to show off a bit, impress him. There was no way I was going to impress anybody, not after the gruelling workout I'd just been through. I could hardly believe that I'd only been on the ice for 45 minutes with a half-hour still to go. It felt like I'd been doing hard labor for hours.

I'd worked plenty hard in practice before, but never had I come off the ice and had every single muscle in my whole body ache with tiredness. All I wanted was a hot shower and about 30 tons of food. My stomach felt like it was eating its own lining. I sure hoped there were groceries at home.

Dad was a big part of my hockey, that's for sure. He really wanted to see me succeed. He helped pay for me to play even when money was tight. Having him totally gone was going to be weird.

Hockey has too many rules if you ask me. If I didn't love the game so much, I wouldn't be here. They make you remember everything. Equipment, penalties, strategies, you name it. But I guess that's partly why it's so much fun; it's not easy, you know? So you feel awesome when you do really great.

Everybody knows you don't hit from behind. It's the number-one rule in hockey. We even have stop signs sewn on the back of our jerseys to remind us. More kids have gotten hurt being checked from behind than anything else in hockey.

Oh lord Stanley, lord Stanley give me the brandy!

My dad saw hockey as almost an improvement on soccer. My British relatives would say, 'But, Eric, football is the thinking-man's game.' My dad would say, 'True. But, hockey is a fast thinking-man's game.

The only other time I can recall my dad getting upset at me was when I missed a hockey practice. My parents were away, so my buddy and I decided to skip it. I never told my dad about it, but he found out from the coach.

I was thrilled one year when I was younger when not only did my brothers get hockey sticks for Christmas - but I did too!

God made ice for hockey and scotch, and that's about it.

That Canadian team had a bunch of guys who are in the 1 percent: Crosby, Getzlaf, Perry, Carter, Richards and Weber - guys who would win Olympic gold and make $8 and $10 million a season down the line. Though a player might be in that 1 percent, no team is, not as a group.