My job is to come out and help build a championship team.
Playing in Montreal for six years, being drafted in 2007, a lot of great moments in that organization. The positive moments outweigh the negative moments.
You look at the best players in the game - Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr - they didn't sit on the couch and then one day join the NHL. They worked on their game. Their talent was perseverance, dedication. Those are talents to me; that's what gets you to the NHL.
I don't think your focus as a hockey player or athlete can be anywhere else but how you want to impact the team on the ice or on the field or court.
I know I'm black. Everyone knows I'm black. But I don't want to be defined as a black hockey player.
I never look at myself as a black player. I think of myself as a hockey player that wants to be the best player in the league.
This is how I see myself, as a player that at the end of the day, whether I have a letter or not, I know that when we're in overtime or it's a deciding moment in the game my teammates are looking at me to step up. To me that's all I need to know.
I think that in all aspects of the game, especially in professional sports but specifically in hockey, we want to grow the game.
I'm a pretty big believer in seizing the moment.
I've never been short of putting high expectations on myself; I've never been short of saying I want to win a Stanley Cup.
To win the Stanley Cup is such a process and it takes everybody on board.
It was a dream come true for me to play with the Montreal Canadiens, and the sad thing is that my promise to the city of bringing a Stanley Cup back and wanting to win one, I won't be able to fulfill that promise.
I want a Stanley Cup.
