How To Align Your Purpose And Your Profession with Billy Huard

Hey. Hey.

Welcome back to Bullpen Sessions. I am super excited to have this gentleman join me on the show. Today. I had a chance to meet Billy in a mutual program that he and I are part of called Brand Builders Group. And today, if you are a fan of the sport of hockey, you are going to love today's episode because I've got joining me, Billy Ward. Billy is a former NHL left winger turned author of a fascinating book called A Purpose Worth Fighting for, which we're going to talk about today. And I'm just excited to have this guy on because I've had a chance to know him personally. He's just a good human being. So, Billy, welcome aboard.

Thank you, Andy. Appreciate it. Look forward to it. Yeah, it was great meeting you in Nashville and since then become pretty close friends. It's been great.

Well, and I know the second I sat next to you, I think it was at our first workshop shop. I got to sit next to you. I'm like, I need to have this guy on the podcast. And we said, wait, let's wait till the book is ready to come out. Let's get it done then. So here we are. But here's where I want to go today, Billy, with. With your story. Most of our listeners come from the insurance industry, so it's a lot of insurance professionals. And what I love about your story is they're going to quickly learn that who you were in hockey wasn't necessarily the real version of Billy Ward. And I think when I look at our industry, I see a lot of people trying to be somebody else or thinking they need to be somebody else to win business or to be successful, but deep down inside, they're not happy. And I think your story is going to be very, very impactful for those folks.

Yeah, I agree. I think. I mean, I truly believe, and you'll read it in my book, that everybody's wired differently, you know, and we all have strengths and weaknesses, and that's a great thing. No two people are alike. And I do. I do know that when folks are met with conflict or they're trying to overcome. Overcome conflict, or as they climb. Climb the ladder to the top, sometimes you kind of get. You get steered in a direction you're really not necessarily comfortable with, but you figure that's the right route. So. And I did in hockey as well. So I do believe. I do believe that. That just, you know, some people struggle with just being themselves or themselves not just being good enough when. When in reality, it's perfect. If you could just figure out Figure that out.

When I heard your story in Nashville, I was like, yep, this is made for this podcast. So I appreciate you being here, but let's start at the beginning. Where'd you grow up?

Yeah, so I grew up in Ontario and Canada, a little town called Welland. So if you know the seven wonders of the world, Niagara Falls is 20 minutes from us. So in the summer it's a beautiful, beautiful area, but in the winter, it's. It's tough. Yeah, I grew up between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, so depending on which way the wind was blowing, we would figure out which lake we were going to fish that day in the summer. So, yeah, it's just a steel town. Kind of back in the day was, you know, was really booming. But the last, you know, the last 50 years, it hasn't been like everything else, but it's a lot of Toronto starting to move that way. So, yeah, it's, it's, it's growing, but it's, it's still a small town. Small, small group of friends still there in Welland and a great hockey town.

When did you start playing hockey? At what age?

4 years old? 4, I started skating, and 5, I started playing hockey.

For those who are listening to this, most of my listeners probably grew up in the States. Give people a feeling. I had a guy on my podcast a couple of weeks ago, Chris Carter, who's an insurance advisor, but he played D back defensive back in the NFL for seven years, and he talked about what it was to play high school football in Texas, because that's at a different level.

Yeah.

What it's like to grow up in the, in Canada with hockey. Because I think a lot of people in our country don't quite understand what it's like.

I mean, nowadays there's several sports, but, you know, growing up, when I grew up, hockey, and I truly believe it still is the what everybody, every kid kind of grew up wanting to do is play in the NHL. You know, that's. We're not saying it's our sport, but it kind of is our sport. You know, we feel that way anyways, and so do the folks in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Right. But selfishly speaking, you know, especially as a boy, I grew up with three older sisters, so I was the only boy. But yeah, I mean, everybody kind of grows up, either want to, you know, times have changed, but you wanted to be a fireman, you wanted to be a policeman, or you wanted to be a hockey player. You know, and my dream was, since Day 1 was to play in the NHL. And it wasn't any due pressure from my father was just growing up watching hockey on TV every day and dreaming, boy, that could be me one day. We grew up on the outdoor ponds, you know, I grew up in an outdoor rink. So in the winter when the ponds or the lakes would freeze over, that's where we started playing hockey.

I know one thing we have in common is my father played a huge role in my baseball career. And I think your dad had a big time impact on your childhood, especially in the sport of hockey. Talk about that a little bit. You had mentioned your dad has had a big impact on you.

Yeah, he really did. My dad had polio, so it was kind of handicapped, so he really couldn't play. He did play hockey in his youth, but he was just, my father was just, we were best friends. He was just an incredible human being. I remember when I'd play hockey, dad never would say a bad or negative thing towards me. He'd always say, hey, how do you think you played? You know, and things like that in the book you'll read about, you know, most of my lessons. My dad loved to gamble and he was kind of reckless back in the day, but when I came around, I was the fourth one after three sisters. He wasn't so reckless. But I learned a lot of my lessons at the horse. You know, he was an amazing handicapper at the racetrack. So he'd look at a horse and say, hey, you know, it doesn't matter how many hands tall that horse is, it's what's inside. And you'd see horses sweat before a race. And he's saying, he taught me so many lessons. And the other thing he loved to do was he was an incredible pool player. So he'd play snooker with all the boys and he'd leave me lessons there like, hey, it's not what you make, it's what you leave. And things like that. And if you know the game of snooker, it really is so. But more than that, my dad was, you know, whenever I would have a setback, you know, he would always be there to comfort me and say, look, look it, you've come this far, let's keep going. And, and we need that. And whether it's your father, your mother, a friend, you know, everybody needs a pat on the back or needs that action. I needed it, I needed it a few times and it was just, I was very blessed to have that. And I know not everybody has an amazing father or that relationship, but I think it's so, so important for a father Son, relationship, bond in how.

In how we grow up with just, just. I needed confidence and he gave me that confidence, and it's so important.

Yeah, I look back on my baseball career and there's no way I would have made it to the level I made it without my dad. And he was such a positive, positive impact on my maturation in the sport of baseball. And he still, you know, I'm fortunate to say he's still alive and he still has an impact on me today at age 45. So, yeah, you can't, you can't under appreciate the power of a good father in your life, especially for a young boy who's playing sports. Talk to us a little bit about hockey, growing up playing hockey in Canada, because I look at the States and today everything's travel ball, right? Everything, whether it's baseball, volleyball, basketball, it's about being on these travel teams. And when I look at Canadian youth hockey, it's. It's a little different than what I grew up with playing sports in the States. Like, we had Little League and all that, but you had like Junior A's, and I think even as a kid, you could get drafted into junior. Is that true?

Yeah, you did. You had to get drafted? Well, I didn't. I. Me and my father wrote letters to every team, but yeah, I mean, really, that's competitive. So you go, you know, essentially by your birth year and you know how that. That rolls. I was a June. I was June. So I was kind of in the middle of developing. You know, when you have those January, February, March, April birthdays are so far ahead of us, especially when you're going, you know, at the age 15, 16, when guys grow like a weed. Now, back then when I played, you had hitting at every level. Now you don't. It comes in at a certain level, I think 14 or 12 or 14, then folks can hit. But it's really competitive because every town has, you know, you have AAA double A and then you have in house and you have to make it each year. The thing that, that worked out really good in our area, and I think they do it in Minnesota as well as you. You have to live in the town that you play for, so you can't just load up. So the cities with the larger population obviously had stronger teams, but for the most part, you had to live in the city that you played in. And then you got to a certain age when you're 15, you have a draft. 15, 16, you have a junior draft, which brings you to the elite, elite level. And those Are where the best, the best 16, 17, 18 year old hockey players, kids are playing in Canada. And you have, so you have the Ontario Hockey League, which is in Ontario. Then you have the Western Hockey League, which is all throughout the western provinces because we have provinces in Canada. And then you have the Quebec Hockey League. So you have three, three divisions with all the best players in Canada. And then you have, at the end of that, each team from each division plus the host team goes to what's called the Memorial cup. And that's where the absolute best players in Canada go each year. Of course, you have the Olympic program and things like that. So really, if you miss out going to Junior A, it's a really long, long run to make it. You know, like I did. I missed out because I was going through that growth spurt at the wrong time and I missed out on getting drafted. And I write about that in the book about me and my father writing letters to the teens. We didn't have email back then, but, but it's so important to. If you miss that level in the States, it's different. Of course, while the states now is also the same. It's all birth year and things like that and guys run into the same issues.

Yeah. I want my young advisors to hear what Billy just said. There was a day in time we actually wrote letters to people to try to get.

Because that's so important. And I actually read a book years ago and I forget, I think maybe Daniel Pink was the author and I forget what it was called, but where they talk about. And they use the Canadian Youth Hockey League as the example of when you were born in January and February, you had a distinct advantage because you are always the oldest in your category based on their cutoff for birth dates, which gave you that advantage because you got picked first. But then once you were in those elite programs, you just put yourselves farther and farther ahead of everybody else.

Correct. The gap widens because now you're skating with the best of the best. You're playing with the best of the best and it's hard to play catch up because time just flies. Before you know it, it's your 17, 18 and you've already surpassed where you needed to be at that time. By that point, everybody's getting drafted to the NHL. I mean, it's really crazy, but I.

Think if you, if you probably looked at NHL rosters, there's probably a ton of January, February, March, birthdays, 100%, especially.

The best of the elite players.

That's interesting. Okay, so you play in Junior A, you're starting to play against elite level competition. When did you think you had an opportunity to actually play pro hockey?

I would say when I went to Peterborough because I went at such a later stage at 19. I didn't make it to junior till 19 and then I played one more year of overage. But a lot of my guys were first round draft picks in the NHL. I played on one heck of a hockey team. So there were a lot of really good hockey players. And I knew that I was gradually getting stronger and becoming a better hockey player throughout my junior tenure. I knew I had a chance. I missed, I had missed my, my one draft and there's a supplemental draft and I write about that in the book on me and my father going to that draft. And that's quite a story on how I went down to the draft table and things like that. But I knew at that point that I had, I had seen players that I was better than that were, had been drafted and in higher rounds as well. So I knew I had an opportunity. But when you're not drafted, it's, it's really hard because you have so many scouts and folks that are fighting for their guys and their players that they drafted. So you're really, you're really getting your back against the wall really the rest of your journey, for the most part.

Well, and I know you're probably sharing, there's probably a ton of crazy stories in that book, given you played minor league hockey. As someone who played minor league baseball, I can tell you there's, there's a, plenty of stories you can share. But talk about. I think you have actually a pretty interesting story from draft night, don't you?

Yeah. Me and my father went to Detroit and we went to the draft. I was at the draft and we had sat through. I watched a lot of my, my teammates get drafted in the first round, the second round, the third round. Back then, everybody kind of went to the draft. Nowadays you don't do it that way. So the draft. So we were sitting in the stands and we had been there for like six hours and I wasn't drafted. And I popped up and my dad's like, where are you going? And I had a relationship with Phil Esposito, the great Phyllis Esposito. He was a general manager of the New York Rangers and I had met him at a hockey camp.

Prior in the summer at a skating school where a lot of the New York Rangers prospects were skating. So what I did was I popped up out of my seat, I Couldn't take it. I just wanted to keep my dream alive. My dad didn't know what to do. My dad couldn't help me. And I just walked down. They announced a player on the microphone. Drafted. I walked down, and I think the Rangers had thought it was me because I was in a suit. And I walked past the security guard. Security guard looked at me, thought, you know, like, congratulations. And I really hadn't been drafted. And I walked. You know what it is, is you have where the ice surface typically is. It's all carpet, and the tables are all set up like you see on tv. And I walked up to the New York Rangers table, and they all kind of looked at me, and I tapped into Phil Esposito on the shoulder. I said, Mr. Esposito, Billy Heward. I've been sitting up here for seven hours. I had a conversation with you in the past about, you know, about attending New York Rangers training camp, and I was wondering if that option is still available. And he looked at me, kind of giving me a strange face. He says, absolutely. Yep. Absolutely, you can come to camp. And all these other guys are looking at me. So he said, get in contact with me in a week from now after the draft. And my dad was looking down at me going, what's he doing? And I came up the stairs happier, happier than hell. The big smile. I go, let's go home and tell Mom. He's like, why did I go? I'm heading to the New York Rangers.

We got what we came for. We packed up and drove six hours, and away we went. Yeah, I mean, you can't let. Those are certain things. And, you know, things come into. Because things come into play in your life, and there's roadblocks, and sometimes you just have to go through them. You know, you can't go around them. And that was certainly one of them. There was another one that was kind of out, too. But that was my first real roadblock where my. All my hard work and my. And every advancement that I made was really done there.

It would have ended that day blown away, man. I want to repeat that. So here you are at the actual draft. Your name is not called. Right. Six hours, you and your dad are sitting there. Your name is not called. You walk down to the New York Rangers table where Philip Esposito is sitting. By the way, if you're not familiar with hockey, he's an NHL legend, and you basically tell him, I want to try out. Correct. You walk out of the arena not drafted, but with a ticket to the New York Rangers tryout camp.

That's exactly right.

By the way, you got into junior A hockey by writing letters to every team. I want people to hear, you got to that level in Canada, that probably gave you any shot to get to the next level by writing letters to every team. No one hand picked you. And then you got your tryout with the New York Rangers by walking down on draft day at the draft saying, I want a shot. And they gave it to you.

Correct.

That's amazing.

So when we wrote letters, just going back a little, when we wrote all those letters, each day I'd wait for the mailman and the mailman would come back. And each day, the teams were great at writing back, but 90% of them would say, hey, you know, our roster's full. We have this, we have that. You know, and it's true, you know, because they don't really take walk ons. And one day the letter came from Peterborough Pete, and it was from Dick Todd, their gm. And I really only got two letters from all the teams we wrote that said, hey, you're welcome to come to try out. You know, we can't guarantee anything as a walk on, but I'll never forget that day. And then I wrote all the teams back, thanking them for all the letters and wrote, you know, so my dad's like, hey, now we thank all the teams even though they said no. You know, so my dad was a professional. He was a, you know, as a businessman, he owned a heating and air conditioning company, so he knew how to deal with things like that as it relates to being professional about it, and that's why we wrote letters. So anyways, I end up going to the Rangers training camp, and that was. That was something. I've never been on an airplane before. I'm like 20 years old, unlike folks today. My kids, my one son who's a hockey player has been on a million airplanes. But, yeah, well, I get to New York, first thing I do is I jump in a car service and I go to the wrong address. There was a shuttle waiting for all of us. I end up in Manhattan, downtown Manhattan, with my hockey bag of suitcase and sticks. Never seen homeless people before in my life. And my mom gave me a money belt with 200 bucks in the zipper part of the back. And I'm walking with my hockey bag and my sticks and I'm fumbling over homeless people trying to get through the mad rush of Manhattan. And finally I go to an office and there was like one of those turnstiles I Couldn't get through. I fumbled through that. I gave the lady the letter and said, look, I'm lost. I don't know where I am. So their headquarters was in New York, but where the camp was and where it always is is in Rye, New York, about an hour, hour and a half away. So they called and they called Wolf. I forget his last name. I think he since passed. And he calls me and I'm talking. He goes, billy, don't move anywhere. Stay there. We were wondering where you were. You were supposed to be at the shuttle at LaGuardia. They came and got me. Camp was good. I mean, you know, everybody's asking me what junior team I played for him. Like, I really, at that point, I had played like Junior B and a little bit of Junior A. I didn't have the big, you know, that, you know, I wasn't. Or they'd ask you, hey, what round did you get drafted in? And I didn't get drafted, you know, and I'm not the only one that didn't get drafted. I'm not making those claims. There's several. There's several guys. I mean, it's not the norm, but there are amazing hockey players that kind of somehow figured their way through as well. But it was quite an experience, I will tell you that. But, hey, I still have the. I think my mom. My mom kept the check they gave me. Or the air flight. The flight they kept me. It was pretty. They sent me from American Airlines or whatever.

Really, that speaks to my heart because my first paycheck from Major League Baseball was my signing bonus for $500.

So isn't that great?

I. I love. Right, well, okay, so you're now in the minor leagues and we could have an old whole episode on minor leagues and what it was like to play in the minor leagues. But I do want to. I want you to talk about one thing, because I think the casual hockey fan has probably seen the movie Miracle on Ice. And as. As people know, it's a story about Herb Brooks, the legendary coach. You actually got a chance to play for him, correct?

I did, yeah.

What was that like, play for her Brooks?

It was pretty amazing. I mean, I had played for old school hockey coach Tommy McVie, who is the opposite of Herb in many ways, but still an amazing coach. And I talk about him in my book a lot because without Tommy, I wouldn't have found the success that I. That I had. Herb was really. I mean, you can, you know, you hear stories about Herb and. And how he managed the mental side of the game. And it's so true. I think her in a world that's so fast and furious in hockey, and you have to, you know, it's just cutthroat. And like, I mean, in hockey, soon as someone gets traded and or sent down, I mean, within five minutes, people are ripping the gloves out of the guy stall. Like it's cutthroat. Like, it's like, hey, good luck. Thanks for the new equipment. You know, it's. It's just that type of business. And.

Herb really got to know you as a person, you know, and he tells stories, and I don't have the time to tell the stories, but anybody that played for him, probably we all have. We all share the same story about, like, here. Here lies a man. You know, he told us the one story about at a funeral and who was this person? You know, kind of like the dash between when you were born and when you passed, you know, I heard really dove into that side of you. And I'll be honest with you, in the beginning, coming from Tommy and being old school, me and Herb really didn't hit it off in the beginning. And then he won me over, and I think I won him over. I was assistant captain on the team. My job at that time was really protecting all the first rounders. I was a really good hockey player, but I kind of got. I kind of ended up being that tough guy, which I write about my book.

We're going to talk about that a lot here.

Yeah, so he. So he really. He seen that in me, and I think he just sensed what I was going through a little bit. But I never, you know, at the end of the year, we hung out a little bit, actually. Me and him went out for a few beers and I got to know him really well and then got called up to the NHL shortly afterwards, I think to New Jersey when Tommy got fired. Yeah.

Wow. Well, you know, this sets the stage now for your book because I think we're going to talk. Spend the rest of the time talking about your book and a mix of your NHL career, because it's going. A lot of these stories are going to be in the book. You made a comment about the fact you were considered one of the tough guys. And, you know, when you look back at your NHL career, Billy, you spent 12 years in pro hockey with six teams. The Bruins, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Nordics, Dallas Stars, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings. And once you got to pro hockey, you were tagged as an enforcer, which is the guy whose job is to protect the top players. And one thing I honestly did not know until you and I met, you never asked to become an enforcer. You were told you're going to be an enforcer. Talk about that a little bit.

Well, you kind of. I don't. I'm not. I don't know if you're necessarily told, but you slowly find your way into that position. When you get to the NHL, they're the absolute best players in the world. This is, you know, obviously it's a global sport. So you have the best from Finland, from Sweden, from Russia, the Czechs, all over the world, us, Canada. So there's only so many guys that can put the puck in the net. There's only so many guys, and there's only so many positions up front. You know, you have your 12 forwards, you have your six defensemen. I wasn't a defenseman. And then you break it down even further.

You.

I was a left winger. You have four left wingers. You know, of those four left wingers, you're fighting for spots with folks out with players all over the world. So each, you know, the first top line would be your best. Your second line would be your second best, your third would be your third best. And then during the era that I played, your fourth line was really your energy line and. Or your enforcers. There was a time in the NHL when everybody kind of took care of their own business, and if there was an altercation, it was a spontaneous one on the ice, and guys would drop the gloves. But during an era of about 20 to 30 years, folks started. Guys started getting tagged in that role, and what happened was the ability of those players diminished. So you would just have guys that were really more interested in fighting, fans that were more interested in seeing those guys fight. Those guys were actually a liability on the ice and play six or seven minutes. But if you got thrown into that category, you had better be a really tough, tough player, not only to play against, but you have to change. So the whole goal is to change the momentum of the game. And it's not the NHL's fault. It's just the way the game morphed. It's what happens in sports. We, you know, the sports change all the time. And at that period, you know, we had a lot of tough guys that could play. And, you know, like today's game, you have tough guys that can play. If you can't play, you can't play 12, 15, 20 minutes a night. You're a liability. They can't sign you. So let's say you are a big physical player. You have to be able to play as well. Back then they started, you know, they had guys and we had guys. So I was a really decent hockey player. Put up big numbers in the American Hockey League, which is the second best league in the world. The difference is in the American league you run 10 forwards, you don't have two extra forwards, but everybody has to play. You get to the NHL. And I'm getting a little deep here for non hockey fans, but when you get to the NHL you have four lines, so you can almost afford to have a fourth line that can do whatever you want. And that was where I found myself for most of my career. I tried to get out of it, but once you're there, you're there once you start, you know, and not only that, it's a job and it's a livelihood, you know, you can't. It's a double edged sword. You don't want to get out of it because you find yourself out of the NHL as well. So you're kind of caught. So you have to, what we talked about earlier in the podcast, slowly become somebody you're not. Because during those times in the NHL, I wasn't fighting my fight. I was typically fighting the fight for others and, or the team, but I was a team player. So I know if I could change the momentum of the game and that's my job, I have to do it, you know.

Well, I'm reading a book right now called Alter Ego and it's to talk about how you can create different alter egos in different aspects of your life to show up as what you need to show up to be successful in that bucket of life. And I think that was probably very true for you. When you look at, you know, I. People probably wonder, how does a Wayne Gretzky make it through his career pretty much unscathed? Well, he probably had three or four enforcers around him at any one time. And I think some of the well known enforcers, Tai Domi's a buddy of yours, Marty McSorley, you know some names I, I remember back from the 80s and 90s. Here's the thing though, what you said, I think is so important. You realized I gotta be this person to get my paycheck. Because if I'm not, tomorrow could be my last day in the NHL. Although it wasn't really who you were inside. Walk us through what a typical day was like for you. Getting prepared for a hockey game that night, a hockey match that night, because I remember you telling me In Nashville, your roommate was Mike McDonald, who was a star for the Dallas Stars. He was the guy. But your preparation for games was very much different than his.

Yeah, I mean, Mo's. Mo's biggest thing was he had a lot of pressure as well. Obviously, when you're, you're getting paid 6, 7 million or 5 million, whatever it was at the time to put the puck in the net and you go on a bit of a drought or something like that, there's a lot of pressure, but it's a different pressure. And in hockey, in hockey, you'll hear folks, the guys talk about, hey, it's the worst job anybody ever wanted. Now I'm not going to. Now this book and this story is about what I went through. I'm sure there's enforcers that maybe have embraced it and good for them if they have, but I wasn't one of them, that's for sure. I think it's kind of like a character actor where you have to become somebody you're not. You know, the best actors in the world sometimes get lost in that role and they, and it's hard for them to come back from that. And it's not any different for what happened to me.

I, you know, slowly became that person off the ice that I was on the ice. Because a typical day for my, for my role was you don't get a whole lot of sleep at night. You go out tonight, you land the night before, come in on your. On our usually flu private. We come in, we'd have a team meal. Bunch of us would go out, you know, a couple, you know, whatever, have a glass of wine or whatever. Guys kind of relax and getting ready, have a nice meal. Well, sooner or later someone would bring up who their tough guys are because there is on everybody's mind, it was just part of the game that you know, and it was. There was always fear just because it wasn't your role. There's always fear in that, you know, because you're met with resistance. If there's a tough team, you're going to get run over. That's why guys like me were there, so I wouldn't get a whole lot of sleep. But first of all, they start talking about it at the dinner. And of course it's my, you know, it's my, that's my side of the story or my role rather, that we're all discussing. And then the next morning we'd wake up, have your coffee, have your breakfast, pre game meal or breakfast, head to the rink. Now the opposing team if, let's say we're on the road, we're in St. Louis, we'd all walk in and we all kind of walk around the glass and we'd see all the. All the guys that were on the other roster, you know, who was playing and who wasn't. And if they had two or three heavyweights, and I mean heavyweights, like boxing, like tough heavyweights. And you could see that they're in a. And let's say in a yellow jersey, you know, they're playing because the color of jerseys, it didn't matter. Didn't matter what team you're on. You know, you had your. Your green or your red was your first line, your green was your second line, your blue was your third line, your gold, or nobody wanted to say yellow. Well, your gold would be your fourth line, and then you'd have whatever color for your fifth line.

Right? Guys would be wearing practice jerseys for the morning skates. So we'd say, holy. Holy shit. Okay, so and so's dressing. So and so. So now it started right for me. Now I'm like, wow, they're going with a tough lineup tonight. So now I know I'm pretty well in the lineup, you know, because I was hit or miss. If it's not a tough team, I'm not in the lineup for the most part. And that just was my situation. It wasn't for everybody, you know, every tough guy. But. And that. That within itself was a battle, you know, preparing. Sometimes you wouldn't find out to the minute before the game when you weren't playing. But anyways, let's go back to the game. So then we would have our pregame skate. Then when we would come in and I. And if sometimes I love the coaches that would say, hey, you're in or you're not, you know, early in the morning. So you had the whole day to prepare because of the anxiety and the stress. Then we'd go back to the hotel, have our pregame meal. What we do is called a pregame nap. We'd have a, you know, whatever, an hour. Of course, your roommate's snoring because he's tired and he doesn't have to worry about what you have to worry about. Us fighters never slept so well. So when we would get up around three or four, have a snack, a coffee, head to the rink. So now you're at the rink. My preparation is different. When you're in a dressing room, you have your power play, which is your special teams. They would go have a meeting with the Coach, then your penalty killers, that group of four or eight would go meet with the coach, fighters. I would already have watched video on their tough guys, know how they fight. Kind of have an idea that was kind of my homework, you know. So now I'm kind of like a boxer versus a hockey player. You know, I didn't grow up when I was 6 years old in the outdoor rink scoring. Yeah, I was scoring the winner, winning goal. I wasn't dropping the gloves. So then I would be prepared, as prepared as I could be. And then we'd go out and take warm up. That's when it would start, you know, then. Then you would start in warm up. You would see their tough guys, they would see you. The posturing would be, you know, it's almost like two dogs. The posturing would be. And the alpha male thing would come in, fans would know it. Then it was the start of the game. So as a tough guy. As a tough guy, you kind of want it. And this is just my, like I keep saying, this is just. This is how I. How I seen it when I played in my role. You'd want the game to stay as close as possible. Then you wouldn't have to fight. Then you could kind of play the game. But if the other team got up too quick, goals. My job as an enforcer was to turn the momentum of the team, you know, the game around. So I would go out, our fourth line would go out and just rock guys to the point where we would force them to send somebody out and vice versa. If they got up to goal or if we got up two goals, they would send somebody out. Oftentimes, I'd be at a face off, like, let's say we're in Detroit. I'd be at a face off with 16,000 people getting ready. And I would hear the crowd, you know, if it was Stu Grimson. Stu. I would hear who was coming over the boards. I knew what was about to happen, you know, and so did he. So really, if you want, if you had to fight, you wanted to get it over as fast as possible.