There's always pressure playing in the NHL. You want to play your best game every game. Expectations are always gonna be there; it's just important that you know how to handle expectations.
Anyone who doesn't win their conference has no business playing in the national championship game.
We were playing every game to win, we just happened to win 27 in a row. Our motto was to try and go out and win every game, but there's nothing really to talk about.
I just think that playing in a championship game and playing in every game in March Madness, that's just more time for critics to watch you and more time for them to nitpick at what you don't do well or what they feel you don't do well.
Milestones you'd like to reach before retiring? Not really. Because when I began it was never to reach 100 games or reach 200 or to get high on the all-time list or whatever else. Those things are by-products. I want to win another championship, beginning with the conference championship. The thing that was disappointing to me last year was the fact that we did not win the conference championship. I felt like we just let that game (against Air Force in Las Vegas) get away from us.
They've been a thorn in our side, but we're playing for more than just revenge. We're coming out and playing for the Big Ten tournament championship. If we beat them, that'll be great.
I think that at the start of a game, you're always playing to win, and then maybe if you're ahead late in the game, you start playing not to lose. The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.
I've been playing quarterback for a long time, and there's a ton of expectations no matter where you are and how you got there. That's part of the game and part of the position. That's part of the reason I love playing the position, is the expectations and the pressure and all of the outside things that come along with it.
When you are playing against an opposition, you want to go out there and win a game, and for that, you have to be aggressive.
I believe you have to learn how to win. And that just doesn't come from going out on the basketball court and playing. That comes from hours and hours of preparation, preparation before that game, preparation for the other team you are playing, mental preparation.
They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.
The motivation for me is just the game itself, just playing the game the right way and trying to win, compete every time I step out there on the floor. That's motivation enough for me to go out there and play well.
By putting pressure on myself to develop a great game, I had less pressure to win. These days, I tell kids that the way I grew up, it wasn't about winning. It was about playing well, about playing the "right" way. That approach helped me enjoy the game and develop mine to its maximum potential.
Once you get out there and start playing basketball, whether the NBA or college or whatever arena you are playing in or who you are playing in front of, the juices start going, and you want to just go out there and play to the best of your abilities.
I'm not playing for the All-Star Game, I'm playing to win games.
Every time we play, we want to win, that's for sure. It may be the World Championship, the Olympics, the NBA Championship or the South American Championship, but we always want to win.