“I think about the importance of team cohesion and culture — what makes a team tick, and what makes guys come together to play at their best. The goal for any team is to find that balance where players care about each other enough to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team, and figuring out how to get everyone on the same page.

“Something I took for granted early in my career in Pittsburgh, with Sid setting the tone, was practice habits: the discipline of showing up on time, and being respectful to each other, the trainers, and the staff. When you take each thing on its own, it seems like a small thing. But when you add them all up, it creates an environment within the facility that is huge. It has to be a positive environment where everyone can be themselves and come to work every day excited and upbeat, instead of down or in a negative mindset. That makes all the difference.

“It’s just little things like that, and finding ways to navigate them. I think that’s the kind of stuff you carry with you your whole life, even past your hockey career.”