I was 19 years old, pumping gas and going nowhere. I was kind of a high school dropout at that point because I had left school to play hockey, but no one drafted me.
It's a dream come true to be part of an NHL team, to be a regular in the NHL, to live the life, to make the money and do all that stuff.
Growing up in Canada, most kids from Canada dream of playing in the NHL, and they also hope one day to be on a Stanley Cup team. That was a big goal.
Since the beginning, I always loved the game. When you grow up in Montreal, one day you want to be a professional hockey player. When I was six or seven, I knew that was what I wanted.
I was impressed all my life. Because of the Montreal Canadiens' past, it means a lot because it was a team I cherished as a kid. It was my dream playing for the Montreal Canadiens - it was my dad's team.
My goal was to play in the NHL, because that is the best hockey in the world.
I grew up trying to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs, not Team Canada. Didn't even know it existed.
It's a big step to be drafted. Ultimately, it's everybody's dream. That's where you start thinking about making the team, maybe about winning the Stanley Cup.
When I got drafted I just wanted to play one game in the NHL. I didn't really care anything about winning.
Hockey is the dream of all Swedes. They get the girls.
I still love playing the game, and it's amazing we can do this as a so-called 'job,' and it's amazing we can come to the rink every day and play the game we love.
As a kid growing up in the little city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, I dreamed of one day playing in the NHL, but never did I expect it to be as much fun as it turned out to be.
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.
I hope one day I will be able to play in a game in the NHL, not just practice.
For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a professional hockey player.
I played hockey my whole life until my ambition outstripped my ability, which happens to most Canadians around 15 or 16 years old.
I was always a decent hockey player, but I'd have never made the NHL.
I started playing for the Flames at 19 but even in minor hockey I remember traveling to Calgary for tournaments, from St. Albert, and I imagined playing in the Saddledome.
My dad would talk to players like Claude Lemieux and Stephane Richer and tell them one day his son was going to play in the NHL. How many dads say the same thing? But, gee, he was right.
I remember starting hockey at age 7 and going to my first tryout and dreaming about how great it would be, and it's been even better. These 20 years in the NHL, it's been better.
It's been a good hockey life for me anyway.
Anyone who plays in the NHL dreams to win the Stanley Cup and I dreamed as well to be one of them and raise the cup in Washington and bring it home to Moscow and celebrate with my friends and my parents.
Careers are defined by four minutes on the ice and lives can change forever, emotionally and financially.
Growing up, your whole goal and dream is to make the NHL. Once you get there, you kind of have to expand your goals on and off the ice. It took a little bit of time for me to do that, but again, with age and maturity you understand what you want more and how to achieve those things.
I think I'm a mama's boy who wanted to be a hockey player, who failed, and had to become a singer. I think that I'm a generous, impatient, kind, jerk.
