MH-Buffalo Sabres Gratitude

Welcome to the Healthy Mindset App podcast where host Mike Hartman, a performance coach and former professional athlete, brings his passion to help athletes and workplace athletes achieve their dreams and goals while being mindful of everything else in life. Mike also uses this platform to share his targeted assessment applications, Healthy Mindset course meditation and goal setting technique for the athlete and workplace athlete. We're glad you're here. Now let's dive headfirst into this episode of the Healthy Mindset App podcast. Here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Today I'm going to share a quick story, a story of gratitude. And this has happened when I was a rookie with the Buffalo Sabres back in the day. It's something that has really stuck with me for so many years. And the reason it stuck with me because this is when I really started to learn the importance of having good relationships and being around good teammates. And it's even though just a little story isn't anything that's going to knock you off your seat or anything like that. But to me, I think back on this and it was a time when I was a rookie with the Buffalo Sabres. I was 19 years old, just getting acclimated with the team and we've had some really amazing veterans. I don't have enough time to even list them all, but just some of them you may recognize, like Mike Foligno, who I looked up to as a kid when he played for the Detroit Red Wings. And Lindy Ruff and Larry Playfair and Clark Gillies played with so many players. Wilf Paymont when he played Mark Napier. These are names and these players are a good 10 years older than me. Some of them, Gilbert Perrault, who had to pinch myself that I was really on the same ice with him. But a few things stuck out in my mind back in the day. The first thing is when, the day I got to Buffalo, Lindy Ruff, who is now, he was, he was one of the captains at that time. He would come up to you and put your arm around you and say, listen, you know, today maybe do this a little bit different. Go to the net, be careful of this player. There's players coming in that might want to come after you. And he really looked after me. In fact, I ran into him at the grocery store in Buffalo at the Wegmans. If any of you don't know what Wegmans is, to me, it's one of the nicest grocery stores in, in the world. I've never been to anything like a Wegmans and I think they're thinking about bringing one to Charlotte, But I was at Wegmans, and I just happened to see Lindy, and he. He. I'm walking around with him and getting all my groceries. I'm a young player, and at that time, I didn't even have a contract yet. I was still just one of the final 30 players with the team. And I'm in line and he cuts in front of me. And I said, why would he. Why would he do that? I don't know. He's kind of funny guy. So he cuts in front of me, and long story short, he tells the person who was behind the counter, everything is on me. So he took care of all my groceries. So I don't know if he had a card. I have no idea how he left, but he took care of everything. So after they bagged my groceries up, I mean, back then I had $150 worth of groceries, but the point is that he just took care of everything. I said, wow, this is amazing. So that was one of the. The nicest things anyone has ever done at that point. To me, I'm a young kid coming from junior hockey, and the next thing I know, Lindy Ruff is buying all my groceries. And then it gets better. So then I was. Finally, I made the team. And I'm in the hotel because you have to live in the hotel till they tell you to find a place. And Dave Anderchuk tells me to, hey, move out of the hotel. You're moving into my house. I said, wow, sure. He goes. I go, what do I have to pay you? He laughed. He goes, nothing. Stay here as long as you want. So I moved in with Dave Anderchuk and John Tucker into his home, and I said, I can't even believe people really this nice. This is the understanding, you know, when you make it to the big time, that, you know, this is. I've never seen so much camaraderie and unity in all my life. So now I'm living with Dave Anderchuk and John Tucker, and then I finally get a place, and Adam Kraton says, you can move into my place and we'll just take care of whatever it is. Just pay me whatever you want. And I just. I really wasn't used to that, that. The one funny story is, though, that when you're playing junior hockey, you really don't dress the best. So John Tucker put his arm around me, and I remember he said, listen, we're gonna go shopping today. I go, we are. He goes, yeah, you can't have the chess king Suits up here, you have to dress a little bit nicer. So I'm thinking, oh, boy. Okay, so now I'm spending this money. I just got my first contract, and back then, you know, the signing bonus is nice, but you're still on a. Like a rookie deal, but still doing pretty well at 19 years old. So just the amazing things that some of these players have done. I just want to share a couple Buffalo gratitude stories with you. And another time, as I'm rooming with Mike Foligno, and he hears me talking to my mother on the phone. And I don't know why. My mom. My mother is everything to me. My parents were just amazing. But the funny story is I was. I think I was raising my voice. So Mike Foligno was like a father figure. He comes out because in those days, we stayed in a hotel where we each had your own separate room in a little suite in the middle. So I didn't realize he was even in there. And he comes out, and I don't even know what I was talking to my mother about. He says, mike, who are you talking to? I said, oh, I'm talking to my mother. He grabs the phone. He goes, Mrs. Hartman, Mike will call you back. He goes, listen, I heard you raise your voice to your mom. I said, I did. I didn't realize. I just talk loud sometimes. He says, you have one mother in your life. I lost my mother. So you don't ever talk to her with a tone. And I didn't even realize what I was doing. It was funny. We had, like, a rare day off in Boston, So looking back at some of these little stories are just amazing to me. And it was that many years ago. But you remember the good things that people did. Forget everything that happened within hockey. Forget the things that happen at the rink. And, oh, you played a good game. Any. Nothing to do with the game, just the people itself. And looking back at those days as a rookie, as a. Is a Buffalo saber was beyond a dream come true. Gilbert Perrot. And we know one of my favorite things was we ate really well. But I think, like, once a month, the guys like going to Pizza Hut. I realized that after. Yes, back in the day, there was your pizza, the salad. It was. It was great. So I was in the parking lot. I just made the team. And at that time, I was living with Dave Anderchuk. And I get into my car and Mike Ramsey comes over, who was really like a hero of mine on the 80 Olympic team. I was 13 years old when the Miracle on Ice team won the gold medal. And Mike Ramsey's knocking on my window. And it's. I wrote on my window. He goes, you're coming for lunch. And these guys always invite you for lunch. But here I'm 19 years old and I said, no, going to go home. He goes, really, what do you have to do all day? He goes, you're coming for lunch. So then I had an argue and I went for lunch. And just talking to Mike Ramsey, we're talking about baseball and sports, and it ended up for somehow just being the two of us at Pizza Hut. And the whole point is I used the word interesting or interested. And all these guys were especially like Mike Ramsey at the time at Pizza Hut. He was so interested in, like, my life or my family's life or, you know, anything. And that's one thing I took from professional sports. And people say, do you miss the game? Not really. I still do stuff with the. I do work with the New York Rangers, and they're alumni and represent the Rangers at times, which is unbelievable. And I could tell a thousand stories about them as well. But you miss the people that are involved. And these are stories of gratitude. So I'm just thinking back, I know I'm forgetting a hundred other things. I have a whole different day. I'm going to share the story of Mark Napier and what he did. For me, that's a whole different episode. That's a full episode, but it's not about Mike Hartman. That's not the point. The point is that when building relationships and being around good people is something that was never forgotten, and this is many years ago going back. So another thing, you know, I'm thinking of stories of gratitude. They're all positive stories. But for you, for people that are out there, really take into account that, you know, what you say can never be taken back. So you might say something to somebody you're. You know, something that you don't even realize that you're saying you're hurting somebody's feelings, you're putting them down. They'll never forget it. And I heard Derek Jeter say that on a recent interview, he said he could remember every story that happened in his life. Everybody that doubted him, he remembers what they wore that day, what day it was, what day of the week, everything they said. And he used that maybe for motivation. But my point is, just have gratitude in your life. If anybody has any questions about what it is that we do, go to healthymindsetapp.com if you can't afford to go into the community, we will. We do have scholarships that we offer and we also have the book the Healthy Mindset for Athletes and Workplace Athletes. I thought it was a good time to share this story as it's close to my birthday year birthday coming up and you know, for me it's important that I get the word out to everybody about some really good stories. We're going to have some really good people come on. Great people, great stories and really looking forward to sharing this all with you. We're going to do about 48 of them throughout the year. We've already done a handful of them and looking forward to doing more. Have a fantastic day and looking forward to doing the next one.

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Thanks again for listening and we hope you'll join us again in the next episode of the Healthy Mindset App Podcast. Until then, be well.