Simply the Best: Players on Performance

SIMPLY THE BEST

Players on Performance

Mike Johnston and Ryan Walter

In life and especially in a game, everything comes down to how players handle the few decisive seconds in a critical situation.

—George Kingston

Contents

Foreword

Sidney Crosby

Hayley Wickenheiser

Shane Doan

Jarome Iginla

Ed Jovanovski

Cassie Campbell

Scott Niedermayer

Trevor Linden

Joe Sakic

Foreword

Mike Johnston is a career coach, and I was a player in the NHL from 1978 to 1993, yet over all those seasons our paths never crossed, even though the hockey world is a very small one. It wasn’t until Mike, Myrna, and their children moved to Vancouver, BC, that our paths collided.

Out of our many conversations came a synergistic desire to explore the depths of coaching and high performance. We decided that the self-help and high-performance literature offered very little from the best athletes in the world and the experts who coach them. We started in the dressing room, interviewing 12 top coaches. Simply the Best: Insights and Strategies from Great Hockey Coaches was so successful and well received that we are now pleased to bring you our second book. While the first book focused on how professional coaches create a success culture for their players, our second, Simply the Best: Players on Performance, digs deeply into how the best in the world prepare, achieve, lead and like to be led.

The body of this work is about performing at the highest level. We wanted to interview players who struggle with issues, like you do, and yet have found simple, practical, real ways to become simply the best! Mike and I also wanted to uncover their ideas and experiences around how best to lead a dressing room from the inside out. Our athletes have provided us with amazing insights.

Finally, Mike and I wanted these players to shed light on the ways that coaches have gotten the best out of them over the years. In our first book, we asked some of the best coaches in professional hockey to give us their answers on how to get the most out of players. In the following pages, we ask some of the best athletes in the world how coaches have inspired their best performances.

We hope the words, ideas, and stories of these spectacular athletes and amazing people will simply inspire your best!

On behalf of my teammates, Jennifer, Myrna, and Mike,

Sidney Crosby

Sidney Crosby (Sid the Kid), the pride of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, has been hailed by the Great One as the next Great One. Crosby’s winning ways started early. His 18 points in five games led the Midget AAA Dartmouth Subways to the national championship where he was awarded Most Valuable Player and Top Scorer honours. Next, he helped Minnesota’s Shattuck—St. Mary’s Sabres reach the US National Championship in 2002—03. From there, Sidney was selected first overall in the midget draft by the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior hockey League (QMJHL), where he started the 2003-04 season with two consecutive Player of the Week awards, winning the honour four more times that season. he was named Player of the Month three times, and CHL Player of the Week three times, as well as Player of the Year, Top Rookie, and Top Scorer by the end of the 2003-04 season—the first QMJhL player to win all three at once. Crosby again won the Player of the Year and Top Scorer awards the following season, as well as the Most Valuable Player and Personality of the Year awards (both of which he had also won in 2004), and he added Best Professional Prospect and Playoff MVP to his resume. It came as no surprise when the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Crosby first overall in what came to be known as the Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes of 2005.

In 2005-06, Crosby’s first NHL season, the records started shattering. Crosby played the first part of his rookie season alongside Super Mario Lemieux and immediately broke two of Lemieux’s franchise records: most assists and most points scored by a rookie. Lemieux retired mid-season, and Crosby was appointed an alternate captain. He finished the 2005-06 season on the NHL All-Star Rookie team and was runner-up to Alexander Ovechkin for Rookie of the Year. He was also sixth in the NHL scoring race and seventh in assists, and the youngest player and seventh rookie in the history of the NHL to score 100 points in a single season.

In 2006-07, his second NHL season, Crosby became the seventh player in NHL history to win the Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, and Lester B. Pearson Award concurrently. He also holds a slew of youngestever NHL records, including the youngest player to:

• score 100 points in a season

• score 200 career points

• tally 2 consecutive 100 point seasons

• be voted to the NHL All-Star Game

• be named captain

• win the Lester B. Pearson Award

• be named to the First All-Star Team

• win the Art Ross Trophy, which made Sidney Crosby the youngest (and only teenaged) scoring champion in any major North American professional sport.

Crosby’s youngest-ever records extend to his international play. On December 28, 2003, 16-year-old Sidney became the youngest player ever to score a goal for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships. He helped Team Canada win silver at the 2004 World Junior Championships, and a gold medal in 2005. Crosby was named a Team Canada alternate captain at the World Championships in 2006, and by the tournament’s end was named to the All-Star Team. In addition, he was proclaimed Best Forward and was the youngest World Championship player ever to be named the tournament’s Leading Scorer.

Although he can be seen in everything from television commercials to GQ magazine, was nominated as a candidate for Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2007 and has designed his own clothing line, Sidney Crosby still returns every summer to Nova Scotia and the people who claim him as their own.

The Interview

How important is leadership on your team?

It’s important! You can never have too many leaders. If you want to win, it is absolutely necessary. You need to have people who are going to step up in key situations. Those guys make the difference, and the more leaders you have, the better off you are. I don’t believe there is only one way to lead. Using any way you can to get your team to follow is the sign of good leadership. Personally, I prefer not to have to say as much, and just go out there and lead by what I do.

You have been made captain at a young age. What has that experience been like and what different dynamics does this create within the team?

I’ve only been a captain for a short time, but I don’t feel the pressure of having to do it all myself. Many of the older guys on our team have really helped me carry the load. Being captain hasn’t really changed things much. I have always tried to be responsible and accountable. There will always be pressure on and off the ice, but it is something I am comfortable with, and I am lucky to have great teammates to help me with this new challenge.

How have coaches gotten the best out of you personally?

It has always been when they have allowed for creativity. Especially as an offensive player, it is always nice to be given the okay to be creative and make mistakes, but be allowed to push yourself. I like the coach to be upfront and honest with me. Obviously, certain coaches have to push certain buttons, but some of this message needs to come from teammates also.

How much of motivating the player is the coach’s job, and how much needs to come more from the player’s initiative?

It is mostly up to the players, if they can, to motivate themselves. There are times when we all need an extra push, but it definitely needs to start from within. If you have a strong core of players in the room, most of the time they can send the wake-up call instead of the coach always having to. I think a coach understands that at certain times the wake-up call is going to be needed, but hopefully not a lot. But a coach shouldn’t be afraid of doing it, because sometimes this message has to be delivered. The way I like a coach to communicate with me depends a lot on the situation. Sometimes I need a push, and other times support, or a pat. Too much of either does not usually work.

What does a winning environment feel like?

It is a very upbeat, energetic feeling. Everyone wants to get better, and nobody accepts losing. It’s an atmosphere; it’s a frame of mind. It starts with everyone, the training staff and the head office staff; it’s the mentality of everyone and it carries right into the dressing room with the players. If everyone shares this mentality, they care about all the details of every job that they do, whether it’s a trainer taking pride in making sure that the room is clean or making sure that the skates are sharp and the equipment’s ready. If they take pride in that job, I think that’s contagious, and so the players have to take pride in what they do. If every player takes pride in his job, then it creates that winning atmosphere.

What motivates or drives you? Did you always have that drive as a youngster playing hockey?

Yes. I think winning motivates me. I also really enjoy being part of a team; I’ve always enjoyed team sports more than individual sports. I like that feeling of knowing that everyone’s pulling hard to reach one common goal. Whether you’re a young player at a Christmas hockey tournament or in the NHL trying to win a Stanley Cup, that feeling remains constant. You are working together to achieve a common goal. In hockey or in the business world or in school, wherever it is, everyone works hard for something, and it’s rewarding to achieve those goals.

How do you prepare for your best games? What are the keys to your preparation?

I don’t think that there is one certain way I prepare. I have always been excited by the opportunity to play in a big game. I’m excited because I know the opportunity to win or be a part of something is there, but there is also a little bit of the fear of losing, so at the same time you have to find the right balance and be able to control your emotions. Some guys are full of energy and some guys are quiet and focused. I always try to find somewhere in between, where you have a frame of mind that is ready to go, but is also optimistic and energetic about the opportunity to do something well.

Mental toughness seems to be such an important part of your game. How did this come about for you?

I think mental toughness is just pure experience. You find ways to channel your emotion. For some guys it’s easier than others. For my game, I need to be emotional. When the energy’s not there, when the passion is gone, I don’t think that I’ll ever be the same player. The passion and emotion have to be there. It’s a matter of channelling it, and I’m still learning how to do that. Just because you get to the NHL doesn’t mean that you stop learning. For some guys that’s easier than for others. I believe that I have to play with a bit of an edge, and that just comes from wanting to compete and wanting the puck and wanting to be involved.

My mental toughness came from being competitive and by trying to learn as much as possible from each experience. Everyone has their own way of dealing with adversity. For me, it was through learning how to approach things and being properly prepared.

You have had to make some adjustments dealing with adversity. Have you thought about what adjustments you have had to make being under the pressure of not only playing in the NHL, but also of being an NHL star?

You have to learn how to deal with it. The biggest thing is that when you look at adversity, expectations come to mind. You go through tough points winning and losing, whether it’s individually or as a team. You learn things through adversity. You learn about yourself. You learn about your teammates. You go through tough times, and hopefully you don’t have to go through those tough times again, but if you do, you’re ready for it and know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Adversity is just something that you get better at dealing with as you go through it. Hopefully you don’t have to face too much of it, but the best way to deal with it is to see how you react to it when the time comes.

Talk to us about confidence. How do you get it and why does it go away?

A lot of my confidence comes from practice. If you commit yourself to practice, and you know that you’ve done all the right things and you’re prepared, even sometimes if it doesn’t work out, you know that you’ve done everything right. There are always going to be tough times in the season. That’s going to happen no matter how good you are. When those tough times come, some people try to change everything, and sometimes that’s the worst thing you can do. I think my confidence comes more from practising, knowing that I have worked on things and have improved things, and that when the time comes I’m going to be ready because I have prepared for it. I would say that preparation is a big part of confidence for me.

Describe a time when you were in a slump and not producing, and tell us how you broke out of it.

There have been times when things have just not gone my way, and I don’t expect that to ever really change. The key is to stick with what has worked for you and make adjustments here and there, but definitely to not panic. If you stick to the basics, then things will turn around.

What were some of the setbacks that you experienced and how did you rebound from them?

We did not make the playoffs in my first year in the NHL, and I had never experienced that before. I tried to use that disappointment as motivation to never let it happen again.

What makes you hungry, Sidney? Why is being hungry so important to you?

When I think of being hungry, it comes back to passion. You have to want that challenge, and even when you’re young, you have to want the puck. You don’t want to hog it, but you have to want it. I can remember being 8, 9, 10 years old and wanting to win as badly as I do now. I don’t know if I was different than other kids, but I think I have always had that competitive element that I’m sure a lot of kids have. You want to win and you want to be the best. I think that a lot of it comes down to passion.

In your experience so far, how important is it to have a team that is hungry?

You have to expect a lot of each other; that’s just the way it is. You have to make each other better. A lot of times when you watch winning teams practise, you see each guy pushing the other. That comes back to the winning atmosphere and environment and everyone pulling the same way. That’s how it works. Everyone’s got to have the same goal.

You have mentioned that Steve Yzerman was your favourite player. Why was Stevie Y the player that you looked up to?

I just liked how he did everything. Obviously, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky were all of our heroes, with the highlight reels and the records and all that. Steve Yzerman was always right behind those guys. There were 10 or 15 years of either Mario or Wayne or Jaromir Jágr winning the scoring titles and setting the records, and Steve was kind of always third or fourth on the charts. I