Mindful In The Penalty Box

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.

Welcome back to another episode. And this week I'm on the road. So the sound may be a little different, but I'm still committed to doing these weekly for everybody. The whole purpose is for you to have a healthy mindset, to enjoy these, and for me to add value to you. So I did receive an email, which was a nice email, saying, hey, I really enjoyed your show. I really liked the Mike Hartman show better because you interviewed so many different professionals and different athletes and so forth and so on. So in, the person then said, can you please share some personal stories, which I don't really like to do. I have shared many stories. Um, but first I'm going to answer your question. The first part of it is that we are not a sports show. So when I started this over almost four years ago, the purpose was to interview some great teammates and people that I've known and former athletes. We had Mike Lodish, we had some New York Yankees, some former Mets, and that was great. A lot of hockey players and some Olympic athletes and so forth and so on, so you could go all the way back and listen to those. In fact, the sound doesn't even sound as good as it does now with our equipment. And it was more of a hobby at that time. And I realized I changed the name to the Healthy Mindset app podcast because this is our main focus and we do coaching. So I will share some story. Like I thought about this story. It's a story of gratitude. It's a story that it to me, some people may like it, some may not. And just to give you a little background, in my professional sports career, I was known as a physical player. Not the biggest player, not the toughest player, but I knew I had to play hard every day and I had to do everything I can or I would never have a job playing hockey. I knew that I had to work hard. Prior to that, as a kid, I scored like, I think 70 goals playing for compuars as a young kid and hedge it well. The main reason is one of the we had Jimmy Carson, who was a year younger, and he would get. He was brought up, and not because he wasn't good enough, but he committed to the lower team below us and they would bring him up when needed. In fact, in the Kamloops Tournament, that's all he did, is set me up as a kid. And Jimmy Carson, and if you know him, he got traded for Wayne Gretzky. He was, I think, the number two pick overall in the NHL. Just a super nice guy, extremely talented, had a great career. And yeah, he got traded for. For the great one. And then played junior. I was. My plan was to play college hockey and decided to play in the ohl, which I thought maybe was the fastest way, and put all my eggs in one basket. And that basket was a day away from breaking. It did break initially, and this is where I learned all of this mindset work. And then, you know, played for my country on two different occasions, which was a dream come true. Played in the world Junior, then played in the qualifying round for the World Championships. I had two great players on my line, Joey Mullen and Neil Broughton. So that's the hockey. But as I got to that NHL, they wanted me to play physical and even more physical. And the story goes like this. We were playing an exhibition game, so a preseason game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto. But at that time that year, I have to go back. Was it 1988? I can't remember the exact year, but that was the year that the Blue Jays were in the playoffs. And because it had to been late September. So October's the World Series, so it might have been late September. They were just going to the World Series. And the preseason game, usually Maple Leaf Gardens, even during preseason, was sold out. It was empty. It was like maybe we had 10,000 fans in a. In an entire building that night. And we were playing Toronto. And I know, even so, I. I think I played already a couple years with the Sabres. That doesn't matter. It's still preseason. I had to play hard. So I get out there and John Kordick, to me, was one of the toughest guys in the league then. I mean, he was a scary guy for so many reasons, you know, a lot bigger than me. And I get out there and I decide to hit him. I gave him a really good. I mean, he went. We dumped the puck in, I went and got it, and I just. I. I literally ran him. I did not get a penalty. So what happened after that? The next Face Off, I go, he's coming for me now. And I'm really aware because he's a heavyweight, I'm a midd weight, I'm not the biggest guy, barely six foot. And this, this guy's a monster. Known to be like one of the toughest in the league. So he lines up next to me and he says in a really nice voice, mike, can you please not do anything tonight? Let's keep it clean. I need you to do me that favor. So we talk about mindfulness and that was really mindful. But you know me and not being the smartest guy sometimes back then said, oh, now I'm really gonna take advantage of him. And I was not being mindful at that time. It is preseason. We're all fighting for a job, but both of us were established on our teams. He's not going to the minors for sure. And I, I was pretty solid with the Buffalo Sabres and had a one way contract, so I thought I was safe and that didn't matter. I, what do I do? I, I dropped my gloves against him and I did a really good job against him and I ended up, I'm not gonna say beat him up, but I did a very good job for a middle fighting him and I felt great about myself. So game ends. I can't remember who won preseason game again. There was more excitement with the Blue Jays playing than, than us. Well, two weeks later is, is opening night for Toronto and we're in Toronto. So now preseason's over and in Toronto we're playing in Maple Leaf Gardens. Really exciting for me. I always had family there and not far. Went to school. I went to high school in Toronto when I was 16, lived with a great family. Bob Langley, who played in the ohl, played a little pro and he was my mentor, he was my coach in life. We talked to this day quite a bit and he was coming to the game and great playing in Maple Leaf Gardens. I'm starting. Well, first of all, we're in warm ups and John Kordick is skating around and I'm stretching and he comes up to me and says, I don't really want to, I don't. This is a very clean podcast. But he said, this might be the last game you ever play in your life. Let's just say it like that. And he looked at me and he had a little Vaseline on his face because they're really bright lights there. And I could see the Vaseline. He says, come on, let's, let's do it right now. It's $100,000 fine if you have a brawl and warmup. The team has to pay that kind of money back then it was a big fine. So we knew we're not gonna do that. And he kept on and on. He was skating up. I used to skate up and down the line in warmup. I do like three or four sprin. And he was like pulling his sleeves up, looking at me like, this is going to be my last day I ever play. So people say, do you believe in fear? Well, I was scared. I mean, I'll tell you right now, not scared to do it. But you're, you have that little bit of fear, like this person means business tonight. And then we're doing our three way shooting each line, you know, you have the right left and you have the left side, the center and the right. We're taking shots and warming up our goaltender. And he's at the line next to me and he's, he gave me a little nudge and, and he whispered something to me. He says, you're dead, you know, you're done, you're dead. I said, okay. So we go in the dressing room and I know Mike Foligno. And we had, I think Dale Howard Chuck. The late Dale Howard Chuck. Great player, great person. We had like a really good team. And they whispered over to me, they said, I think he means business tonight. Be like, be careful. And Kevin McGuire, who was my line mate, said, who was our heavyweight? You know, I was a middleweight. He was like the heavyweight. Good hockey player, strong hockey player. Said, I'll line up next to him tonight. And I said, no, maxi, don't worry about it. And it's fine. Well, getting to the game. I start the night and who's across from me in Maple Leaf Gardens, you would face each other for the national anthem. And this guy's bobbing his head, he's doing both national anthems, which are very long if you count to 10 seconds, that's long. Imagine the American national anthem and the Canadian national anthem and this person staring, me bobbing his head, playing with his elbow pads and shoulder pads and, and like. And I knew, I said, oh boy. And I'm a left winger, he's a right winger. So guess what? I'm gonna line up next to him. Well, I line up next to him and he says, are you ready? And I can't back down. And again, I'm not out there to fight. My job was to hit and let the big guys come. But tonight, that night, I think I had a do something. So he lines up and drops his gloves and just gave it to me, I think, you know, my helmet was off. I had, you know, I know I had like a black guy punch me like 12 times on top of the head. And it was, it wasn't good. And I get to the penalty box and in Maple Leaf Gardens, the old Maple Leaf Gardens, it's actually, you could talk to people in the box because he was just across from me. Now they had the big glass in most stadiums, but that old stadium, Maple Leaf Gardens, the person could talk to you. So he said to me, I am going to hurt you tonight. I'm being nice now. In my words, I, this is, we're not done. I'm gonna now cross check you in the face and you are done. You are done. So I thought maybe that I hit somebody two years ago or a year ago. Did I. I don't even remember what I did sometimes players never forget. Did I run him? And I don't know what I did. So he's, he's non stop and he said, oh, we're not done. And he's again, he's like now getting really fired up. So I look over there, he says, you're done. He says, I told you two weeks ago I don't want to do anything. I told you that and I had zero respect from you. So now this is going to be the last day you're ever going to be on this earth. And I said, oh great. So I said, okay, John. He says, my father passed away that day and he played that night in exhibition. Said my father had a long term illness and I played and I asked you for one favor. And me, I'm not kissing his butt. I said, john, I'll fight you again. But I had no idea that your father. And we have five minutes in the box, we're talking. I said, john, I had no idea that your father passed away. My heart goes out to your family. I'm gonna fight you again. He said, but I am sorry. I said, I wouldn't have done that. You know, it's preseason, we both were locked in. I am, from my heart, I'm sorry, but when you're ready, we'll do it again. And he looked at me, goes, you know what kid, you're good. We're good. I go, okay, so it's all about mindful stories. And I had to think about this and that. To me it was kind of like, I look back and it was kind of funny. And he's talking, he goes, hey, Mike is, you know, is Jeff Parker is our 6 foot 3 center. And he centered myself and Kevin McGuire. We were the fourth line but played a lot as a fourth liner. We always played. Jeff was a great center kill pedal these big guy. And he was asking me, John says, is he righty or lefty? And I said, I don't know. He could throw with both hands. We were talking. The funny thing is every time I got on the ice, okay, Mike, heads up. You know, I made a big hit once and I remember he came over. Come on, Mike, keep it clean, keep it clean. This guy was my friend. Now some people may look at this story and say, yeah, what a. You just. Are you a kiss up? I mean, that's not hockey. But I. He was being very mindful of, you know, I apologize and I didn't apologize to say this on the year to kiss up to him. I did it from my heart. But it was funny. Even when he got traded to Quebec at the end of his career, he was playing for Quebec and he was in Washington and never bugged me. I think we did fight one other time, but it was good and he didn't, you know, he was, it was honest. And sometimes, you know, you remember these things later. And so for some of you, yes, I will share stories of gratitude and stories of things that have happened in the past. Again, I appreciate everybody. So, yeah, please keep reaching out. If you have any questions, go to not www but healthymindsetapp.com join our community. We're here to help you. We are getting more and more people in our community daily and weekly and it starts off by you taking an assessment. So if you are an athlete, you would take the Ready to Play assessment and Total Wellness for your mind, body. And if you are a workplace professional, I call the workplace athlete. You will take the Total Wellness assessment and the Change Readiness for Change and you will have ongoing coaching and we are continuously adding more audios and affirmations and meditations. And I think we're up to 60 or 70 of just our meditations and we're up to over 300 different audios in there. So I will do more stories. If you want to hear more stories like this, please reach out and I was happy to share this with you. So I, I hope that you know, our listeners aren't just thinking we just have to interview people all the time because that's not where we're going. Again, this, this whole segment is stories of gratitude. So until next time, bye for now and thank you for listening.

We're so glad you joined us for this episode of the Healthy Mindset app podcast. With your host, Mike Har. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcast. That helps others find the show, and we greatly appreciate it. To dive deeper and learn more about the Healthy Mindset program, or to get in touch with Mike, please Visit our website healthymindsetapp.com 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.