Team Work Mark Napier

Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley cup champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.

In this episode, I'm going to talk a little bit about teamwork and building your teamwork skills and how important it is to to work on your teamwork skills. And first, I'm going to share a little personal story with you because a lot of what we do is around stories, mindsets and champions. And I've told this story once before, so some of you may have heard it. It's always nice to tell a story just before the holidays. But when I was playing in the NHL years ago, I was playing with the Buffalo Sabres, I was 19 years old and, and I made the team. And the second year I was there for part of that year, then got sent back down and then got called up again for a few more games. And then the following year I played on the team and played in the playoffs against the Boston Bruin. And my first season was my third year and the final year of my contract. I had a three year contract and I was probably one of the best years I've had. I dressed every night, had an injury, actually got in a fight with Bob Probert, hurt my back and, and missed about 10 games. But during that year our team was getting fighting for home ice advantage in the playoffs and we finally did it and we were pretty much done for the year except that last game of the year, which would have been my 70th game that year. Didn't matter if we won or lose, it always matters if we want to win. But I know they called a couple players up and Mark Napier, who was one of our veterans and he was at the end of his career, I believe he played about 15, 16 years in the Stanley, 15 years in the National Hockey League, a couple Stanley Cups, one with Edmonton, one with Montreal, and he was kind of even a hero of mine. When I was a kid, I remember Mark Napier, just to play with him was an honor. Well, that morning as it worked out, I needed just to backtrack a little bit. I needed 70 games for a bonus and a one way contract. So I was on a two way contract which meant if you get sent to the minors, you get paid the minor league money. But back then if you have a one way contract and they Ever tried to send you down, you would have to clear waivers. And if a team picked you up on waivers, you would be gone from that team. Well, I was told in the morning of the, of the morning of the game that I wasn't going to play. So some of the, I was in the dressing room and I was taking my skates off and players said, well, you get a day off. And I kind of opened my big mouth. The last thing I wanted to do was cause any, anything with them. I was a pretty quiet person, especially in an NHL dressing room. So I take my, my skates off and a couple of the players like, like Clark Gillies and Mark Napier and Larry Playfair, Dave Anderchuk, Mike Foligno, I hope I'm not forgetting anybody. They, they asked me, well, what's, what's going on? I said, I get my, get my one way contract. I played 70 games. And they said, wait a minute. And they all got together and they marched into the coach's office who absolutely loved the coach. Then it was Ted Sater and he was just basically telling me from, he was told from above that I wasn't going to dress, but I was going to play. We were playing the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. It was already done. We already knew we were playing. Boston players went in there, they were very angry, they were upset. I fought hard for the year, for the team that year and it was just, it was just a great year. And they thought it was wrong that I wasn't going to play my 70th game. Well, Mark Napier did something that. I just couldn't believe it. I was told I had to go for warm ups that night. And again, a lot of the players went in there and they were angry. You know, even Larry Playfair, who was a defenseman went in there and said, listen, I won't play tonight. And let's, you know, they did everything they could to get me in the lineup. Like I said, Mike Foligno, a bunch of the guys. And the way it worked out was Mark Napier faked an injury so I would have to play now. I couldn't believe that he rolled around on the ice. He was told he was not going to play in the playoffs anyways. They were going with a little bit younger of a lineup and he was done. It was his last year in the NHL. He was pretty much announcing his retirement. I think he went to Italy for one year to play in Italy. He loved his wine and I think he even had a beautiful wine cellar in his house. But just to move on to the story, he faked that injury for me. Now, that guaranteed I was going to play my 70th game. Now, you had to get on the ice to play that 70th game, so you just can't sit on the bench. You get credited a game, but it's not a game on the score sheet that would equal that 70th game. So it's an accredited game as far as your pension goes, but it's not a game that is counted in the record books for dressing unless you step on the ice and play one shift. And the guys joked, they said they were going to throw me over the boards, so I was going to play that one ship. And anyways, I ended up playing a lot that night, getting my 70th game in. And no one has ever done anything in, in their life like that. For me, it was, it put, it put tears in my eyes that somebody would actually do that. And that's called, you know, we're talking about teamwork and being a team player. That's, that goes far above and beyond anything that that has ever happened to me. And the funny part of the story is, you know, where this is supposed to be all team. And the guy said, you better go buy him, you know, a really nice bottle of wine. Now, again, I'm 21 years old and I go to the, the Wegmans in Buffalo and I think I bought a $50 bottle of wine and I brought it in and he was appreciative. And the guy said, are you kidding me right now? I said, I said, what? You need to buy him a five hundred or a thousand dollar bottle of wine? I said, oh, I didn't know. I never me, I never even drank. So. But anyways, we're talking about building your teamwork skills, putting your own self second and the team first. And to this day it sticks out in my mind and I wish I probably would have appreciated it more when I was younger, but I don't like to talk about myself. But again, this isn't really about me. It's about Mark Napier and something that he did. So this is one of my stories that I did mention on my podcast before, but I thought it was important now because we're using that Healthy Mindset for Athletes and Workplace Athletes book. We use that as a guide. And I like to go through each chapter and just reiterate a little bit about what we're doing. And now we're talking about, you know, building those teamwork skills. And again, this is Something that meant the world to me. He grabbed his leg, he rolled around on the ice and he faked an injury, which, you know, to this day, you know, I get chills talking about. So, you know, build that team. Be that team person you are. Be the team person in the office. Be engaging with people. There's a lot of ways we talk about communication, but I don't mean fake communication. I mean authentic communication. Just say, don't ask somebody, hey, how was your weekend? It was like, say, hey, how was your weekend? Did you anything new? Share with me what you did and be engaged with people. Be engaged. That started being. That's part of being on a team. I remember even when I played on every team, the players would come in and they would ask, hey, so what's going on? Anything new? Are you getting acclimated to the area? It was very engaging and I think that's what we did in professional sports. And if I could relay any message that we learned, that I learned in professional sports is, is how we communicated was so important. Build those teamwork skills. If I could help you in any way, go to Hartman Academy and love to help you. I hope you like that story. Again, I'm not a self promoter. This was not about me. It was so much about Mark Napier and the teammate in person that he is. If I could help you in any way, again, go to Hartman Academy. Or you can even get the book the Healthy Mindset for Athletes and Workplace Athletes on Amazon. I share a lot of stories. I hope you enjoyed this part of the podcast. Any questions? Go to Hartman Academy. Love to help you.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Mike Hartman Show. If you're enjoying what you've heard so far, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate that effort. We'll catch you in the next episode of the Mike Hartman Show.