Hockey Player Quotes & Sayings

Heroes? Vietnam Vets are heroes. The guys who tried to rescuse our hostages in Iran are heroes. I'm just a hockey player. — Mike Eruzione

I was a hockey player growing up. Being a big guy and being imposing, I had to use my size to protect my teammates. — Kevin Durand

I think as a Canadian hockey player, you go through it in your mind so many times, being able to stand on that blue line and hear your national anthem play and being a gold medal champion, you dream of that. And then to be able to accomplish that and actually win a gold medal and represent your country its an amazing feeling. — Sidney Crosby

Listen, everything I have in my life is because of the NHL and because of hockey, and I love the game and I loved every minute of being a player, I loved coaching, I loved being involved in the NHL. — Wayne Gretzky

I think whenever anyone asked me why I wanted to be a hockey player, that's where it all started, watching the Winnipeg Jets play as a young kid. — Jonathan Toews

One of the key qualities that you need to be a great hockey player is fantastic anticipation and feel for the game - if you know where the puck is going before it is hit, that is half the battle. — Wayne Gretzky

My parents are from the former Soviet Union, from Ukraine, and I grew up wanting to be a professional hockey player. — Gabe Polsky

If I can be half the hockey player that Bobby Orr was, I'll be happy. — Ray Bourque

I had all the usual ambition growing up. I wanted to be a writer, a musician, a hockey player. I wanted to do something that wasn't nine to five. Acting was the first thing I tried that clicked. — Michael J. Fox

You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours. — Herb Brooks

Hockey is a tough game. With all the talk and everything that's going on right now, it frightens me a little bit that we are giving our players an excuse not to hit. I just hope that we don't take that out of our game at the pro level. — Bobby Orr

I wanted to be a hockey player. Where I grew up, the basketball courts were rarely used. I was terrible in school and actually said, 'I'm going to be a hockey player.' — Denis Leary

The pattern of your breathing affects the pattern of your performance. When you are under stress, deep breathing helps bring your mind and body back into the present.Over the years I have handed out thousands of little stickers to athletes that read 'Breathe and Focus.' A baseball player will place the bright orange circle on the shoulder of his uniform or underneath the bill of his cap, or on the barrel of his bat. A hockey player might affix it to his stick. Firefighters I have worked with place the stickers on their self-contained breathing apparatus. The stickers serve as a reminder. Whenever they feel themselves growing anxious, breathe in energy. Breathe out negativity. Breathe in relaxation. Breathe out stress. — Gary Mack

The greatest hockey player who ever lived: Bobby Orr, and I love him. — Donald Stewart Cherry

I am a pretty tough guy. I'm an old hockey player. — Jim Flaherty

A puck is a hard rubber disk that hockey players strike when they can't hit one another. — Jimmy Cannon

Playing other sports - and believe me, I played every sport I could - made me a better hockey player. — Tie Domi

On his refusal to deal with Keith Primeau: We refuse to pay a prima donna, a petulant, pouting player who had 30 goals last year the same money as Toronto is paying Mats Sundin or Pittsburgh is paying Jaromir Jagr. — Peter Karmanos Jr.

The great thing about hockey players is that they are able to separate the on-ice from the off-ice and not let the latter distract them. — Stu Grimson

He's one of the most coachable players out there. — Jonathan Toews

I found my prince - he's a hockey player and we met at an NHL event, the last place I'd ever expect to meet someone, but there he was. — Carol Alt

I have six brothers and one sister, and I was an ice hockey player when I was younger. I think my dad thought I was going to be in the women's league for ice hockey. But, I totally fell in love with drama in grade school, and I asked my mom if I could get involved with it. — Nicola Peltz

We should not have to push you to work hard, you should work hard because you want to be a great player. — Bobby Knight

After I started to understand the spiritual dimension of life, I understood the responsibilities you have as a husband, a father, a friend and a hockey player. — Paul Henderson

Sometimes parents don't find what they're looking for it their child, so they plant seeds for what they'd like to grow there instead. I've witnessed this with the former hockey player who takes his son out to skate before he can even walk. Or in the mother who gave up her ballet dreams when she married, but now scrapes her daughter's hair into a bun and watched from the wings of the stage. We are not, as you'd expect, orchestrating their lives; we are not even trying for a second chance. We are hoping that if this one thing takes root, it might take up enough light and space to keep something else from developing in our children: the disappointment we've already lived. — Jodi Picoult

Can you spare me the veteran hockey player wisdom?" Lane leaned in again.

"Sure. But let me tell you something, pipsqueak." At Lane's angry glare, Jared kissed him again. "You weren't on my team, and you weren't my captain, but you taught me how to love this game again. You showed me it was ok to think more of myself than I did and believe I could do more than throw my fists around. You gave me back something I didn't even realize that I'd lost."

"You're saying it's my fault you made a sick glove save on me?"

"It was pretty sick. Wasn't it?" Jared agreed, unable to help himself. But he smiled at Lane and kissed him. — Avon Gale

Fighting is necessary in hockey. But if you fight, you have to choose your partner carefully. If you're an experienced player and you want to fight, you can't choose a player who has never fought in his life. — Alexander Ovechkin

In Canada, for boys, your identity is built on hockey. It's your social position; it's everything. And I was the worst hockey player of Canada. — Denis Villeneuve

What I found interesting about Slava Fetisov was that he went through three different generations of Soviet hockey. In the late 70's, he experienced the Miracle on Ice, and then in the 80's became with his teammates the Russian Five, the most dominant team in the history of hockey, and then helped bring down the hockey system when the Soviet Union collapsed and became one of the first players to play in the NHL, and then ultimately came back to Russia. — Gabe Polsky

I find that I've tried to become a better hockey player every year and not just hold on. At the same time, I've also made it a point to increase or grow in some other area of my life. If I were just playing hockey, I would probably be done with the sport. — Angela Ruggiero

I guess the prime example is in North America there's a thing where if there's no opportunity to move forward with the puck, then a [hockey] player is told to dump the puck into the other zone. Just give up the puck and dump it in. Give it to the other team. And to the Soviet mentality in coaching, it just doesn't make any sense. If you're a skilled player, why are you going to give the puck away to the other team? Just give it away, right? — Gabe Polsky

A complacent player is a lazy player, and a lazy player is a loser. — Darryl Sutter

The biggest downside of my current job is that I have to wear a suit to work. Wearing uncomfortable clothes on purpose is an example of what former Princeton hockey player and Nobel Prize winner Michael Spence taught economists to call 'signaling.' — Ben Bernanke

You see a hockey player, you'd never know he's a professional athlete. But you put the skates on him, and he becomes a beast. — Junior Seau

There was this professional hockey player that I liked. I imagined him watching at the parade and falling in love with me. It didn't occur to me that he probably wasn't interested in twelve-year-olds. — Heather O'Neill

Needless to say, I personally don't believe fighting should be banned. I don't understand why a relatively small segment of the hockey world feels obligated to ban extracurricular combat when it's so popular elsewhere in American sports. Additionally, the league shouldn't be trying to ban fighting to save the enforcers from hurting themselves. Fighters realize the risks associated with what they do, and they are bound to accept these risks. — Brian D'Ambrosio

I have six brothers and one sister. I grew up playing ice hockey, a total tomboy, and that's what I thought I was going to do - be an ice-hockey player. — Nicola Peltz

On Sergei Fedorov's breaking three sticks on Dallas players: I don't know if Anna (Kournikova) told him to get tougher or what. — Mike Modano

Hockey players can also brace pretty hard against the ice. A player skating at full speed can stop in the space of a few meters, which means the force they're exerting on the ice is pretty substantial. (It also suggests that if you started to slowly rotate a hockey rink, it could tilt up to 50 degrees before the players would all slide to one end. Clearly, experiments are needed to confirm this.) — Randall Munroe

For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a professional hockey player. — Mario Lemieux

Like I said, a 30-year-old hockey player, even when I came to New York when I was 30, I was on the downside of my career, pretty much the end of my career. — Mark Messier

Luc Robitaille is a great kid and good player, but ask anybody on the street and they'd probably think Luc Robitaille is a type of salad dressing. — Bruce McNall

Canadian hockey players always find a way to get along. — Carey Price

We can't score goals, we can't stop goals, we aren't hitting, we can't play on special teams ... we all stink. We can try to improve but to do so we will need to make trades. And who would want our players that are underachieving? — Ted Leonsis

Whether you're trying to learn in hockey or trying to learn in life, I've always tried to be observant and tried to learn more, tried to evolve, whether it's as a hockey player or as a person. With each year, I try to do that. — Sidney Crosby

Personally I don't believe in standing on the ice, or jamming the blueline, waiting. I have always told my players that hockey has to be played on your toes. — Bob Hartley

Usually when you play a team, you want to focus on one line. Pittsburgh is the only team where you have to focus on one player [Mario Lemieux]. When he's coming toward you, all you see is him. — Patrick Roy

Before I was 14, I wanted to be a singer, an actor, or a hockey player. By 15, I knew I was going to be a singer. — Matisyahu

A player must be able to skate, have hockey sense, be able to shoot, but not necessarily be able to score. — Pierre Page

We brought him [Raffi Torres] in because he was an emotional, physical player. He's had nothing but a great attitude and a great work ethic with us all year long. He comes to play, prepares himself real well. We need him to play the way he does. You know, he's a little bit sometimes outside the box, but you've got to let him be who he is. — Alain Vigneault

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. — Michael Buble

I just want to remind the owners and the players: you guys make money because you have a whole bunch of fans out there who are working really hard. They buy tickets. They're watching on TV. Ya'll should be able to figure this out. Get this done. — Barack Obama

Is hockey hard? I don't know, you tell me. We need to have the strength and power of a football player, the stamina of a marathon runner, and the concentration of a brain surgeon. But we need to put all this together while moving at high speeds on a cold and slippery surface while 5 other guys use clubs to try and kill us. Oh yeah, did I mention that this whole time we're standing on blades 1/8 of an inch thick? Is ice hockey hard? I don't know, you tell me. Next question. — Brendan Shanahan

A good ice hockey player is someone who has good communication skills, is willing to listen and willing to try new things. It's a very technical game and not that easy to pick up. It's a lot of fun but you just have to be patient. — Gerad Adams

When I was a kid I started a baseball team. I was a terrible player, but I put together a group of neighborhood kids. I started a hockey team. I put the kids together and got a sponsor. So I can always kind of organize people and get things done. — Jerry Bruckheimer

If Colleen Howe had been a hockey player, she would have been a centremen. I can see her as a centreman because you can do what you want and go wherever you want to go. — Gordie Howe

Representing Canada as a hockey player is always a tremendous honor, which also comes with a lot of responsibility. Being able to compete and win a gold medal on our home soil made it a once in a lifetime experience. Capping off the best ever performance by not only the Canadian athletes, but also Vancouver and all Canadians, made for an amazing Olympic experience. — Scott Niedermayer

If you're dating the quarterback and then you go out with the hockey player, you just go to the hockey games. I don't think I'll still go to the football games. — Nicolle Wallace

If I let him walk away now, we'll forever be a "just"; Just hockey player and skating coach. Just music swappers. Just friends. A not-quite-almost whose time passed through as quickly as the train, fading into the distance before it even had a real chance at staying, at becoming something more, because I didn't speak up. — Sarah Ockler

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. — Mario Lemieux

But in my mind, I don't think there's any question Sidney Crosby is the best all-around player in the game. His hockey sense is so strong and so solid, combined with his God-gifted talent of being able to see the ice, see the entire picture in front of him. And, most importantly, I don't care how good you are, if you don't have a work ethic, it doesn't matter. There's no question that each and every game, he's one of the hardest-working guys on the ice. In my mind, he's the best player in the game today. — Wayne Gretzky

I believe Bobby Orr had the greatest impact of any player to come along in my lifetime. He earned his place in hockey history by single handedly changing the game from the style played in my day. In my mind there can be no greater legacy. — Jean Beliveau

My focus was always first and foremost to stop the puck. I never let the other players on the other team get to me. — Andy Moog

I tried to talk my daughter out of going with a hockey player but, he's a good kid. He asked me if he could marry Carrie before he asked her. I said: You want to what? I thought he was just going to ask for more ice time. — Phil Esposito

He's a gritty hockey player, he's got good vision, he's an intelligent player. — John Muckler

There are rough players and there are dirty players. I'm rough and dirty. — Stan Mikita

[In hockey] I was a goon, just protecting the better players. I've always been a better baseball player. — Eric Gagne

I think the game has gotten better. (The two-ref system) keeps players from taking cheap shots behind the play. I never thought I'd like it, considering the way I like to hack. — Brian Skrudland

I always wanted to play professional hockey. Every hockey player's dream, no matter at what level or what age, is to play professionally. At first you don't know what it's all about, but you have that dream and you always work hard toward it. The older you get, the more you start dedicating yourself to the game. — Ed Belfour

Orr is the greatest young hockey player that's come along since I've been here. — Bobby Hull

The accusation raises my hackles. "Why? Because I'm a player?" Indignation makes
my tone harsher than I intend for it to be. "Have you ever thought that maybe it's
because I haven't met the right girl yet? But no, I couldn't possibly want someone to
cuddle with andwatch movies with, someone who wears my jersey and cheers for me
at games, and cooks dinner with me the way you and Garrett - — Elle Kennedy

The scrape of the skates on the ice. The smell of musty old equipment. The black puck stains on the boards. To the uninitiated they're nothing, but to a hockey player they're home. — Jeff Lemire

Force, not persuasion, not discussion, is the legitimate instrument for influencing and policing the hockey mind. Fighting in hockey is one of the most magnificent and eloquent displays of refinement in all of sports. — Brian D'Ambrosio

My opinion is there should NOT be an MVP award [in hockey]. The Olympic teams sports shouldn't acknowledge individuality. And if there is going to be such an award a player on the losing team who lets in the losing goal shouldn't get it. — Michael Wilbon

I still love hockey. It's just I'm at a different stage of my life and I think I'm just ready to grow in other ways outside of just being a hockey player. — Angela Ruggiero

Milt was one of the men who discovered Bobby Orr. He once said that if a player comes along who is better then Bobby Orr, may the Good Lord let me be alive to see him because he is going to be one hell of a player to watch. Enough said. — Milt Schmidt

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. — Patrick O'Sullivan

There's no doubt I'm emotional. — Sidney Crosby Hockey Player

Let's make like a hockey player and get the puck out of here. — Alexander Gordon Smith

Hockey and cooking are similar in so many ways, especially if you are a player-coach, the guy in charge on the ice, a role I would closely relate to that of a chef in the kitchen - they are both contact sports.

You've gotta keep your head up, keep moving and communicate well. Even though you might be the leader in the kitchen or on the ice, you need to understand that that you're part of a working machine and that machine stops working if one of the pieces isn't working in unison with the others. I learned from a very young age the importance of being part of this team dynamic and how hard work can take you to so many different places.

(Chef Duane Keller) — Chris Hill

Buck is a mammoth, like a yeti. A huge perverted, hairy whore of a yeti. According to the sportscasters, Buck's an excellent hockey player. I'd agree, based on his yearly salary alone. No one gets much money for sucking, not even extremely skilled prostitutes. — Helena Hunting

A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. — Wayne Gretzky

Or as hockey player Sergei Fedorov knows it, 'The day I can legally start telling everyone I am sleeping with Anna Kournikova.' — Craig Kilborn

I think we're really good about pushing each other in practice and we have high tempo and I feel like we have some of the best players in the world so just competing against one another and getting in there and pushing each other around and getting ready for that physical style of game coming up, we have to play hard and pretend it's a game. — Cherie Piper

When you take off that sweater, your jersey, after today's game, you will be the last player in the NHL to ever wear 99. You have always been and you will always be 'The Great One,' and there will never be another. — Gary Bettman

If Peter has learned one thing about human nature during all his years in hockey, it's that almost everyone regards themselves as a good team player, but that very few indeed understand what that really means. — Fredrik Backman

If I weren't acting, I think I'd want to be a professional hockey player. — Sterling Beaumon

Leon, no offense, but you don't exactly look like a hockey player."
"I told 'em I was a goalie. That's where they put the guy who can't skate, right? Just like in baseball when they put the worst player at catcher. — Steve Hamilton

As a hockey player, playing for an Original Six team at Madison Square Garden, where it's packed every night, there's nothing like it. — Carl Hagelin

I know my players don't like my practices, but that's OK because I don't like their games. — Harry Neale

I'm not sure Mario is going to get accolafes he deserves, especially from outside the game. But from within, the players, the people who follow closely, realize exactly what he's broughtto the table, exactly what he has done. People tend to forget ... hockey was dying in Pittsburgh before he got there. I played there. It was almost dead. I'm sorry, but the NHL would not have a franchise in Pittsburgh today had Mario not come along. Think about it, no hockey in Pittsburgh. — Wayne Gretzky

That's like being a hockey player born on January I. — Malcolm Gladwell

The excitement of the fans in Montreal, especially in the playoffs, I don't think you can get that anywhere else. For a hockey player, I kind of wish everyone could go through that and experience what it is to play there. It's very unique. — Saku Koivu

America's belated embrace of government health care is going to be far more expensive and disastrous than the Euro-Canadian models. Whatever one's philosophical objection to the Canadian health system, it is, broadly, fair: Unless you're a cabinet minister or a big time hockey player, you'll enjoy the same equality of crappiness and universal lack of access that everybody else does. But, even before it's up-and-running, Pelosi-Reid-Obamacare is an impenetrable thicket of contradictory boondoggles, shameless payoffs and arbitrary shakedowns. — Mark Steyn

There's no reason why a player is done at 33, 34. They train better, they eat better, they drink better. This isn't the old days when everybody sat around and drank beer. — Bobby Clarke

What kind of respect do I get? ... Just because I'm a physical player, it's O.K. to come at me and do what you want? Hey, it's a hockey game. It's not figure skating. You know what? I can take a hit and I can give a hit. I don't care who it is. No one gets a free ride out there. I don't get a free ride, and no one gets a free ride from me. — Scott Stevens

Hockey players wear numbers because you can't always identify the body with dental records. — Bob Plager

To the voters in 1960, the name Nikita Khrushchev carried great emotional significance. To these students, he sounded like just another hockey player. — Leonard Mlodinow

I'm an absolutely dreadful hockey player. — Christopher Heyerdahl

Without the support of my mom, Marlene, I would not be the person I am. She has been my main supporter throughout my career, and I owe everything to her. This is a small way that we, as players, can pay tribute to her and other hockey moms, and it is all for a good cause. — Sean Avery