(meditative music)
- Takes a lot of character to be a good captain.
(meditative music)
You have to be there all 82 games,
all practices,
you gotta be the guy that everybody understands
he's the hardest working guy on the team.
When you follow your leader that is doing it right,
that's how you build a winning championship team.
(meditative music)
(bird sounds)
(church bell distantly rings)
(water paddling)
- Coming here it was just, everything slows down for me,
and especially being in the off-season trying
to recharge and just kind of get focused again
and have a fresh mindset,
that's probably the biggest thing for me coming here.
It's a little bit more hectic from L.A.
(motor roars)
(motor roar gets quieter)
I grew up in a village
with 1500, maybe 2000 people.
Everybody knew everybody, and it was very safe.
I lived here my whole life,
and that's where my grandpa built this house, too.
So that's what it was.
I know the kids, we were playing outside all the time.
Whether we played soccer, tennis, basketball, you name it.
We were just running around outside.
See, that's where my rink was, literally,
this part right here.
(birds chirp)
Here, up to that shed
and
right here, so that's how I learned.
It was kind of cool.
And what I remember is, go to kindergarten or preschool,
Come home, throw on my skates,
and just go up and down,
up and down and
whoever came to visit us that day
had to play with me and that was it.
My biggest influence was my dad.
He was also a hockey player.
He played for the local team in Jesenice,
and he was always my coach.
I have some trophies over there,
my younger kids.
This is me and my brother's room,
(flips light switch) that's what it was.
It's pretty much the same.
We changed furniture about halfway through our childhood,
but,
that's it.
- [Robitaille] You know, when you go back
to his country and you see him,
and you meet his mom and dad.
He wants to be just one of the guys.
He's got really good parents, and they're making sure
he understands that all he has is a talent.
He's very lucky to be a good hockey player,
but the rest he's just a normal person like every one of us.
And he wants to be that kind of person.
He doesn't think he's bigger than anyone
just because he's a good hockey player.
Even though he's very quiet, and he wants to spend time
with his family, that's important to him.
- I still think they're obviously
too young to realize what this place means to us,
and hopefully in the near future
they can kind of get a grasp on it.
I've been in L.A. for thirteen years now, so,
I certainly...
can call L.A. home too.
And I think we kind of take out
of both cities or both countries,
kind of like the best things,
and just kind of, mash it up together
so we can get the best of both worlds.
Tomáš and I started this camp four years ago.
He's one of the best hockey players
in the history of our country.
He's a very good friend of mine.
It's just been very easy for me
to partner up with him to run this hockey academy.
- I've known Anže since he was young,
like he was asking me
for the ice hockey stick when he was young.
When he began hockey we became friends too,
and when I get tired,
it was a goal that I wanna stay in the hockey somehow,
and Anže offered me if you can tell it came together.
(ice skating)
- [Anže] We have three different age groups,
and they all have practices in the morning.
We make sure that one of us is always present
with kids and spending time with them.
Just giving them the attention that they deserve.
Start over here.
Perfect.
Go! Go!
It sounds cliche-ish,
but you just wanna give back something,
to have them...
see what it takes, really,
even sometimes when it's vacation time in July.
You know, you still have to kind of work and get ready.
But it's all great fun to me too.
In the end of the day
when you see a kid smile and be happy on the ice,
and it really gives me
and everybody else around me energy just to see them,
and in some ways they bring me back to my childhood.
You know, when you're a kid you don't realize,
you just play, and it's the best thing in the world.
Whoops!
And I hope I'm kind of the guy they look up to, obviously.
You try to steer them or guide them
on the right path, on how it needs to be done.
(Anže cheers)
Hopefully in the end of the day in I don't know,
a few years, two, three, five, 10 years,
hopefully there'll be a few more Slovenian kids that,
you know, get drafted first and hopefully
at some point they can play in the NHL.
(audience cheering)
- Our game is all about team,
you can't have success in hockey by being an individual.
And when you're the captain
that kind of leads the entire group,
it is a big honor.
It is something that's a lot bigger than the game itself.
- I've had a bunch of
really really good captains before me,
and I was fortunate enough to play
under Rob Blake's leadership and
Brownie was the one that was my captain
when we first won,
and Blakie and Brownie are not the loudest,
you know, guys in this world,
so, maybe that's why I am a little bit more
of a quiet leader just because,
you kind of take on what you're exposed with.
- He's gonna have to become
more of a teacher.
He's 30, a lot of the kids are gonna come in,
they're gonna be 18, 19, 20, and 21 years old so,
he's gotta make sure that he's the guy they can lean on
when they're struggling.
- [Anze] Take the middle,
take the middle Grundy.
- If Kopi's here early,
if he's in the gym everyday,
and he's doing the extra stuff, and he's watching video and,
when there's power play, penalty kill
or even strength meetings, he's in those meetings,
he's in there first, and he's asking questions.
Those kids will learn
and they'll watch him,
and that's how they're gonna develop.
- [Anže] Being the captain,
all the young kids are looking up to you.
It's tough after a tough loss to have a good attitude,
but you gotta put that right aside
and make sure the team sees you
in the light that they need to see you
and not pouting "so-called"
because what happened in the past.
- [Blake] The word leader
is probably the most important thing,
and there's no manual, you know,
I've seen they've tried it before,
they tried to put together booklets,
and they've tried to put leadership manuals
and say "read this and you'll become a leader."
Well, it doesn't happen that way,
it's by your actions,
and soon as he cuts a corner or takes a shortcut,
then somebody underneath him says "I can do that too."
[Robitaille] I think if you're a professional hockey player,
you're very fortunate to live your dream.
If you're lucky, you're gonna play 15 years.
When you think about it, it is only 10
to 15 years of your life, so,
for me the way I look at it is you should be willing
to do whatever it takes to get ready for the next season.
If you're not ready to do that,
you can go play in the NHL, but probably for another team.
They should wanna get better for the next season,
because next thing you know, it's over.
- We almost finished dead-last last year.
If that's not motivating enough to pull our stuff together
to make sure that we come out a lot stronger
than we did last year, I don't know what is.
(quick feet on track) (heavy breathing)
Over the past ten years,
we've worked really hard to create a culture.
When you have a strong culture
then that's the best way of showing
those young kids what it takes.
- It's his team, and that's a challenge.
And there's gonna be ups and downs.
It's not gonna be fun,
and its not gonna be smooth all the time,
but he has to be there every single day leading them.
- I want to win another Stanley Cup,
that's what it is, that's what we all play for.
I've been fortunate enough to get nominated
for Hart Trophy, and won a few Selke Trophies, but,
let me tell you for a fact
that nothing compares to the big trophy.
That's the one and only goal in my mind,
to win another Stanley cup.