“We played in an era where you were taught to hate your opponent. But life changes. I raise my kids differently than my mom and dad raised their kids.”

The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.

I can remember hockey. It was my life, my passion. It’s what I love the most.

My kids are no different than anyone else’s – they tend to disagree with everything I say!

I played everything. I played lacrosse, baseball, hockey, soccer, track and field. I was a big believer that you played hockey in the winter and when the season was over you hung up your skates and you played something else.

A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.

One of the key qualities that you need to be a great hockey player is fantastic anticipation and feel for the game – if you know where the puck is going before it is hit, that is half the battle.

Most people marry their mother. I married my father.

A lot of times, I can turn and pass without even looking.

When I played in a 21-team league, there were six or seven goalies who were just average, and the equipment and pads were smaller. I came in the right era. I played for the right team. It was all speed, and creativity and imagination.

It doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t matter what other people think. You have to get on the ice and participate and play and the best team wins.

Lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time. There’s nothing like it. It’s the greatest story. In my era, they used to say you couldn’t be a superstar without winning one. I remember thinking when I lifted it: “Now they can’t say that about me.”

I can’t remember the last time I went to a game and there was a fight. I think they fight more in baseball now than they do in hockey.

You’ll never catch me bragging about goals, but I’ll talk all you want about my assists.

My best friend had a hockey scholarship at Ohio State, so I would get a couple of pairs at the beginning of the season and send them down to him. They practised two hours a day. He’d skate in them for three weeks then ship them back.

I miss all the shots I don’t take.

I think a lot of parents live their lives through the kids. Because they didn’t make it [achieve something], they want their kids to make it. It puts a lot of undue pressure on the kids.

Public schools in the late ’80s and early ’90s were a total mess… we felt that if I was going to have a good educational option in my life, I would have to go to a public school district that actually served its children.

I hope you are reading to your children, out loud. That’s much better than watching television, much better. They won’t get very much out of television except some bad thoughts.

Having a kid is great as long as his eyes are closed and he’s not moving or speaking.

We can forgive you for killing our children, but we can never forgive you for making us kill your children.

You can huff and puff. But blow me down? I doubt it kid, or you get your ass whupped.

I challenge every one of you who can hear me to rise to the divinity within you. Do we really realize what it means to be a child of God, to have within us something of the divine nature?

The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.

I don’t remember who said this, but there really are places in the heart you don’t even know exist until you love a child.