Hello everyone!

Friday February 29, 2008 @ 08:53 AM EST

Well first of all, let me tell you a little about me. I grew up in Massena, N.Y. All of my dad’s brothers and my dad were football players. My dad and one uncle played at Syracuse University and another uncle played at West Point.

To this day, because of that, I like Syracuse football a lot. I was a big lacrosse player; that was my second sport. I also played a bit of soccer, as well. For lacrosse, I played all the way up until I came to the OHL. Sports are very important to me and my family, especially when I was growing up.

As a younger hockey player, I traveled to Ottawa in the summers to compete in tournaments. We had CBC and Hockey Night in Canada back then, living so close to the Canadian border, and I can remember my dad would tell me what games to watch, and which players.

I really liked the Senators growing up, and actually I got to a few games. They were my team. For players, I liked Chris Chelios. I liked especially the way Chelios was when he was younger; he was a good all-around D-man: a warrior and a leader. I like to compete, that’s my game, and some nights I might not always be on top, but I always compete, and it was from guys like Chris Chelios that I learned that was important.

Now, there wasn’t too much hockey in Massena, but when I left to prep school for ninth and 10th grade, I skated with Cushing Academy and, obviously, that program is an excellent one for young players. That’s when I really began to get serious with my hockey.

Actually, I was lucky enough to be coached by Ray Bourque my sophomore year. It was a great learning experience. Bourque’s son, Ryan, came there my second year. He was great. It’s not every day you get coached by someone like that, and I knew that, so I watched and listened to him very closely. He taught me a lot.

He knew I was good defensively, but he always told me it was the offense that would come later on. He would tell me, “Just wait until you come into your own,” and he helped me with little things like being deceptive with the puck in the offensive zone to try and throw forwards off, so they aren’t looking at you. It was amazing. Like I said, you don’t learn from someone like that every day.

That’s something that is very important to me, constantly improving and working on my game. Last year, as an American kid coming to the O, I slipped in under the radar, I went in not knowing what to expect, but learning all the time. I went into this summer wanting to train hard. I always knew that if I could train hard, come back ready to play and was focused, that I could be successful.

Actually, I got a chance to work out with Wade Redden and Daniel Alfredsson this past summer and that was a lot of fun. That was in Ottawa, which is only like 90-minute drive; but its worth it to be able to train with those guys. The summer before that I worked out with Daniel Briere. It’s great being around guys like that, NHLers, you want to show you can keep up, so it’s very motivating.

When I’m home in the summer, I have a shooting room, and I do a lot of power skating, but I don’t touch too many pucks, it’s more about technique and strength.

So far, things have been going well this year. We’re doing a lot as a team to continually work to get better as a group. We missed the playoffs last year, but this year, because of our work ethic mainly, we have a pretty good chance of making it. Kingston has been winning a few games, we haven’t been winning lately, but we’re focused and ready to go into the final weeks of the season. We want to pick it up and get a few Ws.

When I was a freshman, I went to the finals with Cushing, and, as a sophomore, we went to the semifinals. That sort of hockey is right up my alley. The atmosphere was good, and even though its just prep school hockey, the fans get into it. I’m very excited to get back to the playoffs.

We usually get a good crowd here in Peterborough, and it gets loud. I love it actually. To help bring this team and this city back into the playoffs is a goal of mine, like I know it is for a lot of my teammates. I’m very glad I came here. It’s been a great learning experience, competing in this organization.

That’s my focus right now, finishing up the season strong here in Peterborough; so much so that I don’t really even think about the NHL Entry Draft. In fact, I try not to think about any of that stuff too much, because it’s the sort of thing that if you let the distractions affect you - if you get caught up in it - it’ll hurt you.

There’s a lot of good players in this year’s draft, a lot of good D; but I’m just here to do my own thing. Hopefully, that works. I think that if I compete, even if things aren’t going my way, I will be successful. It’s all about competing shift in, shift out. If you don’t, if you start to believe the hype and fall into it, that’s when you worry, and that’s when other things can start to go wrong.

It’s kind of hard to get away from, sometimes, but I find that the easiest thing to do is just work my hardest. A lot of people talk about it, but I find once I get to the rink, I’m able just to go out and have fun with my teammates, and the Draft and anything else is a thousand miles away.

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