In Search Of Excellence - Luc Robitaille: Playing With Wayne Gretzky And Lifting The Stanley Cup | E90

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Welcome to part 2 of In Search of Excellence episode with a good friend of mine, Luc Robitaille! Luke is an NHL Hall of Famer and the highest-scoring left winger in NHL history, with 668 goals over his 19-season career.In his first year in the league, Luc won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year and then went on to become the only left wing in NHL history to record 8 consecutive 40-goal seasons.Luc played 8 all-star games, won a Stanley Cup as a player with the awesome Detroit Red Wings in 2002, and 2 more Stanley Cups as an executive with the Los Angeles Kings.He is giving back to his community through his Echoes of Hope Foundation.Time stamps:11:29 Becoming a Stanley Cup ChampionA hard trophy to winAs a free agent, went to the Detroit Red WingsLuc’s feelings during the game and after winning the cup18:39 Giving away his best memorabiliaA great party after winning the cupA poker night theme with giveawaysGave away the stuff he collected during his career22:42 The NHL Hall of FameIt was very emotionalLuc’s inspiring speechThe reaction of his parents26:28 The fear of failing makes you greatIf you're willing to push yourself, you're going to have successWhat do you do when no one's looking?28:25 The importance of extreme preparationLuc was very disciplinedHad to be sure he was prepared for every gameHe likes having a plan and sticking to itPicking the right marketing agency34:10 How important is passion to our success?Passion is the most important thingVery few lucky people do a job that they're passionate about36:34 Is luck an important ingredient of our success?You bring your luck through preparationSomeone can open the door for you, but you have to prove yourselfWork ethic and constant improvement41:51 Being humble and kindLuke grew up in a humble familyThe lesson from his uncleHow important is being kind and humble for our success?Very successful people are usually extremely humbleNever forget where you came from47:13 How important are coaches in hockey?Coaches in hockey are very importantA coach has to make sure every player is involved49:52 Giving back to the communityIt’s important to give back – money or timeHelped numerous foundationsStarted a charity with his wifeStarted working with foster kidsHelping them to stand on their feet56:20 Fill in the blanks for excellenceThe biggest lesson I've learned in my lifeNever give upMy biggest regret isNot spending enough time with familyAnd moreSponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

Don't ever forget the person that serves you water. Those are the people that are really part of real life. And that stuck with me. I never forgot that. Every one of us is lucky to have something. I was fortunate to have a talent and a sense for a game that I love. But every one of us has some type of sense. And few of us get to live our passion or our dream.

And I think I never forgot where I came from. I never forgot that part. I never forgot that part. I never forgot the kid. I waited for this player to get an autograph. You're listening to part two of my awesome conversation with Luke Robitaille, one of the greatest hockey players in the history of the National Hockey League

and the president of the Los Angeles Kings. If you haven't yet listened to part one, be sure to check that one out first. Now, without further ado, here's part two with the amazing Luke Robitaille. In your third year in the league, Bruce McDonnell, who owned the Kings, is a good friend of both of ours, incredible guy, who's done some bad things. But, you know, some people have, a lot of people we know have done some bad things. For those people who don't know, he had a movie studio went bad he owned a uh stamp a stamp in a coin company um there was a chance he was going to go bankrupt so he created fake invoices yeah with the stamps on the coin

borrowed against that had negotiated a deal with sony to buy the team It was two days away from closing and an accountant found the mistake and Bruce ended up going to jail. But everyone loved him. And he brought hockey to LA like it had never been before. In 1993, that was your third year, he brought Wayne Gretzky to the Kings. Jimmy was the star player in that trade. Interesting enough, Jimmy had a better year in Edmonton than Wayne had here. He had 55 goals that season. Wayne was a hockey god in Canada, the best player to live. And even at the time, Brian Mulrooney, the prime minister of Canada, had tried to stop the trade. So tell me what it was like playing with Wayne Gretzky, how that influenced your life and career. And what do you tell you that one time when you wait a little too long to pass the ball?

Yeah, I think for me, like Wayne Gretzky growing up, even though I scored a lot of goals and I learned to score goals, my career went, I really pride myself on being a playmaker. And it was, it had everything to do from the first time I saw Wayne. I think I was 13, 12 or 13 years old and I saw Wayne. So he was about six years older than me, I think. You saw him live or you saw him on TV? I saw him on TV and I was floored. Like I had never seen a player play like that. I couldn't believe it.

And then from then on, it was like anything I could see or learn about Gretzky I try to learn and I remember as a kid like I had posters of Gretzky and on my wall you know and you know like if Edmonton would play it was a 9 p.m game it was really late and and I'd sneak somewhere and my dad be watching he didn't see me on the corner of the hallway trying to watch his game, but everything around my life was trying to be like Gretzky. That was truly my hero. And so when he got traded to the Kings, and that was in 1988, I was so excited.

I hadn't met him a couple times times because he owned our junior team. But I was like, when you meet your hero, you're like, hey, sir, how are you? And that was it, you know. But I watched everything I can. I remember my first couple of years in the NHL when I would play against Edmonton. This was my Super Bowl, you know, because I wanted to impress Wayne Gretzky. I'm not even sure I was thinking about winning. because I wanted to impress Wayne Gretzky. I'm not even sure I was thinking about winning. I just want to impress Wayne Gretzky.

But I do recall my first year, he missed a play, and he skated by our bench, and in his breath, he goes, fuck. And I'm like, I couldn't believe he was swearing. Like, this is how much, you know when you see your idol, you think everything you do is perfect? And so I really, i remember being floored so when he came to the kings it was it was difficult for me because he was my idol so like i would look up to him and okay like it didn't seem real so like from that i think the first year it took me maybe two years to start saying okay wait a minute he's just a human being like me he's just normal even though he's the greatest player to

ever play the game but what happened is i started playing with him and because i had kind of tried to do my game after him i was trying to do the same play as him, the same passes as him. Like even when Jimmy was scoring goals, I was priding myself on being a playmaker. And so one game, I'm on the ice, we get a two and one. And the real play is you play with Wayne Gretzky, the greatest playmaker in the history of the game, you give him the puck. But instead I held on and I was going to do a Wayne Gretzky play. So I waited, waited, and I made the pass, and it got caught in the air by the defenseman. So when we got back to the bench, Wayne is just, you know,

like you talk with players all the time. He goes, hey, Lucky, he goes, give it to me right away. And he goes, I'll give it back to you. Don't worry. I'm like, okay, okay. Like it wasn't like, it wasn't a teammate to me. It was my hero. So then for the next i think 10

game i was so nervous every time i got the puck all i would do is throw it at him like it was like here it is here it is and i clearly remember our coach after a bunch of game he says i'm gonna take you off of wayne's line because he says uh you know you're too you you get you're not playing your game anymore it's It's hurting us. It's hurting the team. It's hurting you. And in a way, I was so nervous to please him that it kind of felt a little bit of relief at the time. A couple years later, I was like, okay, now I know how to play with him and everything.

But it did take me a couple years. Did he make you a better player and also a better person? And how? Yeah, well, he made me a better player because i watched like i said i i always knew i wasn't the best skater i wasn't the strongest so i i had to be a student of the game and i watched every player that would play well during the season or every player that i thought was really good i watched them and then i would say okay these 10 things he's doing i can't do but that one thing i can't replicate that so i would practice that like i would watch mike bossy

and i read his book and he said whenever you struggle he shot five hole because if you shoot five on hockey you can't miss the net you pick the corner what does that mean to people who so you shoot between the legs so if the goalie's standing there and you shoot between the legs that means he's in that you're going to get a shot on net. Right, but I mean, we're talking about that much room where the puck barely goes through the goal like that. But if you aim there and you hit it, you're going to score. But if you don't, there's going to be a rebound,

it's going to hit someone, and you keep getting shots on net. And the theory is if you miss the net, Gritsky said, 100% of the shots you don't miss or you don't take, you're never going to score. But if you hit the net, it gives you a chance. And when you're a point getter in sports, if you get a cheap point where it might be a rebound and it goes in, it kind of boosts you up and it makes it.

So that was an example I got from Michael Bossie. But watching me, Wayne, every day, I would watch all the little detail the game he was doing. And there was a lot of stuff that I couldn't do, but there's a lot of stuff that I'm like oh he's doing this I could do that so I would practice that over and over again his way to shoot the way he would read the eyes the way he would go on a spot where no one goes and I started like doing some of the stuff he was doing but and as a person he was the ultimate teammate no matter what like he Wayne Gretzky Michael Jordan you know LeBron James Kobe Magic their world is so big it's very hard for people to understand how these people that they have no

life like everybody looks up to them it's really hard the the greatest businessman in the world will meet michael jordan it's michael jordan it's a whole different world and wayne was like that and but what i appreciate about wayne is he's just want to be a teammate that he didn't care like about like he understood he had to help promote the game, and he was always on. Like, you know, like always, he never said a dumb quote. He never spoke out of line. But when no one was around, he just wanted to go to dinner with the boys. He wanted to be a teammate.

And that's the way he grew up, though, playing with Edmonton. They were a bunch of young guys, and he knew that's what it took to win. So that was fun for me to see and to enjoy that part. I didn't know Wayne when he was playing, obviously, you know, I'm a huge fan, Red Wing fan. He used to kill me when he would beat us. He used to kill the Red Wings. Yeah. That was like a big time. Gordie Howe was his player. So the Red Wings, he always was up for them. Yeah. I know him now. He's my next door neighbor in Coeur d'Alene. And it's interesting because he's just a regular guy. And he's just walking around.

And there's a lot of interesting people there, some well-known people. And then people like me and most people just have no fame at all. Regular, regular people. And he's just one of the guys. And that's how I know him. Just not even one of the guys. He's just a human being. Walks around in shorts and flip-flops and people are not fawning all over him.

And it's, you know, as a person, you don't think about if you're not famous or a superstar, the most famous person in the world, but like you can't go out to dinner. Now maybe, now he can go to dinner. But Tom Brady can't go to dinner. None of these superstars can go because it's too much. Like you said, they don't have a life. Well, people talk to you differently. I think like Wayne, he just wants to be a normal person.

He's just happy to be the greatest player that ever played a game. But at the end of the day, when you're an athlete, you still like even watching tom brady from afar not knowing him you know he loves to be with his teammates part of the inside that locker room that's a special world for any of us and and it these guys don't get that when they go outside it's very hard for them to see so i know wayne as an example when he gets around a few of players and they're having beers telling stories he just lights up he just he's got the best stories

and he just loves that part you know yeah it's fun i mean i've had a few drinks with he and janet before and it's yeah it's fun for me yeah i mean yeah it is awesome yeah so let's talk about the stanley cup if you're listening or watching and don't know much about hockey, winning the Stanley cup means you've won the championship. It's our version of winning the super bowl of the 10,000 plus NHL players who have competed over the last 50 plus years, about 75 to 80% have never won a Stanley cup. You've won it once as a player in 2002 with the awesome Detroit Red Wings. And then, which had 10 Hall of Famers on the team. And you've won it twice as a president

of the Los Angeles Kings in 2000. Let's redo that. Let me redo it when we're done. We're going to redo it now. Okay. Perfect. The 10,000-plus National Hockey League players who have competed over the last 50-plus years, about 75% to 80% have never won a Stanley Cup. You've won it once as a player in 2002 with the awesome Detroit Red Wings, my favorite team, as you know,

which had had 10 Hall of Famers on the team and one of the best teams probably ever in history of the league. And twice as an executive with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012 and 2014. Can you tell us about the saying, if you can't beat them, join them, and how you had a different take on that when you were 35 years old, 16 years after you had been in the league? And what was your exact feeling at that exact moment when that final horn sounded you became a stanley cup champion and lift that trophy on the top of

your head uh well first of all like it was the greatest feeling ever because you we went and when i was with the king we went to the final in 1993 and i clearly remember looking at rob blake that was a young player on my team and said, we'll be back next year. Then the Kings didn't make the playoffs for five years. A year later, I got traded. Life just changed. And, and it's, it's a hard, hard, hard trophy to win and takes everything going the right way and so forth. when i went to detroit i clearly remembered a summer before we had beaten detroit in the the playoff before and i was a free agent and i didn't you had beaten them yeah well we were down to nothing we ended up winning the series but i i became a free agent

i didn't know what i was going to become a free agent i thought i was going to sign in la and i didn't know at the time you know you don't know behind the scene. I thought, I thought they were screwing me, but that was not it. They had budget and they had to go buy it. And, and, um, so looking at teams, I remember my kids were already registered in a school. So I thought I got to stay on the West coast. And my wife looks at me and she goes, well, who do you think has the best chance to win the cup next year? wife looks at me and she goes, well, who do you think has the best chance to win the cup next year? And I go, Detroit. She goes, well, you guys just beat them. I go, yeah, but they had just signed or made a trade for Dominic Hasek and I knew how good they

were. So she goes, well, why don't you try to go there? I go, really? I go, but it's far because I knew my wife was going to stay in LA. She goes, it doesn't matter whether you're in San Jose or Dallas or, or Detroit, you're still going to be playing hockey all the time. And so I said, okay, my agent called Ken Holland. I was the GM in, in, uh, in Detroit. And he told him I was interested in going. And I think they thought I was already signing LA at the time and took maybe an hour or so. And then we ended up making a deal and I ended they thought I was already signing in LA at the time and took maybe an hour or so and we ended up making a deal and I ended up going there and going there I knew I was really excited because it was going to be one of the greatest team and then about three weeks later we signed Brett Hall right he wasn't signed at time so coming on that team there's a lot I learned

because I was always you know one of the guy counted on the score gold now you go on that team there's a lot I learned because I was always you know one of the guy counted on the score gold now you go on a team there's like 10 guys counted on so you understand to be successful like any business you you're going to have a leader but it takes everyone to be on board to to sacrifice a little bit to win. And that team, we had 10, like you said, 10 Hall of Fame plus. Scotty Bowman, our coach, was a Hall of Famer too. So I think the biggest thing that I learned is because, funny enough, I ended up playing a role on that team that was a lower role than anything I had. But I won.

And I learned a lot that everybody's counted upon at a different time. And that made me a better person a better leader and then uh you know winning the cup though for me like you know i didn't know we were going to win but i sure the expectations were very high but i i clearly remember when i won i was like 16 years 16 fucking years i was so happy that I knew my name was going to be on the cup. My family name was going to be on the Stanley Cup. And that just meant everything. You're just watching that clock winding down.

Three minutes, 2.59, 2.58. And then, but what did you feel when you stepped onto that ice? Everyone raised a hand. I've seen you. They always do it. They throw their gloves. They throw their helmets. And you guys are all running in there. And you're, you know, you touch do it. They throw their gloves, they throw their helmets and you guys are all running in there and you're, you know, you,

you, you touch the cup. It's above your head. What were you feeling? Right before that, you said I was looking at the clock when I, when I was about three minutes left in the game. And what happened is I improved my defensive game. Like we had other guys that would score goals and I became a more responsible player to win. So at about two and a half, three minutes left in the game, Scotty Bowman named my line to go, and we were up 2-1. We were going to win the cup. But I remember I went out there. I was so pumped, you know, but I was not going to screw it up.

I was like, there's not a chance. I was not going to take one chance, you know. And I remember I four-checked, and I got the puck. I dumped it in. I went and four-checked again. And Brendan Chan laughed so hard because I got – something happened where I got caught on the ice. There was like a bad change, and I ended up staying too long.

But I couldn't come to the bench because if you come to the bench, it leaves a hole. And Brendan was taking me. He was playing left wing and and finally I was able we were able to get a puck and dump it in and I turned around and I was gonna sprint to the bench because I wanted him to jump you know you want to win and Shani he still tells the story how I toe picked like twice and I went ahead first he said he's looking at me he's literally laughing at me because he knows how much

i want to change and he still laughs about that like he couldn't believe how much like how much i want to get back to the bend then he stepped on the ice and he scored to make it three one with the empty net we ended up winning but uh so that was kind of a funny moment of looking at the clock at countdown but when when we won and stevie eisman had the cup and i think i was the second one they gave it to they gave it to dominic hasik then me yeah and uh it was to lift it up in the air i think it's 33 pounds and it feels like it's nothing and it was it's it's hard to describe that feeling because it's like but that moment, you've achieved everything. Like you're a kid, you're not even thinking to play in the NHL.

You see Montreal Canadiens, you see that trophy, and then finally you do it. There was such a, I'm not sure if it's a relief or just a total happiness of everything that you worked for, it finally paid off. Are you looking for your next great gift to surprise a friend, colleague, or loved one? Bliss Beaches makes the perfect gift. This best-selling, bright, and beautiful coffee table book by Randall Kaplan features stunning drone photography from exotic beach locations around the world.

It's the perfect housewarming gift, a great addition to any home or office, and a fun and creative alternative to bringing a bottle of wine to somebody's house for dinner. Bliss Beaches is available for purchase on Amazon, where it has glowing reviews and a five-star rating. Get your next amazing gift and order a copy of Bliss Beaches by clicking the link in our show notes. So each player on the team, the coaches, people on the staff, get the cup for a few days a year. The cup travels with the guy from the league who wears a jacket and tie, and he's with the cup at all times. He's not going to leave it with you.

You do whatever. You had a party at your house. It was really fun to be there. You had a truck with food, an In-N-Out truck, which was spectacular. In-N-Out, I got the California Pizza Kitchen, too. You had a truck with food. In-N-Out truck, which was spectacular. In-N-Out, I got California Pizza Kitchen, too. You had CPK there. I can't remember the donut company. I had the whole California theme.

It was a great party, and it was fun to celebrate. First of all, I'm just happy you won it with the wings. I mean, obviously, I'm from Detroit. But what was interesting to me is you gave away a lot of your best memorabilia that night, well, I'm just happy you won it with the wings, right? I mean, obviously I'm from Detroit, but what was interesting to me is you gave away a lot of your best memorabilia that night and it was a raffle and I was just like, God, 55, 55, call my number, call my number. And I didn't get me, you gave away your world cup jersey, all your winning jersey. Why did you do that? Why didn't you keep all that stuff?

You know what it was? Like that year, I had never done that in my career. That year when we started the playoffs, I started acquiring stuff in Detroit. Like I would grab pucks after games, and I would grab pucks on the ice. I kept sticks, and I would write down which game. Everything that I could think, every round we'd win, like I'd win, I kept stuff coming back.

I just had it. And at some point, I remember thinking, well, if I win, we'll do a party and we'll be part of it. So, you know, the party started. I remember thinking, well, invite all my friends from LA who've never seen the Cup, like all the real hockey fans. So we started, we thought we'd get 200 people in our backyard. And I think we ended up at four or 500 people. It was like, yeah, ridiculous. We had to cover the pool. We, we, uh, we, we did the, you know, we had a little roller rink. So, so we want,

my wife's really good at throwing parties. She said, we gotta have a theme. So we did like a poker night. So I said, I know what we're going to do. Like whomever, we won't tell anybody, but if they win, they're going to get tickets. And whomever wins the most trip will have more tickets and we'll draw like stuff that I accumulated during the playoffs and throughout my career. And I just, because I knew all the people that were there were people that they, they shared the love of the game. Yeah. And that's really, that was the idea.

So we kind of made it fun in that way. And some of the stuff was really cool. I had a jersey signed by the whole team, you know, the Stanley Cup winning team. Yeah. I had a lot of stuff like that. You gave that one away or no? Yeah, I gave that one away. You didn't get it.

I know. Fuck. But yeah, we, so that was the idea behind that yeah so um a highlight for me that night was taking a picture with a cop right i mean i'm i still have the picture look at the picture and it's super fun john cooper is also a neighbor in quarter lane yeah great great guy and um i go back and forth during the summer. I have to work. I have my internship program, but Madison's up there for the summer. During the middle of COVID, he's won now as a coach two times in a row back to back, which is very hard to do.

And all I know is I get the call on a Wednesday night when I'm not there. Coop has the cup. We're all going to the clubhouse and we're all going to party and drink from the cup. And literally they filled it with alcohol and punch and these big straws. And I'm jealous. I'm taking it out on my wife. Like I want to be there or whatever. And then I was then like, you're drinking out of a straw with a hundred other people there in the middle of coverage. Like everyone's doing it but uh and i and then i'm hoping okay third year you know i made it to the final one more time and um you know didn't didn't didn't get it so i i've yet to drink from the cup so hopefully one of these days i'll i'll know someone i'll be at the right time but uh let's talk about

going back to the draft. And I want to give you a statistic that you probably don't know. And we already talked about this before a little bit. If you're drafted in the ninth round, the odds are against you. Only 2.3% of ninth round draft picks go out to play in the league.

For the 2.3% of nine rounders who make it, the average career lasts 3.6 years. Through all your hard work and immense talent, fuck the scouts, you played 19 seasons and retired as one of the greatest players ever to lace up the skates. Two years after you retired, you were inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame

at 43 years old, the second youngest player ever to make it. I watched your speech two nights ago. It was awesome. It's been a few years since you probably gave it, but do you remember how you ended it? And what did it feel like to watch your parents crying in the audience? Well, it was, it was emotional. I do. I can't, I can't remember the exact word, but I do remember because someone actually gave me a poster of me and they wrote it.

But it was like a message to all the kids that people don't believe in you. All the ninth rounder out there, believe in yourself. And I can't remember. Do you want me to read it to you? Yeah, go ahead. Read it to me. Go back up. Then I'll come back.

Okay. It's in my house and I should know it, but I don't stop and look at my picture. Go back up. Then I'll come back. Okay. It's in my house and I should know it, but I don't stop and look at my picture. Keep going up right there. Okay. Keep going up. That's the one before.

So it said, here's the light that shines on a ninth round draft pick of the world who are too slow who can't skate don't have a chance to make it and compels them to achieve greatness anyway this applies to all of us and all the kids around the world be a light follow your dreams anything is possible yeah yeah we it actually came from our foundation there was some of the kids that echoes of over the time that they had written something about being a light and that's how this this came about actually to be honest my wife helped me write that but that's really what it meant that was the message yeah then looking at your parents looking at your parents? Looking at my parents was overwhelming

because you go through it. You don't play to get in the Hall of Fame. But you knew at that point you were getting into the Hall of Fame. You know because you got the call and everything. But when you're there that night and I look down at my parents and then it goes in your mind all the sacrifice they did you know like every one of us has had success had someone to help us no one can do it alone you do it alone you do the work alone but there's always someone there and it's my dad never was

hard on me you know from that standpoint he was he was a hard man you know at home and sometimes he was impatient but never with hockey he just drove he was at every game never criticized my game he just said keep working hard keep working hard i think one time he questioned my game it was one time in my whole life but uh he never said anything and then you know when you're there in the hall of fame you're like wow you know there's then by that time i realized you know how our life was and so forth so it was i i could tell it was it met the world to them and then that was from that standpoint it was pretty overwhelming roll up for a second because i want to say no down for a second, the other way. So, so many people look at the odds of doing something so difficult, right?

I can't do that. I can't win an Academy Award. I can't play professional sports. I can't climb Mount Everest. They're very hard to do. What's your message to everyone out there in personal life and their business life who are looking at something, they don't do it, the odds are too small, and they fear of failing?

I think fear of failing sometimes makes you great. I remember hearing Bill Gates, this fear of failure, like what made him great every day. But it's what you do with it. It's like they say about courage. It's like in our game game it's really hard to block a shot it's come a hundred miles an hour you know it's going to hurt guys still dive in front of it all the time and that's that's courage you know it's going to hurt you know you're going to get hurt but you're trying to win the game you're going to block a shot now you can take that into going to war and, you know, you're taking a bullet for some reason to help your country. That's the same idea. You know you might die, but you still do it.

And I think when someone is scared or is questioning something, if you're willing to push yourself, you're going to have success. You know, it's what you do when you're against the cliff. What do you do when things are hard? What do you do when no one's looking? If you do something when no one's looking and you're trying to get better at it, first of all, you're picking the right thing. Because if you're only doing it when people are watching you, you probably got the wrong job or the wrong thing.

It's like a great doctor. They try to get better all the time. If you're a heart surgeon, you're trying, even though you might be the best surgeon in the world, you're probably trying to learn all the time. That's what makes you the best. And that would be the same to have any success.

You got to try to do what other people are not willing to do, especially when no one's looking. So one of the elements of my success has always been something I call extreme preparation. It's something I teach. It's something that I coach. When someone prepares one hour for something, I may do 10, 20, or sometimes even 30. I'm always the most prepared guy who walks into the room. Can you talk about, you've talked about a little bit studying players even though you were great yeah all-star you've talked about waking up at 4 30 in the morning can you give some other examples of how extreme preparation was important to your success extreme preparation is everything i mean i remember like uh like to give you an example like we like sometimes people will talk about our sport we play

82 games a year and they're like oh you might get tired and everything and and i'm always like well wait a minute you only have to rest for 82 nights that's it you still got 260 or whatever 280 nights you can do whatever you want but those those 82 nights you'll make sure you go to bed at nine o'clock make sure the day before you have the proper meal like i would i would have a very like i never said no people will always say luke never says no he signed autograph he's there for fam but what people don't know is like from the time i had to practice say on a wednesday and we played thursday like i was regiment like you know my i went to practice, say on a Wednesday and we played Thursday, like I was regiment, like, you know, I went to practice. If I was tired, I practiced a certain way. If I felt good, I practiced a certain

way. Then when I started learning about working out with weights, I would do my weight program. I ate a certain meal at one o'clock after. If in the afternoon, I wasn't sure what to do because I didn't want to sleep, I went to see a movie, you know. Then I had a dinner at a certain time. Then I had my ritual to go to bed, my ritual to wake up in the morning. I knew exactly what I was going to do. And by the time I got to the game, every single game, I knew I had done everything right to be ready for that game. I wasn't good every game. You know, I wasn't the best skater every game. There's some games I was tired, but if I knew I had to drink six bottles of water between 8 a.m. till game time, it was done. All those little things were done. I never played a game like people will say, some players will say, and I

had to heard older players say, man, I wish I would have been a little bit more serious than this and that. I remember thinking, I'll never say that. I'm going to be ready for every single game and every single one that I play. Like I said, it wasn't good every game, but I know one thing, like every single game I was prepared the best way I could. And I've kind of lived my life like that. Even now on the business side, I'm always like, okay, we've got to prepare. We've got to have a plan. We've got to stick to the plan and it's not going to be I'm always like, okay, we gotta prepare. We gotta have a plan. We gotta stick to the plan. And it's not gonna be good every day. You know, we're gonna have ups and downs, but,

and that's kind of like the way we've built our franchise and kind of change our culture that way. Most people think that your actual performance starts the minute you walk in the room, but the best of the best do something different. The best of the best, know that greatness starts the night before they get a good night's sleep. They focus on their diet. They focus on the diet of the best do something different. The best of the best know that greatness starts the night before. They get a good night's sleep. They focus on their diet. They focus on the diet the night before,

the day of their game. They get there early. The best ones get there first. And they stretch, they meet with the team. They meet with their teammates, their coach. And it's something that I think most people don't do. Certainly I can't tell you how many people walk into my office and can't tell me the name of my dog. their teammates, their coach. And it's something that I think most people don't do. Certainly, I can't tell you how many people walk into my office and can't tell me the name of my dog.

And you may not know the name of my dog, but if you're coming into my office for a meeting and you wanted something for me, I hope you would at least read my website. And it's right there. It's right there. And people don't know how to spell the name of one of the companies. It's funny you say that because there were a time when i started with the kings i didn't really understand the business side of it like i had to learn and i what i did is i hired people way smarter than me but i remember sitting in an office and i remember in this 2008 when we were we were looking to hire a marketing agency to help us. And these guys would come in and I had kids that were really smart around me. And they were like, well, this agency looks really

good. And I remember we had to pick an agency and it was five of them that we met. And three of them came in, they had the wrong Kings logo. They had players that weren't playing for our team, you know, on their presentation. And the kids would come out and they'd go, they're really good. These guys have good numbers. And I'm like, well, we can't hire them. They're like, why?

I go, they didn't even get it. They got the wrong logo. They got two players that don't play for us anymore. They play for other teams. You can't, you got to know that. I'm like, I used to play hockey, but I know that enough that you better pay attention to those details. I'm like, I used to play hockey, but I know that enough that you better pay attention to those details. It's ridiculous.

And, you know, I think those guys, I mean, you know, because they were right out of college, they're looking at me like, what the hell does he know? But then I know over time, we kept working that way

and we became, we're stickler the other king. If you're coming to visit us, you better know who we are. Yeah. This episode of In Search of Excellence is better know who we are. Yeah. This episode of In Search of Excellence is brought to you by Sandy.com. S-A-N-D-E-E.com. We're a Yelp for beaches and have created the world's most comprehensive beach resource by cataloging

more than 100 categories of information for every beach in the world. More than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries. Sandy.com provides beach goers around the world with detailed, comprehensive, and easy-to-use information to help them plan their perfect beach getaway at home and abroad, and to make sure you're never disappointed by a beach visit again. Plan the perfect beach trip today by visiting sandy.com. That's www.sandee.com. The link is in our show notes. Stay sandy, my friends. As you know, I do a ton of coaching. I have interns every summer. I have 36 interns every summer. We have a guest speaker program and people I coach are kids in college. They have anxiety.

They don't really know what they want to do like my kids have right now. They're seniors in college. And I coach a lot of young professionals, mid-professionals. And what's interesting is, and then I coach some athletes who have retired with just a ton of money. And I ask them to write down what are the things most important to them in their next job. And we could probably sit here and name them, but one thing that never comes up ever is passion.

So how important is passion to our success? And what do you say to all the people out there where money is the number one most common answer? It's funny you say that because I think it's probably the most important. Even to a fault, sometimes we've hired people with the kinks because i knew they were hockey player they understood hockey and they would help us run our business and if you're passionate about your job you're gonna want to get better you're gonna want to if you do it for money or you're going to want to get better. You're going to want to, if you do it for money or you're doing it,

you usually, you probably, unfortunately in the world, very few lucky people do a job that they're passionate about. But if you're like an ex-athlete or someone that's had like a good run, pick something you love so you can be passionate about it. I always, I tell my kids are in the entertainment business, I go,

if you're doing something, you're not looking at the clock, you picked the right job. You know, and that, to me, it's everything. You've got to be passionate. And my staff with the Kings, they know I'm passionate about the franchise. Not perfect. You know, we're going to make mistakes and so forth, but we're going to be passionate about trying to get better every day.

I mean, sports is a little bit different. There there's the you know the mindfulness part of it we're working on it and everything it is still a result business you got to win the games and you know you got to fill up the building and so forth but i would say passion is one of the most important thing on everything you do your name is lucky luke right i I mean, that's your nickname. So your name is Lucky Luke. And I hear so many times that people who get successful are lucky. And especially when someone does really well. They're envious. They're jealous. Randy got lucky. Luke got lucky. What do you say to all those people um who say people are lucky and is luck an ingredient of our success well yeah like i give it to you like as a as a hockey player like yeah like i i was known as a goal scorer and i would get points so forth but more known as a goal scorer as my career went on and then but sometimes people would say Luke is streaky like he'll go four or five games he won't score and then he'll score four or five games in a row

and then go and then they would see me like the fifth game I would get another goal and go he's so lucky the puck comes to him but what they didn't realize is the four five six games that I didn't score I was at the same place I I did the exact same thing, but the puck bounced the other way. But I kept going. I kept going to the front of the net. I would take a beating in front of the net. I kept going. And next thing you know, by game seven, it hits me in the pad and goes in.

I go, he's so lucky. It always hits him. Then the next game, a rebound would lay right on my stick. He's so lucky. But I was always there. I kept doing it over and over again. And that's part of being lucky is, you know, just keep doing something. And same thing with work. You bring your luck by preparation, by coming in, by,

you know, overwork, you know, working, outworking other people. Like, you know, there's no secret to it. People show up up early if you show up a little bit earlier you might get ahead if you're a little bit more prepared you'll be better and the next thing you know people will say you're lucky but you kind of know deep inside it's not luck and there's another thing too is like i tell my kids i can open doors for them there my kids, I can open doors for them. There's always people that can open doors for you. Same thing with your kids. But once the door is open, it's up to our kids or it's up to the people who open the

door to do what they can with it. You know, my door was, it was a ninth round. It was very slim. I had to push it open, but it still was an open door and it was up to me to do something with it. And I did. Of all the elements of success, I think the most important is work ethic and how hard you work. I teach something called, um, philo. If you do philo,

you're going to make it no matter where you are. First in, last out. You got to be the first one in that door. You got to be the first one in that door and the last one to leave. And I don't care who's there before and who's there later. People say, oh, you got to put in FaceTime. That's bullshit. I don't think it's bullshit because if you're there before anyone, there's always something you can do to add value.

And there's always something you could do. I mean, people say, oh, I'm done with my work. Well, go do some additional work that no one asked you to do and go show someone and be proactive and think about how can I add value to my company or what I'm doing? Yeah. There's no secret to it. I mean, it's in our world too. It's like, you know, like our, I look at our GM, it's, it's a 24 hour job.

They're always available. You're always thinking, what can I do to get better? And like you're saying, last out, if you like what you do, you're reading about it. You're listening to podcasts. There's so many ways to learn and be better at the job that you like or the passion you like today. Kids are really lucky. My son's a musician, and I remember him being a kid learning to play the guitar. I'm like, how'd you learn that song? He goes, I went on YouTube and I picked it up.

No one was pushing him to do it. He just did it. So that's a small example of whatever job you want to do, it's so much easier to get better at it today. You don't have to go to a library, literally drive there and read about it. You can go on the internet and get better at anything you do now. Let's talk about being kind and being humble. You've been described as both.

You are both. You do very nice things for people. Got my kids Zamboni rides, which is on my bucket list. So I still have not had my Zamboni ride. We'll get you one. But, but maybe, maybe one day you have helped me get Stanley cup tickets the year you won the game. And by the way, something really funny about that. We go to CPK right across from Staples center.

We're there um early right i'm waiting for a table and i'm sitting there and it clears out i'm not okay whatever i was talking to my kids or whatever i'm looking up and i'm thinking they're playing an old game and so there's three minutes left in the uh first period i realized holy shit i miss i miss most of the first period, I realized, holy shit, I miss most of the first period. That was a great moment. But you're known as a down-to-earth guy. There was a father at our kid's school, had tickets, his son wanted to meet you. And I sent you an email. Can I send your email? Yes, he met you. You know, lit that kid up. And then in terms of being humble, you're very humble. I mean, you know, you're humble. Tell us about the time that you were 17 years old you're at a restaurant with your uncle and he took you into the kitchen

and how that influenced your life i think that was uh that was an important moment i i mean i think i grew up in the humble way where my dad was like my dad was the guy that he would rather have a car that was all beat up, but have a big engine. And if, you know, when the guy's lining up to get the stop sign, they got like a really nice shiny car and they're going, and my dad would be with a beat up car.

And he, he'd tell me the story, he'd win the race, you know, like it's kind of so, so that I think there's that side of me. I always kind of kept that probably, but I think that, that I remember. Yeah, that's me. I always kind of kept that probably, but I think that I remember,

yeah, that's right. I was 17. I had my first year in junior. I had a good year and we went to a restaurant and the manager came out and talked to my uncle and met with the owner of the restaurant, not the manager. And my uncle says, you know, when you, when you go to your restaurant, every owner, as if you have success, if you ever make it in the NHL, don't want to meet with you. But he says, don't ever forget the person that serves you water. Those are the people that will, that will, that are really part of real life. And that stuck with me. I never forgot that, that, you know, everyone, every one of us is lucky to have something. I was fortunate to have a talent and a sense for a game that I love,

but every one of us has some type of sense and few of us get to live our passion or our dream. And I think I never forgot where I came from. I never forgot that part. I never forgot where I came from. I never forgot that part. I never forgot the kid. I waited for this player to get an autograph, and I had a match, like not a box, but like a match thing that you unfold, and it was kind of funny.

It was a player from the Mondrake, and his name was Pierre Bouchard. He wasn't even a star. And I waited an hour, and I got to him, and he wrote PB so years later I make it to the NHL funny enough and he we're on TV and he's interviewing me he's doing TV and he was kind of a tough guy for the Canadian not a star and he goes hey Luke it's very nice to meet you on TV and I go no I met you before he goes well because he was a very

nice man too and I go yeah I said I waited an hour to get your autograph and I go you wrote PB I go what the hell was that you should have seen his face but I I think I never got forgot that kid because I did kept that pack a match for years you know just because it was my first NHL player to see and never forgot that feeling so for the rest of my career there was some time I'd be tired my wife would say look at you know, just because it was my first NHL player to see and never forgot that feeling. So for the rest of my career, there was some time I'd be tired. My wife would say, look at the kids in the eye, make sure you make their moment because you should never forget that when you live your dream, you can make a difference with

looking at a kid or saying hi. Just, it's amazing. And then on the other thing, what you're saying about helping people i think i've always had this philosophy if you like we run a hockey team and we try to not say no i'm a big fan of the four season hotel yeah i always do tests i'll call them in the middle of the night go can you get this they always seem to say they never say no i love their their culture their way of being they no matter what they seem to be better in every hotel in the world. Everybody's happy there. They are.

So I try to emulate that with what we do. You're giving me a signal back there. I've got like 15 minutes more. Okay. Okay, cool. I mean, you're fine on time right so is it you has a time commitment or on your end okay yeah i'm good um so 11 45 i'm out of here i'm good so how important is being kind and humble in our success something people don't talk about or don't think about. I think being humble is very important, but most people, it's very, very rare that I see highly successful people that are not humble.

Now, it does happen in the middle range where some people, it suddenly happened, they're not aware of it, but very successful people, they took a lot of work. They, you know, they're very busy. Sometimes they might be moody and everything, but most of them are, are humble. I would say the majority of them. And I think it has to do with like you meet Tom Hanks, one of the most humble person you'll ever meet. And one of the most successful person. That's a great example for me. Like they always look up to. And up to. But I think it's very important because you should never forget where you come from. No matter what you do, how successful you are,

we're all kids, we all had dreams, and you should never forget that feeling once you made it at whatever you're doing. Guys, I'm going to go back to something that you uh skipped over and then we'll continue where we left off uh before i uh forget so you mentioned pat burns who was a coach in the national hockey league for 14 years all-fame coach you played for him in the junior yeah you played for bar Melrose, Hall of Fame coach. You played for Scotty Bowman for the Red Wings, Hall of Fame coach. As a hockey fan, I always look at the coaches and what they're doing. They sit there, they have no facial expression, they don't do anything,

and it seems like the only thing they do is tap guys on the back. How important are coaches in hockey and what do they actually do and do they actually make you better players? Yeah, well, coaches, they're very, very important because in hockey, unlike other sports, you know, you play every 40 seconds, you go over and a coach decided who's next. And then a lot of time the coach is looking at the other team and he's matching and he's figuring out and then there's a there's a technique to a coach to make sure you keep everybody involved there's some guys that play more minutes some guys that play less minutes and you got to make sure each of them understand their roles and and that's the most important

the best one i've ever seen that on making sure every player understood their roles within the team concept, even though everybody said, well, Scotty Millman coached the greatest team of all time. That's the hardest thing to do because you've got to keep every big ego in line. You've got to make sure you make them all feel important. And Scotty was not the best communicator when he coached, but he was the best at the way he handled the bench, we call it, to making you feel that you had a role within the team concept.

I had never seen that. And that's why he won so many Stanley Cups. Now you get another guy like Pat Burns who just was really scary. I had him in junior and he was a scary, intimidating man. And he would come in. It wasn't just in fear because he really had fun. When you worked on your day, right, he had more fun than any of us. So it was a fun ride to be with him. But when you lost, you were scared to come the next day to practice. And, you know, it was hard work and everything, but you got rewarded for doing it right.

So every coach is different, but they're really important in hockey. And then also in today's game, now the preparation of knowing the specialty units and it's very technical now, and they can fix things quickly because of technology and so forth so that's true and much so i think coaches have become even more important all right we're gonna move forward now and we're uh nearly at the end you've always been very focused about giving back to the community you talk a little bit about your foundation how people can help and what motivated you to to give back and in search of excellence how important is it to give back uh

i think it's i mean in search of excellent i think it's important when you live your dream to give back because and then when you're fortunate if you make a little bit more money and people or you're doing well whether sometimes it's financial you you should give back but sometimes your time too and for us my wife and i when we started echoes of hope it actually started before that when hurricane katrina happened yeah we had a big house in utah and near park city and I remember we were watching, I think it was CNN. And we both had worked with numerous foundations. We'd worked with, I remember she actually is the one

that taught me this. When we met in 1989, I had a billboard in town. It was a Lakers. It might've been, I can't remember if it was James Worthy. And it was a Dodger player. And I couldn't tell you who it was. And it was a Dodger player and I couldn't tell you who it was and it was a Raiders player and myself we were on a billboard and it was to help, it was the foundation

it was with the police and any kids that they could see were on the cusp of joining gangs, they were trying to help them, I can't remember the name of the foundation and she says to me, she says to me she says oh you help these kids you work for she goes what do you do and i'm driving i'm like oh you know

by the way it was a it was a date i took her by my billboard no but but like funny enough my answer was why i took the picture and she's like what do you mean you took the picture she goes no no no we're going to meet these policemen and really help so she actually helped me meeting kids we started helping them and in 1990 91 we started working with some of those kids and over the years some of them have thrived they have families and everything we still see some kids once in a while that reappear in our life but But anyway, so move forward. So over the time, we've helped numerous foundations. I was the guy that a lot of people would ask me to do things.

I would say yes, and she would participate with me. So anyway, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina happened, we both looked at each other. It was a 506. I can't remember the exact date. And we said we should do something. So she said, we're going to start a foundation we're going to help some family because remember we would see all the families were they didn't know where to go so i didn't know it was being

a training camp for us i didn't know she would literally fly to uh she didn't fly to i think she flew to boca raton and then and then drove to uh uh new orleans to newca Raton and then drove to New Orleans. And we picked five families, and then we relocated them into our home in Utah. And the charity was we were going to help them start a new life. And so over a year, they stayed with us, and then we got them apartments, and we started a library. What we saw is a lot of those families weren't well off already, and we saw some of the kids, the teenage kids, they had no drive. They didn't really understand. They weren't well off, so after that, we started getting involved more in Los Angeles and understanding the foster system,

so we realized there was a hole, there was a gap where a lot of people give a lot of money for kids, younger kids, but there was that gap when you age out of the system where 63% of those kids end up homeless. And then I think 3% of those kids graduate high school. And then I think one or 2% of that 3% end up graduating from college and they all want to go to college. So our foundation is called Echoes of Hope. And we started with not, it's not just a foster kids anymore.

We help any kids that at risk that, that need help, but you have to graduate high school or we see you before. And then we make sure you graduate college. And then we keep a lot of them. If they don't have parents, we end up being the parents. So we,

we talk to them, but over the years we have a group that we, they're our leadership group. We usually add, they're down to 60 to 70 kids a year. They come to our house. We do a lot of programming, but they help other kids.

But on a year, I think last year we have over 10 000 kids where it was books computers and everything though and we're helping them sometimes it's just getting them a cell phone you know like getting them helping them in their apartments and so forth so we get a lot of grants and it's been very rewarding to meet kids later in life they hey i'm, I'm married. I got two kids. I got a job. I'm an engineer or I'm an architect. We have a kid who's a great attorney now. He's got married. Most of those kids tell us they always want to help kids like them. So a lot of them work for a nonprofit. And we have one of our first kid, he's running his own nonprofit in sacramento working with the government which is it's it's very rewarding to see them thrive in their life and help pay it

forward to other kids imagine la is a charity here that takes families in transitional homelessness and takes them out they keep the the kids together, as you know, in the foster care system. They're often put up. The families don't get together. The shelters won't take full families. And I started this event with my friend, John Terzian, nine years ago, called the Imagine Ball.

We just had it two weekends ago, and we've raised $5 million now. My grandmother was raised in foster care she passed away um one year ago at 104 years old so that's maturity near and dear to me and it's something that um is very important to me also we also had a family from hurricane Katrina our rabbi at our temple sent around um hey if you have extra room or whatever please uh let me know we have a guest home and the family stayed there for a year um the family was not um the family was actually well off and that's another story which we learned nine months into it and then they didn't want to

leave either because we kind of have a nice setup at home yeah i don't want to leave so we're at the end of the show today and i always conclude the podcast with something i call fill in the blank to excellence are you ready to play okay let's do it all right the biggest lesson i've learned in my life is lesson but never give up my number one professional goal is my family my number one um my biggest sorry my biggest regret is probably not spending enough time you know like, like, uh, with my family, I was so driven, but I probably wouldn't have had the success. Yeah. It's kind of funny. It's a, it's a weird, a weird thing, but my biggest regret sometimes is probably not spending enough time, you know,

with family that way. The one thing in my life i'm the most proud of is uh my family the one thing in life that i'm the least proud of is uh i don't have anything i'm the least proud of and that's a that's a hard one I I moved on from bad things so fast so there's no I have no regrets the one thing I've dreamed about doing for a long time but haven't done is climbing a good, tough mountain. Any in particular? I don't want to do anything crazy. Something, a nice 14,000 footer in Colorado somewhere. If you could go back and give your 21-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Don't overthink things. I think I got caught up overthinking and worried for no reason don't overthink if you could meet one person in the world who would it be if i could be one person if you could meet one person in the world it would have been technocon it would have been who technocon so it was a he was a he away now, but he was such a great speaker. And then you just hear him speak. He's a little bit in the vein of, you know, I'm forgetting his name right now, from Tibet, the Dali Lama.

The Dali Lama. He's a little bit like that, but even more the way he spoke, it was so peaceful. You just heard him speak. And every time I heard him speak, just, I was mesmerized, you know, so that would be, besides that, like, you know, I, I've been pretty fortunate to meet everybody. I was, I was looking to meet. The one question you wish I had asked you but didn't is... Oh. I don't know.

I think you hit it all. You did pretty good. None. Luke, it's been awesome having you as a guest. I know we've been trying to set this up for some time. I'm a huge fan. You're a great guy. You're a great friend.

Thanks a lot for being here and continue to do some amazing. I'm a huge fan. You're a great guy. You're a great friend. Thanks a lot for being here and continue to do some amazing things for LA, our community. Thank you so much. Great to see you. Keep it going. This is great.