Stephane Matteau-Stanley Cup Champion

Mike Hartman, performance Mindset Strategist.

This is develop the Mindset of a.

Champion with former Stanley cup champion Mike Hartman. This morning we have Stephan. Good morning, Stefan.

Good morning, Mike. Good to see you. How you doing?

Good to see you. So, Steph, I like to learn, you know, tell people a little bit about you and I'd love to hear your story and share it with everybody else.

Well, it's a good point. For so many years, we identify ourselves just as the hockey player. And we realize later on it's just much more than that. I am father of two. I'm a grandfather now. My son, Stefan Jr. His wife gave birth to a baby about five months ago. James, my daughter graduated from Maine University. I coach my kids when I retired and. But it's funny that you mentioned that, but it's. You go through life and you think you're only good at what my people identify us as just being the hockey player.

And it took a lot.

Yeah, it took me so many years to realize we are much more than that. But it took me a few years to sit back and what I'm good at. It's just like you said, I like to give back. I started programs here in the Bronx in Pennsylvania. We do a lot of stuff for the Rangers, a lot of stuff on my own and. But I had to try too many a lot of things on my own and fail a few times to realize what my purpose in life and I realize my purpose in life is to help others and that.

You said a good word, Stefan. You said the word fail.

Yeah.

And I've learned over the years sometimes we're afraid to fail. So when, when, if you don't try or you don't do your best or you don't give everything you have, even if you have, let's say you're sick and you're going to work and you only have 60%, but you still have to give 100% of that 60%, meaning you have to give whatever you have. And just because you fail doesn't make you a failure. But quitting puts that into the failure category. And I know, like with your story, you played in the NHL 848 games. And I, somewhere around there, you scored the biggest goal in Ranger history. And it was all through your mindset when you played. But we also had to talk a little bit about the mindset when you were done. Tell me the highlights of your career and the way you prepared yourself as a hockey player early on because you came into the NHL at 18, top pick to Chicago Blackhawks came into the league. Tell me a little bit about that.

Well, to be drafted by the Calgary Flames in 1987. And I finished my two years in juniors for the whole Olympics which Wayne Gretzky was our owner. And I went through the normalcy of a hockey player. Finished my two years of juniors. I went to the minors in Salt Lake City in the minor league. And when I was ready to make the NHL as a 2021 year old, there was no room in the Calgary organization. That was 23 players signed on the one way contract. And it took one injury a week before the season started. Colin Pedersen, I think you play with him in Buffalo. He got injured and that gave me a spot the door open and that gave me an opportunity to showcase my talent. And after that I never went back to the minors. Colin went to retired after that. So I. But I had to put a lot of hard work just like anybody else. Grew up in a small town where there was not to me too many opportunity to be successful beside being a good student, but also be a good hockey player. Back then we only had. We didn't have any PlayStation, we didn't have any games to play. Our game was to play on the street, play organized hockey. And I had a lot of friends along the way that really helped me. I grew up.

What about Stephan? What about Pierre Tershon? He was my roommate in Buffalo. He was the number one pick over all the Buffalo Sabres. He lived with me in his second year, first year he lived with the family in Buffalo. In his second year, he's in training camp. He says, hey Mike, can I live with you? I said sure. So we lived together in Amherst, New York. And he mentioned that you guys are best friends and grew up and I heard some great stories about you guys. So tell me a little bit about Pierre.

Well, we grew up together. Our parents met at the hospital. I was born September 2nd. Pierre was born August 28th. So they met in the hallway at the hospital. And we played organized hockey together. We play hockey in the street. We play hockey in the living room. And we played till he left when he was 14 years old to pursue his career in Montreal. And I stayed back because my parents could not afford to to put me in a. In the major triple league in Montreal. But we, we stay close today. We still. We did mention your name a few weeks ago. And I said well, I've been talking to, to Mike Hartman for a lot for a while now. And he. That brought smile to his face. He had some good memories and. But what I. What I'm trying to say is, like, I grew up with Pierre. Eric Dejarda, he was a captain of the Flyers. Andre Racico, Pierre's brother Silmay was our idol growing up. And we push each other. And I think I became a much better player growing up. And that led me to be drafted and later on played in the NHL for 13 years.

Now I'm jealous of you guys. And I'll tell you why, both of you, because I grew up loving baseball. So I'm going to get into mindset here a little bit. So you played baseball because, you know, I knew, I knew the story. But you could tell people one day, I'm watching, I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina, might have been three years ago, and I turn on the Little League World Series and there's you and Pierre. And I knew you guys played, but I didn't realize you both played on the same team in the Little League World Series. How did that happen?

Miracle summer. We were pretty good athletes. Overall. We were today's world in baseball. I realized they you need to carry eight to 10 pitchers on your roster because they want to save the kid's arm. Back then we only had two pitchers, myself and Pierre, So we had to finish our game, otherwise the team would be in trouble. But we were, like I said, we were very good athlete, and we went on a run. We represented our city, our district, and then we represent Ontario. Even though we lived in Quebec, we won that tournament. We represented Canada, the World Little League World Series in 1982. What we saw, it was a celebration. They invited us back to Williams Sports, Pennsylvania for a reunion. And some of the kids, some of the men today I haven't seen in 25 years. We gathered together and we. That brought a lot of memories. But we had a miracle summer and what a journey it was.

That's fantastic. So do you think. Let me ask you a question. Get in a little. The mental side of things a little bit. Do you think what, like, I used to talk to people and I have the answer. You don't even have to answer it. But somebody would ask me, hey, Mike, what's, you know, within sports? What part of the game is mental? The mental part of the game, what's physical? And a really good friend of mine, Don Lu, said, what is the percentage? I said, I'm not sure, 80. He says, no, 100%. Because you're always using your mind, you're always preparing, you're always thinking. You have to put your skates on no matter what sport Is you have to prepare for the, even the Little League World Series where you guys are 13 years old or so, or you were. So that's something that I've always learned, that a lot of what we do in our life is the mental side of it. Whether we're going into a meeting in corporate America, at the office, whatever we're doing. You have to prepare yourself. How did you prepare yourself as a player? Did you do deep breathing exercises? Did you, did you talk to some of the older guys at that time? Some of the, maybe the mentors that you had in the NHL like on your team? Is there anybody that you really looked up to and they may have helped you be. Because it's nerve wracking in the beginning, even your first time playing in those first couple games, you're on adrenaline, but after that it's tough. So did you have any mentors or how did you prepare yourself?

I played on six different teams and, and when I started, I was with the Calgary Flames. I remember my roommate was Doug Gilmore and I would be not lazy, but didn't know anything about the game, how to prepare yourself. So if the bus was at 10:15, I would get up at 10, brush my teenage, get on my suit and get on the bus. Doug would get up at 8:15, 8:30, shower, go for breakfast, read the paper, get himself ready. But that's. And then I played, like I said, I played with a lot of players. So I would start after having a few bad games, I would start to mimic what those players were doing. I was fortunate to have Steve Larmor as a roommate in Chicago and Jeremy Roenick, Terran Fleury in Calgary. And a lot of times I switch when things didn't work, didn't work my way. I would sit down with players. How's your preparation? And what do you do when you're nervous in those situation? So I had a lot of insight with those players and I think that made me a much better player.

After talking to those players, it really did help. I remember Mike Foligno was our captain in the first year. I was 19 years old. I know where to go for Thanksgiving. These guys are married with their families. And he would say, hey, will you come over to our house for Thanksgiving? I was uncomfortable, you know, a young guy just starting out. And I talked, I did this thing the other day around, I went on Facebook Live and I talked about some of the relationships that we have. And just in New York alone I have a, you know, just some of the people that we played with. And we still stay in contact with here. They're people that are just unbelievable people. We'll start with Adam Graves and what kind of person he is and what he has done for you and how he looks after people.

But he's been an impact on my life for sure, ever since we played together in 1994. Adam is. When a lot, a lot of people ask us, who's your favorite player of all time? And even though I played with Pierre in St. Louis, we grew up together, my all time favorite is Adam by far. Not what he's, of course, what he did on the ice, but it's the person that he, that he is off the ice. The way he treats people, the way everybody. He knew everyone at the Garden. He knows everyone by their kids, their kid's name, their wife and all their. So I've learned from Adam and I'm very fortunate to have him. But from the 94 teams, we had a lot of leaders, a lot of people nobody talks about. And they were good leaders in their own way.

It was unbelievable that the team we had. And I learned, you know, talk about mindset, I learned by watching these guys. So as a kid, I told Messier this. He kind of looked at me kind of funny when I said, I said, mess, you were my hero growing up. He says, yeah. Really? I said, yeah. I used to watch Hockey Night in Canada and I'd watch the Edmonton oilers. I was 13 years old. And they had, you know, back in those days, you know, with Wayne Gretzky, but we, I didn't get to play with them. I know you did. We could talk about that in a minute. But I was talking to Mess and I said, boy, I used to watch you guys. And then we played with six of these guys with Kevin Lowe and Tekken and McTavish. I mean, what a great group to learn from. And we learned by just watching them on how they prepared. And I think when you talk about leadership and just that's how you learn, you learn by, you know, there's different types of leaders. You know, I didn't meet a lot of rah rah leaders. We didn't have those. But we had these quiet leaders. Mark Messier was probably one of the quietest, nicest people he'd ever met. But when he spoke, he meant something and he prepared. You couldn't talk to Messi before the game. Cause he was doing imagery prior and then he was doing his own thing. But he was such a player and a person that always prepared himself.

Yeah. And he's one of the best leader I ever played with and they don't you don't win five or six championship by just by luck. And Mess is the all time leader but also from the 94 team. What I observed from my seat I was the one of the youngest guy on the team and I, I look at how Kevin Lowe and McTavish you mentioned those players. Eddie Old check didn't have a big role on the team on the ice but he was so good to me. Greg Gilbert, Steve Larmer, so we can go down the list and they didn't have a voice, they had a big voice in the past team. They were great. They were the the leaders in there, in Chicago, in the Edmonton but they realized their go their role is with the 94 teams. It was mess voice and they did anything in their power to support him and that's what made it so special in 94. When we went to Game 6 in New Jersey, Game 7 against the Devils at the Garden when Zelepukin scored and all those guys they stood up and it was fun to watch. It was amazing. Me and the young guy again panicking, freaking out on my bench in the locker room. I didn't know where to go. But just following those leaders was incredible.

Yeah. Before we open up for some questions I have a bunch of questions that people are coming in. A lot of people don't know that on our team that Eddie Olchuk, he brought this great energy to our team that you wouldn't even believe. He was a regular player. I played at Winnipeg with him. He's a great friend and you know he was there. He was our top player. 40 goals, he gets to New York and we were both told we're going to be insurance players. I played 35 games, he played 37 games, played one game in the playoffs. But what people don't know, he was voted players player award for our team. And the reason is because his mindset was he came prepared every day to bring the best energy he can. So you could apply this to your business as well. Anytime that you know there's things that you may not love your boss, you might know where I'm going with this. I'm going to talk about our boss in a minute. But you might not love your boss but you still have to do whatever they say and you still have to bring the best amount of energy you can to the situation. And now I'm going to talk a little bit now we talked about the good, I'm going to talk a little bit about the bad. There was an article in the New York Times. You were a fortunate person to play for Mike Keenan, who I really respect. He could have traded me at the end, and he gave me a chance to be on one of the best teams ever. I was a support player and just coming in and out of lineup, and he was good. But I know everywhere. I mean, you played on five teams, right? And you played with him. And tell us a little bit about that. You played in New York and St. Louis. Why don't you share your story with that?

They being a good friend. Jeremy Ronick with them in junior I got hurt in Calgary my second year and I didn't play the whole year. And Jeremy, I guess, talked to Mike, said, you should go get my buddy in Calgary. Stefan. He's hurt. So he traded me for Trent Yanni, went to Chicago. I didn't play for the first two months when I got there. And he really tested me the one night when I came back and took. It takes a while to get back in shape after missing four months in the season. So I started slow my third games. I think he called me in the office, what's wrong with you? And I got. I was so scared of him with the reputation that he had. And I said, I don't know what's going on as I'm doing my best. I guess that was not the right answer. And he goes, well, tomorrow, if you don't have 10 hits, if you don't get into a fight or something, you're never going to play for the Chicago Blackhawks ever again. And sure enough, I scored a goal, one assist, and I fought Craig. Mike Craig. I think I fought.

Yeah, tough guy in Dallas guy. Yeah.

And I was so scared, I couldn't. But he came back after the game. He went to. He hit me on my shoulder. That's the way I want you to play. And that really helped me. But he was really hard. Like, if you come in being comfortable, he was really hard on you. But he. If you came prepared, that's what I liked about him. It took me years to realize that when I came prepared, I would play 20, 25 minutes in the game. He was not afraid to put you back on the ice. But if you show some weakness early in the game, then I would kiss the bench for a long, long, long time. But I had the chance to play. We lost to the finals against Pittsburgh in 92, so we had a very good run. We won the cup in 94 with the Rangers. And then I went with him in St. Louis and we Had a very good series against that famous goal that Steve Eisenman scored from the blue line in second overtime against Casey. And I had a very good run with Mike. And when I became a free agent, I went to Florida and I retired in Florida. That was a tough season. I blame Mike for so many seasons, for so many years. But I wasn't prepared mentally and physically. And we talked about it a few years ago and I'm glad that he coached us. I'm glad that we're part of the 1994. But it took me a lot of years to realize the impact that he had in my life. I think he made me a better player because it was hard on me.

Yeah, no, he was definitely tough. You know, one mistake and, you know you're sitting out. But that's how you. That's how you had to come prepared, especially if you're a fringe player like myself coming in out of the lineup every night, one mistake, you may not be in the lineup next game. And. And that was a pressure that we had to overcome. And back then. So I'm going to bring on some really good sports psychologists to our show for questions and answers. I have two. Two great ones that are going to be coming onto this. And we were afraid back then to talk to the sports psychologist because if you tell them too much, we're afraid it would get back to the coach or the organization and you really worried about your job. So I want to talk quickly. We're going to open it up to some questions. You had some setbacks in your life. There was an article in the New York Times last year and share those setbacks. And what did you learn from it?

Well, it's not a setback. It's. We go through pressures. We through pressure time. And I. In 1994, things were going well. I scored the biggest goal in New York Rangers history. And after that, it took me seven years to score the next goal, next goal for me in the playoff. And I live with that pressure. And I turn to alcohol. A lot of nights I would drink my. I would drink and put my. Get myself in trouble a few times and. And I was sick and tired of using that excuse while I made the mistake because I had too many drinks and I raised my hand and I said, I need some help. And I've been sober for 19 years. But the thing wasn't complete until I came public and they came up to me, said, would you be willing to tell your story? And the article came out the night. The day that we had our celebration our 25th anniversary. There was a big platform ever since a lot of people came up to me because it's a big disease. It's. That kills a lot of people. I'm not ashamed to. To say that I had an issue, an issue with alcohol. And I help a lot of people. Something that I will. I'm proud of the thing that I handled the situation, even though it took a lot of years and a lot of people come up to me and it's a big family. But I was nervous when the article came out, but I'm glad that it did.

Yeah, it's who we are. You know, that's the thing. We have to be real within ourselves. A lot of people hide behind a mask and, you know, we're very proud that you could do that because we learned from that and we learned from other people. And I totally believe in that. So we have. We have a couple of things. One more thing. Tell people what you do today. I know you do. Besides, we do a lot of work with the Rangers. We do a lot of alumni stuff. Share what you do right now with kids in schools. I think that was really interesting and really great.

We talked about earlier. What do you. You have to do what you're. In life. You have to be happy to go to work. You have to be comfortable what you're doing. And about 12 years ago, 11 years ago, I met someone from Pennsylvania at Mark Massey Leadership Camp in New York. And ever since I've been working for him in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I've been coming here once a month for 10 years and someone. I started my own program in the Bronx and I started this program here, make youe Moment. I go to the Bronx and I have about six schools. We talk to kids. I try to support them about life. A lot of kids in the Bronx don't know anything about the New York Rangers or. Or anything about the hockey. But it turns to. I'm mentor those kids and I. I love doing it. So it's. Everything's been put on hold the last few months, but I'm looking forward for the. My when the schools open up again so I can. Can go back to the school.

Yeah. So I'm. We're getting. That's. That's awesome stuff, really. And it's you leaving that legacy and everything that you're doing for people here. And I think it's great. And we have a few people. What is your favorite pizza place in this area? The New York, New Jersey area?

Well, I've been to New York a lot of Years I've been fortunate to be one of the alumni who's very busy around New York. We go to a lot of places. But Benny Torino's Pizza in Noboken, New.

Jersey, you're lucky because he's right here. Yeah, he's got the biggest slice of pizza I ever had. I felt bad. I went to his place and he gives me two pieces of pizza. I said, what, are you kidding me? And I thought, I mean, I. I treat myself. I told him like, not a vegan or vegetarian, but I, I try to eat well. And the pizza was unbelievable. And boy, I had these two big pieces of pizza. So Benny's mentioning things. I see some other comments here. Mark Roseman, who wrote the book, he's got some great books. He just wanted to know. I lost his question, but I believe it's mindset and what we had to do to prepare for having a tough coach. Let's say we had a tough coach. How would you approach that situation? I believe that's where Mark was going on that question.

Well, looking back, what's the approaches? Looking back, I wish I could go back in time and just go to bed earlier, eat better, work hard in practice, work harder in the gym, and then the game just come naturally. But my biggest advice to a lot of people, if you are stuck in a situation, don't be afraid to raise your hand. And there's a lot of good professional out there who can help you out with your stress, your anxiety. Because I always saw the negative before the game. We would play the Flyers at the Spectrum. I didn't see myself scoring a goal. I saw myself getting my butt kicked against Rick Talkett.

So you're a big guy, you're six five.

So that was one of my biggest weakness. I always saw the negative in things instead of seeing the positive. And I know today I would seek for help and prepare myself even better.

You know, I heard this was a. I read this somewhere that, you know, it's important that you. You don't manage time, you manage your energy. You had a lot of sleepless nights. Some days I couldn't sleep in the afternoon. I was nervous, especially playing for Mike, because I knew, you know, let's say we're playing in Montreal. And I knew, oh, boy, I don't want to make a mistake. And I wish, like you said, I wish I could move the clock back and you waste the energy. And I heard this. Muhammad Ali would. He would see the person he fought in his sleep, in his dreams, and he would do it once. But if he kept dreaming about it over and over, that would exhaust all of his energy. And that's something I wish I would have knew back then because I'm thinking about the game the night before, depending on the night. Like you're going into Philadelphia, they have six guys and somebody taps you on the back and says, I need you to have a physical shift. Not literally saying that you, you sometimes have to. You think about that. It's more of the fear built up. Sometimes you want to get that shift over with already. Get that first shift out of the way. Joe Joseph Edwards Storinger, what advice would you give athletes in the situation right now? Go ahead, Stepper. What advice would you give a young athlete today?

To what, during the, during the lockout, during the break or what?

Just know a young athlete like a 13 year old, 14 year old, a kid playing sports.

It's an easy to have fun with the process. The process is not you will lose a lot of games and I would say don't put the, the loss on your shoulder. If you do your best and you come to work and you come to the game, prepare without cheating and you lose, you might have some bad days, but overall you're gonna have a lot more good days, even though you're not today's society. I think people are judging the win and loss instead of just did. I do my best and have fun with the process.

The one thing I always tell people is I worked with, I did a thing with USA Hockey. They asked me to work with the women's Olympic team and I did some. Back then, we did some leadership work. I went into Lake Placid, worked with the women and I told them the same things when I worked with USA's Hockey, 14, the best 14 year olds in the country. So we would get to Rochester, New York. And the number one thing I told everybody, a lot of them, if you ask them their goals, they'll say the same thing. Well, my goal is to play college hockey or play junior hockey, play college and pro, and that's fine. We'll talk about goals a different time. But what I told them is, number one, you want to have fun. Number two, you want to listen to your coaches. And the first three things that a college coach will ask is, the number one thing is, what kind of a person are you? Because you want a good person going to your school. The second thing is, does he have good grades to go to that college? And the third thing is, obviously he's got to be able to play, so it's not important to think hockey, hockey, hockey. It's neat that you play baseball in the summers, which I recommend different sports. And then you played hockey. So that's the best advice I give athletes right now. Have fun and work as hard as you can. Don't take shortcuts. I remember that I've had good people. And I want to say hi to Arnie Papp and he worked with us in 1994. Hey, Arnie, how are you? Good to see you here. He was with Our team in 94, worked with the team behind the scenes. Just before we wrap it up, I see. How young should a kid start training seriously to become a college athlete? Well, Jeff, this is Jeff that I know from Charlotte. You were a college football player. I can answer that if you want. Or what do you think there, Stefan? Answer that question, Go ahead. Well, I say that you don't overuse your body, you don't over train. And what happens is Stefan mentioned earlier in the show that he would play baseball. There was only two pitchers. Well, nowadays you throw your arm out. So what happens is I believe that repetition is your best friend to a point, because you want to train smart and you want to train hard. So like if you're. I'm not a baseball guy at a professional level, I understand the hockey lingo, but if you're going to be in the batting cage for three hours, you're going to develop bad habits. If you're working on your pitching and you're throwing hard and nonstop, that arm eventually is going to go and your body is like a machine and not properly taken care of, it will break down. So I see another one, James parisi here. Coaching 13, 14 year olds mentally is even harder than today. Yes, it is. So many distractions. Parents, cell phones, TikTok. We've emphasized this on most of our players every practice and game. So coaching 13 and 14 year olds is tough. I know, Stephon, we've done a lot with the youth hockey in that age. What advice can you give James to, you know, to help out to avoid these distractions?

Well, it's easy to get Lou lost and know the phones and a lot of kids today, they look up LeBron James and they look at Kobe Bryant, they look at Oveshkin Crosby and they look at the fame, the money that they can make. But the process is they put a lot of work into it and nobody owes you anything. Their parents, they. Some parents, they go overboard. They, they will. I don't blame the parents. I'm one of them that I made that mistake. Also, I would on. If my son didn't have a good game at some point, I would buy him a stick to make him feel better. A lot of parents, they go through the same thing. It's. It's a fun part, but it's not easy to manage the kids when they are. They have to park their iPad, their iPhone, their games, and then. And so for when they have a big event the next morning. So. But it's a good process. But I would say have fun with the process and enjoy the whole thing.

Yeah. And it's important to have a plan in place. We talk about that a lot. I almost sound redundant. I say the same things. But I'm truly a believer in having a plan. So, James, if you have the kids, okay, here's the plan and here are the rules. Set the boundaries. And one thing I've learned in sports, I'm going off topic, is when you, you know, if you're yelling at the kids on the bench like you're a coach and the kids are on the ice and you're screaming and yelling at them, shoot, shoot. Their motor skills are at a different point than where you're yelling shoot. So they're not thinking shoot at that time, so you're actually throwing it off. The more yelling and screaming they do is the harder it is for the player, young player, because people are yelling, the parents are yelling. And it's as you get to a pro level or college level and the upper levels, you learn to block that out. But your motor skills as a young player, they're not on the same time as you are. So the best thing you could do is let the kids play. I say this, I'm a big New York Yankee fan. I watch a lot of games. And if you watch the coach, he'll sit there or the manager will sit there and he'll have his arm folded and he doesn't say a lot. He'll get mad once in a while. Even though it's a pro level, you let the players play during that time, but teach and learn with good leadership during practice or give them a structured plan. I think that's really important. So, James, I hope we answered your question for you. So just to conclude, I want to thank Stefan for being here today. We're going to be doing a lot of these here. Stefan and I will be doing a lot of these together. We have some great interviews coming up. There's never a bad question, that's for sure. So feel free to hop back on. I enjoyed it. Thanks, Arnie. Yes, use of the video. Arnie was our video guy. So it was never good to see Arnie sometimes because you knew you were in trouble. Hey, Colin Campbell. Mikeena come back in the back office. Oh, great. We got to go see Arnie. What did I do on video? Hey, Arnie. I remember one time I just sat there and Mike Keenan rewind and played the video 16 times and didn't say a word. I think I got the point again. I love Mike Keenan. Love you, Steph. And thanks, everybody, for watching. Talk to you later.

All right, thank you.