Chris Pronger
We are a boutique luxury travel company that caters to elite athletes and C-suite executives who feel the same pressures and time constraints as elite athletes. Having been one, I understand the pressures and the demands on your time.Collection: Travel
If I knew the secret to consistency, I'd be consistent.
The best things in life aren't easy. My career kind of sums that up. From the start of it to the end of it, there were a lot of twists and turns, a lot of different adversities. Having overcome those, it makes you stronger.
I don't have very good peripheral vision, that so-called sixth sense people have. I used to have a really good one, and now I couldn't feel anybody come around a corner.
A lot of guys are missing teeth and don't get them fixed until they're done. I think that's pretty much the hockey trademark... guys figure, well, we're going to lose our teeth anyway, so we'll get them fixed when we're done.
I got a headache right now and you wouldn't know it. It's just a pounding. Back of the head. That's the thing. You get used to it.
Look, I think playing the way I played, and knowing the game the way I know it, I think I'm going to have a better idea as to what the mindset of each player was.
Mistakes happen. Not every one of my suspensions was purposeful or intentional. A lot of that stuff happens spur of the moment in the middle of a game.
I don't like having noise swirling around me. Loud noises bother me, so I try to stick to the outside of a room. I try to keep the noise in front of me.
In the '90s, when I started, it was still a rough-and-tumble, physical league. You take the hook and holding and a little bit of the physicality out of the game, and the speed ratcheted up two-fold.
It takes nothing to get me to sensory overload.
Unless you're dying, it's ingrained in our culture to play. Pain doesn't hurt; it's just pain.
I didn't play the game to make friends; I played the game to win.
If I don't write things down, good luck. I was talking to my mom last night. I take another call, tell her I'll call right back, 10 minutes. Think I remembered?
A lot of guys around the league might say I need a dentist.
When you have just a beard and no moustache, it's not good. But when I do grow my peach fuzz, the girls seem to swarm a lot more.
Sometimes, I actually feel good when I get a penalty, because I get to rest for two minutes - hopefully just two minutes.
I'm from the middle of nowhere. I had to drive four hours just to find a city. It's a different upbringing. It was perfect for me. I love the small-town feel, where you know everybody.
Growing up, I ate, slept and breathed hockey. I got home from school, I shot pucks, played outdoor hockey, road hockey, go home for dinner... Remember this is pre-Internet, barely any video games, I had a Commodore Vic-20. If you weren't doing your homework, you were outside playing hockey, most likely.
I get to play behind Al MacInnis and learn from him. I get to play with Brett Hull. There were like six or seven Hall of Famers that I would play with during my time in St. Louis. I mean, Wayne Gretzky was traded there my first year.
My cognitive skills are a little suspect at times. It comes and goes on certain days. I can be sitting here and you might say what's wrong with him, and I'll figure out what I was saying and start going again.
Everybody that has ever played a professional sport would like to go out on their terms and very few get to.
You want to be the guy to carry the Stanley Cup around and leave the game on a high note. As we all know that rarely happens.
Everybody wants to go out like a John Elway, where he wins two Super Bowls and is able to retire on his own terms.
When my wife was six years old, her father was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and was given a 10% chance to live. He wanted to travel the world with his family while he could, so on these trips she got to see her father be excited to be with the family.
As social media grew and people learned of our travels, my wife would get requests from friends for suggestions about their travels. So she would help them connect with the right people and set up the right trip.
And as you really dig deep and start talking to families about their goals, dreams and bucket list trips, you really get to know someone, which allows us to mentor them... and they start feeling comfortable with you.
I had a set schedule since I was 15, since I started playing junior hockey. When you don't have that sometimes you try to find something new and it's difficult.
You miss the routine. That's the biggest thing. That's probably the biggest thing that put me into a hole, that you don't have a routine, you don't get up and work out and then eat and then go to the rink and practice an all those things in a set schedule.
I get up, I have breakfast, go work out, go to my eye appointment, come home, relax for a couple hours, and then go get my kids from school and start carpooling them around to their different activities and things they do.
I played to the best of my ability. Played to win and was fortunate enough to have won a Stanley Cup and a couple gold medals and played on some really good teams... I'm not going to look back and say I wish I could have done this or that.
Obviously, I played two years in Hartford and I have a lot of fond memories.
I'm very interested one day in becoming a GM. I have a lot to learn and need to put some work in. But down the road at some point, under the right circumstances, it's definitely something I'm interested in pursuing.
Fans are fickle, it's the nature of the beast.
Getting traded to Edmonton was fine with me at the time. At the end of the day, though, you just try to do what's best for you and your family.
I have nothing bad to say against the city of Edmonton. I liked it there. I had a fun year playing. It's something I'll remember for the rest of my life.
I don't want to get into a 'he said, she said' with the refs...I'm the he.Collection: Hockey
Whether the guys are nervous or just had mental breakdowns, it happens. The game is a game of mistakes. And how you deal with them and correct them and all the things like that is what makes this game great and makes hockey the sport it is.Collection: Sports
I've got to live my life. Bad things happen. I can't be sitting here worrying about it.Collection: Worry
In the '90s, when I started, it was still a rough-and-tumble, physical league. You take the hook and holding and a little bit of the physicality out of the game, and the speed ratcheted up two-fold. Now you have a split second to make a hit, or decide to pull up. When there's indecision, you're going to make a mistake.Collection: Mistake
My doctors say the more I continue to push, the more I can continue to raise that bar, the better I can get.Collection: Doctors
I don't like having noise swirling around me. Loud noises bother me, so I try to stick to the outside of a room.Collection: Trying
Mistakes happen. Not every one of my suspensions was purposeful or intentional. A lot of that stuff happens spur of the moment in the middle of a game. I think I can bring that to the table. Sometimes emotions get the best of you. Things happen.Collection: Mistake
You get a pretty good read by watching the play, and knowing what you would have done - having done most of the things that these guys are accused of doing. I put myself in their shoes: Would I have been wanting to send a message? Is it a hockey play that went a little sideways?Collection: Hockey
I was still very invested in the team, very invested in how we were doing. I realized I needed to take a step back and start focusing on myself, my head and my eye, try to get my health back.Collection: Team
It's not like you can start pounding drinks when you're wheeling your kids all over. They gave me something to shoot for, a goal to get back to.Collection: Kids
I just didn't feel very good. One day I woke up and I was like: "All right. I'm going to start eating right. I'm going to start working out." I figured it might help me feel a little bit better - even if I was still sick, it might help me move forward with my struggles. I just kind of turned a corner.Collection: Struggle
I was sitting at a friend's place in Michigan on vacation, having a beer on the patio. I was a little hefty. I said to myself: "Okay, I'm going to finish this weekend off strong, then after that I'm going to shut her down. I'm going to start taking better care of myself."Collection: Strong
You do what you can to help your team win, whether it's playing that many minutes or 24 or whatever is asked of you, you do. You prepare yourself to play as much as you're asked to play.Collection: Team
I have played in the West for 14 years. I played against Dustin Byfuglien a lot. So it's not like I've been out East for my whole career and never played against the guy. That may have been blown out of proportion, I think.Collection: Thinking