Luc Robitaille: Playing With Wayne Gretzky And Lifting The Stanley Cup | E90
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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 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, a good friend of both of ours, incredible guy, who's done some bad things, but 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 stamp and coin company. There was a chance he was gonna go bankrupt, so he created fake invoices with the stamps and 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 at 55 goals that season uh 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. I saw Wayne. 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 tried to learn.

And I remember as a kid, like I had posters of Gretzky 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 I'd sneak somewhere and my dad would be watching. He didn't see me on the corner of the hallway trying to watch this game. But it was everything around my life was trying to be like Gretzky. So that was truly my hero.

And so when he got traded to the Kings and that was to you in 1988, I was so excited. I hadn't met him a couple of times because he owned our junior team. But I was like, when you meet you here, you're like, Hey sir, how are you? And I 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. 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 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 try 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 going to take you off of Wayne's line because he says, you know, you're too,

You're not playing your game anymore. It's hurting us. It's hurting the team. It's hurting you. And in a way, I was so nervous to play as him that it kind of felt a little bit of relief at the time.

A couple of years later, I was like, okay, now I know how to play with him and everything. But it did take me a couple of 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 always knew I wasn't the best skater. I wasn't the strongest. So I had to be a student of the game.

And I watch 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 replicate that. So then I would practice that. Like I would watch Mike Bossy and I read his book and he said, whenever you struggle, you

He shot five-all because if you shoot five-all in hockey, you can't miss the net. If you pick the corner, you might miss. What does that mean to people who don't know? So you shoot between the legs. So if the goalie's standing there and you shoot between the legs, that means he's in the net. You're going to get a shot on net. Right, but I mean, we're talking about that much room where the puck

There's not a lot of room. 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 that. And the theory is if you miss the net, Gritsky said, 100% of the shot, you don't miss it or you don't take it, 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, it goes in,

It kind of boosts you up and it makes it. So that was an example I got from Michael Bossy, but watching me Wayne every day, I would watch all that little detail they gave me 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 mean, I can 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 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, they have no life. Like everybody looks up to them. It's really hard. 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, uh,

But what I appreciate about Wayne is he just want to be a teammate. That's 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 where we 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, big time. Big time. You know, 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, you know, 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 i'm just not even one of the guys he's just a human being um walks around in shorts and flip-flops and people are not fawning all over them and it's 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 um

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 being inside that locker room, that's a special world for any of us. Yeah.

And these guys don't get that when they go outside. It's very hard for them to see. So I know Wayne is an example when he gets around a few 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, it's fun for me. Yeah. I mean, it is awesome. Yeah. 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. Yep. And then, which had 10 Hall of Famers on the team. Yeah.

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. It was 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 this thing, 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. Well, first of all, it was the greatest feeling ever because we went, 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 a hard, hard, hard trophy to win and takes everything going the right way and so forth. So when I went to Detroit, I clearly remember the summer before we had beaten Detroit in the playoff before, and I was a free agent. Badly 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 L.A. and I didn't know at the time, you know, you don't know behind the scene. I thought they were screwing me, but that was not it. They had budget and they had to go buy it. And so looking at teams, I remember my kids were already registered in the 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?

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 L.A. 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 up going there and, uh, going there, uh,

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 the 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 goal. Now you go on a team, there's like 10 guys counted on. So you understand to be successful, like any business, 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 so i'm like and i learned a lot that everybody's counted upon you know a different time

and that made me a better person, a better leader. And then winning the cup, though, for me, I didn't know we were going to win, but the expectations were very high. But 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, 259, 258.

And then, but what did you feel when you stepped onto that ice? Everyone raised a hand. I've seen, you know, they always do it. They throw their gloves. They throw their helmets. You guys are all running in there and you're, you know, 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 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, and I, and I, but I was not going to screw it up for us. Like there's not a chance. I was not going to take one chance, you know? And I remember I four check and I, 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 Brandon was taking me. He was playing left wing. And finally, I was able, we were able to get the puck and dump it in. And I turned around, and I was going to sprint to the bench because I wanted him to jump. You know, you want to win. And Shani, he still tells the story of how I toe-picked like twice, and I went ahead first. Yeah.

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. And he stepped on the ice and he scored to make it three on 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 we won and Stevie Eisenman had the cup, and I think I was the second one they gave it to, they gave it to Dominic Hasek, then me. And 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 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, you know, and then finally you do it. There was such a, I'm not sure if it's a relief or just a total like, like happiness of,

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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 know, to do whatever. You had a party at your house. Yep. And it was really fun to be there. Yeah.

You had a truck with food. Yeah.

I'm in and out truck. I got the California Pizza Kitchen too. CPK there. I can't remember the donut company. Anyway, 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. Right. I mean, obviously I'm from Detroit, but what was interesting is you gave away a lot of your best memorabilia that night and it was a raffle and I was

It's like, God, you don't love my 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, you know, I would grab pucks on the ice. I kept sticks and I would write down which game. I just, 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 have 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 ridiculous. We had to cover the pool. We did the, you know, we had a little roller rink. 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, we kind of made it fun in that way. And some of this stuff was really cool. I had a Jersey signed by the whole team, you know, and I started like up winning team. I had a lot of stuff like that. You gave that one away or no? Yeah. I gave that one away. Yeah. You didn't get it. Fuck. But yeah, we, uh, so that, that was the idea behind that. Yeah.

So, um...

A highlight for me that night was taking a picture with a cup, right? I mean, I go have the picture, look at the picture and it's super fun. John Cooper is also a neighbor in Coeur d'Alene. Great, great guy. And 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, yeah, everyone's doing it. Who cares? We're drinking from the cup. But, and I'm hoping, okay, third year, you know, I made it to the final one more time and, you know, didn't get it. So I've yet to drink from the cup. So hopefully, you know,

One of these days, I'll know someone I'll be at the right place at the right time. But 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. 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. The 2.3% of nine rounders who make it the average career last 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 emotional. I do, I can't remember the exact word, but I do remember because someone actually gave me a poster, 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 the exact word. - Do you want me to read it to you? - Yeah, go ahead, read it to me. - Okay, 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 an out run here's the light that shines on a non 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. It actually came from our foundation. There was some of the kids at Echoes of Hope at the time, they had written something about being a light. And that's how this came about. Actually, to be honest, my wife helped me write that. But that's really what it meant. That was the message. Then looking at your parents? Looking at my parents was...

was overwhelming uh because you go through it and when you don't play to get in the hall of fame you know but you knew at that point you were getting you know you know because you got the call and everything but when you're there that night and i looked down on my parents and uh and uh then you it goes in your mind all the sacrifice they did you know like every one of us

that's 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 went 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 how our life was and so forth. I could tell it met the world to them. From that standpoint, it was pretty overwhelming. Roll up for a second because I want to say, no, down for a second, not the other way. So many people look at the odds of doing something so difficult. 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, there's 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,

it's really hard to block a shot. It's come 100 miles an hour. You know it's going to hurt. Guys still dive in front of it all the time, and 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 could take that into going to war, and 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...

is scared or is questioning something, if you're willing to push yourself, you're going to have success. 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've 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. You've talked about a little bit studying players, even though you were great, an 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?

So extreme preparation is everything. I mean, I remember like, to give you an example, like sometimes people will talk about our sport where we play 82 games a year and they're like, oh, you might get tired and everything. 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 a practice, let's say on a Wednesday and we played Thursday, uh,

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 work.

if in the afternoon I wasn't sure what to do because I didn't want to sleep, I wanted 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 were 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. Like all those little things were done. I never played a game like people will say, you know, 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 got to prepare. We got to have a plan. We got to stick to the plan and it's not going to be good every day. You know, we're going to have ups and downs, but, and that's kind of like the way we've built our franchise and kind of change the 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 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. 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. That's right. 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 go, they're really good. These guys have good number. And I'm like, well, we can't hire them. 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. It's ridiculous. Yeah.

I think those guys, 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 L.A. King. If you're coming to visit us, you better know who we are. This episode of In Search of Excellence is brought to you by Sandy.com.

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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. Like, uh,

Even to a fault, sometimes we've hired people with the Kings because I knew they were a hockey player. They understood hockey and they would help us run our business.

And if you're passionate about your job, 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 that,

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 got to be passionate. And just 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's, there's the, you know, the mindfulness part of it. We're, 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 mean, that's your, your, your nickname. And I hear so, but 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. Lou got lucky. What do you say to all those people who say people are lucky and is luck an ingredient of our success? Well, yeah, like,

I give it to you like as a hockey player. Like I was known as a goal scorer and I would get points and so forth, but more known as a goal scorer as my career went on. 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 they would see me like the fifth game, I would get another goal and they'd 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 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. You know, I would take a beating in front of the net. I kept going. And next thing you know, by game seven, whoop, 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, overworking, you know, working, outworking other people. Like, you know, there's no secret to it. People show 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, you

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 you

hard you work i 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 said oh you got to put in facetime that's

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, 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 and like you're saying last out they if you like what you do you're you're reading about it you're you're you're listening to podcasts you're there's so many ways to learn and be better at the job that you like or the passion you like today like kids are really lucky my son's a musician and

I remember him being a kid learning to play 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. I will get you one. But 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 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 first period. I realize,

Holy shit. I miss, I miss most of the first year. That was, that was a great mom, but, but you're known as a, uh, a down to earth guy. I, there, there was a father at our kid's school, um, had tickets. His son wanted to meet you. Um, and, um, I sent you an email. Can I send your email? Uh, yes, he met you. Um,

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 an important moment. 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'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

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, so another manager.

And my uncle says, you know, when you go to a restaurant, every owner, if you ever make an NHL, they'll want to meet with you. But he says, 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. 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 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 as you unfold and

and it was kind of funny he was a player from the monroe and he is here 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 mentor 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 think I never forgot that kid because I did kept that packer 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 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 forever.

with looking at a kid or saying hi. It's amazing. And then on the other thing, what you're saying about helping people, I think I've always had this philosophy, like we run a hockey team and we try to not say no. I'm a big fan of the Four Seasons Hotel. I always do tests. I'll call them in the middle of the night and go,

can you get this they always seem to say they never say no i love their their culture their way of being no matter what they seem to be better in every hotel in the world everybody's happy there and they are so i try to emulate that with what we do you're you're you give 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. 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 to always look up to and but it

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, whatever you're doing. Guys, I'm going to go back to something that you skipped over, and then we'll continue where we left off before I forget.

So you mentioned Pat Burns, who was a coach in the National Hockey League for 14 years, Hall of Fame coach. You played for him in the juniors. You played for Barry 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 decide 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 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 moment coach, the greatest team of all time. That's the hardest thing to do because you got to keep every big ego in line. You got to make sure everybody,

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 it, you did it right. He had more fun than any of us.

So it was, 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, it was hard work and everything, but you got rewarded for, for doing it right. So, uh,

every coach is different but they're really important in hockey and then also in today's game now the preparation of knowing like the specialty units and it's very technical now and they could fix things quickly because of technology and so forth so that's too 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. Can you talk a little bit about your foundation, how people can help, and what motivated you to give back? And in search of excellence, how important is it to give back? I think in search of excellence, I think it's important when you live your dream to give back. And then when you're fortunate, if you make a little bit more money than people or you're doing well,

whether sometimes it's financial, 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. We had a big house in Utah and near Park City. And I remember we were watching, I think it was CNN and

And we both had worked with numerous foundation. We'd work with, I remember she, she actually is the one that taught me this. When we met in 1989, I had a billboard in town. It was a Lakers. I, 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 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, oh, you help these kids. You work for us. She goes, well, what do you do? And I'm driving. I'm like, I don't know.

By the way, it was a date. I took her by my billboard. Ha ha ha ha.

But like, funny enough, my answer was, well, I took the picture. And she's like, what do you mean you took the picture? She goes, no, 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 anyway, so move forward. So over the time we've helped numerous, uh, foundation. I was the guy that a lot of people would ask me to do thing. I would say yes. And she would participate with me. So anyway, 2005 when hurricane Katrina happened, uh,

We both looked at each other. It was a five or six. 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. Cause 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, uh, I think she flew to Boca Raton and then, and then drove to, uh, uh,

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 1% 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, uh, uh, foster kids anymore. We help any kids that at risk that, that need help, but you have to graduate high school and 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 are 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 the year, I think last year we have over 10,000 kids where it was books, computers and everything. And we're helping them. Sometimes it's just getting them a cell phone, you know, like a,

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. Hey, 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. You know, he's got married one. 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 kids together. As you know, in the foster care system, they're often put up, the families don't,

stay together the shelters won't take full families and i started this event with my friend john terzian uh nine years ago called the imagine ball we just had it two weekends ago and we've raised five million dollars now uh my grandmother was raised in foster care she passed away

One year ago at 104 years old. So that's a charity near and dear to me. And it's something that is very important to me. Also, we also had a family from Hurricane Katrina, our rabbi at our temple sent around. Hey, if you have extra room or whatever, please let me know. We have a guest home and the family stayed there for a year. The family was not, 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

My biggest regret is... Probably not spending enough time. With my family, I was so driven, but I probably wouldn't have had the success. It's kind of funny. It's a weird saying, but my biggest regret sometimes is probably not spending enough time with family that way. The one thing in my life I'm the most proud of is...

My family. The one thing in life that I'm the least proud of is? I don't have anything I'm the least proud of. That's a hard one. I moved on from bad things so fast, so 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. 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, who would it be? It would have been Thich Nhat Hanh. It would have been who? Thich Nhat Hanh. So he passed 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... Gosh, I'm forgetting his name right now. From Tibet...

the dalai lama the dalai lama is 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 things for LA, our community. Thank you so much. Great to see you. Keep it going. This is great.